Jerusalem Kosher News

13 Tammuz 5772 – July 3, 2012

Summer is upon us and for many of JKN readers this means an upcoming visit to Eretz Yisrael. As you would expect, permit me to address the kashrus aspect of your upcoming visit.

Experience has taught me that while many people do dine out when in Israel, few really do any research, preferring to simply rely on the wealth of reassuring signs such as “glatt”, “mehadrin” and “badatz” to name a few. I would say that if the fellow who decided to incorporate “mehadrin” and “badatz” into Israel’s kosher lexicon was the CEO of a corporation, he would have had his contract renewed with a handsome bonus for what these two words have done for the food industry in Israel — legitimate kashrus has not succeeded in accomplishing over many years. These words have become the 21st century buzz words for attracting the kosher consumer in Israel, the growing number of residents and visitors who live with the constant conflict of “I must eat out” and “It must be badatz”.

Please, share with me what “badatz” means to you. I would genuinely be interested in hearing what the word “mehadrin” does to embrace your confidence, and why these words signal the ‘all clear’ regarding the many kosher concerns that we as consumers should be aware of.

What I mean to say is that a legitimate kosher establishment will display a kashrut certificate, an original document from a legitimate hashgacha. The work “legitimate” as it is used here is defined by me as a hashgacha recognized by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. Feel free to visit the JKN page showing photos of the many ‘unauthorized’ kosher certificates as per the Chief Rabbinate.  Many of these will greet you in stores throughout the capital and elsewhere. So please remember, “mehadrin” and “badatz” without the backing of a legitimate valid kashrut certificate are meaningless claims!

The next step is to educate yourself as to your standard in your day-to-day life, as well becoming familiar with the basics of halacha to permit you to determine what hechsher or hechsherim is in line with your kosher level, or as I call it, your “Kashrus Comfort Zone”. Alternatively, if you know a rabbi who is familiar with kashrus, particularly the reality in Israel today, it would be wise to consult with this rabbi prior to heading out or even before making hotel reservations from home ahead of your trip. Once you are booked in a hotel is a bit late to begin determining if the kashrus is what you are looking for.

Once again, I am compelled to add that too many rabbis are quick to direct you to one hashgacha or another without really having firsthand knowledge. Please, ask your rabbi when he last visited with any kashrus officials in Israel, or toured restaurant kitchens or met with representatives of any of the hashgachas in Israel to get an understanding of what is and is not acceptable. I do not intend to sound uppity or chutzpadik, but I do wish to drive the point home. The kosher reality in Israel is quite different, as one may expect being 6,500 miles from N. America.

The system in Israel as compared to N. America is as different as the national language and you owe it to yourself to understand as much as necessary to permit dinging out. Remember, there are differences between a hashgacha on a sealed packaged item in a supermarket and a hashgacha on a restaurant and there are serious issues that must be addressed.

For one thing, while you may be accustomed to seeing a mashgiach present in a New York City meat restaurant, this may not be the case here – in fact it is unlikely here. That is not something to be proud of, but it is today’s reality. This is just another reason why it is incumbent upon you as a visitor or a resident to understand the kashrus system. There is no shortage of eateries displaying “mehadrin” and/or “under the badatz” signs that do not even have a hashgacha. Signs, napkins with kosher claims, placemats, hats or event kosher bumper stickers are all meaningless in the absence of a valid teudat kashrut, a kosher certificate from the hashgacha you are relying on.

Websites offering coupons and deals are often misleading, not intentionally perhaps, but the kashrus information pertaining to a restaurant is often outdated. Kashrus supervision changes quite often in Israel and these websites often carry disclaimers distancing themselves from responsibility regarding kashrus. Therefore, relying on them for your dining out decision would compel you to confirm the kosher status of the restaurant when you arrive. This can simply be done by asking to see a valid kashrus certificate from the hashgacha claiming to supervise the restaurant. In the absence of such a certificate, there simply is no kosher supervision despite any website claims.

A store owner or worker may speak flawless Hebrew but this does not attest to one’s religiosity or familiarity with the laws of kashrus, especially those laws as they apply to a commercial setting, which in many instances differ significantly from the rules in our home setting.

At the risk of being repetitive, don’t pack the myth when you come but please, leave it behind. Everything in Israel is NOT kosher. Everything in Jerusalem is Not mehadrin or even kosher. In the area of the Triangle (Ben-Yehuda, King George, Jaffe Streets) to Machane Yehuda (The Shuk) I can think of at least three stores that sell pork products. The writing in these stores is Hebrew as well and one might easily make a mistake chas v’sholom.

Sadly, a growing number of stores in the center of Jerusalem are operating on shabbos, and they too do not have kosher supervision. Yes, there is non-kosher in Jerusalem as well as many stores claiming to be “mehadrin” and “badatz” when in fact, they do not have a hashgacha from any agency!

The pride felt seeing the El Al plane, the playing of Shalom Aleichem on the plane’s PA system while landing and the vision of the national flag with the Magen David are all fine but they in no way elevate the level of kosher observance in the modern state of Israel, not even in the Jewish capital of Jerusalem. Hebrew speakers may be as distant from halacha as a foreign worker in NYC, and while this pains us and it is sad, you must retrain your brain to understand that when the plane touches down in Ben-Gurion International Airport it should not signal the beginning of the eating festival. Israel is a Jewish country but not a religious country. There are hundreds of thousands of non-Jews living here. Many stores are treif while others lack a hashgacha. This is true in most cities around the country, even Jerusalem.

“Everyone eats there” is not a replacement for a kosher certificate. There are issues of trumos & ma’asros (tithing) and orla that are applicable here as well as separating challah. There is an issue of chilul shabbos milk, something one does not think of abroad since there; dairy farms are not owned by Jews.

How sad it is that so many visit the holiest place in the world, people who maintain a stringent level of kosher in their home community only to fall prey to the myths and hype that surrounds the kosher scene in Israel today.

As if the case elsewhere, one must verify the kashrus of a store before eating no less so than any restaurant in any city around the world.

More to follow…