Proposed Law: weekday kashrut for restaurants open on Shabbos

A little while back a law was proposed by MK Elazar Stern (Hatnua) that would require the Rabbanut to give a hechsher on restaurants that are open on Shabbos that want a kashrut certification. The hechsher would only be on their weekday operations, and the restaurant operating under such an arrangement would be required to have separate sets of dishes for Shabbos and weekday.

Yesterday, Stern's law proposal advanced from the embryonic stage and was passed in the Knesset legislative committee.

Stern says that this law will cause, or allow is perhaps a better word, many more restaurants to be kosher and will present a Judaism that connects rather than one that pushes people away.

The rabbonim of the Chotem Forum oppose the law saying the intervention of the legislator is a problem for the halachic demands, and devoids the kosher fraud laws of any meaning. This will cause many people to not rely on the Rabbanut hechsher and turn instead to the private kashrut organizations instead. The people will lose faith that the rabbonim are determining the halachic issues and will think it is the politicians making the rules of kashrut, and that is a problem.

MK Eichler (UTJ) added his opposition to the law saying that this is an attempt to force the rabbis to give a hechsher to restaurants that desecrate the Shabbos, and this is just another part of the war to turn Israel into a Reform ghetto. Eichler said the people who keep kosher will not rely on the Rabbanut hechsher, and restaurants that do not get a haredi hechsher will end up closing..
source: Srugim and Srugim

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