Jerusalem – A Haredi-owned Jerusalem restaurant will be restricting the working hours of waitresses in order to receive the strict mehadrin kashrut certificate.
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The veteran eatery, Heimische Essen, in Rehavia, will cease employing waitresses on Thursday nights, a favorite time for yeshiva boys to patronize the eatery.
According to the owner, Haim Safrin, zealots, “who are jealous of the place’s success,” pressured the kashrut supervisors of the strict Agudat Israel high religious court, known as the Badatz, to stop waitresses from working on Thursday nights.
The Badatz is a private body which grants kashrut certificates and supervision over and above that provided by the Chief Rabbinate. The demand for waitress-free Thursday nights is unusual, but it is not unusual for bodies granting kashrut certificates, including the state-run Chief Rabbinate, to withdraw or threaten to withdraw a certificate for reasons that have nothing directly to do with food, such as the religious or spiritual affiliation of the owners or event halls that hold weddings for gay couples.
B”H this can all be blamed on zealots. We have gotten to a point where adherence to basic halachos is only for zealots.
This is a minor inconvenience for the owner and is a big advancement in tznius.
B’yh, these zealots who would deny the hard-working women employees of the restaruant an opportunity to work on the busiest night of the week where they can earn a few extra NIS in tips will choke on their chulent. Its not often one wishes ill on other yidden but in the case of these Badatz misogynists, we should make an exception. Hopefully, some more progressive rabbonim and askanim will intervene and encourage the bochurim to keep patronizing the restaurant, even with women servers.
why am I not surprised at this total nonsense! maybe they’re kollel wives (or kollel wives in training) trying to support their families??
I don’t think the Badatz has any connection with Agudas Yisroel
Israel, land of the free and the blameless. Or at least we better not be in the company of anyone who we might be blamed for smiling at today huh?
The Aguda should focus on stopping the child molesters (in their own communities) and leave the restaurant owners alone. In fact, if the standards of kashrut included making sure the Chareidi restaurant owners stopped child molesters and stopped people in their neighborhoods from spitting on 8 year old girls, there may not be any restaurants left!
This is insane. What’s next, you can’t eat at your Bubby’s?
Yeshiva bochurs should not be wasting their PARENTS hard earned parnosah on Thursday nights FRESSING themselves on cholent that should only be eaten on Shabbos in any case!
This is a sad interference with these women’s parnassah. Let these Yeshiva boys, who apparently can’t control themselves, not go there Thurday night.
Nu nu. Not the biggest deal. If that’s what they want we can’t do anything about it.
This is ridiculous. In a democratic Country this is considered employment discrimination. Instead of minimizing or firing female employees the Rabbanim should tell the bochrim to sit and learn night seder Thursday night and make their own cholent.
These rabbanim should be ashamed of themselves for taking away parnassa from these women.
Women exist, get over it. Teach boys how to retain some self control.
First of all, the Badatz here is the Badatz of the Agudas Yisroel, not the Badatz of the Edah Charedis.
Second, this restaurant, where I ate a few times on my last visit to EY, is in Rechavia, a mixed neighborhood of religious and non-religious. I don’t think there are many yeshivas even nearby. Geulah or Meah Shearim it isn’t.
Third, there is no halakha in Shulchan Aruch that one cannot be served by a woman. Yes, they should be dressed properly, but as far as I remember they always were, and the owner is a frum Jew who would not let people walk around improperly.
In short, quite ridiculous.
Everybody here has something to say. But nobody will do anything. And this will become accepted, emulated, enforced and perhaps most tragic of all, taught to our children as halacha. In 50 years our great grandchildren will be shocked that there was a time that women were allowed to live together with men (R”L) in the same city.
This week’ Parsha: Shemos 35:22
ויבאו האנשים על הנשים.
רשי: עם הנשים, וסמוכין אליהם.
“And the men came with the women (next to them).”
There are more adult male pedophiles than woman, therefor the male waiters should be banned. But then again I saw “the Graduate” so we must beware of the older women as well. Maybe the buchrim, when they go out to eat should be allowed in the restaurant kitchen to cook the food ( the chef may be hot as well so we should ban them) and then serve themselves. Credit card machines should be there so that no one has to come into contact with a cashier. Problem solved, however the mashgiach………….
This sounds like it could have been written about an Iranian restaurant.
OK, two can play this game. Time for all women to stop serving food to men who are not their husbands or sons. You want to come to Shabbos dinner? Here’s the kitchen.
Simple solution, have two entrances to this restaurant, one for males, the other for the opposite gender, and have servants of the same gender serve them.
Obviously most of the people who have commented have never been to this restaurant. Otherwise they would understand exactly what this issue is all about. I’m by far not a zealot (I’m clean shaven). However we are not talking here about female waitresses. The issue is that those waitresses dress provocatively, are not religious and are actually THE reason why these yeshiva bachurim shlep all the way from the other side of Yerushalaim. There are places serving chulent a lot closer to where they live. The chulent is the excuse for all the rest that goes on. Enough said.
If they expect these women to come back during the week and not Thursday night, they should PAY them in FULL plus ALL tips they would be LOSING, if they want them to work the rest of the week!!
This is not a new phenomenon, Gateshead UK has had separate hours for boys and girls for the last couple of decades, so as for them not to mingle, pizza uri was forced to close at 10 pm so it does not become a hangout, and all Bedatz restaurants are forbidden to have tables outside. All these are old rules and are there for a good reason.Hashem created men with a pull to the opposite gender and we have to keep as separate as possible. Most people writing on the blog would not know where to find hilchos yichud, let alone studied it throughly. These comments come from our own desires, western upbringing and lack of knowledge. This us not a fair playing field, as the people in defense of these arguments do not read this blog. Case settled!
The holy Rabbonim are absolutely right. These waitresses should have had the faces covered and at least 3 skirts and gloves on their hands so these fine young bochurim should not be tempted to look at a zeire of a woman. As long as they keep it in EY is fine and perfect , g’d forbid that these creatures should have power in U.S.
I for one don’t see the problem with female waitresses. However, last time, last year i went for a falafel around 11:00 PM and there were seminary girls in the restaurant eating and the men, not frum were trying to make time with the girls and they were succeeding, thing is; if it is boys night maybe there should not be female waitresses and if it is girls night maybe the order takers and servers should be female. I do not like to see this happen but also I do not like to see the break down of morals either. today unfortunately we are surround with smitz where ever we go
I think it’s a very good thing, and being overly cautious when it comes to Tzniut, only benefits everyone involved, if not here, then in Olam Habah, that’s how the Derech Hachasidus is, (not zealots).
It is really hypocricy to first scream gevalt about the shidduch crisis and then try to wall off the girls from the bochurim, even in a public place where some of these kollel yungerleit might have a chance to meet their beschert. We need to encourage more mingling, not less.
Something doesn’t add up with this new Badatz rule. Why is it only for this restaurant, and only on Thursday nights? Surely there are other restaurants with the Badatz teudah where waitresses serve yeshiva bochurim on Thursday nights. The owner, Safrin, says it’s because of jealousy over his success that triggered complaints about the waitresses. Is there any proof of this? In another article Safrin explains, “the people who complained are mainly Hassidic young men who want to be served by a man.” Again, this is the owner’s explanation, not from the Badatz. Nothing is said in any article about his waitresses being immodest, only that some aren’t frum.
The whole thing is idiotic and probably unprecedented. What connection does a certificate of Kashrut have with who serves the food? Plenty of restaurants including Heimische Essen have Arab servers, so why all the sudden a ban on waitresses on Thurs nights?
Unless the Badatz comes up with a coherent explanation, their credibility is seriously in compromised.
Ban all these “hypertesterone bochurim” sitting on the fat derrier and stuffing cholent . Tell them to do something for klal yisroel. They are cowards to joint the iDF let them do volunteer work.
You know – the next chumra will be separate cities for men and women – and who knows, maybe it will be an improvement!