The High Court ruled Sunday that the Chief Rabbinate has a right to nullify kashrut (kosher) certification by private bodies falsely claiming to hold to higher, or "mehadrin," standards. The decision came in a case in which a private supervisory organization, "Tifereth Hakashrut," and six businesses under its supervision, sued the Rabbinate for denying the businesses a Rabbinate kashrut certificate when it demanded that that they drop the private supervision.
The plaintiffs claimed that the "Mehadrin min'Hamehadrin" certificate issued by Tifereth Hakashrut was meant to supplement, not replace, the Rabbinate's certificate. By law, the Rabbinate is the only body in Israel that has a right to issue such certificates, but there is no official limit on restaurants or factories inviting rabbis representing other organizations, such as hareidi religious high courts (Badatzim) from offering supervision in addition to the rabbinate. By law, establishments cannot call themselves "kosher" without Rabbinate supervision.
Rabbinate representatives said that despite the organization's claims, there was no 
'Unfortunately for these people who think they are adhering to higher standards, the only 'supervision' given by many of these organizations is the hanging of the certificate,' said one Rabbinate official.
effective supervision by Tifereth Hakashrut on the businesses, and did not justify claims that its standards were stricter than the Rabbinate's. By placing the substandard supervision certificate together with its own, the Rabbinate claimed its reputation and good name in the community was being damaged. The court agreed, saying the Rabbinate had a right to protect its reputation and demand the removal of the substandard "mehadrin" certificate.
The Rabbinate has in recent years attempted to crack down on the issuing of kashrut certificates by private organizations, which claim to represent stricter standards of kashrut, but are often issued by fictitious agencies in return for a fee, with standards far more lax than the Rabbinate's. In many cases, say Rabbinate officials, the issue is "political," an attempt by businesses serving the hareidi religious public to differentiate themselves from the state-sponsored Rabbinate, which is seen as somehow "less religious" than private "mehadrin" organizations because of its affiliation with the state.
"Unfortunately for these people who think they are adhering to higher standards, the only 'supervision' given by many of these organizations is the hanging of the certificate," said one Rabbinate official. "In our inspections of many of these establishments we have discovered serious issues and questions relating to the source of the ingredients, complicated laws like Shemitta (Jewish laws pertaining to letting fields lie fallow in the Seventh Year -ed.) and Orlah (laws pertaining to the third year after a fruit tree is planted -ed.) and other problems."