The Kosher Medicines Committee met for the first time this year on Sunday in order to discuss medicines that will be deemed as kosher to consume on Passover.
Some 60 days before the holiday begins, rabbis and experts on kashrut from the ultra-Orthodox community met with senior officials from the health fund Clalit to look over the list of medicines that will be certified as kosher for Passover.
As a result of coronavirus, this year has seen a change in necessary medicines used, leading to an extensive list that needs to be approved as kosher for Passover.
The committee convened in the office of Rabbi Menachem Lefkibker, the rabbi of Clalit, and included Rabbi Dr. Shimon Amsalem, an expert of kosher medicine and ultra-Orthodox representative and head of the Kashrut Committee Pinchas HaCohen Binder, among others.
Clalit is the largest health fund in Israel, as well as the largest depositor of drugs used in medical treatments in the country. The list of kosher for Passover medicine is expected to be published by Clalit in the coming weeks.
"Even before the Tishrei holidays, Clalit's chief pharmacist contacted all importers and manufacturers of pharmaceuticals in the country," Rabbi Menachem Lefkibker said during the meeting to Clalit's rabbi.
"The Passover medicine booklet that has become an investment of many resources and much effort in collaboration with Clalit experts and rabbis in the ultra-Orthodox community, in order to allow the proper observance of Passover while maintaining customer health," Lefkibker added.