Rabbinate faces losing its monopoly on kashrut
ISRAEL’S CHIEF Rabbinate is in danger of losing its monopoly over kashrut supervision following a court ruling forbidding supervisors accepting payments from the restaurants they inspect.
Attorney General Avichai Mendelblitt warned the rabbinate last week that laws giving it exclusive rights to call a business “kosher” would not be upheld if it does not comply with a High Court order on the matter.
The court ruled in May 2017 that the current arrangement — where businesses must pay the kashrut supervisor’s salary — is a clear conflict of interest and gave the rabbinate 14 months to come up with new legislation.
But with Knesset’s summer session over and no laws passed, the rabbinate risks being found in contempt of court. Mr Mendelblitt said this could end thes monopoly over kashrut supervision that the rabbinate fought for years to be officially recognised.
But the suggested remedy — employing supervisors through personnel companies — “would seriously damage their workers’ rights,” Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said.
His Ashkenazi colleague, Chief Rabbi David Lau, has not weighed in on the issue. He is currently embroiled in another conflict with the High Court, which is blocking the appointment of his brother-in-law to the head of the Beth Din in Jerusalem over claims Rabbi Lau’s pressure led to the appointment over a more experienced Dayan.
Rabbi Lau has been accused of nepotistic appointments before, including with the rabbi in charge of kashrut supervision at one of Israel’s largest food manufacturers, Osem.
The High Court’s ruling on kashrut supervisors could could lead to Osem’s rabbi, a well-paid employee of the corporation, being forced to resign.