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El Al and the OU

There is some confusion about the Orthodox Union's certification of the food served on El Al flights.

This past shabbos, two days ago, Rabbi Yoel Schoenfeld of the OU and assistant rabbi at Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, announced in shul that the OU would no longer be certifying the food on El Al flights. The reason, he said, is that El Al has at times served non-kosher food which it claimed to be kosher.

According to Rabbi Schoenfeld, several months ago, during a delay in Newark, the passengers were served pizza. An observant woman was assured by flight attendants that the pizza was kosher, but it turns out it was purchased from a non-kosher pizza shop in Newark Airport.

More recently, people whose flights were diverted to Budapest and Vienna when the Histadrut strike shut down Ben Gurion Airport were served with non-kosher food acquired from hotel restaurants. Again, observant passengers were assured that the food was completely kosher, with the flight attendants apparently annoyed at the mere insinuation that the food might not be kosher.

Furthermore, Rabbi Schoenfeld said, El Al removes the double wrapping on food served on its flights.

In yesterday's Haaretz, however, the head of the Orthodox Union's kashrut department, Rabbi Menachem Genack, yesterday denied that the OU removed its certification for the food served by El Al. Unclear from the article is whether Rabbi Genack's point is that the OU never certified El Al - and only certifies the caterer it purchases its food on flights leaving from the U.S., which it continues to certify - or that the OU still certifies El Al.

Rabbi Genack's comments thus may or may not be consistent with Rabbi Schoenfeld's.
posted on 11/01/2004