Kashrut 911
SOS. Kashrut emergency. You’ve got a dozen people waiting for dinner, you have just used a milky spoon in a pot of chicken soup, and you want to know if the soup is still kosher. Oh, and you’re Haredi, so you can’t draw on the expertise of Rabbi Google (Haredi leaders have banned the Web). What do you do?
Introducing Kav Yashir Lehalachah, which translates to Direct Line to Jewish Law. It is a new telephone service that solves halachic problems for members of Israel’s Haredi public at any time, day or night.
Just launched, it replaces a number of rabbi-rosters, which circulated in the Haredi community to inform people which rabbis were available at various times on various days. Though theoretically there was somebody on call most of the time, shifts were always being switched and people often found it more complicated to work out who to call than to solve their problem.
But while Haredim may – officially at least – not use the internet, the demand for instant information has very much become a feature of their community. This is why the roster-rabbis, when the public actually managed to find them, were constantly inundated with calls, and why the new hotline — +972 57 317 3100 — has been launched.
And in case you were wondering, no, it’s not out-sourcing to a call center in India.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
