The religious township of Bnei Brak has banned hot pizza because the fast food could lead to contact between the sexes, the rabbinical authorities say.
Two usually feuding rabbis, Moshe Landau and Nissim Karlitz, concurred on the issue when they jointly signed an order to pizza parlors and kiosks to stop serving hot pizzas.
The problem arose when fast-food shops added hot pizza to their menus, requiring an operating license from the religious authorities.
Rabbinical aides said the rabbis feared boys and girls would have to stand in the same line waiting for their pizza slices to be heated.
“They might look at each other, an offense against modesty, or God forbid, even touch each other,” one aide explained.
But pizza fanciers needn’t despair. They have rabbinical sanction to buy the product cold and heat it at home.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
