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Not too insult the great almighty journalists of YWN, but constantly referring to the kashrus reforms in Israel without briefly explaining them is getting a shtickel annoying… can someone please explain the reforms… thank you…
Up to know the government rabbanut was controlled by a mixture of strictly frum modern Orthodox and quasi-Hareidim. Many Hareidim regarded government kasrus as being dubious at best, and preferred private hareidi kashrus (best know was that of the Badatz of what was originally the pre-zionist frum community during the Ottoman period). To many Hareidim, saying something had a medinah hecksher meant it was probably not kosher. The current “reform” will give people who are less that strictly Orthodox a say in what is kosher, so those who in the past never took state hecksher as being reliable, get to say “I told you so”.
The more modern might rely on hechsher that is questionable.
Positive side is that the Rabbanut’s hashgacha bureaucracy is inefficient, occasionally prone to graft and fails to effectively communicate to their clientele. As noted above, many segments of the frum tizbur, various chassidus etc. have their own niche hashgachos. The private sector will provide a more focused, efficient and reliable system versus the current bloated system. New private label hashgachos may hire some of the thousands who currently work for the Rabbanut and perhaps the others can find employment in other sectors of the economy.
“Kashrus” reforms leave an open door to anyone proclaiming to be a Rabbi, despite not even being frum but they’ll call themselves a Reform Rabbi, to be able to become a “mashgiach” and give heshsheirim. Now there may be more to this, but that’s the overall idea. Basically, the mashgichim won’t need to be Orthodox so if the Rabbanut hechsher which was kosher till now, it will be completely treif.
Philisopher, what’s the chidush? What your describing is the kashrus industry in the US. There are hundreds of hashgachas, you just have to investigate their reliability
The real truth is that kashrus was hijacked by extreme Lithuanian factions.
AJ > What your describing is the kashrus industry in the US.
the difference is that, as of now, most Israelis are eating kosher. In US, it is a volunteer system that serves only those who care. I am not an expert to what degree Rabanut can be weakened to still serve the population with kosher food.
The Rabanut Hecsher in Israel, as it stands now, is reliably kosher. Would most frum people go by those standards? No, and they shouldn’t. However it is still kosher, and that is what a large portion of the 70% of Israeli Jews that keep kosher rely on. Until these reforms, the only way you can call yourself kosher is to have the Rabanut. Otherwise, you can’t use the word-legally. If the measures take place, then kashrus becomes an open field, and as clearly stipulated in the measures, stores that are open on shabbos can be considered kosher. For example take tzohar- look it up. So the fight is not about the 15 percent of Israel that only eats the very good hechsherim, it is about the Jews that rely on the simple labeling of kosher. That is why it is so important, because the people going into these restaurants aren’t checking the hechsher, and if it says kosher but they’re open on shabbos, and have other unexplainable heteirim, then they are effectively eating not kosher. And this is a result of this bill.
Dear Yabia,
I’m not sure what you mean. The litvishe kashrus organizations are not at all extreme. In fact, Charlop is the prime example of a hashgacha falling out of favor for not being extreme enough.
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