“It’s a move that will improve kosher certification, streamline services, reduce prices and make the process easier for restaurateurs, hoteliers and the entire food industry.” “The kosher revolution will introduce competition to kosher certification for the first time ever,” Kahana said in a statement. Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, must approve the plan.

The goal is to give restaurants a broader range of kosher certification options while allowing those who want to avoid direct contact with the Rabbinate that opportunity. But private agencies like Tzohar would also get government recognition, and in those cases the Chief Rabbinate’s role would be shifted to ensuring that the agencies are complying with a set of universal and transparent standards. The Chief Rabbinate will continue to provide its own kosher supervision to restaurants that want it. On July 21, Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana announced a plan to reform Israel’s kosher certification system, effectively turning the Chief Rabbinate into a regulatory agency for private kosher certifiers like Tzohar. Now that increased diversity in kosher certification is getting government backing. It’s the latest sign that Jewish Israelis, who had been divided into the two broad camps of “religious” and “secular,” are now seeking a greater range of ways to practice their religion. The Eucalyptus is one of more than 200 Israeli restaurants that has eschewed the Chief Rabbinate’s kosher certification in favor of Tzohar’s. When Basson asked older Orthodox diners if they would accept Tzohar’s certification, he said, “half said yes and half said no.” The response from younger patrons was more enthusiastic. He landed on Tzohar, a group of relatively liberal Orthodox rabbis who offer an alternative kosher certification service. Eventually, three years ago, the Chief Rabbinate suspended his kashrut certificate, and Basson began to look for other options. “I had a written agreement with the Rabbinate that I could continue to do that, as long as I checked them for bugs the way they instructed me to.”īut other chefs began to complain that they were not allowed to use products that Basson was allowed to use. “I use all of the ‘Sheva Minim,’ the seven species mentioned in the Bible, as well as all kinds of wild herbs,” Basson said. So when he decided to certify the restaurant as kosher in 1997, he made special arrangements with Israel’s Chief Rabbinate that would allow him to keep finding the herbs for himself rather than buying them from a certified merchant. The chef, Moshe Basson, has an unusual way of sourcing his food, foraging for some of the biblical-era herbs in forests and fields around Jerusalem.

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Sheva minim