Treasury Warns Repeal of Kosher Reform Could Cost Public NIS 750 Million a Year

Israel's Finance Ministry says the coalition's move to cancel the kosher certification reform would cost the public about NIS 750 million a year. The bill, which passed its first reading in the Knesset on Monday, is part of an effort to appease ultra-Orthodox factions amid a coalition crisis and buy the government more time in power.

According to the ministry's calculations, NIS 600 million of that amount would come from higher certification costs for restaurants and hotels, which would be passed on to consumers. Another NIS 150 million would be needed to employ about 3,500 kosher supervisors, who would become state employees.

The legislation, advanced by Justice Minister Yariv Levin in his role as minister for religious services, would effectively undo the reform introduced by former religious services minister Matan Kahana and former finance minister Avigdor Lieberman under the Bennett-Lapid government. That reform had sought to end the Chief Rabbinate's monopoly by allowing private certification bodies to compete, with the Rabbinate setting standards and overseeing the market as a regulator.

The new bill moves in the opposite direction, restoring exclusive control to the Chief Rabbinate, placing municipal rabbis under it, and funding kosher inspectors through religious councils. The reform's supporters said competition was expected to cut costs by tens of millions of shekels a year.

Tani Frank of the Hartman Institute called the move