Jerusalem – The battle over the halachic validity of military conversions appears to be approaching the kashrut industry, with the Chief Rabbinate warning the Badatz Eda Haredit’s kashrut division recently of the consequences it would face if it did not swiftly resolve irregularities found in a few of its slaughterhouses.
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According to the 1983 Prohibition of Deceit in Kashrut Law, every establishment that sells, serves or produces food must have a kashrut certificate from the Chief Rabbinate or a body empowered by it to provide one. A business that wishes to have an additional kashrut certificate can do so only on the condition that it also has the rabbinate certificate.
A recent letter from the rabbinate’s kashrut division to the Badatz Eda Haredit – one of the largest, most prestigious and most expensive kashrut certification bodies in the market – noted that a few slaughterhouses recently inspected did not have the Chief Rabbinate’s certificate. While this does not mean the food is not kosher, the owners can be subject to a penalty by law.
The letter also warned that if immediate measures were not taken, the rabbinate would instruct all of the slaughterhouses’ customers to not purchase their products.
Sources close to the kashrut industry claimed that the rabbinate’s kashrut division was acting in the wake of the scathing criticism that Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar has been facing from the haredi- Ashkenazi rabbinic establishment, following his and senior Sephardi adjudicator Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s recent reaffirmation of the validity of military conversions.
The Eda Haredit is apparently organizing a rally this Wednesday to protest the “kashrut certificate” given to the IDF conversions, while elements close to Amar and Yosef have been unsuccessfully attempting to deter the Eda Haredit leadership from its plan.
The Chief Rabbinate’s kashrut division is under the authority of Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger and not Amar, whose responsibilities include heading the rabbinic courts and, as a result, authorizing the conversions.
However, Rabbi Ya’acov Sabag, head of the rabbinate’s kashrut division, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that the recent letter had absolutely nothing to do with the battle over the military conversions.
“We are constantly working and regulating the kashrut, regardless of any issue at hand,” he said.
“There is a slaughterhouse that issues goods without the certificate of the local kashrut, as required by law.
If it does not amend the irregularity, we will have to deal with it.”
A representative of the Jerusalem-based Badatz Eda Haredit’s kashrut department told the Post that he did not know of any concrete complaints the Chief Rabbinate might be investigating.
He also stressed that his department’s certificates were only given to businesses that already had a rabbinate certificate, and noted that its operation was transparent and “open to everyone.”
“We welcome the rabbinate’s supervision, and are glad of any additional supervision that will help the public keep kosher,” he said.
Stop the bickering! Grow up!
This all has to do with one thing: money money money
No they are using money to pressure the eida to cave on the conversion issue
The Rabbinate is telling the Ayda what’s kosher?!? What a laugh!!!!!
Ayda should tell them to go l’azazel!
The Badatz Eda hashgacha will be worthless if the Chief Rabbinate denies them certification. While some consider Badatz to be credible and do a reasonable job with kashruth supervision, their shlachthouses would become worthless if their customers are told not to buy from them. Hopefully they will get the message and “clean up” the problems and not have any concerns they are selling treifus.
sorry, the eidah is older and more respectable than the puppet rabbinate of the zionists.
The issue is slightly different than what is written here. (or so i was told)
Their are 2 types of rabanut hechsherim. Regular and mehadrin. The regular city sanctioned hechsher costs around 15% of a mehadrin hechsher. This extra is to pay for the needed mashgichim tamidim (or semi tamidim in real terms)
So what do places that have Eida/Rubin do? Obviously they purchase the cheaper non mehadrin hechsher from the ‘locals’, and use the eida/rubin for the mehadrin certificate. This practice saves the store / factory alot of money. But the ‘local’ rabbanut feels scorned and cheated. After all, they also have a mehadrin hechsher that is available.
So they keep going to court over this issue. The ‘locals’ insist that any private mehadrin hechsher must also have a local mehadrin, and the stores insist that their is no reason why they should have to pay for 2 distinct mehadrin hechsharim.
I have been told by 2 lawyers that the law is pretty vague on this point. It may be in the ‘local’ right to determine what level on supervision a store needs. Remember, their is no uniformity law that all towns have the same regulations. Indeed, even within the same town, the regulations vary.
The law was instituted in 1983 to keep the conservatives out of the kashrut business.
#5 & #7 There has been a number of scandals and fraud from various slaughterhouses under Badatz in the past.
We all know that the Rabbinate in Israel is a joke. They are making an additionnal fun of themselves by telling the Edah what to do. Moreover, they all know that calling for a boycot of the Edah won’t be successfull. They are in a distress because the Edah has more customers and is more trusted than the Rabbinate. It’s all politics and money from the Rabbinate.
Here in Tzfas, 6 places have either Eida or Rubin. Mendies, Litttle Jerusalem, Sheva Diganim, Ariel bakery, Pizza Tzfat, Moshe Bergers. All of them had the cheaper Rabanut non mehadrin hechsher. Last summer at the height of the chareidi tourist season (right around rosh chodesh Av) R’ Brisivski (kashurut manager for the tzfas municipality) revoked the non mehadrin hechsharim from these 6 places.
Brisivski told them that if they did not get the more expensive and redundant mehadrin hechsher, than they will be sued. Two weeks later he did in fact sue them for having Eida/rubin but no local hechsher. Three weeks after that he dropped the suit.
Until today, most of these 6 places have Eida/Rubin, but no Brisivski.
I have spoken to the owners of 3 of these establishments, and they claim that their has been zero drop off in clientele. Many (including me) have intentionally patronized these places and never use Brisivski. Owners/Workers who are Bnei Torah is more important than any ‘hechsher’
Shmuel Eliyahu has so far backed off from pursuing the suits, and i have no idea why? Maybe because his father Zatzal was very sick at that tekufa?
Anyways Tzfas finally has Eida/Rubin!!
to 15
rav bistritzky’s hechsher is a very high standard hechsher, no reason to write what you did
some of you are under the misunderstanding that the Badatz Eida hashgacha is the gold standard and the chief rabbinate’s endorsement is irrelevant. To the contrary. Badatz is a very limited “niche hashgacha” that appeals to a small group of extreme mehadrim. There are many other equally professional and expert chassideshe hashgachos in EY (and even one or two Litvashe hashgachos) that provide equal or better supervision at much lower cost to the shlachois and consumer.
to 17:
Please quote to me where i said that his hechsher is not good? (though it pales in comparison to his fathers hechsher)
What i said was that he tried to make more gelt by forcing these places to take his mehadrin hechsher instead of the standard hechsher.
And he did this right at the time where businesses make a huge part of their annual income – mainly the 3 weeks after tisha b’av. And that behavior towards my friends warranted my personal boycott…
I agree that I am biased
For those who are trying to figure this out, in essence, most of rabbanut in EY is like USDA is here, i.e., virtually irrelevant as far as Kashrus is concerned.
Just because someone is more chareidi/right-wing/black hat/has more chumros, etc., doesn’t mean his hechsher is more reliable. A hechsher is more about knowing the practical ins and outs of the particular segment of the food industry you’re supervising. Witness the recent meeting between the OU and chassidishe hechsherim in Brooklyn; I believe each side felt they had what to learn from the other.
the joke here is the rabbinute thinking if they say the aida is not kosher the customers will believe them.they are living in a disconnected universe.
Something’s missing here.
Why was this letter sent to the bedatz? This is something that should consider the slaghterhouse and other manufacturers who have only bedatz supervision without rabbinat.
There no mention in the letter that bedatz can’t give a hechsher or is doing something wrong.