We in Jerusalem need to support our local certification. The OU belongs in North America and has no business providing a separate certification here in Israel.
By IN JERUSALEM READERSLetters 370(photo credit: REUTERS/Handout )NOT IN THE SPIRIT OF THE LAW Thank you to Peggy Cidor for bringing the important issue of kashrut certification in Jerusalem to light, in her article “In bad taste?” (May 16) Avidov Bernstein, owner of La Cuisine, was prepared to post a notice outside the restaurant and store to inform consumers that his establishments are under the Jerusalem Rabbinate certification, but no longer with the added OU certification. Yet Rabbi Avi Berman, head of the OU Israel, states that “he had no other way to inform the public” of the change, and was therefore forced to hang the posters.What Rabbi Berman fails to state is that the huge posters plastered throughout Jerusalem state in clear, bold letters in Hebrew: “Husra hahashgaha” – that kosher certification has been removed from the establishment. It is only at the bottom of the poster – in English – that the matter of the OU certification is mentioned. Never does this notice make it clear that the establishments are still in fact kosher and under the Jerusalem Rabbinate.Rabbi Berman had many other ways in which to notify the public, such as through the OU’s website, the email kashrut alerts that are sent out on a regular basis, and by having Mr. Bernstein post a notice at his door.We in Jerusalem need to support our local certification. The OU belongs in North America and has no business providing a separate certification here in Israel. Let them work with the local rabbinate to standardize the level of kashrut.Debra Weiner JerusalemAs the current chef for La Cuisine at Beit Avi Chai, I read the article “In bad taste” with interest. In support of Avidov Bernstein, I would like to suggest that the OU is being more than a little disingenuous when it claimed that “supervision and standards were no longer in place at the restaurant.”Really? An OU supervisor who appeared, on average, about once every three weeks is considered to be adequate supervision for a mehadrin establishment? By whose estimate is that acknowledged to be acceptable, Rabbi Berman? Now, solely under rabbinate mehadrin certification, we are visited by a supervisor daily – who, to all intents and purposes actually performs the job for which he is paid, and manages not to offend or upset any of the staff in the process.David Brummer Jerusalem
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