(The Miami Herald posted the following Associated Press article on its website on February 27.)
MINNEAPOLIS — For Rabbi Asher Zeilingold, a request by Canadian Pacific Railway to help recover kosher canola oil from a derailed tank car was just another day at the office.
And while not part of Randy Hansen’s usual duties as a damage prevention and claim service specialist for the railroad, it wasn’t the first time he had call on a rabbi to help recover a kosher product involved in a derailment.
In 1998, Hansen summoned a rabbi from Fargo, N.D., to help transfer another load of kosher canola oil from a derailed tank car in Thief River Falls in northwestern Minnesota. That rabbi has moved away, so Hansen turned to Zeilingold, leader of Adath Israel Synagogue in St. Paul.
Zeilingold assigned Yosef Grossbaum, one of three other rabbis at United Mehadrin Kosher, a kosher-certifiying organization, to travel to Thief River Falls Thursday. Grossbaum will help transfer more than 185,000 pounds of kosher salad-grade oil from a car that derailed Feb. 8. in Karlstad. The car was eventually moved to Thief River Falls, about 30 miles away.
A rabbi’s role in such cases is often misunderstood, said Brenda Haist, transportation specialist for the shipper, CanAmera Foods of Oakville, Ontario.
“He’s not going to get on top of the car with a tent and chant,” Haist said.
Instead, she said, Grossbaum will have to certify as kosher a food-grade pump and hoses before they are used transfer to the oil into another kosher tank car. Among other things, he’ll have to ensure the equipment is sterile.
The oil, which had been bound for a distributor on the West Coast, will be returned to CanAmera’s plant in Altona, Manitoba, for reprocessing.