Horrifying: Tel Aviv Restaurant Served Pork Under the Name 'Veal'

Further evidence of the importance of insisting on kosher certification in restaurants: The Tel Aviv District Court ruled this week that a restaurant in Tel Aviv served diners pork, while claiming on the menu that the dishes served were veal.

The class action lawsuit against the restaurant was filed by Natalie Swiry three years ago. Natalie declared to the court that she is a customer of the restaurant who avoids eating pork, and on one occasion when dining there, she ordered a dish called 'Veal Lumpia.' She randomly learned from an acquaintance, a former restaurant employee, that the dish contains pork.

The shocked Natalie hired a private investigator, who sent the dish in question to a private laboratory. After genetic testing, it was determined that the dish indeed contained pork. The investigator also ordered another dish, which was also proven through testing to contain pork.

The court judge convicted the restaurant and refused to accept the owners' claim that it was a 'human error.' "The statistical probability of a 'human error' mistake occurring in such a way that pork would be found specifically in those two random dishes purchased by the plaintiff or someone on her behalf is extremely low to non-existent." The restaurant was also ordered to pay court expenses amounting to 35,000 shekels.

It should be noted that the Kashrut Department of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel operates under the guidance of the Chief Rabbis of Israel and is responsible for establishing uniform kashrut procedures throughout the country. The department is responsible for hotels, restaurants, catering, event halls, slaughterhouses, butcheries, packaging houses, wholesale markets, industry, separation of tithes in agricultural produce in the public sector, import of food products, and slaughter abroad. It is important to understand that city rabbis and regional rabbis actually serve as the long arm of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, and only places that comply with kashrut procedures receive a kashrut certificate from them.