Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana called a special press conference on Tuesday and announced a series of comprehensive kashrus reforms in Israel.
According to the new reforms, the Rabbanut will no longer grant kashrus certification but will serve as a regulatory body instead. The kashrus market will open to independent kashrus organizations that will issue hechsherim and employ and oversee their own mashgichim.
In general, the Rabbanut will set the standards of the hechsherim but eateries that do not meet the standards of the Rabbanut can receive a hechsher from three Rabbanim who are qualified to serve as municipal Rabbanim, if they approve the restaurant’s standards. This includes eateries that operate on Shabbos.
The reforms, which were drafted with the assistance of Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah, a left-wing Religious Zionist organization, still require legislative approval.
The Rabbanut responded to Kahana’s announcement with a fierce and public attack on the new Religious Affairs Minister, saying that his plan is “a dangerous initiative that will destroy kashrus in Israel.”
“The Chief Rabbanut of Israel completely rejects the dangerous initiative of the Religious Affairs Ministry to destroy kashrus in Israel,” a statement from the Rabbanut’s office said. “The plan presented today for changes in the kashrus system means the end of kashrus in the state of Israel with the entrance of a wide-ranging variety of organizations with business interests that will grant hechsherim and the ability of every ‘macher’ to grant a kashrus certificate. The result will be the complete destruction and churban of kashrus.”
“This is part of a general trend of a battle against religious services with the ultimate goal of the abolition of the Jewish identity of the state of Israel.”
“The Rabbanut and all Rabbanim in Israel will work to stop this dangerous initiative. Am Yisrael, the majority of whom are makpid on kashrus k’halacha, vote with their feet and have full faith in the Rabbanut and therefore these dangerous initiatives will be revoked.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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10 Responses
While the vast majority of mashgichim working for the Rabbanut are honest and hard-working and do a good job, those that are machmir on kashruth don’t rely on them and won’t rely on anyone but their own hashgachos. The only “churban” from this proposal will be on the political hacks who have a monopoly on the current program. The free market can establish a much more efficient process for hashgacha and everyone can decide whom they prefer to rely upon, subject to baseline standards set by the Rabbanut.
this will be the end of Religious people travelling to israel. In the whole world they are 100% Kashrut oragnisation as OU Badatz,rabbanut .Only in the so called Jewish Land you can have real supervised Kashrut.and this all form
a Minister of the Yamnina Party,the main thing he has a small Kippa Srugah and calls him self religious.
What a shame.
Zionism at its best.
Will this affect the frum crowd? We’ll still have the same hechsherim, won’t we?
nothing is kosher if it operates on Shabbos___if you can’t understand this then dial above…Hashem knows all, more than these arbitrary dim wits
Good. This is a very welcome reform. Nowhere else in the world does one entity have a monopoly on kashrus. Let competition flourish, just like in any other industry, and just like it already is everywhere else in the world. Here in America we have hundreds of hechsherim, and there is no churban.
Would any of us willingly submit to giving one government-appointed body a monopoly and ban the use of the word “kosher” by anyone who didn’t have their hechsher?! If anyone tried that here we would howl in protest, and call it a “Churban of Kashrus”! And it would be! So why is Israel different? Isn’t it obvious that kashrus in Israel is currently a churban, and this will rebuild it?
Of course the Rabbanut, which now has the monopoly, is going to go down screaming. Let it. It’s high time that this arrogant organization was brought to face the reality that it is not the Sanhedrin in the Lishkas Hagozis, it does not have a monopoly on the Torah, wearing Ottoman court dress doesn’t make someone the posek hador or even the mara de’asra of Eretz Yisrael, and it has no right to dictate to the whole world, or even to the whole country, what they must do.
As the whole idea of these anti-religious leftist whether or not wearing a kippah sruchah, is to lower even the weakest standard of kashrus.
Like many other classifications, the word “Kosher” also needs to be protected and the minimum qualification of a Rabbi and a mashgiach deserves to be regulated.
A very great proportion of Israel’s citizens if not the majority, want to have the confidence that a Kosher establishment has at least the minimum level of kashrus according to accepted halachah.
By giving in to Tzohar and other phony “rabbanim” this will no longer be the case choliloh.
The anti-Jewish Zionist State (regardless of which politicians are in power there) does not have any “Jewish” character to lose.
It is Zionist, not Jewish.
The people thinking this is a good thing haven’t lived in Israel! The baalgan where anyone ,and I mean anyone, including false “rabbis”, made up his own “Kashrut agency” was only eliminated under law a few years ago.To go back to the previous horrendous state of affairs is unthinkable. Israel needs the Rabbanut , and it needs to be under the control of the yeshivishe /chasidishe world to maintain standards.And not just Kashrut,this anti-religious government intends to “convert” thousands of non-jews who have no intention of keeping the mitzvot.
Sara Rifka, all kosher hotels in Israel are open and serve food on Shabbos, and here in the USA there are some kosher restaurants that are open on Shabbos. Caterers work on Shabbos, running simchos and kiddushim. And of course many many factories with hechsherim operate on Shabbos, and have mashgichim that work on Shabbos. I have had the experience of working as a mashgiach on Yom Kippur, because someone has to do it.