It was like Chicago gang warfare during the prohibition, said the JC beneath the front-page headline "Knives out as kosher meat war hots up". When rival shochetim squared up to each other in the abattoir in 1986, it showed just how fractious disputes in the shechita trade can get.
For more than 20 years, peace had largely reigned in London, until two months ago, when the Federation of Synagogues broke ranks and launched its new "mehadrin" range. The London Board for Shechita, the main kosher meat supervisory body for the capital, fumed. And while there may have been no clashes in the abattoirs, talks between the two which began before Pesach have so far produced no agreement.
Behind the latest ruckus is the Federation's ambition to expand among the growing Orthodox communities of north-west London. The Federation believes mehadrin meat - which requires stricter supervision - will appeal to a more observant clientele and help it to recruit new congregations. Federation president Andrew Cohen, in a letter to his council in March, saw his target as "those that see their home not with the US [United Synagogue] or the Union [of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations] in Stamford Hill but somewhere between".
The Federation has made no secret of its plan to make the new mehadrin brand a cheaper alternative to Kedassia, the kashrut arm of the Charedi Union.It wanted the LBS - a consortium jointly run by the Federation, US and Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation - to endorse the new venture.
But the LBS argued that a new mehadrin label would undercut its own higher-grade kosher offerings (glatt and chalak bet Yosef) and it was unhappy about trying to poach business from Kedassia. Instead, the LBS suggested repackaging its existing glatt and chalak bet Yosef ranges as mehadrin. For those more particular about their chicken, LBS already offers a super-kosher poultry option called oif mehadrin.
So the Federation launched mehadrin on its own. So far, it has restricted the product to one shop, the discount Kosher Outlet in Hendon. But adding to the chagrin of the LBS was the defection of one of its major licensees, Gilbert's, to the Federation.
Gilbert's is the biggest purchaser of beef from the LBS's abattoirs in Manchester. In a strong letter, LBS president Benjamin Mire - who happens to be a Federation member himself - warned that if Gilbert's withdrew their custom from Manchester, it could precipitate the end of kosher operations there and even jeopardise the future supply of British kosher beef altogether.
Nonsense, retorted Mr Cohen. While Gilbert's has bought meat from Ireland for the new mehadrin range, he said that the company would continue to take meat from Manchester as well. But now that all Gilbert's products - including Blooms sausages - are under Federation licence, they are currently barred from LBS shops.
There was a reason the Federation went to Ireland. One of the advertised features of its mehadrin meat is that it is shechita menuchat, which means the animal was slaughtered on its back. This method, favoured by the Israeli rabbinate for example, has been outlawed in Britain for nearly 30 years, where animals are killed in an upright pen. But if the EU were to rule that only meat produced from an upright pen could be sold in Europe, that would cause problems.
Although Mr Mire has accused the Federation of acting in "competition and conflict" with the LBS, it sees no reason to quit the board. The Federation receives £15,000 annually from the LBS - which has assets of more than £4 million - though it says this nowhere near compensates it for the supervision services provided to the LBS by the head of its Beth Din, Dayan Lichtenstein.
The Federation also sees no reason why the LBS could not have approved a joint mehadrin label with it in the first place. By way of precedent, it could point to the fact that in some supermarkets, you can already buy Frohwein's meat which bears the kosher seal not only of the LBS but also that of the the United Synagogue's authority, the London Beth Din. I was told there is a difference between this and the mehadrin proposal (though the distinction would be lost on most consumers): the LBD certification relates simply to the packaging, while supervision of the shechita process remains controlled by the LBS.
If there is no compromise, what next? An uneasy truce might hold as long as the Federation meat has limited distribution. But if it sells well, no one expects it to be confined to a single store for long. It could be a long, hot summer ahead.
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WHAT'S MEHADRIN?
Mehadrin is deluxe kosher and entails extra care in supervision.
If the lungs of an animal are perforated, it is not kosher. Large animals like cattle may have adhesions on the lungs but if these can be peeled off without leaving a hole, they remain kosher.
But with glatt, which means “smooth”, only a few minor adhesions are permissible; and with chalak bet Yosef standard, none at all. Mehadrin will usually mean either glatt or chalak bet Yosef.
With mehadrin poultry, the back of the bird is split open so the supervisor can see that it is salted. Damaged tendons render a chicken unkosher; with mehadrin, every bird is checked, whereas in regular kosher, usually only if there’s suspicion of injury.
