Panama City, Panama (Special) -- American Jews accustomed to finding a small "kosher" section at their supermarkets do a double-take at the Super Kosher Store here. It looks like any other supermarket, only here the small section is for the "nonkosher" foods. 

The 15,000 square-foot supermarket is the largest, but not the only, kosher food store in this community of 7,000 Jews where it is estimated that more than 85 percent of the families -- perhaps as much as 95 percent -- observe kashrut. 

Moises Zakay, whose family has been in the kosher food business here for 40 years, estimated that 90 percent of the food section shelf space is for kosher foods, and only 10 percent is for nonkosher foods. The foods which are not kosher are clearly marked with a red sticker, just in case someone picks a package up and then reshelves it in the wrong area.Jewish community members are not the store's only customers. Because Panama City is a capital city, there is a large diplomatic community. Muslims and Hindus are frequent shoppers. So too are Panamanian Christians who like the fresh meat and poultry offered by the store. A facility for the kosher

Moises Zakay and his Super Kosher Store in Panama City.

slaughter of chickens is located in the basement below the supermarket. "The community is using about 5,000 chickens a week," Zakay said.  Cuts from about 50 head of cattle a week are purchased from a butcher who sells nonkosher parts of the cow to other markets. 

Zakay's family came to Panama from Jerusalem, his father serving as a chazzan in Colon, a city on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal. Although early Jewish settlement was in that city, today it is almost entirely in Panama City. 

When the Zakay family opened their first store 40 years ago, the Jewish community in Panama numbered about 2,000. "We decided to build something that would serve the community," Zakay said. "In the beginning it was difficult: people were not quite observant." 

Under the guidance of Rabbi Sion Levy, who has served the large Shevet Ahim Synagogue for nearly a half century, the Zakays kept their prices for kosher foods competitive with the prices offered for nonkosher foods at other markets. Generally, kosher meat and poultry cuts are no more than 10-15 percent higher. In part this is possible because the community, rather than the store, pays the salaries of the shochtim (ritual slaughterers). 

"We make kosher observance very easy," said Moises A. Mizrachi, a leader in the Jewish community here and a former Panamanian ambassador to Israel. "That is why most people observe kashrut  here." 

From a small store, the Zakays moved to a larger one. Five years ago, they opened a full-fledged supermarket. It includes a kosher lunch counter and sitting area, where shoppers can taste some of the kosher delicacies right on site.