Rabbinate urged to reverse ruling allowing Mehadrin certification for foie gras

Israel Prize laureate Rabbi Daniel Sperber and Prof. Yael Shemesh of Bar Ilan University’s Bible Studies Department ask the Chief Rabbinate to reverse a decision by its council to allow the most stringent level of kosher certification — Mehadrin — for imported goose and duck liver (foie gras), on animal welfare grounds.

Such force feeding was banned in Israel in a 2003 law that came into effect in 2006.

In a letter to Ashkenazi chief Rabbi David Lau, the two write that force-feeding is one of the most shocking forms of animal abuse. In a separate letter, they remind the Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef of a ruling given by his late father, Sephardi Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, against the practice because of the suffering it causes and the doubts raised that liver produced in such as way is ritually fit for consumption.

France is still the main producer and consumer of foie gras.

— Sue Surkes