The following appears on the Jewish Chronicle website:
A boycott campaign is mounting against Israel’s most prestigious kosher certification.
With dozens of different kashrut seals available in Israel, hechsher snobbery is rife. Not everyone accepts every supervision label and some engender more loyalty than others. However, virtually everybody regards “Badatz Eida Hacharedit” stamp as the gold standard, and those conscious of kashrut widely strive to buy most of their products with a Badatz seal.
But despite Badatz’s widespread appeal, it is operated by the small and extremist Eida Charedit. This Charedi umbrella organisation is avowedly anti-Zionist and discourages members from involvement with the state of Israel, including voting.
In the past year, its members have led demonstrations – some of which turned violent – against the opening of a car park in Jerusalem on Shabbat, against the operation of Intel’s Jerusalem plant on Shabbat, and against the construction of a new emergency room at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon on the grounds that it requires the relocation of ancient graves.
When the Barzilai row was at its height in the spring, Micky Lapid, a secular pensioner from Even Yehuda near Netanya, started an online campaign for a boycott of the Badatz kosher certification.
“My anger [towards the Eida] spread from my belly to my head and from my head to the screen,” he recalls.
His intention was to bring about a situation where companies see commercial disadvantages as well as advantages in taking Badatz supervision. Currently it is seen only as a plus – the Israeli food giant Osem has the seal on almost all of its products.
“I said to myself, this group called the Eida Charedit, with all this noise around it, it’s a very small group but where is the money come from? If some people want to pay through their food for their services that’s fine, but don’t ask me to be part of it.”
Since he launched his campaign in May, it has attracted 2,000 followers on Facebook and a further 600 sympathisers who subscribe to its email newsletters, which contain lists of products to boycott and suggestions for non-Badatz alternatives. A poll conducted by the Ynet news site and the Gesher Foundation has found that one in three secular Israelis favour the idea of a boycott.
While Mr Lapid is secular, the campaign has the support of some Orthodox consumers – both modern-Orthodox and a small number of Charedim.
“My children know when they are looking for candy to buy the one without the Eida Charedit hechsher,” says Catriel Lev, a modern Orthodox father-of-five from Beit Shemesh. There, followers of the Eida hang signs demanding “modest dress” and sometimes harangue people who fail to adhere.
Mr Lev hopes that the boycott will “put the Eida Charedit back to the proportions of its real clientele”.
But Shlomo Pappenheim, a senior member of the Eida’s management committee, said that the boycott campaign is based on “ignorance”. He said that money from kashrut “does not go for all these fights – that money comes from abroad, from people who believe in it.”
He added that this money does not pass through the Eida’s coffers but goes straight to demonstrators.
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(Source: The JC)
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16 Responses
Mickey Lapid? Tommy’s brother? Feh! Like he matters?
PS I can’t stand what the Eida does, but when in Israel, their hashgacha is the best. Believe me, if there was an alternative on the same level I’d opt for it every time.
So, how much money does it take to stage a full blown hafgonah? Has anyone ever heard of paid mafginim? Some participate on principle, while some, unfortunately, use a hafgonah as an excuse to wreak havoc and mayhem. Yet even the latter don’t receive a paycheck for their “services”. The dayanim of the Eida, shlita, are among the gedolei ha’dor. HaGoan HaRav R’ Moshe Shternboch shlita has been a lomeid Torah l’shma and marbitz Torah his entire adult life. Who has the chutzpa to second guess a Yid like that? Plenty, it seems, and many are found posting comments on YWN.
Emails about boycotting the Eida HaChareidis are about as old as the warnings not to open emails about “Osama bin Laden hanged” which will gobble up your entire computer. Every once in a while they try to get more media attention. YWN, please don’t play along with them and do not give Mickey Lapid and his ilk the coverage they crave.
Can somebody please tell me how this entire article (and by extension its reprinting on this site) is not one massive piece of lashon hora??
Bestbubby – don’t believe all the bubby stories about Hechsheirim.
According to the research I’ve done, there are at least 2 other major Hechsheirim in Israel on the same or higher level than the Eida.
Check the published standards and in the field enforcement of those standards before making claims.
this will be as big as the meah shaerim secular demonstration
If one considers that the Eida is more or less a shadow government that is the remnant of the pre-zionist comunal government (back when the frum Jews were an autonomous community under the Ottomans), it is surprising that the Israelis even tolerate it . It’s political position is not dissimilar to Jacobites in Britain, Bourbons in France, or czarists (and now, communists) in Russia. In most middle eastern countries, those who question the legitimacy of the government are usually shot.
So the pig and shrimp eaters want Jews to boycott the BEDATZ? What else is new?
BTW the BEDATZ is not “small and extremist.” It is the largest Kosherus organization in Israel, files its annual corporate reports and pays taxes on its earning as do its employees. It is also not correct to call them anti-Zionist. They are pro-Torah and protest anti-Torah activities.
It is generally the same loud mouth group of pig and shrimp eaters that take exception to the protests of the EIDA and invent or exaggerate events.
Aryeh Zelasko
Beit Shemesh
I would like the Jewish Chronicle to define, “Hechsher snobbery.” There is no such thing.
There are dozens of different Kashrus seals available all over the world, not just in Eretz Yisroel. Different people hold by different Hechshers.
So in every country, all over the world, there is “Hechsher snobbery?”
What we have here is an Israeli western with the white hats verses the black hats. The line here, to me, is very clear. I do not see any gray areas.
Badatz are the white hats and the others are the outlaws trying to pass themselves off as the overseers of the common good, attempting to stifle free speech they disagree with and overturn the rule of Torah.
I recommend now reading this article again in light of what I have just written.
Don’t read Jewish Chronicle but read Jewish Crank. This is nothing but a tabloid sheet. It is always against the frum people. A good leftist rag.
#8
I am NOT a pig and shrimp eater as you like to call people. I am a chassidishe Jew who is absolutlely disgusted by the antic of the Eida Charedit.
As for their kashrut, it is abover reproach and I still look for their hechsher. However, it would be a true chillul HaShem if they money they get for kashrus supervision was used for their more lunatic fringe activities.
BS”D
Rav Landa is head and shoulders above any other hechsher because he charges only for the mashgichim and does not take one agora for his reputation (and knowledge), which is literally worth millions. Therefore, Rav Landa is my first choice when in EY.
However, because of this boycott, I will purchase Sano cleaning supplies here in Ukraine next time the need presents itself, rather than the cheaper local brands just to support the Badatz E”Ch (despite the fact that there is no need for a hechsher on such product).
Wow! Those sure DO sound like TERRIBLE things the Eida is involved in! What were they? Standing up for shemiras Shabbos, tznius, and kovod ha-mess – in a Jewish State! Wake up everybody! Why weren’t YOU at those demonstrations?
Just what was needed! More sinas chinom and in-fighting. When will we learn? We are our own worst enemies.
#4. Yo are 100% correct. The Jewish Chronicle is probably the most anti semitic, anti Isreli, Anti Charedi paper in the world. Such a paper has no place to be quoted amongst Yidden.