Hechshers and social engineering

 The areas of Geula, Mea Shearim and Shmuel Hanavi have gentrified to a certain extent and have become the home to many restaurants and eateries. They are popular hangouts at night for the Haredi community.

According to Actualic, many such places in the area have received letters from a group calling themselves the "Vaad Ichlus" informing them that they must close their restaurants no later than 11:30pm every night, beginning November 5, 2017. The letter explains that they, the vaad, are fighting against this new culture of late night food and eating in these areas. threats include causing the eateries to lose their hechsher and legal action to force the shops to shut down completely. The issue is one of safeguarding the holiness of the area as these late night situations become hangouts and attractive to young people not desirable to the neighbors.

Business owners who have received these letters say that the demand is unreasonable and will detsroy them.

I don't know what their business licenses allow, but if they are only allowed to be open until 11pm, the neighbors who feel disturbed should simply call the police at 11:01pm and complain about the noise and the disturbance. If they are allowed to remain open later, good for them. Such threats, if acted upon, will only drive all these young people, the desirables and the undesirables, to other areas where the nightlife continues. But at least it won't be in "my backyard".

the hechsher should be about kashrut and not about social engineering. I get that it is always about more than kashrut, as it always takes into other issues such as shabbat observance and atmosphere/entertainment of the restaurant, but I think the social engineering of when to close, when to fold up tables and all that is wrong for a hechsher to be involved in. The only good that can come of it is if the owners stand up to them and agree to get rid of those hechshers and take on other hechshers, and the patrons continue to eat there knowing what caused the change and that nothing really changed. Take away the power form the hechshers.

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