Kashrus Stars. So will Rabbis grade the hotels

A committee of Rabbis from the Chief Rabbinate is composing new criteria for giving kashrus to hotels in Israel, under the initiative of Chief Rabbi Hagr"y Metzger.

Up till now, the Rabbanut which gives the hechsher did not go into the details of entertaining in the hotel. From now on, a hotel which will be more sympathetic to vacations with a religious mode of life, such as refraining from employing non-Jews in the kitchen and the honor of Shabbos, will be upgraded and receive "service stars" – between two and five.

According to a report of the journalist Chaim Greidinger in Ma'ariv, a hotel with a standard kashrus certificate will receive two stars, three will be granted to a hotel which does not employ non-Jews in preparing the food, four stars to a hotel which orders meat only from a Mehadrin butchery, while a hotel which keeps shabbos and is careful with the Tznius clothing of its employees, and forbids talking on the phone and playing music on Shabbos in the public areas of the hotel – will be accredited with five stars.

A factor in the chief Rabbinate told Ma'ariv that there are severe mishaps of kasrus as a result of employing non-Jews. He added that giving the stars is not a religious coercion but rather a service to the religious public on vacation from Israel and abroad.

From the bureau of Harav Metzger it was reported: "This is a topic which is in the stage of a primary testing and it is not clear whether this will finally be materialized. In any case, it will not be obligatory for the hotels to take part in the said classification. The purpose is to create positive competition which will contribute to maximizing the possibilities of observant Jews to spend their time in hotels in Israel, with a possibility of choosing the level of kashrus and general friendly atmosphere towards the Jewish values and customs".

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