Q&A: On Private Kashrut Supervision
On Private Kashrut Supervision
Question
Hello Rabbi,
What is the Rabbi’s opinion of the social kashrut system, or what is called “private supervision”?
If the Rabbi isn’t familiar with it, here is a link.
Thank you!
P.S. I understood that you have already laid out your view in the past regarding the Chief Rabbinate, so I didn’t want to trouble you again with a question about that, but could you direct me to places where you addressed this topic more generally?
Answer
I wasn’t familiar with this, but I am always in favor of breaking up the monopoly of the Chief Rabbinate. I don’t always identify with the desire for populism (religious-secular relations and the like), and in my view kashrut considerations are not supposed to take such considerations into account. I support dismantling and shutting them down because they are corrupt, unnecessary, and harmful, and not because of religious-secular relations.
Of course, in order to eat at some place, you need to make sure there really is good supervision. The owners of the establishments are not really trusted (even though a single witness is trusted regarding prohibitions) because they have a conflict of interest.
As for the Chief Rabbinate, I assume you can search the site and find relevant material.