Tel Aviv – The Regional Labor Court ruled a Holon kashrut supervisor had been dismissed improperly, after he was fired by Holon chief rabbi Avraham Yosef for not supporting Shas. Yosef is the son of Shas’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.
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Deputy court president Lea Glicksman Kocavi ruled that the dismissal of Haim Hayon, who was employed by the Holon religious council, was improper.
“We have not been convinced that [Ohayon] himself expressed disdain for Rabbi Ovadia Yosef,” said Glicksman.
She rejected the claims of the younger Yosef, who said Hayon’s political activity on behalf of Agudat Yisrael was an act of disrespect toward his father.
The court awarded Hayon damages of NIS 15,000 but ruled he would not return to his job, due to the unsurmountable lack of confidence the parties expressed in each other.
Glicksman also noted that the court had proposed an alternative place of employment to Hayon, but that he had not shown interest.
Last year, Haaretz published a transcript of an October 2008 conversation between Hayon and Avraham Yosef, in which the rabbi announced that Hayon was being dismissed after he learned Hayon had hung posters for Agudat Yisrael during the municipal elections.
“You will not work for me. You want to strike at my father, and you imagine I will employ you?” Yosef said, according to the transcript. When Hayon denied undermining Yosef’s father, Yosef suggested Hayon find work with his own father, suggesting that he support Hayon.
“As of yesterday,” the Holon chief rabbi added, “you don’t work here.”
After hearing witnesses’ testimony, Glicksman ruled that the Holon chief rabbi and the religious council in the city had not found any problems with the professional quality of Hayon’s work, and rejected the contention that Hayon had shown disrespect for Shas spiritual leader Ovadia Yosef.
The court ruling noted that barring political activity by kashrut supervisors violates their constitutional right of freedom of speech and the right to engage in organizational activity, as well as the right to vote and to be elected to public office.
Glicksman expressed doubt as to whether such activity could be restricted without a specific provision in the law. She also noted that similar action had not been taken against other kashrut supervisors who had engaged in political activity.
Isn’t Rabbi Gurarie chief Rabbi?
A mashgiach at a famous meat plant in Eretz Yisroel once remarked “Over here, we do not believe in kashrus over halacha”.
As long as we have a chumra of the week club, this nonsense will continue.
Yosef can say goodbye to whatever thoughts he may ever had to stepping into his father’s shoes. This acto of pure political spite, cloaked in the name of protecting his father’s political machine, is a real chilul hashem. How can one have any confidence in kashruth if the mashgiach’s first priorty is political correctness rather than hilchot kashruth. If the senior Yosef wanted him to sneak treifus into a restaurant on behalf of a big political donor, would he be expected to oblige or be fired. Shame on thems and kol hakovod to leah glicksman for putting Yosef jr. in his place.
Why do they make this a matter of constitutional law. The only criteria for hiring and firing a kashruth superviosr should be his professional jugements on matters of kashruth. Keep the politics out of it. They should muzzle the heilege chief rabbi of Holon who is the one who seems to be embarrassing his father, and this is not the first time.
Kashrus is 10 percent halacha and 90 percent politics.