OY VEY! NO EGG ROLLS

Once in a while, as promised/threatened in an earlier Post, I offer you a Musing from my new Manuscript -- Judgment Fled....The Musings of a Wandering Jew. As with my earlier Posts, some of you will hate it, others will ignore it, some will try to read something unintended into it and others, hopefully may even find it humorous.

Oy Vey! No Egg Rolls
copyright 2008
Richard L. Wexler

One of my Chicago friends and professional partners -- a terrific Jewish professional -- sent me a story appearing on Reuters website with his own commentary: "How to really bring Israel to her knees>"

The February 12, 2008 story written by Rebecca Harrison reporting from Jerusalem was titles: Eateries go on spring roll strike. In pertinent part:

"Israel's Asian restaurants went on a one day spring roll strike on Tuesday
in protest over government plans to rid kitchens of foreign chefs, and said
sushi and noodles would be the next items off the menu. The restaurants
are angry at government plans to purge Japanese, Chines and Thai eateries
of Asian cooks and replace them with Israelis as part of a broader program
to cut the number of foreigners working in the Jewish State. Friends, I don't
make this stuff up, I just report it.)

The Israeli "Ethnic Restaurant Organization" (you should know that Israel has
the highest number of non-profits per capita of any country in the world -- ed.)
said the country's 300 Asian restaurants refused to serve spring or egg rolls --
among their most popular choices -- Tuesday, and planned a follow-up strike
in two weeks for the sushi and the noodles. "Today there is no egg roll and in
two weeks time there will be no sushi and noodles," Arnon Volosky (not a typical
Asian name -- ed.) head of the Organization, told Reuters.

The government argues Israelis can be trained. 'Everyone can make Chinese food,
it's not impossible to learn,' said Shoshana Strauss, a lawyer working on foreign
worker issues for the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor. Asian restaurants
first started dishing up Chicken Chow Mein and Thai Green Curry to Israelis about
thirty years ago and have evolved into a $1 billion shekels a year ($275 million)
industry."

It is fortunate that Israel faces so few problems that it can focus on ridding the country of the expert chefs who prepare the regular Sunday take away diet of Chinese, Japanese and Thai, ahem, cuisine.

What if this spread to America. Would we Jews have to restrict our Sunday dinners to pizza or corned beef sandwiches (not that that would be such a bad thing) or, horror of horrors, cook on Sunday evenings?

While in Israel this week, I can report to you that after investigation, the strike is not going well.

Rwexler