New Zealand’s first kosher restaurant will open by the end of the year, according to the island’s Chabad rabbi.
The eatery in Christchurch is bidding to lure the thousands of Israeli backpackers who throng the scenic South Island area every year. It will be located on the first floor of Chabad’s offices in the city.
Rabbi Mendy Goldstein and his wife, Sara, the Brooklyn-born co-directors of Chabad New Zealand, are driving the initiative.
“It pains us to see people eating non-kosher because they have no other choice,” Sara Goldstein told the Lubavitch.com Web site.
Christchurch has one synagogue, the Canterbury Hebrew Congregation. Most of New Zealand’s 7,000 Jews live in Auckland, on the North Island, and Wellington, the nation’s capital.
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