Bread of a-friction
Viewpoint
THURSDAY should have been an exciting day.
Iggy’s Bread in Bronte received a hechsher from Community Kashrut (CK), which is backed by some of the biggest names in the community.
CK was formed under the auspices of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies and the Council of Orthodox Synagogues of NSW last year.
As a result, CK has the backing of most congregations across Sydney, including North Shore Synagogue (whose rabbi is Rabbi Paul Lewin, former president of the Rabbinic Council of Australia and New Zealand), Newtown Synagogue (Rabbi Eli Cohen, Rabbinical Council of NSW president), Maroubra Synagogue (Rabbi Yossi Friedman, Royal Australian Air Force’s Jewish chaplain), Kehillat Masada (Rabbi Gad Krebs), Jewish Learning Centre (Rabbi David Blackman) and the three most prestigious congregations in Sydney, Central Synagogue, South Head Synagogue and The Great Synagogue.
For kosher consumers in Sydney, who trust their rabbis, it was exciting to be able to eat Iggy’s bread but it quickly turned sour.
On Thursday night, the Kashrut Authority (KA) stated on its Facebook page that CK did not uphold “certain internationally recognised standards both in terms of kashrut itself as well as its administration”.
While the KA wouldn’t explain itself on Facebook, it did say that if anyone had questions they could contact the KA rabbis directly.
So I did just that.
On Friday I contacted the KA rabbinic administrator Rabbi Moshe Gutnick and he told me that he would return my call later that day, on Friday, or on Sunday.
When I still hadn’t heard from the rabbi by Monday, I contacted him again, but instead of a return call I received an email from KA president Baron Revelman telling me that I wasn’t a “kosher consumer sincerely seeking guidance”.
As many people can attest, I have kosher cutlery and crockery in my house, I have kashered my kitchen twice in the last two years to accommodate friends and family who keep kosher, and just last week I had 12 people over for a kosher Shabbat dinner because my kashrut-observant cousin and uncle were visiting from Israel.
I even sent Revelman a picture of my kitchen being kashered.
Not only does the KA decide what is and isn’t kosher, but they have also started deciding who can be called sincere in their efforts to purchase kosher products.
The kashrut battle in Sydney has descended into a farce. Within the space of four days, the community was told that Iggy’s Bread was kosher under CK, was told by the KA that CK cannot be trusted, that Iggy’s doesn’t consider itself to be kosher … and then, to top it all off Iggy’s bread was served to kosher consumers at a function under the KA’s hechsher.
Next time you wonder why keeping kosher is so difficult, reflect on those four days.
Joshua Levi
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