The organization called Chotam put out a kashrut warning on its Facebook page yesterday.Kashrut warnings are normal for any organization in the industry, but there are kashrut warnings and there are kashrut warnings. This kashrut warning was written in such a patronizing and aggressive manner that Chotam really took a hit with over 3000 comments (as of this writing) written in response almost entirely scoffing at Chotam and criticizing their style and approach.

Chotam issued a warning about the kashrut of a restaurant chain named "Pasta Basta". Pasta Basta has become somewhat of the poster boy in the fight between the Rabbanut andd Hashgacha Pratit (which has sort of merged now into the new kashrut division of Tzohar), with Pasta Basta in Jerusalem being one of the early adapters of Hashgacha Pratit's alternate hechsher.

Here is the warning:



translation:

Pasta Basta!
Initially your branch in Mahane Yehuda removed the kashrut supervisers and brought in Hashgacha Pratit and caused hundreds of customers to abandon the restaurant.
Your branch in Petach Tikva had become a meeting place for many of the religious youth of Petach Tikva. And now, recently, you have thrown sand in the eyes of your supportive customers. Overnight you removed the kashrut of the Rabbanut and brought in the supervision of Tzohar.
In response to the questions of the customers, you responded that this is the policy of the chain - all branches have now moved over to the kashrut of Tzohar!
As if previous attempt sin Jerusalem weren't enough, you have again decided to rebel against the Rabbanut and against the community of kashrut observant people to whom it is important that wish to remain faithful to the organized kashrut authorities.
Again you decided to play along with the whims of kashrut organizations that get their praise from the Reform and criticism from great and important rabbis.
We will vote with our feet.
Whoever wants to eat kosher - will not go into Pasta Basta with Tzohar kashrut. We want to eat kosher!

if you scroll through the comments you will see the vast majority are scoffing at Chotam and talking about how now they will eat at Pasta Basta specifically because of the change and some just to show support for Pasta Basta even if they never intended before to eat there.

Personally I think their argument is silly. No restaurant chain is going to do something ideologically even though it hurts their own business tremendously, if they do not have a plan to bring in other customers. Pasta Basta would not chase away hundreds of its customers to change to a hechsher nobody likes and relies on. And if they did it in one location and it was so unsuccessful, they would not then go do it in the rest of their locations - they would look into changing back or doing something else. Yet they continued to change over the rest of the chain, meaning they found the change to be worthwhile from  a business perspective.

The approach of the Rabbanut and of Chotam and of Kosharot (that isnt involved in this specific attack but has been previously) is clearly wrong and even counter-productive. Tzohar is not even doing anything illegal, as determined by the courts, and as long as they follow legal guidelines, people can decide for themselves whether they want to rely on Tzohar kashrut or not, just like they can decide for themselves whether to rely on Rabbanut kashrut or not. I do not know this for sure, and I have yet to see the standards in use by Tzohar kashrut or what the actual problems with it (as per the Rabbanut's claims) are, but I would guess, if I had to, that most people relying on Rabbanut kashrut are also ok with relying on Tzohar kashrut and they probably use pretty similar standards.