K A S H R U T . C O M_©

December 29, 2022 from the Times of Israel:

"In one of the first acts of the incoming coalition, newly installed Religious Services Minister Michael Malkieli on Thursday delayed the implementation of a kashrut reform that was due to go into effect next week.

"The reform, which was passed last October, would have enabled private organizations that provide supervision services to declare businesses “kosher” — something that currently only Chief Rabbinate-approved rabbis can do — starting on January 1, 2023.

"Over the years, the Rabbinate monopoly over kashrut has been blamed for widespread graft, cronyism, and dishonest business practices in the food industry. The previous government’s reform was aimed at addressing this by opening the field up to competition, so that if one kashrut supervisor, or mashgiach, was behaving unscrupulously, a restaurant could change to a different outfit, instead of being stuck with the same one.

"Reversing the reform, which would have eaten into the Chief Rabbinate’s monopoly on kosher certification, has been a major goal of Haredi politicians, some of whom are closely linked with the Rabbinate’s supervision agencies.

"Cancelling the kashrut reform, one of the main legislations advanced by former religious services minister Matan Kahana, was included in the incoming government’s coalition deals, though it is not yet clear what exactly will replace it.

"In order to prevent the reform from going into place, Malkieli on Thursday night used a postponement mechanism that was built into the law, giving the religious services minister the ability to delay implementation by six months, if they determine that one or more municipalities are not prepared for it to go into effect. This can be repeated for up to five years, giving the coalition ample time to pass new legislation.

"Malkieli signed the order postponing the reform, which he claimed was the first signature issued by a minister of the incoming government, in the presence of Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, the unofficial spiritual leader of Malkieli’s ultra-Orthodox Shas party.

"In the meantime, however, other aspects of the reform will still remain in effect. Any municipal rabbi can certify a business as kosher even if it’s located outside his jurisdiction, which is meant to increase competition and help break up the monopoly that had previously been in place.

"Malkieli’s postponement drew ire from two of the organizations that were most poised to benefit from the new reform, Hashgacha Pratit and Tzohar, both of which offer kashrut supervision and would have been able to declare businesses officially “kosher” had the rule gone into effect."