Lawsuit against the Chief Rabbinate: Replacement of ritual slaughterers disqualifies 200 tons of kosher meat

The Chief Rabbinate revoked kosher certificates for 198 tons of meat imported from Argentina following a change in the ritual slaughter (shechita) team members. The Leviatan company, which purchased the meat relying on the kosher certificates, was forced to sell it at a loss and is now suing for 5.7 million shekels.

In a lawsuit filed with the Jerusalem District Court, Leviatan Trade, which markets kosher meat in Israel, claims that in 2022 it purchased approximately 630 tons of meat from the Nahum Meat Import and Marketing company, owned by Nahum Schwartzman, with the goal of marketing it during the High Holy Days. The company purchased the meat relying on the kosher certificates granted by the Rabbinate.

However, in July of that year, the Rabbinate's Kashrut Fraud Department published a "special kashrut update" in which several kosher certificates were revoked, stating that the use of produce imported from this facility is prohibited. The update affected about 275 tons of the meat purchased by Leviatan. 77 tons had already been sold, leaving the company with 198 tons whose kosher certificates had been revoked.

According to Leviatan, the importer's head of the slaughter team, who had been approved by the Rabbinate, left the facility in February, and was replaced by a person who had served as an "external inspector" and was not acceptable to the Rabbinate. The company claims:

"It was not a halachic kashrut flaw in the slaughter that stood before the Rabbinate, but an administrative deviation and violation of its procedures, in that one of the members of the slaughter team was a person not acceptable to them."

Leviatan asked the Rabbinate to allow the marketing of the meat under a lower level of kashrut and attached letters from rabbis who were present at the slaughter and testified to its integrity, but its request was denied. A petition filed with the High Court of Justice was withdrawn on the court's recommendation, due to the Rabbinate's halachic authority, in which the court will not intervene.

The company was forced to sell the meat at a price lower than the purchase price to customers in the Palestinian Authority and others who did not require a kosher certificate. According to the lawsuit, it lost millions of shekels, failing to recover even the principal amount of its investment in the purchase, and lost the planned profits. Now, Leviatan claims that the Rabbinate itself was negligent, because the head of the slaughter team reported his departure to them in real time. It claims that cross-referencing the reports with the slaughter dates would have revealed that the meat was slaughtered without a team approved by them, and therefore there was no place to issue kosher certificates for it in the first place.