"Do you know that ostriches are mentioned four times in the Bible," Isidore Barron says, reading fluently in Hebrew. Then he adds, somewhat indignantly, "It's always in a derogatory way. It says they're stupid, they put their head in the ground, they're not kosher, they're not clean …. An ostrich is far cleaner than a chicken but we had chicken for lunch!" "The rabbanim are meshugah!" Though he is willing to be critical, and though he pioneered the ostrich meat industry in South Africa, religious Mr. Barron has never tasted the unkosher ostrich himself.

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