A new kashrus organization in Israel, Mehudar, has held its first poultry shechitah, with three senior poskim personally supervising at the Of Yerushalayim slaughterhouse in Jerusalem. The new hechsher says it aims to deliver mehadrin min hamehadrin standards at prices that do not strain family budgets.
The first run came days after Mehudar was formally established at a founding gathering held at the slaughterhouse earlier this month. The organization is led by Rav Avrohom Tzvi HaKohen, Gaavad of Hora’ah Kahalachah, who serves as its Gaavad; Rav Simcha Rabinowitz, rov of the Mishkenos Yaakov community in Ramat Shlomo and author of the Piskei Teshuvos series; and Rav Shmuel Yosef Shtitzberg, a prominent rov and moreh hora’ah in Beit Shemesh. All three oversaw the inaugural run to confirm the organization’s standards and chumros were implemented at every stage.
Rav HaKohen said the operation starts with its people. The shochtim, the knife inspectors, and the workers examining the lungs, tendons, and intestines were screened until “we were left with the finest of the finest,” a team of talmidei chachomim and yirei Shomayim. Supervision continues past the shechitah, with the melichah performed by observant workers. Rav Shtitzberg said procedures were refined over weeks of preparation so that no stringency practiced in Israel’s most mehudar shechitos was missed, following the Shevet Halevi, Rav Shmuel Wosner zt”l, that public needs must be met without relying on leniencies.
Rav Rabinowitz stood beside the inspectors during the first run and said the birds come from farms whose feeding practices avoid organ damage. In a broadcast on Kav HaMeida, the rabbonim framed the launch as an answer to the cost of living: mehadrin poultry for avreichim and bnei Torah families without an inflated hechsher premium. Mehudar enters Israel’s poultry market as a lower cost alternative to established chassidishe hechsherim.
A central feature of the new organization is its independence from the plant’s owners. At the founding gathering, Of Yerushalayim co-owner Danny Mizrachi said the commercial side has no authority over kashrus decisions, with the company involved only at the marketing stage after the poultry is packaged. Asked whether he would eat the poultry himself, Rav HaKohen was unequivocal: “This meat is coming into my home.”
Mehudar operates out of the Of Yerushalayim slaughterhouse in Jerusalem’s Atarot industrial zone, which already runs six kashrus lines under one roof, including Badatz Rav Machpud, Shearis Yisroel, Chabad Bistritzky, Chasam Sofer, Rabbanut Glatt, and Chalak Beit Yosef. Poultry under the new hechsher is sold in vacuum sealed packaging marked with security holograms, a seal within a seal that identifies the product and catches tampering. Kashrus authority for Mehudar rests with Rav Avrohom Tzvi HaKohen, Rav Simcha Rabinowitz, and Rav Shmuel Yosef Shtitzberg.
H/T Matzav.com
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