Anarchy in kosher: who will unravel the plotter? | Israel today

Last Sunday, the atmosphere in the meeting hall on the third floor of the Ministry of Religion building in Jerusalem was particularly festive.

One by one, the senior members of the Shas party gathered - led by Interior Minister and Health Minister Aryeh Deri, and Religion Minister Michael Malchiali, with broad smiles on their faces. It was not a feeling of people entering the office for the first time that they do not know, but on the contrary - a sort of return to the familiar and known. My husband The house, the feeling was clear, come home. And they are here to make far-reaching changes that will affect all the citizens of the State of Israel. But what exactly will these changes be? That is the big question.

And she is important to everyone.

After all, even if you don't have the slightest idea what a Haredi sect or Hatam Sofer is - there is a reasonable chance that every day you eat food that is supervised by one of these bodies. We can talk until tomorrow about civil marriages or public transportation on Shabbat, about the allowances of the youths or for their enlistment in the IDF - but according to estimates, almost 80 percent of the population eats kosher food in one way or another.

Rabbi Micha Halevi: "When I arrived at Petah Tikva, there were 250 businesses with kosher certificates. Today there are 570. There are efficient personnel, who work a standard job, and there is a clear separation between supervision and management. How long should a supervisor be at the business? This is determined according to the criteria of The Chief Rabbinate", photo: Koko

to prevent a supervisor-supervised relationship

And the summary of the news from the huge upheaval that took place in the field of kashrut in the last two years: with the establishment of the previous government, the Minister of Religion at the time, Matan Kahane, promised to reform kashrut.

For many years now, kashrut has not been at its best, and that's putting it mildly, partly because those who pay the kashrut supervisors their salaries are the business owners.

This creates a situation called a "supervisor-supervisor" relationship, which may cause pressure from the business owner on the supervisor not to take the kosher certificate from him, despite kosher problems that are discovered.

Kahana delivered the goods and presented a comprehensive reform: the first phase, which already went into effect last year, includes the opening of kosher areas, so that every religious council can provide kosher services anywhere in Israel.

This step is now running, but without much success;

The second and significant phase, which was supposed to go into effect at the beginning of the month, includes the abolition of the religious councils' monopoly on kashrut services, and in their place the opening of private corporations that will compete for the customer's heart and offer supervision services.

The Chief Rabbinate was supposed to act, according to the reform, as a regulator - to supervise the activities of the corporations and to operate a significant array of inspectors on behalf of the kosher fraud unit.

All this, as mentioned, did not happen.

As soon as the reform was introduced, the ultra-Orthodox MKs and the Chief Rabbinate stood on their hind legs. For more than a year, they fought it with all their might. When the Chief Rabbinate's officials, led by former CEO Harel Goldberg, tried to carry out their task and implement the reform, the Chief Rabbinate Council They have legs.

At the same time, former finance minister Avigdor Lieberman, who was supposed to budget for the establishment of the enforcement body, did not put a shekel into the coffers and de facto prevented the application of the reform.

The result: no reform commissioner was appointed, critical regulations were not amended, and the chaos in the Chief Rabbinate is celebrating.

Last week, less than an hour after the formation of the government, the newly appointed Minister of Religion Michael Malchiali (Shas) signed a decree that postpones the entry into force of the reform for six months - and that is how we got to the situation we are in now. The correct definition for this situation is limbo - neither here nor there Neither swallow nor vomit. In the ultra-orthodox parties they dream of completely canceling the reform, which they describe in harsh terms; in the religious Zionist party they want to reach a new and improved situation,

To abolish, among other things, the corrupt "supervisor-supervisor" system.

In the meantime, the consumer suffers from supervisors who are not interested in working, from supervisors who receive low wages, from a fraud unit that does not exist and above all - from anarchy in a system that affects the food of all of us.

Incoming Minister of Religions Michael Malchiali with Aryeh Deri.

Big changes are being planned in the kashrut system, but no one has any idea what they are,

"A reform that fundamentally changes everything"

"It was clear from the beginning that it would be very difficult to implement such a reform, because it fundamentally changes the entire regulation of kosher, the authority of the religious councils and the rabbis of the cities. These are not simple procedures," analyzes the situation Tani Frank, director of the Hartman Institute's Center for Judaism and State, He advised Minister Kahane in the previous Knesset regarding the reform.

"One of the reasons that the reform included the intermediate stage, which is the opening of the kashrut areas, is the understanding that it is not certain that they would have been able to implement the entire reform in time. Even those who were involved in the reform knew that even if the previous government had continued as usual, there was a slim chance of getting everything ready by the beginning of the year." .

However, Frank says that there were parts of the reform that should have been on the way to implementation - which did not happen due to the stubborn opposition of the Chief Rabbinate.

"There was no preparatory work, there was no supervisor, no rules were established, the issue of licenses was not settled. The reform was simply not ready."

The initiators of the reform do not hide their frustration with the resulting situation.

"I am disappointed for the citizens of Israel," says MK Matan Kahana (state camp). "There is a good reform here, which is going to fall only because of politics.

If they are determined to cancel the reform, they will have no real problem.

It will take time, but it will happen.

It should be said: this is a wicked thing.

If you let Netanyahu write how he thinks kashrut should be in the State of Israel, he would write exactly my plan with minor changes."

MK Yulia Malinovski (Israel Beitenu), who chaired the Religious Services Committee in the previous Knesset, believes that it will not be so easy for the current government to undo what was done. "We gave Shas the Ministry of Religion, we let the cat keep the cream. The claims that they are going to cancel the kosher reform. It should be said: they are not hurting me but all of us. If they cancel the reform - you and I will pay dearly for it. The reform opened the market. It gave the rabbis options to work in a more regulated manner. They want to cancel the reform? This It won't be that easy for them. They still don't know what they're dealing with. I built the reform in such a way that the Minister of Religion cannot move without the committee responsible for the field. Good luck to them with a Shas Minister of Religion and a committee chairman from another party."

Maybe there were mistakes you made along the way?

Perhaps you should have reached broader agreements with the ultra-orthodox MKs and the Chief Rabbinate?

MK Kahana: "Under the circumstances in which we acted, we had no other way, because the opposition acted against everything that the coalition brought.

Even when I brought very good things they fought, because their goal was to overthrow the government and the goal justified the means.

The opposition is not factual but political, and in the context of Shas it also stems from deep corruption in the kashrut system, to which the main beneficiaries today are closely related."

MK Malinovski: "Matan Kahana tried to dance at all the weddings, and in the end he fell.

Instead of enacting a narrow law, he drifted into something huge, complicated and immature.

He tried to please everyone and brought us all into Baruch.

Surrendered to the pressures of rabbis.

Instead of moving forward, he was under pressure and did not have enough courage to stand up to all the rabbis.

He is a good guy, but being a good guy is not a profession.

The reform reached the Knesset when it was not ripe."

It should be noted that although Malinovski attacks Kahana, this is an issue that the Minister of Religious Affairs is proud of.

For a long time, Kahane tried to reach agreements with rabbis, so that the reform would pass without uproar.

Finally he failed to do so because of the strong opposition to him.

One of the reasons for the opposition was a controversial clause, according to which three serving city rabbis or former city rabbis can provide alternative kosher to the rabbis.

"I would be happy for only the chief rabbinate to determine what is kosher," says MK Kahane in the commentary and clarifies: "I also did not like the path of the three rabbis, but I knew that the rabbinate would not cooperate, and I had to have someone define what is kosher."

I don't want any local rabbi to determine what is kosher, and I am reluctant to do so either."

MK Yulia Malinovski: "Matan Kahana tried to dance at all the weddings, and in the end he fell.

Instead of enacting a narrow law, he drifted into something huge, complicated and immature.

He is a good guy, but being a good guy is not a profession", photo: Oren Ben Hakon

The question: what do we do now?

The big question is what to do now.

After a break of a year and a half, Shas returned to full control of the Ministry of Religion, and its statement of intentions is clear. But Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also has control over what is actually done, from two different political directions: First, any bill they want to promote will have to go through a committee Religion in the Knesset, led by MK Simcha Rotman;

Second, if the Minister of Finance asks to stop the cancellation of the reform, he will be able to exert heavy pressure levers on the chairman of Shas, Minister Aryeh Deri.

In the coalition agreements, which were reached after particularly difficult and Sisyphean negotiations, it is written as follows: "A team will be formed that will submit to the government within 60 days an agreed bill on the coalition factions, which will include, among other things, a mechanism for separating supervisor-supervisor relations that will establish in the first legislation uniform standards for kosher, preventing damage to their status the employment of kosher supervisors, amending the law prohibiting fraud in kosher in such a way as to prohibit kosher presentation that is not according to the authority authorized by the law, even without the term 'kosher', preserving the powers of the unit for public inquiries and the powers of inspectors of the chief rabbinate."

The detailed wording is not accidental.

Two bills are currently on the table: the first, by MK Moshe Arbel (Shas), aims to abolish the kosher reform completely;

The second, originally submitted by Diaspora Minister Ofir Sofer (religious Zionism), seeks to make significant changes to the law so that on the one hand the things that need to be corrected will be corrected, and on the other hand the baby will not be thrown out with the bath water.

The wording of the coalition agreements, if indeed they are carried out as written and in the relevant time order, is intended for the reform to be canceled, but the parts that regulate kashrut and supervisor-supervisor relations - will remain in place.

"What will happen now - it's a mystery; what will happen in the future - it's a prophecy," ironically Tomer Ben-Zvi, the chairman of "Hizmoot", a religious-nationalist organization that opposed the reform significantly in the last two years. Bad kosher.

In the first stage, the meaning for the consumer will not be dramatic, but as long as there is no enforcement of kosher, the situation will get worse.

Already today there is no enforcement.

The inspectors of the kosher fraud unit, who are supposed to be at the forefront, do nothing after the unit was almost completely disbanded, and even those who enforce - by 75 percent cancel the report. There is no enforcement, and the honest person will do it. Slowly, all kinds of companies will emerge here fictitious and problematic kosher".

And in the meantime, in the shadow of the anarchy in kosher, the Kumamot organization initiated a blacklist of kosher companies that operate illegally in their opinion.

Assuming that the kashrut reform will not be canceled, there are several proposals to address the existing omissions.

In the religious Zionist bill, behind which stand men of ability, they seek to promote the establishment of a government company that will employ the overseers, thus severing the connection between them and the business owners.

The main problem with such a proposal is that it requires the establishment of a government company, precisely when the Israeli governments seek to reduce as much as possible the existing government companies and encourage competition in the economy.

Another initiative seeks to allow private corporations to set up, as proposed in the kosher reform, and the inspectors will be on behalf of the local rabbis.

This is an initiative that is already operating in one way or another under the leadership of Petah Tikva's rabbi, Rabbi Micha Halevi, and which receives sympathy and relative support from parties dealing with the issue.

The information transmitted by the overseers via tablets reaches the religious council directly, and inspectors on behalf of Rabbi Halevi check whether the supervision is indeed being done as required.

The problems that are revealed reach the rabbi of the city himself, and he is the one who decides what to do.

"The management of kosher should be taken out of the religious councils. The rabbi should have nothing to do with money - from good to bad, he should speak purely kosher," says Rabbi Halevi.

The solution from his point of view is clear: "Israel should be divided into kosher regions and not allow open competition as suggested by Matan Kahane. In the framework of open competition there will be losing areas and profitable areas, and in any case a private corporation will not want to supply kosher to an area where it does not make a profit. In such a situation for a city like Petah Tikva, where There are 570 businesses, all these private companies would like to come, but what about lost places? No one will take them. We have a special education school that has a pastry shop, we don't charge them money - that's the bare minimum. But a kosher corporation wouldn't operate that way Who will give such places kosher?".

Tani Frank from the Hartman Institute, who advised Minister Kahana: "It was clear that it would be difficult to implement such a reform, because it fundamentally changes the entire regulation of kosher and the authority of the religious councils and the rabbis of the cities", photo: Oren Ben Hakon

What do you actually offer?

"The reform would have reduced at least 30 percent of the businesses with kosher, because there are areas that the corporations will not reach. When I told this to Matan Kahane, he told me that he knows there are drawbacks to the reform, but he must present an outline that is compatible with the world of competition. I do not understand how it is possible to satisfy Kosher in another place that is not under your control. In the end, the eyes of the rabbi who signs the certificate should be there. If a business thinks it has the possibility of finding another solution, then it has no problem screwing up in front of the current rabbi. When the reform started, I was told: 'No problem, you stricter. Tomorrow we can get kosher from another rabbi. We must create a proper deterrent for the business owner so that he works according to kosher. Today there is no ability to provide real kosher services. I have no complaint against any local rabbi, because at the moment it is simply not technically possible to provide proper kosher services. Today, In 2023, my local rabbi does not have the tools to provide kosher services."

In Petach Tikva's method, Rabbi Halevi explains, a tender was launched that stated that the Kashrut management company would employ the supervisors by the hour, regardless of the number of businesses in which they operate.

This means that a supervisor receives the salary, whether or not a business has stopped being kosher.

"When I arrived here, there were 250 kosher certificates in Petah Tikva. Today there are 570 businesses with a kosher certificate. Today there is an efficient workforce that works in a standard position and there is a clear separation between supervision and management. How long should a supervisor be in the business? This is determined according to the criteria of the Chief Rabbinate , and the businesses can no longer say that the supervisors only take money and don't show up."

"70 percent of the public wants kosher," says attorney Shlomo Dayan, CEO of "Responsibly Kosher".

"We prove that it is also possible otherwise. We are not a company that came to make money on the backs of the overseers, but a halachic company that comes from a religious place and wants to provide effective kosher services. We recently won an IDF tender to provide kosher services to 50 bases, and the hand is still tipped.

It should be said - both the businesses and the supervisors benefit from the current situation.

In Corona, for example, we were the only ones who paid the supervisors for the period of the Halat; supervisors in other places begged the businesses to pay them, and they refused because they themselves could not raise their heads above water."

"In the beginning there were quite a few supervisors who opposed us, both because they didn't understand what we were doing and also because there was an upper decile who profited a lot from the mess," says the chairman of the board, attorney Shalom Shimon.

"While most of the supervisors worked hard and received less than 6,000 NIS in salary, there were 10 or 15 who arranged five or six businesses for themselves, where they received more than 10,000 NIS a month for working two hours a day. Today, all supervisors receive a basic salary of 7,500 S., there is an efficient workforce, in standard jobs. Today the supervisors understand very well that this is good for them and good for the businesses."

Rabbi Micha Halevi's method is not without mistakes.

In fact, there are quite a few cities in Israel, including Haifa and Tel Aviv for example, where there is no mayor and no one to push the issue.

Another disadvantage: this is an outline in which it is difficult to achieve financial stability, in contrast to the competition offered by the kashrut reform.

Frank believes that a government company is a less realistic idea, compared to an outline like the one taking place in Petah Tikva.

"The parties will try to get involved as little as possible, so I am not sure that they will establish a government company. This will require another significant reform, perhaps more complicated than Kahane's reform in certain terms, because it requires the production of the employment mechanism by the state. In addition, these days the government companies are getting smaller, And Smotrich does not exactly support nationalization and concentration but rather privatization. There is more chance for models like that of Rabbi Micha Halevi or based on the existing reform."

What is clear is that now both Shas and religious Zionism need to make decisions that will determine the fate of the kosher system in Israel in the coming years. After he signed the postponement of the kosher reform for six months, there were headlines claiming that the kosher reform was canceled by Minister Malchali, but it must be understood that this is currently Only with a band-aid, which may have been intended to numb the area a little and calm the ultra-Orthodox rage over the controversial reform.

MK Kahana: "There is a good reform here that is going to fall only because of politics.

If you let Netanyahu write how he thinks kashrut should be in the State of Israel - he will write my plan with minor changes", Photo: Oren Ben Hakon

Alternative kosher services

And while the politicians argue, it is possible that a step in a completely different direction will decide the balance.

In the near future, it is expected that the request of the Tzahar Rabbinical Organization to allow them to provide kosher services for imported products will be brought up again.

Discussion of the issue at the High Court was postponed because the reform was supposed to take effect - which would have made it unnecessary, but the fact is that the reform ultimately did not take effect as planned. The petition could open the door for private corporations to be able to provide alternative kosher services, while the other elements of the reform are far from being realized .

Politicians must make decisions quickly.

Frank believes that if the parties wish to make legislative changes, they should do so within the framework of the Settlements Law, the same law through which the reform entered the law book of the State of Israel in the first place.

"The only political alternative for quick change is the Settlements Law, which they want to pass by the end of this March. This will challenge them, so it is not certain that we will see a significant change in the foreseeable future, and they could certainly get into trouble with the matter even more."

shishabat@israelhayom.co.il

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