With the removal of the hashgocho of Shearis Yisroel
from the Tuv Taam bakery in Netivot, Alshi's southern branch
(Avreichim Lemaan Shearis Yisroel) made immediate
arrangements with the Margalit bakery in Rishon leTsion to
provide bread to chareidi residents of the area. With the
beginning of the Elul zman, many Torah institutions in
the area will begin to buy their bread from the Margalit
bakery, instead of from Tuv Taam as in the past.
All of the chareidi educational institutions and communities
of the Negev have responded to the appeal of the roshei
yeshiva and rabbonim of the chareidi yeshivas in the
region to buy bread only with a top quality hechsher,
that is sensitive to the desires of the Torah world for
example on issues such as chodosh and insect
infestation. The directors of the institutions have said that
they would purchase bread from the Margalit bakery, which is
under the supervision of the BaDaTz of Shearis Yisroel.
The roshei yeshiva and the community members had
issued a letter in which they expressed their concern over
the fact that with the sale of the Tuv Taam bakery to the
Angel bakery of Jerusalem, the outstanding supervision of
Shearis Yisroel might be dropped. The rabbonim asked the
directors of Angel not to change the hechsher, and not
to deviate from the guidelines of our rabbonim.
This letter was signed by the rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas
Hanegev, HaRav Yissochor Meir; the rosh yeshiva of
Ofakim, HaRav Chaim Kamil; the rosh yeshiva of
Tifrach, HaRav Aviezer Piltz, and the rosh yeshiva of
Ofakim, HaRav Y. Horowitz.
The directors of Angel ignored this appeal, and dropped the
Shearis supervision.
At a meeting held last week in the Alshi branch in Jerusalem,
its members empathized with the Negev communities, and
protested the attempts to undercut Shearis Yisroel. It was
decided to make every effort to follow all of the guidelines
of maranan verabonon regarding the contention over the
hechsherim in order to enable all those interested in
Shearis' high quality hechsher to avail themselves of
it without interference, all over Israel.
