Community Kashrut: A word from the Kashrut Authority

 Email this story

Print

5 Comments

The Kashrut Authority has responded to requests clarifying its position with regard to the recently announced Community Kashrut which will offer an alternative hechsher to the community from next month.

In a joints statement KA president Baron Revelman and Rabbinic Administrator Rabbi Moshe Gutnick said:

“The Kashrut Authority [KA] has received numerous requests to clarify its position in relation to Community Kashrut. This new organisation appears to have been formed to extend the supervision afforded AIT under the auspices of the Kashrut Commission of Inquiry. To date, we have not commented on the acceptability or otherwise of the interim supervision, but now that it has crystallised into this new organisation, we have a responsibility to do so.

1. The KA has certain well-known standards and policies that are in line with other recognised kashrut agencies in Australia, and throughout the world. In our opinion these standards and policies have not been adhered to by the interim supervision of AIT under KCI.  Nothing has been explained as to how the formalisation of this under Community Kashrut will change anything. Therefore on the advice of our Rabbinic Administrator and The Sydney Beth Din, under whose auspices we operate, and without further information, we can not recommend either the interim hechsher, or the new organisation.

2. The KA considers the formation of an alternative kashrut agency as completely unnecessary, and a retrograde step for our community. In our opinion this particular start-up organisation was not formed with the legitimate intent to benefit the kosher consumer, and has the potential of leading to a lowering of standards, inevitable duplication, damaging increases in costs and unnecessary disharmony in our community.

3. The Internationally recognised KA enjoys the unqualified support of the Rabbinical Council of NSW and the federal rabbinate, as evidenced by various overwhelmingly accepted resolutions. Furthermore, as evidenced by the ECAJ submission to the Australian Senate Inquiry Into Food Certifications, the KA, as well as fulfilling all its legal obligations, is the only Australian kashrut agency that makes its independently audited financial accounts publicly available.