KOSHAROT CLAIMS ALL IS NOT WELL IN JERUSALEM’S KOSHER RESTAURANTS

FROM KOSHER TODAY (MON, AUG 25, 2008)

Rabbinate and restauranteurs against blacklist
Jerusalem…by Idele Ross, KosherToday Israeli Bureau Chief…Jerusalem restaurant owners and the Chief Rabbinate have threatened to sue a rabbinic organization for publishing a controversial report on kashrut supervision in the capital’s kosher restaurants. The Jerusalem Post reported that Kosharot, an organization based in Elon Moreh, compiled a blacklist of dozens of kosher restaurants around Jerusalem that allegedly do not uphold the conditions required by the kashrut supervision of the Jerusalem rabbinate. The Kosharot report alleges that restaurants with normal kosher supervision are in fact only visited by a supervisor three to four times a week. Rabbi Eliyahu Schlesinger, responsible for the kashrut supervision in the Chief Rabbinate, told Post reporter Matthew Wagner that there are serious mistakes in the report. He rejects a number of the charges of the Kosharot investigation, which accuse restaurants of violating a number of the kashrut regulations, especially regarding the employment of non-Jews in the kitchen – a requirement for the rabbinate certification. Moreover, Schlesinger said that the Rabbinate discovered that many of the restaurants mentioned in the report were never visited by anyone from Kosharot. Some sources believe that Kosharot wants to see fewer non-Jews employed in kosher restaurants. A number of Jerusalem restaurateurs are considering legal action against Kosharot. Elon Moreh Chief Rabbi Elyakim Lebanon, president of Kosharot, told the JP that the list was for internal private use only. He said he was sorry it was distributed without context, however, he hoped the public interest would improve the level of kashrut supervision in Jerusalem.