By COLlive reporter
Lufthansa, the flagship carrier of Germany and the largest airline in Europe, is switching the supervision for its kosher meal service on all flights from the airline’s hub at Frankfurt Airport.
Rabbi Yossi Havlin, a Chabad Rabbi and dean of the Yeshiva Gedola rabbinical institute of Frankfurt, will be providing the kosher certification beginning Thursday, November 27, 2014.
The Glatt Kosher meals are provided by the catering division of Sohar’s Kosher Restaurant GmbH in Frankfurt. At this point, Havlin’s certification does not include the restaurant itself on Savignystrasse 66.
The move, announced today, follows the decision of the Orthodox Rabbi-Conference of Germany (ORD) to disqualify the certification of Frankfurt’s Chief Rabbi Menachem Klein.
A German court this month ruled that another restaurant “Aviv” falsely sold non kosher food under the kosher label of Rabbi Klein. The establishment was closed 3 years ago, but its revelation now caused an uproar in the local Jewish community.
Rabbi Havlin told COLlive.com that the honesty and Kashrus level of Sohar’s, until recently also under Rabbi Klein’s supervision, was not in question.
“They company decided to seek another rabbinical certification – with Rabbi Klein’s blessings,” Rabbi Havlin said. “My goal is to provide high quality kosher meals to Luftansa passengers.”
On flights from Israel, Lufthansa offers its customers the option of ordering Glatt kosher meals under the authority of Badatz of the Eda Charedit of Jerusalem, or from the Rabbinate of Ben Gurion Airport, according to a 2007 press release.
Lufthansa flights from New York carry Glatt Kosher meals from Borenstein Caterers, located adjacent to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City and owned by El Al Airlines. It is certified OU Glatt while the dairy meals are OU Cholov Stam.
mendel gourevitch – ROCKS THE HOUSE!
We miss you,
Cape Town
Minyan shacharis on SQ25 from JFK to FRA. An amazing sight to see.
It would be helpful if someone would develop an app for travelers with current listings and contact information for caterers and their supervising agencies/rabbeim. Included information should indicate status of dairy, meat, pas, yoshon. There should be a way to search both carrier and route. Traveling kosher is always a challenge and although we know that promised food may not be delivered it would be good to know if it is available or in accordance with the traveler’s requirements.