Scientists at Hebrew University are helping to raise Israel’s first sturgeon population at Kibbutz Dan in the Upper Galilee. Female sturgeon produce caviar, and the average fish can produce $3,000 worth of caviar a year. The kibbutz is now raising 40,000 sturgeon in outdoor pools. 
The only problem? Most scholars agree that sturgeon isn’t kosher. Sturgeon don’t have visible scales, and it doesn’t make most lists of kosher fish.
However, Professors Berta Levavi-Sivan, the woman behind the project, disagrees.
“If you ask me, it’s kosher! I can even prove it has scales,” she says, insisting that the sturgeon does in fact have tiny scales that can be viewed with a stereoscope. A number of Jewish sages – including the 12th century Jewish rabbi and scholar Maimonides – approved the kashrut of a fish called the “esturgeon.” However, it has yet to be determined whether this is the same fish as the sturgeon. (MORE)
Now if only I could get a researcher to look at a chicken Caesar salad with stereoscope to prove that chicken and cheese can’t possibly come from the same animal.
kashrut
Pronounced: kahsh-ROOT, Origin: Hebrew, the Jewish dietary laws.
kibbutz
Pronounced: ki (short i)-BOOTZ (oo as in book), Origin: Hebrew, a collectively owned and run community in Israel.
kosher
Pronounced: KOH-sher, Origin: Hebrew, adhering to kashrut, the traditional Jewish dietary laws.
