Yechiel Spira isn’t pounding the pavement of Jerusalem’s Machaneh Yehudah market to snag a good deal on tomatoes. With large groups in tow, he tirelessly advances his mission — to educate kosher consumers about what they’re actually eating.
The raucous noise of vendors hawking their wares from chickens to chickpeas watermelon to iced coffee makes an interesting if distracting backdrop for our group of about fifteen clustered on this Tuesday afternoon around our guide Yechiel Spira of Jerusalem Kosher News.
Described by some as the “Ralph Nader” of the kosher world Spira is much more than an eagle-eyed spotter of fraudulent kashrus certificates and problematic food products. With extensive experience working as a butcher and treiberer in the United States as a caterer in both America and Israel and for many years as an investigative journalist his knowledge of the ins and outs of kashrus have contributed to his ability to ferret out suspicious activity and fraud.
While his volunteer organization Jerusalem Kosher News has by now changed the lives of thousands he began quite simply by trying to raise awareness of kashrus among family and friends.
“First thing I’ll tell you” he says in a Brooklyn accent that belies twenty-eight years living in Israel “is that not everyone with a beard knows what he’s doing and not everyone without a beard doesn’t. You’ll see all kinds of people with all kinds of yarmulkes around here too. Keep in mind that it doesn’t mean anything except that that’s the yarmulke they like to wear. It’s just a business proposition. I know a bunch of nice guys who wear the yarmulke kiss the mezuzah at night lock their store and put the kippah in the pocket.
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