Gary7

Hi all,

I've been to Dubai a few times and I can tell you from first hand experience they don't care about your religion. My son's name is Israel Moshe on his passport (and in real life) and the woman at passport control looked at him, smiled and said "welcome." Many Israelis do business in Dubai and even have offices there. Now to answer your question about kosher food. There is a well known veg. Indian restaurant chain with I think 4 restaurants in Dubai, Saravana Bahwan (IIRC) and you can look at their web site. I have been to several of their restaurants, asked questions and even tried to "encourage" some of the employees to bring me non veg food, to no avail. I am not giving them a kashrut certificate, but I activley have tried to find problems in their vegetarianisim and have not been able to. Another note, all of their pots we said to be purchased new, because Bhramins (the highest caste of Indians) will not eat from pots that have ever been used for non veg. They have no "kashering" in their belief system.

If you have Israel stamped in your passport you should be ok as I know a few who have gone and not had any problem. However if you have (or can get) a second passport without Israel, I would use that. The Israelis working in Dubai either go home for the weekend or aren't interested enough to put together a minyan, but I suspect that is just a matter of time.

Lastly, The hypermarkets all have Kosher food with the OU OK Manchester Beis Din etc right on the label. I don't know wht par of town you will be staying in but just about every mall has a hypermarket (food store) in it so you won't go hungry.

For those who don't want to rely on Saravana Bahwan, you can book a room at an apartment hotel (like the golden sands) kasher the kitchen -= or microwave and go from there. If you have any other questions I'll try and answer them.

BTW don't forget to go indoor skiing at Ski Dubai. They give lessons too. It's in the Mall of the Emirates.

Have fun