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Manischewitz Wine Caught in Tariffs Dispute as Canadian Jews Prepare for Passover
US produced kosher Manischewitz wine price tag is attached to an empty shelf in a store, following a government-controlled liquor store in Winnipeg removed all US-made products from its shelves, ahead of the Jewish holiday of Passover, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, March 28, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ed White
For Jews in Canada, much like their US counterparts, Manischewitz kosher wine has become a staple of Passover and other religious celebrations.
But now many are struggling to find the New York state-made drink for the wine-heavy spring holiday as Canadian government retailers and wholesale monopolies pull US-made products from shelves in protest of President Donald Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats.
The missing wine illustrates how Trump’s tariff actions and his talk of annexation are causing pain for Canadian consumers and US beverage companies like Manischewitz owner E & J Gallo Winery, as well as potential opportunities for Canadian competitors.
Many Canadian consumers are embracing a “Buy Canadian” movement and avoiding US-made goods, but for some specialized products like sweet and fruity Manischewitz kosher wine, there is no true alternative, kosher goods retailers and consumers say.
Canada’s provincial governments control liquor sales and wholesaling, and since early March have all banned US alcohol imports as well as most distribution and sales, including Manischewitz wine and Jack Daniel’s bourbon whiskey.
Existing stocks have been taken off shelves across the country. Private stores, allowed to sell existing supplies, told Reuters their Manischewitz bottles were snapped up by shoppers soon after the provincial governments’ bans were announced.
“People are freaking out,” said Louise Waldman, a Winnipeg Jew who associates the particular taste of Manischewitz wine with a lifetime of Passover meals.
Manischewitz did not respond to requests for comment, and Gallo declined to comment.
During Passover, which begins on April 12, Jews gather for traditional meals, called seders, and eat specific foods including horseradish, parsley and eggs. Traditionally, each participant drinks four glasses of wine throughout the meal.
Aaron Bernstein of family-owned Bernstein’s Delicatessen, a Jewish food store and restaurant in Winnipeg in Western Canada, said he has had to tell patriotic Canadian shoppers that there are not domestically made versions of some kosher products.
“There’s no other product like Manischewitz wine,” he said.
MADE KOSHER IN CANADA
Canadian Jews seeking kosher wine to fulfill the ceremonial obligation might still find some Israeli wine in some government-operated liquor stores. Manitoba Liquor Marts offer three kosher wines, such as both red and white from the Galil Mountain Winery, a spokesperson said.
But for some kosher foods producers in Canada, the upsurge in patriotic pride and the desire for “Made in Canada” goods is a chance to expand business.
Ritesh Patel, the director of operations for Elman’s Food Products, a Winnipeg kosher foods processor since 1938, hopes to capture more of the domestic kosher market.
The company is in talks with major national chains about carrying their pickled products like sauerkraut, eggs and horseradish, he said.
To replace some US products, Bernstein said his deli has been ordering more products from Israel, but imports take longer to arrive because of the extended supply chain.
For some Canadian Jews who keep kosher, the concern goes beyond missing holiday foods and extends to the risk of tariffs and higher prices on other staple products making groceries unaffordable.
“We’re very concerned in general. The price of food is astronomical, and the price of kosher food is even more concerning,” said Richard Rabkin, the managing director of the Kashruth Council of Canada, the country’s largest kosher certification agency.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
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