Tzohar says it will continue to supervise kosher food businesses despite new law blocking private certifications

The passage of a law last night restoring the Chief Rabbinate’s exclusive control over kosher certification was a setback for the Tzohar Rabbinical Organization, which had just received authorization to issue its own kashrut certificates.

Despite Tzohar not being legally recognized by the government, hundreds of food businesses currently rely on the group’s certification, which, per the law, doesn’t state that the food is kosher but asserts that the business is being supervised.

The Modern Orthodox organization says it will continue to work to ensure “quality, transparency and halachically based kashrut supervision for the good of the people of Israel,” it says in a statement.

Ever since Israel’s 2021 kashrut reform opened the door for private Orthodox organizations to issue kosher certificates in their own name, Tzohar has worked to get the approvals needed to do so. Earlier this month, the Israeli Chief Rabbinate finally gave its authorization for the first time following a High Court of Justice ruling in June.

But elements within the Rabbinate, the Religious Affairs Ministry, and in Haredi parties have been seeking to defuse the threat to the rabbinate’s monopoly. The law passed yesterday reversed the 2021 ruling that opened the market, giving back to the Rabbinate sole control over what businesses can call themselves kosher.

Following the passage of the law, “Tzohar will continue to strengthen our services, to operate within the full guidelines of the law and halacha and provide certification and supervision services with an uncompromising attention to professional, transparent and trustworthy kashrut,” the organization says in a statement.

Tzohar says it watched the passage of the law “with a sense of deep sadness,” saying it is “detrimental to the very interests of the public and serve only to deepen divisions within our society.”

“There is no doubt that the passage of this kashrut bill by the Knesset is a step in the wrong direction,” Tzohar says. “[But] we continue to reach out to business owners, the rabbinical community and to the people of Israel to join us in this critical effort – to further spread halachic observance and the message that a new path forward will be proven not by words, but through action.”