Tel-Chai Nation

The chief rabbinate, dominated as it is today by Haredi moonbats, has refused to answer even the simplest requests of women trying to get approval as kashrut supervisors:

The national-religious women's organization Emunah will ask the High Court of Justice to intervene if the Chief Rabbinate does not recognize female kashrut supervisors by the end of the week, the organization said in a statement.

The first class of 13 female kashrut supervisors graduated on Thursday, but they are unable to work in their field because they have not received official recognition from the rabbinate.

"There is no reason in the world, neither halachic nor procedural, to excuse the fact that the kashrut department of the Chief Rabbinate has been shirking and avoiding our repeated requests," Emunah chairwoman Liora Minka said in the statement. "Over an entire year they were unable to find the time to respond to such a basic request that was made through the proper channels."

Meanwhile, Army Radio unearthed a protocol of a meeting of the Chief Rabbinic Council from six months ago, in which IDF Chief Rabbi Rafi Peretz vociferously objects to women serving as kosher supervisors.

Peretz is on record saying that if women become kashrut supervisors, the phenomenon will spread to the IDF and have "dangerous repercussions."

How, exactly? I believe what Peretz wants to say but doesn't have the courage to be unambiguous about is that the stuffiest Haredis in the army would consider food inspected by female supervisors "poisonous" based on the sex of the specialists who worked on specific packages. So for people like him, food can only qualify as kosher based on the supervisor's gender.

...Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu from Safed, who is a candidate for chief Sephardi rabbi, said, "In Safed there are several women who serve as kashrut supervisors and I don't see a problem with it."

On the other side, Rabbi Yehuda Deri, who is also running for Sephardi chief rabbi said, "I think this could be a slippery slope, and I object to women serving as kashrut supervisors."

Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger actually supported the idea and said that kitchens mostly populated by women "would be more modest."

What a surprise. Too bad he's implicated in corruption, so we can only wonder if he really gave his argument altruistically. As for Deri, I think he's a brother of Aryeh Deri, already corrupt enough on his part, and he clearly isn't far behind.

Leading religious Zionist rabbis -- including Yaakov Ariel and Dov Lior -- have given their blessings to the women's kashrut supervision course. These rabbis have clarified that according to the halachic ruling of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, a God-fearing woman who has made a comprehensive study of the laws and issues in kashrut is permitted work as a kashrut supervisor.

I'm glad they uphold common sense. This is exactly how things need to be argued.

Labels: haredi corruption, Israel, Judaism, military, misogyny