Tzohar granted approval as kosher certification body for first time

In what is being hailed as a historic decision, the Israeli Chief Rabbinate has ruled that the Tzohar Rabbinical Organization will be allowed to offer kashrut certification under Israeli law for the first time.

The ruling is expected to lead to shakeups within Israel’s food industry, increasing transparency and reducing prices while decentralizing state control over the kosher certification process.

Tzohar, an organization dedicated to bridging gaps between religious and secular Jews in Israel, has been operating as an alternative kosher certification service since 2018. It now acts as a supervising agency for hundreds of individual restaurants, hotels and food production facilities, it says, despite not being allowed to use the word “kosher” in its certification until now due to lack of government recognition.

Today’s decision by the Rabbinate to recognize Tzohar as a kashrut authority comes after years of efforts by the organization, Tzohar says in a statement.

The ruling is already being challenged by Religious Services Ministry director general Yehuda Avidan, who charges that the approval was not authorized properly within the Chief Rabbinate and is therefore invalid.