ISRAEL — The extended hours at Be'er Sheva bars and restaurants have brought the proprietors an additional expense: paying kashrut supervisors. So the city's chief rabbi, Yehuda Deri, proposed a solution: placing cameras in restaurant kitchens in order to send video feeds straight to the supervisors of Jewish dietary law.
Deri, the brother of former Shas leader Aryeh Deri, believes the idea will save businesses money while improving kashrut supervision.
Rabbi Proposes ‘Virtual’ Kosher Supervision
ISRAEL — The extended hours at Be’er Sheva bars and restaurants have brought the proprietors an additional expense: paying kashrut supervisors. So the city’s chief rabbi, Yehuda Deri, proposed a solution: placing cameras in restaurant kitchens in order to send video feeds straight to the supervisors of Jewish dietary law.
Deri, the brother of former Shas leader Aryeh Deri, believes the idea will save businesses money while improving kashrut supervision.
Deri’s plan was formulated after several business owners complained they were paying kashrut supervisors for very few hours of work.
“The restaurant owners can reduce the burden and link the cameras to us,” he said. “That way there will be comprehensive and consistent supervision, and we will also help reduce their considerable financial expenses.”
Deri said the cameras would save business owners hundreds of shekels a month. “We, of course, will not force any business proprietor to do so, but if he wishes to, the cameras will cost about NIS 139 a month – much less than keeping supervisors for extended hours,” he said.
“Naturally, the cameras will not replace the kashrut supervisors, who by virtue of their position also sort through rice, receive goods shipments, and salt meat – things the cameras cannot do,” he said. “But cameras can save business owners from paying supervisors for two to three hours of work a day.”
Deri said proprietors have expressed enthusiasm about the proposal, and that the Be’er Sheva rabbinate will soon begin partly subsidizing installation and monthly fees for the cameras.
Liron Yifrah, owner of the city’s Casa do Brazil restaurant, said, “I think the rabbi’s initiative is very positive. The camera initiative will save us business owners on the expense of supervisors, and no less important, restaurants will have greater kashrut enforcement.”
But another cafe proprietor was less enthusiastic about the program: “This is a serious invasion of privacy. Soon they’ll want to videotape the register.
”Nobody needs to enter my business, or to see how much I earn,” he said.
Matzlema mashgiha
the problem with these cameras is when a violation already occurred it’s impossible sometimes to fix or prevent certain unwanted situation
Milhouse
The point of the camera is to act as a deterrent. If they know someone may be watching, they won’t mess up.
reader
Saw this exact same article in Haaretz. Are they really interested in kashrus?
chaim
Outrageous!!!!
I think this is ridiculous.
I do want to say first that I did not read the entire article the first few lines were enough but i did see the last 2 paragraphs so that is what I will comment on.
1. you would need to set up multiple cameras in each restaurant and have someone viewing it and viewing it full time.
a lot of these restaurants are using these mashgichim for other things like turning on fires and checking for bugs which needless to say cant be done long distance.
2. nobody wants to see your bloody register.
chaim
I just skimmed through the article and see that it says something about only saving a few hrs so before half the world jumps down my throat on this forum I will reiterate that the screens must be monitored full time and thus doesn’t save anyone anything and if you think you can have one guy viewing multiple screens of multiple restaurants then you have no idea what goes on in those kitchens.
Cameras
I think many hechsherim already use cameras
m p
dumb idea. It better not catch on or we won’t have any more relibly kosher establishments
add cameras dont take mashgiach away
What they really need is to have those cameras besides having the mashgiach temidi on premises.
If they want to save some money at the end of the day while cleaning up, let the mashgiach seal up all fridges, storage rooms, the gas and electric feeding the equipment and seal the plugs of the microwave etc and then let them clean. The camera will show that the workers didnt bring anything into the store or food from other establishments or from home. The mashgiach must check everything before the next day cooking starts to acertain no outside food or equipment was brought in. if there are 2 mashgichim this could be tricky.
bottom line add cameras to enhance kashrus, dont take away the mashgiach