The State Comptroller and Ombudsman’s Report for 2009 determines that Israel’s schools have not been implementing a government decision to encourage trips and visits to Jerusalem.
The Comptroller and Ombudsman, Judge (ret.) Micha Lindenstrauss, wrote in the report released for publication Wednesday that the government decided in 2005 to encourage school trips to the historic capital but that the decision was not properly implemented. In fact, Lindenstrauss finds, the Finance Ministry had decided years earlier that school children must visit Jerusalem at least three times during their studies – yet the Education Ministry failed to supervise the implementation of the decision.
“The [Education] Ministry does not check to see if the school excursion programs include a visit to Jerusalem and it does not verify that they actually take place,” the report found.
The Comptroller’s Report also found problems with the way the Chief Rabbinate and Religious Councils in several locations issue Kashrut certificates (kosher supervision documentation) to businesses that sell food. These certificates assure customers that the food is kosher, or edible according to Jewish law.
According to the report, Kashrut certificates granted in Jerusalem are illegal because the city has had no Chief Rabbi since 2003. Various functionaries within the Religious Councils, who are not authorized by the Chief Rabbinate, signed the certificates.
The report also cites problems with Kashrut certification in Haifa, where the matter has caused tensions between the Sephardic and Ashkenazic Rabbis, and in Rishon LeTzion, where unauthorized functionaries signed the certificates from 1985 to 2006 instead of the town’s Chief Rabbis.