The Israel rabbinate will not certify the arrangements for kosher food on the S. S. Shalom if a non-kosher kitchen is installed on the liner, it was learned here today. The Cabinet yesterday left the issue of the second kitchen to the Zim-Shoham Lines, owners of the luxury liner now near completion in a French shipyard.
Cabinet members of the Religious party warned against a possible chain reaction stemming from the Cabinet decision. Social Welfare Minister Joseph Burg called it a “deep wound” which would cause serious repercussions in coalition relations. Zim-Shoham has indicated it wants a non-kosher kitchen, as well as a kosher one, to meet competition in trans-Atlantic travel facilities.
Simultaneously, a warning was given that no American Orthodox rabbi would grant certification for the kosher kitchen if non-kosher facilities were provided. That warning was made by Rabbi Solomon Reichman, one of a group of members of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada now visiting Israel. Rabbi Reichman so informed Premier Levi Eshkol when the delegation was received by the Premier.
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