Israeli Restaurants Threatened With Lawsuits Over Alternate Kosher Supervision
Eatery Anger: Restaurateurs are fuming at the Israeli state rabbinate?s monopoly on kosher certification. Image by courtesy of jerusalem movement
JERUSALEM — Israel’s Chief Rabbinate has started warning restaurants that use an alternative kosher supervision they will face legal action if they continue to present themselves as kosher.
The warning notices circulated Wednesday came two days after Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that businesses cannot describe themselves as kosher unless they have official certification from the rabbinate. The ruling includes indicating that the business is kosher even if it uses other words to describe its food or services.
Many of the businesses receiving notices use Hashgacha Pratit, translated as private certification, a well-known private kashrut supervision service. Hashgacha Pratit director Ayala Falk told The Jerusalem Post that the organization is rewording the supervision certificate it gives to restaurants using its services in order to comply with the Supreme Court ruling.
At least 25 food businesses are certified by the private service.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
