Jerusalem – The Aida Hachareidis’s Supervisory Committee for Investments and Finance gave its seal of approval to the Hadas Malchus Investment Firm, the first-ever “kosher certificate” awarded by a Beis Din to an investment house.
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The Committee was formed 1 1/2 years ago, and is headed by Rav Yaakov Blau, one of the world rabbinical experts on interest and banking who has written an 8-volume series on Choshen Mishpat. Rav Nesanel Linder and Rav Shlomo Zev Carlebach are also members.
The Committee had checked that some of Hadas Malchus’s investments were compliant with halacha. Once it was convinced that all was in order, Rav Gavriel Papenheim awarded the certificate to Mr. Sholom Saadon, the director general of the firm, at a ceremony held in the Beis Yisroel Hall in the Ezras Torah neighborhood.
The rabbonim of the Badatz praised Hadas Malchus firm for being the pioneers seeking out certification.
Rav Carlebach mentioned that investments today may entail many Torah prohibitions such as taking interest and profiting through chillul Shabbos. When Israel passed a law compelling everyone to get their own pension fund a year ago, employees had to make a decision which fund to choose. Many frum Jews had till then avoided pension funds because they were concerned about Torah issurim and didn’t know how to avoid them, but now they had no choice.
“Until recent years, pension funds were investing in bonds, that basically were not problematic,” explains Rav Carlebach. “Today, everything is more sophisticated, and pension funds invest in different avenues such as real estate, private equity, start-ups, the whole rainbow of investments in both national and international arenas. A Jew sitting in his home can give an order and invest anywhere in the world. This has created more problems for a frum Yid.”
Rav Carlebach gives several examples. “People in chutz la’aretz know that if you buy real estate with a non-Jew, you can avoid numerous halachic pitfalls. But here in Israel, companies run by non-religious Jews have no idea what to even beware of. They may invest in a company, not realizing that there are serious Shabbos and ribis issues.
“We had a case of a company that had a controlling stake in a beer factory in Germany. There were a serious issue of selling their shares over Pesach or having chometz sh’over olov Pesach. Another case involved a fund that owned buildings that are being managed and maintained by a Jewish mechalel Shabbos firm in partnership with frum Yidden.
Rav Carlebach says that the Badatz absolutely does not recommend investment firms to potential investors. All it does is maintain regular halachic supervision over its holdings, which it checks over on a regular basis for compliance with halacha, just as the Treasury checks that it complies with financial regulations. The investment firm must comply with the strict guidelines given by the Badatz.
“The public has to be trained that finance today requires rabbinical supervision,” says Rav Carlebach. “Until now, a Jew knows that he doesn’t eat anything without a hechsher — now a Jew will have to get used to investing only if a fund is halacha-compliant. The heter iska on the wall is not sufficient for the array of investments offered to the public today. The sooner the public understands this, the sooner companies will start seeking a hechsher to everyone’s benefit.”
Halacha covers the range from ossur to muttar to l’chatchila. If you’re a Jew who tries to live according to l’chatchila, shouldn’t your investments be l’chatchila too?
How is this the first one ever? What about all the years and hard work of Rav Simcha Kook and Rav Ratzon Arussi???
This stinks like a money raising gimmick to entice unsophisticated orthodox of their few investment dollars. Remind me again, how do you maaser salt?
why arent they giving us specifics of what is considered ok and not ok based on thier standards . i smell a rat . As far as i see it this is just another way of milking the charedi system from the ltle that we do have.
Besides the halacha legalities of profit and chilul shabbos, who checks that the investments are sensible and ethical?
I cannot wait for the other shoe to drop. LOL!! Investors are going to be left holding the bag. Rabbonim + Money = disaster.
Dear # 10. In principal you are rite. The fact of the matter is that those that run this “fund” are going to aggresivly market their products to the chreidi communitty and what the Rabbi’s are giving a hechsher for are going to get blured, and colel yingerlite are going to lose their “naden ” and wedding present money. I say again religion and money don’t go together. Any Rav that wants to do business ethically should go back to school and take economics classes and stay away from financial companies looking for a “hechsher” because the ending will be “chazer treif”
To my dear fellow Jew,
The Aida Hachareidis has wonderful rabbanim, but don’t forget or be fooled – the Aida Hachareidis is a business with its own agenda. The Aida Hachareidis wasn’t always a business, but it has become one. For example, they never used to give a hechsher on paysach items for any products besides sugar, salt, oil, and maybe seltzer. They also never mixed into anything out of their jurisdiction. Today, however, the Aida Hachareidis is run by Mr. Pupinhiem, a very successful man who is in charge of and owns orphanage homes for girls which are very profitable and lucrative. Mr. Pupinhiem, also runs toldos aron (and that’s how they won). The lesson here is that the Aida Hachareidis IS A BUSINESS so be carful to whom you give your money and don’t rely on anyone, but yourself to make sure the products you use for paysach are safe and kosher.
Are my investments Koosher L’Paysach?