Kosher, in every sense · We get to know every seller personally
Kosher, in every sense · We get to know every seller personally
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A Manchester dayan, author of the Minchas Yitzchok, went on to lead the Edah HaChareidis in Jerusalem.
On many Israeli products, one word stands beside the Rabbinate’s certification: Badatz. One of the batei din behind that word is the Badatz of the Edah HaChareidis in Jerusalem, widely regarded as among the strictest hechsherim. We end our series with it, and with a link that takes us all the way back to Manchester.
Badatz stands for Beis Din Tzedek, a rabbinical court. This one belongs to the Edah HaChareidis, the Charedi community of Jerusalem, which was founded in 1918 by Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld and Rabbi Yitzchok Yerucham Diskin. It was first known as the Va’ad Ha’Ir Ha’Ashkenazi. In 1936 its two courts merged and it took the name it has today. Its kashrut office has been described as being in the Zupnik building in Jerusalem.
Its history has not been without division: in 1938 Neturei Karta split away from it. The Edah is anti-Zionist and does not accept state funding. Its kashrut office, for its part, describes itself as “a kashrus agency only” and says it stays out of politics.
Readers of our article on the Manchester Beth Din will recognise one name. Rabbi Yitzchok Yaakov Weiss, author of the responsa Minchas Yitzchok, served as senior dayan in Manchester and laid the foundations of the MK kashrut service there. In 1979 he became head of the Edah HaChareidis.
We could not find a published overall count of what the Badatz certifies. It has, however, been described as Israel’s largest private kashrut agency, and its seal reaches well beyond Charedi neighbourhoods. In 2010 the Jewish Chronicle noted that Osem, a mainstream Israeli food brand, carries the Badatz seal on almost all its products. The JC made that point while reporting on a boycott of Badatz-certified goods launched that year by secular Israelis, which shows how far into everyday Israeli shopping the seal had reached.
Under Israeli law, private bodies such as the Badatz certify on top of the Chief Rabbinate’s certificate rather than instead of it, so its seal sits alongside the Rabbinate’s certification.
The Badatz publishes Madrich HaKashrus, an annual kashrut guide. It is also worth reading the label with care. The word Badatz is used by more than one beth din, and Israeli courts have issued orders against imitation “Badatz Mehadrin” labels in the past. If you are looking specifically for the Edah HaChareidis, check that the label names it, and ask the seller if you are unsure. Like every kashrut agency’s mark, the Badatz seal is its own and may be used only with its permission, so a genuine seal should always be traceable back to the Badatz itself.
On The Kosher Shop, every food seller tells us which kashrut authority supervises their products, and we check the certificate before their shop opens. This brings our series to a close. Over fourteen articles we have travelled from a London rabbinical court to a Jerusalem Badatz, by way of Manchester, Paris, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Germany, Vienna, America and the Israeli Rabbinate. Thank you for reading along.
Sources: Wikipedia: Edah HaChareidis; Wikipedia: Yitzchok Yaakov Weiss; Manchester Beth Din: The MK; Mishpacha, 2010; The Jewish Chronicle, 7 October 2010; Ami Magazine, 13 April 2022; Dei’ah veDibur; Israel Democracy Institute: kashrut.
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