The Tzohar Rabbinical Organization’s kashrut department, which involves kosher supervision and certification, was awarded special recognition earlier this month at the Israel Cuisine Awards for their efforts in kosher certification.
The Tzohar organization is a collaborative of over 800 orthodox rabbis launched in 2018 with the aim of providing more modern kashrut certification. While still an orthodox organization, they preach a non-judgmental and non-coercive approach to kashrut, which has culminated in 10% of kosher establishments in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv – many of which held no kashrut supervision beforehand – being certified kosher by Tzohar.
“When it became apparent that the divisions within Israeli society were now affecting even how we eat and dine, we chose to award this prize to an initiative that is working to address that challenge,” said Amit Aronson, Chair of the Israel Cuisine Awards committee. “We firmly believe that by breaking the monopoly of the Chief Rabbinate over kashrut by introducing such an alternative defined by transparency and accessibility, we are witnessing an important step.”
“We are deeply moved by this selection. We launched this project out of a desire to make kashrut supervision more accessible and out of a belief that this process should be done hand in hand with the restaurant owners – with compassion and professionalism, while never wavering in our commitment to halacha,” said Yehuda Ziderman, Director of Tzohar’s Food Supervision Project.
“We firmly believe that integrity combined with professionalism and transparency are the best ways to create working partnerships with our businesses and their customers. We thank those who have recognized our achievements and the impact we have been blessed to have,” Ziderman concluded.