Opening up kashrut certification is a step in the right direction
Wrenching complete kashrut control out of the hands of a body with a vested economic interest in retaining it is not going to be easy, but the first steps are to be welcomed.
By JPOST EDITORIALKASHRUT CERTIFICATION at a Jerusalem eatery – will the rabbinate’s monopoly be broken?(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
It might not have the global economic significance of the 1911 US Supreme Court decision breaking up John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil monopoly, but kashrut licensing directives issued by the Chief Rabbinate this week represent an important victory in the long battle to open up the kashrut certification market in Israel.And that is something that will positively impact the lives of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people in this country.Up until now the Chief Rabbinate, through its representatives at the local level, has enjoyed a virtual government-granted monopoly over declaring which restaurants, hotels and factories are kosher. The Chief Rabbinate sets the rules, sends its supervisors to oversee the food-making process, and issues the certificates.It’s a closed ecosystem inviting abuse, and over the years that abuse has ranged from the high cost of kashrut certificates, the direct result of a lack of competition, to unscrupulous kashrut supervisors demanding kickbacks from clients.Though the unscrupulous supervisors may be but a small minority, they gave the whole system a bad name. And if proprietors wanted to switch to another kashrut supervisory body, because they thought it may be cheaper, more efficient or more straightforward, they were unable to do so, because in Israel – unlike in Jewish communities abroad – the Chief Rabbinate was essentially the only recognized game in town.This is starting to change.The Chief Rabbinate was forced by a 2017 court decision to publish a directive recently called the “Criminal Enforcement Policy of the National Unit for the Enforcement of the Prohibition of Fraud in Kashrut Act.”Despite the ominous name, the document – begrudgingly issued – stipulates, in a precedent-setting way, that businesses now can display a certificate declaring the kashrut standards they observe, and the supervising organization. What these establishments can’t do, however, is use the term “kosher” for their eateries or say that they have a certificate of kashrut from the Chief Rabbinate.Sound convoluted? You bet, but the whole system is convoluted, and has been for years. Change, however, often comes piecemeal, not necessarily in one fell swoop.What the new directive means is that restaurants can no longer be fined – as they were in the past – for displaying kashrut certificates issued by an agency or organization competing with the Chief Rabbinate, although the word “kosher” cannot be written on the certificate. This will enable establishments, for example, to proudly display certificates from the Tzohar religious-Zionist rabbinical organization, a group that has been pushing for a change in the country’s kashrut bureaucracy for years.Consumers seeing the certificates will then be able to decide for themselves whether they meet their standards. And therein lies the beauty: choice. Everyone will have the choice to decide what is good enough for them.The Chief Rabbinate, obviously, is not going to voluntarily relinquish control of as lucrative a venture as kashrut certification, a great source of income and jobs to distribute. If an eatery that wants to observe kashrut can turn to a competing organization, it will not need the rabbinate and have to pay for its certification or supervisors.Wrenching complete kashrut control out of the hands of a body with a vested economic interest in retaining it is not going to be easy, which explains the rather baffling nature of the new directives, but they represent a step in the right direction.Kashrut competition, paradoxically, may be good for the Chief Rabbinate. Because if businesses can go elsewhere, the Chief Rabbinate will need to improve its product to attract their business – meaning, prices will have to come down, and the service provided will need to be better and less prone to misuse.Competition is a wonderful thing, be it in the oil business or the kashrut one. And if changes can come to the Chief Rabbinate’s hold on the kashrut industry, there is hope it can come in other areas as well, such as marriage, divorce and conversion.But there, too, expect the change to come in dribs and drabs – as it has with kashrut – rather than as a onetime cleansing flood. Change in areas of religion and state in this country has proven to be evolutionary, not revolutionary. We hope more will come.
