Jerusalem Kosher News, a.k.a. Yechiel Spira, does some good work in raising awareness of kashrus issues for the English speaking community in Israel. I happen to not like some of the things he does to that end, but overall I think he does mostly good and important work.
Spira has now set up a new kashrus organization of some sort. He calls it KFI - Kosher Food Information.
To quote:
KFI is a not-for-profit organization founded by a group of English-speaking Rabbanim concerned about the lack of uniform standards amongst the kashrus organizations in Yerushalayim. They seek to establish a minimum Mehadrin standard, as well as spread greater awareness of kashrus (and potential kashrus issues).What is funny/ironic about this is three things:
The Rabbanim of KFI have found widespread deficiencies, even in mehadrin eateries, in areas such as bishul akum, the absence of adequate supervision, checking of bugs, as well as instances where meat, chicken, and other sensitive items were left unsealed. Therefore, the Rabbanim have joined together to create a much needed system of independent verification of kashrus standards.
[...]
KFI IS NOT A HASHGACHA!
We do not recommend any eatery. Rather, we seek to provide the public with the information that will allow the consumer to ask his Rav for an accurate and considered ruling.
1. they claim they are not a hashgacha, but they are acting like one, recommending what restaurant can be relied upon for kashrut after going in and checking their standards and improving them.
2. They are doing this without putting any names behind it. A hashgacha, or any recommendation (if they insist on not calling it a hechsher) is only as good as the name of the rabbis behind it. If you won't tell us who you are, how can anybody rely on you?
3. this initiative reminds me of "hashgacha pratit" -a similar volunteer kashrut organization base don volunteers checking out eateries and recommending them to people as being reliable. Except Hashgacha Pratit says who is behind it. This is funny because while they seem to be doing the same thing, I doubt KFI would have a good word to say about Hashgacha Pratit.
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"checking of bugs" I hope they are checking each bug very carefully.
ReplyDeleteRafi, read his whole post. Seems to me they aren't saying "this is kosher" but rather "this restaurant does indeed uphold the standards it has already committed to in its real hashgacha." And also it's meant to let you understand a bit more of what the actual standards are.
ReplyDeleteThat raises the question as to why that regular hashgacha can't itself be relied upon, but that's a different matter.
but isn't that what the hashgacha is?
Deleteor is it basically saying that you can't/shouldn't/don't trust the mashgichim or the rabbanim of the badatz - but you should only trust yechiel spira who will check (without any authority) over the shoulders of the mashgichim/rabanim of the badatz?
it does not make sense. until now, people were happy to rely on yerushalayim mehadrin, rubin, badatz, mahfoud, Beit Yosef, or whatever other hechsher they relied on. suddenly, Yehiel Spira backed by anonymous rabbonim, are going to say that those hechshers you relied on until today can no longer be relied upon unless we say so in each individual restaurant.
Deleteit makes no sense
Rafi, read his whole post. Seems to me they aren't saying "this is kosher" but rather "this restaurant does indeed uphold the standards it has already committed to in its real hashgacha." And also it's meant to let you understand a bit more of what the actual standards are.
ReplyDeleteThat raises the question as to why that regular hashgacha can't itself be relied upon, but that's a different matter.