TORONTO (JTA) — Max Kirschner pondered the kosher wine section at an uptown Toronto liquor store, two days before the start of Passover.

As he mulled over which six bottles to purchase for his two Seders, he had plenty of options: Wines from Israel, Italy, Chile, Argentina and New Zealand lined the shelves. The South African sauvignon blancs were directly below the French bordeaux.

There was something missing, though: any product from the United States.

That’s because all US-produced wines and spirits have been pulled from the shelves across the province of Ontario in response to US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs. Other provinces have enacted similar bans.

Which means that, for the second year in a row, Jewish customers don’t have access to some traditional, kosher-for-passover options such as Manischewitz.

The change has left some Jewish Canadians scrambling for alternative, sweet kosher red wines, or even having bottles shipped across the country. On Monday afternoon, however, Kirschner seemed unbothered by the change.

“I graduated from Manischewitz,” Kirschner said. “Twenty, 25 years ago Manischewitz and Carmel were the only two choices. Now, there’s lots of choices.”

Though tucked away in a corner on the second floor, the kosher section is particularly robust at this liquor store location, in the predominantly Jewish Ledbury Park neighborhood. An employee, who’d been speaking on the phone about wines for haroset, guided a steady stream of customers through the........

© The Times of Israel