The Agudas Yisrael, Belze and Rav Rubin hechsherim will be closing down to reopen as join chareidi kashrus under the banner Badatz Vaad HaRabbonim, Chadrei Chadarim reports. It should be pointed out that YWN has not been able to confirm this “exclusive report” which is not appearing elsewhere.
There have been such attempts in the past, towards establishing a unified chareidi hecsher, as well as attempts to compete with the Eida Chareidis. All have fallen to the wayside. A number of months ago, the Belze-affiliated weekly BaKehilla to create a hechsher with Rav Efrati Shlita and Rav Landau Shlita, but this effort was also unsuccessful. Past efforts to unite Belze with Agudah were also unsuccessful since Belze is not a member of the Agudah institutions.
The new Badatz Vaad Rabbonim is reportedly not going to include Gerre Chassidus, and at the same time, will bring fiscal relief to the financially strapped mehadrin hechsher of Rav Rubin Shlita. The new entity is close to the final stages, although there are still disagreements over assigning authority for the various aspects of the operation of the new kashrus organization.
Other involved parties who were approached regarding the new united chareidi hechsher requested that Chadrei Chadarim refrain from publicizing the piece until following local municipal elections, which are scheduled for 11 November.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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6 Responses
So Rav Rubin is short on cash and Belz and Agudah a have poor reputations, so everyone gains. Just the consumer will only gain if Rav Rubin can insist on being the only one setting standard for Kashrus and mashgichim. Good luck.
rubin is the only one of the 3 anybody eats from.
belz even trid to sell out to the eida
Is this a good thing? The more reliable heckshers, the more the competition between them. Since a reliable hecksher is, by definition, one that won’t compromise on kashrus, it will have to compete on price, i.e., offering a lower price for the hecksher. This in turn makes kosher food less expensive. The only way this would not be the case if there was a policy of the kashrus agencies not charging manufacturers for a hecksher (relying on third party funding, such as the Israeli government to cover costs), which is highly unlikely to ever be the case.
When it comes to serious stuuf, Rav Landau is the way to go. No doubt he is not willing to join with anyone when he has the HIGHEST standars.
never heard of Rav Rubin’s hechsher, go with R. Landau, and Rav of Tiveria.
#5 you must not live in Israel. R’ Rubin also known as Rechovot Mehadrin once partnered with OU and is one of the newest big players in the Kashrus field and with a sterling reputation. The Rav of Teveria is a big Talmid Chacham, but his hechsher is not in the same ballpark.