A 240 million NIS class action lawsuit has been filed by Aaron David Lupiansky and Eliezer Nechemia Neuwirth after they learned that the kosher for Pesach vodka they drank did not even have a kosher certification. They filed the lawsuit against James Richardson Duty Free.
They bought “Hava Nagilla” vodka from a reputable store in Yerushalayim. They explain they told the store employee that they were looking for kosher L’Pesach vodka because they were going to be a guest during yomtov and wished to present the vodka to the host. He was shown the bottle which displayed a label with a mehadrin hechsher.
The bottle was purchased and presented to the host of their seder as planned. Several months after yomtov they saw a kashrus update from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel Kashrus Enforcement Unit stating the vodka was not certified kosher for Pesach or year round.
They plaintiffs explain their “feeling of disgust, pain and revulsion”, adding that about a half year after learning the truth they flew abroad and saw the very same vodka selling in duty free, advertised as kosher, even after the publication of the Chief Rabbinate bulletin. This led to the decision to file a lawsuit seeking damages for violating the prohibition of eating chametz on Pesach, which carries a chiyuv of kares.
Attorney Dr. Moshe Fogel adds that the bottle does not display nutritional information as required by law, another violation. Roni Rahav, a spokesman for James Richardson told Mishpacha that the lawsuit was being studied and the company will issue a statement via the appropriate platform.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
1. If there was a false hecksher, he should be suing the bottler not the retailer.
2. If the issue is that the government rabbinate doesn’t consider the mehadrin hecksher to be valid, and this is a disagreement between agencies issuing hecksherim, he should stick to buying from the agency he prefers.
3. That he is suing a retailer rather than a bottler, and he is complaining the one hecksher didn’t accept someone else’s hecksher, suggest this story is a big fishy (as in there is something you aren’t telling us).
according to the website for the vodka, it has a hechsher from Chuh Hassam Sofer, and is guaranteed to be made from grain – meaning it was obviously not kosher-le-pesach
Did the hechsher say kosher l’pesach?