High Court case: can kosher restaurants open on Shabbat?

Published: 10 January 2020

Last updated: 4 March 2024

The Chief Rabbinate has for a long time refused to grant kashrut licenses for restaurants which open on Shabbat

COULD RESTAURANTS THAT MAINTAIN the requirements and standards to be considered kosher soon be able to obtain a kashrut license while being open on Shabbat?

This is the question the High Court of Justice will consider on Wednesday morning, which has been petitioned by the Bab al-Yemen restaurant in Jerusalem. Bab al-Yemen observes kashrut practices, is open on Shabbat and does not violate the laws of Shabbat while it is open – and yet does not have a kashrut license.

The Chief Rabbinate has for a long time, however, refused to grant kashrut licenses for restaurants that are open on Shabbat. It maintains that it is not feasible to supervise them or necessary for them to open.

But Bab al-Yemen owner Yehonatan Vadai and the Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah religious-Zionist organization, which has taken up his legal petition to the High Court, want to change that.

FULL STORY Could kosher restaurants soon be able to open on Shabbat? (Jerusalem Post)

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Photo: Yehonatan Vadai in fron of his Bab al-Yemen restaurant (Marc Israel Sellem)