Call to boycott pasta joint over alternative kosher certificate backfires

When the Chotam organization, which says it works “to restore Judaism to the public agenda,” lashed out on Facebook at eatery chain Pasta Basta, chiding it for working with alternative kosher supervision organization Tzohar rather than the chief rabbinate and punnily insulting it as “Pasta Basa” — slang for bummer — thousands of people responded with plans to head to Pasta Basta for a meal that very same day.

It was another gauntlet thrown by supporters of the chief rabbinate, which is embroiled in a long battle against grassroots efforts to wrest control of Israel’s kosher supervision process from the state-appointed ultra-Orthodox body.

Pasta Basta, a chain of pasta bars that was established in Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market and now counts eight locations, was one of the first restaurants to move from using the chief rabbinate’s kosher supervision to that of Private Supervision, a private kashrut authority.

When Private Supervision, run by Rabbi Aaron Leibowitz, announced in late Feburary that it would hand over its program to the Tzohar food inspection authority, Pasta Basta signed up.

Private Supervision, known in Hebrew as Hashgacha Pratit, had been working with Tzohar for several months to help establish the new authority, and Rabbi Oren Duvdevani, who headed Hashgacha Pratit, now runs the Tzohar initiative.

The religious-Zionist Tzohar organization aims to bridge the gaps between secular and religious Israelis by finding alternatives to the rabbinate on matters like Jewish weddings, prayer services and now, kosher supervision.

The Hashgacha Pratit transition to Tzohar followed a High Court of Justice ruling in September that said restaurateurs were allowed to inform their clientele that they serve kosher food provided they don’t explicitly designate themselves as a “kosher establishment.”

The decision, which was seen as a dent in the rabbinate’s control over the kosher supervision process, made way for Tzohar’s new licensing division but will also require it to provide a detailed explanation of the kosher standards in all of its restaurants.

Chotam wrote on Facebook that the Pasta Basta branch in Petah Tikva was a meeting place for young religious people, but that the chain “threw sand in the eyes of customers” by getting rid of rabbinate supervision and using Tzohar instead.

“As if your policy in Jerusalem weren’t enough, you’re trying again to cheat on the rabbinate and the audience of kosher-keeping people for whom it is important to remain loyal to institutional kosher supervision,” Chotam posted on Facebook. “Again you chose to go with the capricious behavior of kosher organizations that are praised by the Reform Jews and criticized by many major and important rabbis. We’ll vote with our feet.”

In response, more than 4,000 people blasted Chotam and said they would be going to eat at Pasta Basta.

Haim Avrahami, the entrepreneur behind Pasta Basta, said the restaurant chain had decided not to comment on this incident.

At Tzohar, a spokesperson said they had received overwhelming support from kosher-keeping Israelis and those who recognize the importance of supervision as a key Jewish value.

“We are proud to see that the demand from restaurants seeking our supervision is on the constant rise,” Tzohar said in response.