Kashrut Regulations for Hotels, Spring 2015

A Revolution in the Chief Rabbinate’s Kashrut Regulations, following Hiddush’s Battle!

In March 2015, Hiddush was notified that the Chief Rabbinate had updated its kashrut regulations for hotels, hostels and event halls to be in accordance with Israeli law. Finally, kashrut certification will only be granted upon the basis of whether the certified food is kosher or not!

Primary Sources:

• The Chief Rabbinate’s old kashrut regulations for hotels, hostels and event halls
• The Chief Rabbinate’s new kashrut regulations for hotels, hostels and event halls

Chief Rabbinate’s old kashrut regulations for hotels and event halls	Chief Rabbinate’s new kashrut regulations for hotels and event halls
13 clauses related to Shabbat practices in hotels	9 clauses related to Shabbat practices in hotels
Events organized in hotels on Shabbat and on holidays forbidden from making use of filming, video and musical equipment	Events organized in hotels on Shabbat and on holidays only forbidden from making use of filming, video and musical equipment during the serving of food at the hotel
Prohibition against non-Jewish holiday symbols for Sylvester and Christmas, like fir trees	No prohibition against non-Jewish holiday symbols
Prohibition against Jewish employees working at the check-in/out desk and accepting payments on Shabbat	No prohibition against Jewish employees working at the check-in/out desk and accepting payments on Shabbat
All hotels elevators required to be usable on Shabbat according to halakha	Only the elevator use for delivering food and ingredients required to usable on Shabbat according to halakha

News Sources:

• The Hiddush website
• Haaretz, by Chaim Levinson, republished in The Jewish Daily Forward
• Religion News Service, by Michele Chabin, republished in The Huffington Post & Crux
• JTA
• JNS, republished by The Algemeiner and The Jerusalem Post
• The Christian Broadcasting Network
• BBC
• The Times of Israel blogs, by Hiddush staffer David Bogomolny