The Emunah Women’s Organization months ago petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court in an effort to have the Chief Rabbinate of Israel to recognize and accept female kashrus mashgichot.
The Chief Rabbinate has been opposed to female mashgichot, which is also the position of IDF Chief Rabbi Brigadier-General Rafi Peretz.
Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau however is permitting woman to take the course and become certified by the Chief Rabbinate as mashgichot kashrus. Yediot Achronot reports that is the response to the Supreme Court by Rabbi Lau’s office.
While there are exceptions in Israel, such as the Efrat Religious Council employing a veteran mashgichat kashrut, the system in Israel by and large does not use women as kashrus supervisors and this may signal a change is going to take place as a result of the Supreme Court’s intervention.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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7 Responses
Is anyone objecting to kashrus agencies employing women? While some jobs would be problematic (e.g. spending a few months on a fleet of fishing boats inspecting the catch with a crew consisting totally of non-Jewish men), there really isn’t a halachic issue? Very machmir kashrus organizations in the USA have female employees.
Mashgichot with yirat Shamayim could any time be as trustworthy as mashgichim with yirat Shamayim. After all isn’t it mostly women whom we trust in our kitchens?
most ”out of town” local kashrus organizations have female mashgichos
This has been done in Baltimore and California for years…
1. Some may object on the issue of serarah. “You can’t do that,” she can shut your business down if you don’t follow her instructions, etc.
2. The issue of women being ne’emanos on issurim is complicated. After all, even though eid echad ne’eman be’issurim, but women are pesulos le’edus. There’s like a five-way machlokes harishonim as to why we trust our wives in the kitchen and other areas. So it’s not so poshut.
The Star-K has trained mashgichos.
This was worked out by Rav Moshe zkk”l 54 years ago, with a workaround for the Rambam’s serara issue. Yoreh Deah #2 44, 45.