In July 2024, Nahoum & Sons, Kolkata’s 120-year-old Jewish bakery in New Market, stopped selling chicken and mutton. The move sparked widespread speculation that the bakery had turned vegetarian. But that assumption missed an important distinction.
Nahoum’s did not discontinue non-vegetarian food. It discontinued meat, while still selling fish and egg products. And the decision, unlike what many assumed, did not stem from the idea of embracing vegetarianism. It was instead in accordance with kosher dietary laws.
Kolkata’s shrinking Jewish community has led to a drop in the number of kosher butchers.
When My Kolkata visited the bakery to ask about the change, the staff offered little clarity. “Malik bondho kore diyeche. Keno amra jani na (The owner stopped serving meat. We don’t know why,” a shopkeeper said.
What kosher actually means and why it is important for Nahoum’s
Kosher refers to a detailed set of Jewish dietary laws that govern what foods can be eaten and how they must be prepared. Author, scholar and women’s rights activist Jael Silliman, who was born into Kolkata’s Baghdadi Jewish community and has extensively documented its history, explained, “Kosher is a set of dietary laws that were followed by Jews. There are different levels of kosher, and it is actually a very complex system.”
According to global Jewish dietary authorities such as Orthodox Union Kosher, kosher meat is not defined only by the animal itself but by the entire process that follows. Even animals that are technically permitted under Jewish law become non-kosher if they are not slaughtered through shechita, a ritual method carried out by a trained kosher butcher. The process requires a single, uninterrupted cut to the throat using a specialised knife, with the intent of causing the least possible pain and ensuring complete drainage of blood, which is prohibited for consumption under Jewish law.
For meat to be kosher, it must come from animals that have cloven hooves and chew cud, and it must be slaughtered through a specific ritual process considered humane under Jewish law. Pork and shellfish such as shrimp are strictly prohibited. Fish, however, is permitted as long as it has scales and defined fins. “Fish doesn’t have to go through a special process of cutting. It just has to have fins and scales,” Silliman said.
After slaughter, meat must undergo further inspection to ensure the animal was healthy and free of certain internal defects. This level of scrutiny makes kosher meat both labour-intensive and dependent on specialised knowledge. Without a trained kosher butcher, meat cannot be considered kosher, regardless of where it is sourced from.
Silliman is also careful to point out that her explanation comes from lived familiarity, not religious observance. “I’m not a religious Jew, so I don’t follow these dietary laws. I’m a vegetarian by choice anyway, so kosher doesn’t really apply to me in that sense. But I understand the laws and how deeply they matter to people who do observe them.”
Procuring the right meat for Jewish dishes became nearly impossible in Kolkata
The real challenge for Nahoum’s is not ideology but logistics. According to Silliman, Kolkata has not had a kosher butcher since the 1950s. “There are hardly any Jews left, maybe 30 at the max, and there aren’t enough people to support a Jewish butcher,” she said. Without a kosher butcher, maintaining kosher meat standards becomes nearly impossible.
This issue became more pronounced after the bakery came under the management of the next generation. “Now it’s Isaac’s son who is in charge, and he is a very religious Jew. He wants to keep it as kosher as possible because it is a Jewish bakery,” she said.
As a result, Nahoum’s continues to serve what fits within kosher norms in today’s context. Fish and eggs remain on the menu, while chicken and mutton have been removed. This aligns with widely documented kosher principles, including those outlined by Orthodox Union Kosher and other global Jewish dietary authorities.