Berlin offers kosher lifestyle for Jews

BERLIN (AP) — When Rabbi Yitshak Ehrenberg moved to Berlin some 15 years ago, he found it almost impossible to keep a kosher lifestyle. - There were barely any grocery stores offering food prepared in accordance to Jewish dietary law, no hotels catering to the needs of devout customers on Shabat and no kosher catering services capable of hosting big community celebrations. When Ehrenberg was invited to a Bar Mitzvah, the Jewish coming of age ceremony, he would often bring his own food just to make sure he wasn't eating any non-kosher dishes. But today kosher food is more and more widely available — even in non-Jewish stores — in another sign that Berlin's Jewish community is thriving some 70 years after it was obliterated by the Nazis during the Holocaust. "Now everyone can live a glatt kosher life in Berlin," the Orthodox rabbi said proudly. "And it is affordable too."