Following threats - chief rabbis met with Police Commissioner

Chief Rabbis with Police Commissioner. Photograph: Rabbinate

Chief Rabbis of Israel, Rishon LeZion Rabbi Shlomo Moshe Amar and Harav Yona Metzger met tonight (Wednesday) with Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino, following an affair of threats against national kashrus department employees at the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.

At the meeting, the Chief Rabbis presented recent events. Among other things, they told of a man in a helmet, who came in the middle of the night to the home of an employee of the department and threatened his wife.

Other events included threats and harassment by telephone. According to the rabbis, the main threats are directed against foreign slaughtering department employees, who are responsible for the appointing of kashrus supervisors and shochets in slaughterhouses abroad.

After the presentation, the police chief said the issue will be dealt with top priority. According to Commissioner Danino, the Jerusalem District Police will be given prompt instructions to pay attention to complaints about other events received in the future.

Head of Operations Police, Commissioner Nissim Mor, who also participated in the meeting, said that all complaints regarding threats will be reviewed individually, but he asked the CEO of the Chief Rabbinate, Oded Wiener, to instruct his employees to file complaints about similar events soon after they occur, to assist in gathering evidence and streamlining the investigation.

Exposure of the affair:
• Not Kosher • Rabbanut employees received death threats

As revealed in Behadrey Haredim, two weeks ago the Chief Rabbinate announced to employees of the Department of Foreign slaughter in the Kashrus Division the disabling of the department for a week due to threats and harassment received by some of its employees.

The overseas slaughtering department is responsible for the appointing of inspection teams sent to various countries and supervising kashrus at slaughterhouses. Inspection teams are between 8 and 16 supervisors who go out on supervision for several months - and after the end of the period return to Israel, replaced by another team for a period of time, and again leave the country.
Recently, there have been increased threats on the lives of several employees of the Department and their families. The Chief Rabbinate suspects that the threats are from supervisors who were denied to participate in delegations - and whose livelihoods have been harmed.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!