HaRav Chaim Kanievsky has requested that we choose food
products bearing the kashrus seal of the badatz
of Shearis Yisroel over those with other hechsherim.
We are also instructed to ask store owners to stock food with
this high quality hechsher, since no other
hechsher can compare in quality with Shearis Yisroel.
These remarks were made in response to questions from
avreichim in the Negev regarding the "bread affair,"
which recently erupted in the chareidi communities and Torah
and educational institutions in the South of Israel.
The bnei Torah community in the South, headed by the
local roshei yeshiva and rabbonim, were deeply shocked
by the libelous campaign led by Jerusalem's Angel Bakery for
the purpose of undermining confidence in the special
kashrus procedures employed by the badatz of
Shearis Yisroel.
Shearis Yisroel was founded by maranan verabonon the
gedolei haTorah and poskim, headed by Maran
HaRav Eliezer Menachem Shach shlita. The bnei
Torah community of the Negev was shocked by these
charges.
Kashrus supervisors of Shearis in the south said that their
statements were libelous, and attributed them to ulterior
motives. They said that the purpose of the libel was to
create a situation in which the parties would not have to
comply with the request of roshei yeshiva in the Negev
who asked Angel Bakery not to undermine the kashrus
supervision of the bnei Torah community.
In the wake of the appeal of Negev roshei yeshiva --
HaRav Yissochor Meir, HaRav Chaim Kamil, HaRav Aviezer Piltz,
and HaRav Y. Horowitz -- prominent avreichim in
conjunction with the ALShI organization have been supplying
all Torah educational institutions in the Negev as well as
stores in chareidi neighborhoods with bread from the Margalit
Bakery, which has the hechsher of Shearis. Their
efforts have been successful until now.
However, some stores did not comply with the
avreichim's requests to carry that bread. As a result,
a number of avreichim turned to HaRav Chaim Kanievsky
and asked him how to proceed. They asked whether the
avreichim should demand that the stores also bring
bread with a Shearis Yisroel hechsher or they can
suffice with the other bread that also has a well-established
mehadrin hechsher. He replied that they certainly
should get the Shearis-supervised products.
They then said that certain avreichim did not know how
to respond to avreichim who say the gedolei
Yisroel have not issued instructions to prefer the
hechsher of Shearis Yisroel. To this, HaRav Kanievsky
replied: "Maran HaRav Shach, shlita issued such
instructions a long time ago. In addition, the
hechsher of Shearis is far more stringent than others,
and there is no comparison between our hechsher and
others."
He said this in a clear, resolute manner, telling the
avreichim who inquired that they should prefer food
products with the hechsher hamehudar of Shearis
Yisroel. HaRav Kanievsky also explicitly gave his consent to
the publication of these remarks in Yated Ne'eman.
It should be noted that on previous occasions, letters
strengthening the Shearis kashrus network have been
issued by Maran HaRav Eliezer Menachem Shach and Maran HaRav
Yosef Sholom Eliashiv. Also, HaRav Aharon Leib Steinman,
HaRav Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz, HaRav Chaim Kanievsky and
HaRav Pinchos Scheinberg have issued letters on this
issue.
In their letter, maranan verabonon state, "The Shearis
Yisroel organization, headed by HaRav Chaim Shaul Karelitz
and its auxiliary kashrus committee, is doing
outstanding work, and in a manner which maranan
verabonon highly commend. It is needless to say that
kashrus is one of the areas which requires
strengthening, because many aspects of Torah are dependent
upon it."
At the end of the letter, maranan verabonon call upon
the bnei Torah community and its institutions to rally
to the support of Shearis Yisroel and to be partners in its
superior kashrus network. HaRav Reuven Yosef
Gershonowitz, zt"l, wrote that he requests that
"everyone sanctify himself and eat food products only bearing
the hechsher hamehudar of Shearis."
Heads of ALShI (Avreichim Lema'an Shearis Yisroel)
have decided to launch a country wide explanatory campaign in
order to apprise those who are stringent in kashrus
observance of the zechus and obligation to purchase
food products bearing the Shearis kashrus supervision.
In the campaign, they will enumerate various problems in food
products lacking the Shearis hechsher.
