A little more intro...

I think it's important to give you a little bit more background to the creation of Kraft Kosher...not the blog, but the reality. One of my goals in taking the job at Kraft was to show that Orthodox Judaism is perfectly adaptable to every situation. And there are few situations potentially colder to the value of individualism than corporate America. I wanted to prove that without compromise I could fully integrate and excel into an environment where my beliefs and practices were foreign. Both as an inspiration to the gentiles and non-practicing Jewish people at Kraft, but also to those religious souls who feel there is no way to particpate in the world and remain fully committed to their faith. So the job sounded like a perfect opportunity to test my idealism.

First day on the job, I'm greeted at the door by a bearded guy. OK, I think, so my beard won't be that exceptional here. Then I find out that this guy is my supervisor. In his office, he confides in me that he is a religious Jew, although not wearing a head covering, I wouldn't have known. He is a Baal Tshuva (born again Jew, for lack of a better term) with the Lubavitch movement, and in our first meeting assures me that I will not have to worry about any conflicts with my religious practice from him.

So there goes my whole premise of breaking new ground. Everything is taken care of here. A company of 106,000 employees, and I'm working for the one frum man (actually, I've found one other, but that's a different story). So I'll still have issues, but some of the idealism is taken out of it.