In ‘challenge’ to rabbinate, Orthodox group launches own kosher supervision

An Orthodox rabbinical group announces a private kosher supervision program, in a bid to “challenge” the monopoly of the state-run Chief Rabbinate.

The announcement by the religious Zionist Tzohar organization comes after a High Court of Justice ruling in September said restaurateurs could inform their clientele of the origin of the food and detail its preparations — provided they don’t explicitly declare themselves “kosher” — in a decision that was seen as denting the rabbinate’s control over the kosher supervision process.

Tzohar’s new licensing division will also have to dodge the explicit designation of “kosher,” per the court order, while proving a detailed explanation of the kosher standards of Israeli restaurants. The new initiative has set itself a goal to offer licensing to some 10 percent of Israeli eateries within three years, largely targeting establishments that currently do not carry a rabbinate kosher certificate, according to its mission statement.

“We didn’t come to replace the rabbinate, but rather to challenge it, to create competition in a monopolistic market,” Rabbi Rafi Feuerstein of Tzohar says in a press conference this morning.

“We don’t want to take away from the rabbinate,” he adds. “I’m not playing innocent, there will be those [businesses currently supervised by the rabbinate] who will come over to us, but from our perspective we are not going to steal others’ livelihood or kashrut, but we are merely increasing the kashrut [certifications] in Israel. We want to bring more businesses, which were not kosher until today, into the fold.”

Other organizations, namely the private Hashgacha Pratit (Private Supervision) NGO behind the High Court petitions, have sought to break open the rabbinate monopoly. Private kosher certifications have long existed in the ultra-Orthodox community, though the various “badatz” licenses are given only on top of the rabbinate’s approval, rather than as standalone certificates.

— Marissa Newman