KOSHER CERTIFICATION, BUT ONLY ON WEEKDAYS??

FROM FAILED MESSIAH

Government Backs Change To Kosher Food Law That Will Allow Restaurants To Open On Shabbat
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

The Ministerial Committee on Legislation decided Monday to support an amendment that would allow food establishments that follow kosher food law but are open on Shabbat, the Jewish sabbath, to receive special weekday-only kosher certification from Israel’s chief rabbinate.

“The proposal, which is based on rulings by important Zionist [Orthodox] rabbis, will enable many more restaurants be kosher and, bottom line, to present a Judaism that unites rather than repels,” the amendment’s sponsor, MK Elazar Stern of the Hatnuah Party, said earlier this week.

The chief rabbinate, which is controlled by haredim, opposes the measure.

Israel’s Kosher Fraud Prevention Law grants the chief rabbinate the ability to give kosher certification to food establishments whose foods meet the kosher requirements.

But the law has been stretched by the rabbinate’s kosher food inspectors to exclude restaurants which have “immodest” entertainment, or are owned by people whose ideologies or religion clashes with traditional Judaism, or that are open on Shabbat.

The amendment would modify that law to clearly state that the only factor the rabbinate can use to determine whether or not to certify a food establishment is the kosher status of the food itself – not the entertainment or the religion of the owner or Shabbat violations.

Weekday-only kosher certification is already reportedly used in northern Israel. It’s similar to arrangements that were common in many small and mid-sized diaspora cities until the 1990s, where food establishments like small bakeries and vegetarian restaurants had kosher certification only for weekdays. The arrangement is still seen, even in large cities like New York, most commonly with small desert cafés and bagel shops.