Rabbanut and Mehadrin: Who Certifies Kosher Food in Israel

Every kosher restaurant, bakery and hotel kitchen in Israel answers, in the end, to one body: the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. Yet shoppers in Israel also meet words such as “mehadrin” and a second hechsher on many packets. This article looks at how the Rabbinate’s system works, and why so many Israeli products carry more than one kosher mark.

Who is behind the Rabbanut?

The Chief Rabbinate of Israel, HaRabbanut HaRashit LeYisrael, was founded on 24 February 1921, under the British Mandate. Its first Chief Rabbis were Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook for the Ashkenazi community and Rav Yaakov Meir for the Sephardi community. Since 2024 the Chief Rabbis have been Rabbi David Yosef and Rabbi Kalman Ber. Its headquarters are in the Beit Yahav building at 80 Yirmiyahu Street in Jerusalem.

In practice, most kashrut certificates are not issued from Jerusalem. They come from local religious councils and city rabbis, working under the Rabbinate’s authority.

Kashrut and the law

In Israel, the use of the word “kosher” is regulated by law. The 1983 Prohibition of Fraud in Kashrut Law says that only the Rabbinate, or a rabbi it authorises, may certify food as kosher. Private bodies, including the Badatzim, can only certify on top of the Rabbinate’s certificate.

The courts have shaped the system since. In 2016 the High Court ruled that only a Rabbinate certificate allows a business to describe itself as kosher. In 2017 came a ruling that supervisors must not be employed by the businesses they supervise. In 2021 and 2022 a reform led by Minister Matan Kahana opened the door to private certifiers, but it was frozen in December 2022. The Israel Democracy Institute reports that a new kashrut law, requiring at least two national standards, regular and mehadrin, was passed on 15 July 2026.

What does mehadrin mean?

Alongside its basic level, the Rabbinate offers a stricter level known as mehadrin. It is far from a niche choice. According to the Israel Democracy Institute, 79% of Rabbinate certificates in 2019 were at mehadrin level. In 2009 the High Court also allowed the Rabbinate to act against private bodies that claimed mehadrin standards it judged to be below par.

How big is it?

The figures are considerable. The Israel Democracy Institute reports that in 2023:

• Businesses: religious councils certified about 15,250 businesses, out of about 16,400 in the state system.
• Supervisors: about 6,000 people worked as kashrut supervisors.
• Hours: together they put in more than 8 million hours of supervision a year.

A 2015 Finance Ministry report estimated that kashrut costs the Israeli food market NIS 2.8 billion a year.

How to check a product or a restaurant

• Ask for the certificate: a kosher business in Israel is certified through its local rabbinate, so it is reasonable to ask to see the certificate.
• Check the level: make sure you know whether the business is certified at the regular or the mehadrin standard.
• Look for a second hechsher: on packaged food, a private certifier often appears alongside the Rabbinate.

Three things you might not know

1. Almost four in five Rabbinate certificates were already at mehadrin level in 2019.
2. In the same year, nearly nine in ten supermarket products carried a private hechsher as well as the Rabbinate’s.
3. The Finance Ministry put the cost of kashrut to the food market at NIS 2.8 billion a year.

On The Kosher Shop, every food seller tells us which kashrut authority supervises their products, and we check the certificate before their shop opens. Next in this series: the Badatz of the Edah HaChareidis in Jerusalem, one of the private hechsherim you will find on top of the Rabbinate’s.

Sources: Wikipedia: Chief Rabbinate of Israel; Israel Democracy Institute: kashrut; Israel Democracy Institute, 2021; The Times of Israel, 2017; The Times of Israel: kashrut reform delayed; Israel National News, 2009. Figures are as published by the Israel Democracy Institute.