Shatnez Inspector: Rabbi Yisrael Neuman Supervises Clothing Kashrut for 40 Years

Rabbi Yisrael Neuman, 66, serves as the professional advisor to the Chief Rabbinate of Israel on matters of shatnez and is responsible for the garment kashrut at 'Bagir'. In his role, he oversees a type of kashrut supervision that not many are aware of: the supervision of clothing for shatnez.

The Torah twice forbids - in the Parashat Kedoshim and Parashat Ki Teitzei - wearing clothes containing a mixture of wool and linen. For some reason, not many are aware that such mixtures are quite common even today, and a suit or coat, for instance, purchased without a tag indicating they are free of shatnez, requires examination at one of the shatnez labs in the country.

"I took quite an unusual path," says Rabbi Neuman about his journey in the field, "After my yeshiva studies, I went to study at Shenkar to become deeply familiar with the clothing industry. I didn’t want to be a rabbi who comes and says 'This is forbidden and that is forbidden,' but rather someone who develops permissible production plans. My motto is that it is indeed possible to produce beautiful and modern clothing without shatnez. It doesn’t interfere with anything."

Upon completing his studies at Shenkar, he did his internship at the 'Bagir' factory. After the internship, the factory manager asked him to stay on and manage the issue of shatnez. From then until today, he still does this, traveling all over the world to oversee the production of clothing without shatnez for the company that employs him.

How do you explain the prohibition of shatnez to non-Jewish factory workers in Italy or China?

"I explain to them what the Netziv of Volozhin writes in his book 'Haamek Davar' about the mitzvah of shatnez: that the issue of shatnez harms the world because it goes against the laws of nature. This is one of the reasons I’m working on turning the red-black 'Free of Shatnez' tag into a green label. According to Jewish tradition, shatnez is bad for the environment."

Rabbi Neuman recounts staying in Italy several years ago, at one of the world's leading factories for producing men's suits. "These are very expensive suits, a production line of only 220 suits for wealthy Jews who can afford them... The chief designer asked me what shatnez means, and I explained to him the words of the Netziv of Volozhin, that shatnez harms the world. After two days, when I had to leave, they threw me a kind of farewell party. The chief designer approached me there and asked: "Tell me, could it be that the earthquake that just occurred in Italy is related to the production of shatnez?" Of course, I told him that I couldn’t link such an event to a specific cause, but then I thought to myself: 'Oh no, what if the non-Jews repent before the Jews do...'"

Rabbi Neuman does not believe in random sampling of clothing to ensure it is free from shatnez. "With us, there is close supervision funded by the Bagir company, not random or approximate. The textile industry is dynamic – it’s not about a formula for a product that does not change. It only takes something in the cut moving two millimeters, and already we need to add or reduce something. Every factory we work with has a catalog of approved raw materials, so they can cut calmly before I arrive, but the sewing does not happen unless I am present."

Rabbi Neuman is particularly concerned that there is no true next generation continuing the shatnez supervision. "The factories don’t really appreciate the issue, so there's no adequate compensation, thus people don’t want to enter the field. On the other hand, unfortunately, many religious people are unaware of how common this prohibition is! A few years ago, I was invited to speak at a kollel for young married men who had just finished studying the subject of shatnez in 'Yoreh Deah'. At the end of my speech, one of the men stood up and stated that he believes shatnez today is as if it were a 'rare minority,' and there is no need to check it. I asked him what he based this on, and he said that for years he sent every suit he purchased to a shatnez lab, and they never found anything. I checked with him, and it turned out he always bought suits from Bagir, which come with a 'Free of Shatnez' tag because of my supervision... Of course, there is no shatnez there, I told him, because someone is standing and ensuring there is none!

"People are not aware of the depth of the problem. Not only in suits and coats, but also in much women's fashion, there is shatnez, and in the summer more than in the winter. The fabrics themselves are often mixtures, and you can’t always rely on the tag. I’ve already found linen in a garment that the tag claimed was 'one hundred percent wool'. If you check the tag in English and Hebrew, you will often find contradictions too. Once, someone brought me a scarf that said in Hebrew 'one hundred percent cashmere' and in English: 'one hundred percent polyester'... Even the Standards Institute will tell you that the label is not binding; it’s only there because of customs requirements."

Why are there not more clothes arriving in stores with a 'Free of Shatnez' label? Because the public doesn’t demand it, says Rabbi Neuman. "Why does 'Chaslat' have five kashrut seals? Because consumers demand it. If we were all sensitive enough to the prohibition of shatnez, the manufacturers would ensure that we receive the product with certification."

"I am already approaching the age about which King David said: 'The days of our years are seventy years'," Rabbi Yisrael Neuman concludes. "Unfortunately, there is no one to take this matter into their own hands after me, with pure intent, and not out of a desire to make business. It depends on the observant public to ensure that importers take responsibility for supervising against shatnez. It’s in our hands."