Revamp of kosher system, other reforms rile Israelis

RAANANA, Israel — In a small gourmet food store one recent morning, kosher inspector Sara Meckler walked the aisles checking labels.

She looked for kosher marks from around the world, checked ingredients, consulted a database on her phone — “I better call the rabbi about this one,” she said of a packet of breadsticks — just as hundreds of inspectors do in a country where a kashrut certificate is as vital as a business license for most grocery stores, hotels and restaurants.

But for some religious Israelis, Meckler’s careful pondering of a can of Italian artichokes is to be denounced as an existential threat. Neither she nor her bosses at Tzohar, a pluralistic Jewish organization, belong to the ultraOrthodox Jewish community that has held a monopoly on the official system of kosher certification for decades.

Israel’s new governing coalition — one of the few not to include ultra-Orthodox parties in the past 45 years — has moved to loosen the ultra-Orthodox grip on food certification and a raft of other religious and social policies, ranging from bans on Sabbath transit to exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men from military service.

Few of the changes that have been discussed will touch more Israelis on a daily basis than revamping food inspections.

Under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government, the kosher certificates granted by alternative inspectors such as Meckler will soon carry the same authority as the country’s Chief Rabbinate, an office long dominated by the ultra-Orthodox.

“A complete collapse of values,” the United Torah Judaism political alliance lamented. “A cornerstone of the establishment of a Jewish state has fallen,” the ultraOrthodox Shas party declared.

One rabbi said allowing women like Meckler to be inspectors amounted to “sexual immorality.”

The complaints have erupted as Bennett’s five-month-old coalition has also taken up legislation that, in part, would give Jews other than the ultra-Orthodox a say over whether converts to Judaism have a right to marry and whether women will be allowed more freedom of worship at Jerusalem’s iconic Western Wall.

New regulations have already cut child-care subsidies for the children of religious scholars. Almost half of all ultra-Orthodox men opt for full-time study in religious schools, known as yeshivas, instead of employment, and their families have grown dependent on these government subsidies.

“It’s a unique moment,” said Gilad Malach, an expert in ultraOrthodox issues at the Israel Democracy Institute, or IDI. “They have been in the government for more than 37 years, more even than [former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s] Likud party. It just shows how much easier it is to do these reforms when the Haredim are not there to block them.”

The ultra-Orthodox, or Haredim as they are known in Hebrew, make up about 13 percent of Israel’s population. But they have gained outsize influence over social and religious policy because their political parties have repeatedly provided the seats needed for would-be prime ministers to secure a majority in parliament.

For all but eight years out of the past 45, ultra-Orthodox lawmakers have provided decisive support for various governing coalitions, through which they have gained a veto over proposed religious changes, such as to permit civil marriage or allow some public transit on the Sabbath.

An agreement among lawmakers to ease restrictions on women worshiping at the Western Wall was originally negotiated in 2016, only to be sidelined by Netanyahu at the request of his ultra-Orthodox partners.

The governing coalition that took office in June — which combines right-wing, left-wing and Arab parties — has moved quickly to push reforms that are popular with the broader population.

While an estimated two-thirds of Jewish Israelis keep kosher to some degree, many don’t adhere to the strictest standards. .