For proof of the adage that greatness comes through struggle, one need not look further than Dayan Westheim
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isit a grocery in the US or open a fridge or cabinet in Israel, and you’re almost guaranteed to come across something, from yogurts to novelty candies, bearing the stamp of Igud Rabbonim, better known as “Rav Westheim’s hechsher.”
Largely thanks to the exacting halachic standards of Dayan Osher Yaakov Westheim, who suddenly passed away last month, a hechsher operating out of modest offices in provincial Manchester, UK, created a world-wide reputation and something of a global kashrus empire.
But Dayan Westheim’s petirah sent shock waves far beyond the kashrus world.
Only in England, with its history of central batei din headed by Torah giants such as Rav Yechezkel Abramsky and Rav Yitzchak Yaakov Weiss, the Minchas Yitzchak, does the title “Dayan” have such resonance, implying a rav, posek, and leader recognized across the community and beyond.
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