CK thumbs up for Melbourne meat
SYDNEY’S second kosher hechsher is now fully operational and it has declared meat under the hechsher of Kosher Australia in Melbourne meets the most stringent level of kashrut.
SYDNEY’S second kosher hechsher is now fully operational and it has declared meat under the hechsher of Kosher Australia in Melbourne meets the most stringent level of kashrut.
Community Kashrut (CK) chairman David Sandler told The AJN this week that CK’s certifying rabbi, Rabbi Yedidya Krauthammer, “visited Kosher Australia in Melbourne several times and saw the shechita process and he has said that the meat out of Kosher Australia in Melbourne is kosher Mehadrin”.
He added that CK is also now providing a hechsher to caterer Amaze In Taste. “We’ve been working on this for a while but we are now operational and it’s very exciting.
“We have taken some time to put in proper infrastructure and we are now talking to a lot of people, both kosher establishments and establishments that could become kosher, to find some new opportunities for NSW and Sydney kosher consumers.”
Sandler would not be drawn on the battle between the Kashrut Authority (KA) and CK. “Ultimately kosher consumers are free to chose what they determine to be kosher.
“Our website will be up in the next few weeks and our policies will be available for everyone to see, but nothing will surprise consumers.”
CK has been established following a review into the state of kashrut in NSW by the Kashrut Commission of Inquiry (KCI), which conducted a 12-month investigation backed by the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, Council of Orthodox Synagogues of NSW, United Israel Appeal and the JCA.
The report stated that the KA, which was previously the only widely used hechsher recognised in Sydney, needed structural reform and lacked transparency in relation to operations and finances.
It also stated that the community was not properly represented on the KA board, that the KA’s decision to force kosher establishments to use one or two suppliers when it came to meat was “not based on halachic considerations” and that wholesale meat prices were 30 per cent lower in Victoria.
The KCI gave the KA 36 days to agree to reform or it would support the establishment of a second hechsher. However, the KA rejected the findings of the KCI.
JOSHUA LEVI
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