A brief notice from the kashrut department of the Joburg Beth Din pricked our interest today - we wanted to find out more about it - and we were sure all kosher Shtetlers would want to know more about this too.

The KASHRUT ALERT notice read: The food served as “Kosher” on 1time Airline is not supervised by the Beth Din. We have been advised that non-kosher items are served in their so-called “Kosher Platter”. We have offered our services to 1time in an effort to rectify this problem but have not received a response as yet.

MyShtetl spoke to Union of Orthodox Synagogues (UOS) executive director Darren Sevitz who said that the Beth Din had received a complaint some months ago.

“We wrote to (1time) and offered to assist them,” says Darren. He says the Beth Din wanted to consult on how to pack a kosher meal to protect the kosher community. They had no reply from 1time Airlines.

Darren explained that it is not possible to copyright the word ‘kosher’ and so 1time could advertise and sell a ‘kosher’ platter even if it was not. “We didn’t want to charge them any fees,’ Darren explains, the Beth Din simply wanted to meet with the catering folks at 1time and advise them on kashrut rules as a service to kosher consumers.

If the kosher passenger is from South Africa, they would normally be able to identify kosher products. So, explains Darren, “if there’s a packet of Simba chips or a Coke in a snack platter that people know is kosher they will use it – even if the packaging wasn’t sealed with Beth Din tape.

This morning, The Beth Din again received a complaint. The complainant specified that they had ordered a kosher cheese platter and that it included one or more non-kosher cheese(s).

“Despite our attempts to contact 1time today, we’ve had no luck,” Darren told MyShtetl. So, while the Beth Din was waiting for 1time catering to return their calls, they decided it would be expedient to issue a KASHRUT ALERT to the community.

MyShtetl managed to contact 1time airlines’ marketing manager, Anya Potgieter, who was shocked to hear what we told her. She asked for five minutes to investigate and promised we would have some sort of explanation shortly.

In the interim, Darren had connected with 1time’s catering manager. They discussed the situation and 1time laid the blame at the door of Fairview Cheese. Tersia had received Darren’s e-mails and has apparently asked Fairview Cheese for an explanation, since Fairview has provided the cheese telling them it’s kosher.

“I told Tersia she should double check everything with the kashrut department anyway, and not rely on a manufacturer to tell them what is or what is not kosher,” Darren later told MyShtetl. “I explained to her the need to send our alert, as we have to look out for the consumer, but at the same time, we are available to consult on kashrut issues going forward.”

Tersia has agreed to come back to Darren once she gets the explanation from Fairview. Darren has also informed Cape Town Kosher, as Fairview falls under their supervision.

MyShtetl tried to call Potgieter back but her phone was busy – she was talking to Tersia. When she called us back we all had all the information – and Potgieter assured us that 1time were taking the problem most seriously indeed. But, she added, they had just reprinted all their menus (which include the Fairview cheese platter). No problem, we told her, we thought it made a good plane snack – they just need to make sure that they are actually kosher in future.

But MyShtetl still had an issue to discuss (while we were on a roll) so we wanted to know: “What is going to happen in the meantime?”

It seems that nothing ruffles Ms Potgieter’s feathers. She thought for a moment and asked what we thought if they advise anyone pre-ordering or asking for their kosher cheese platter about the enquiry until it is sorted out.

“Really,” we asked more than a little surprised at the magnitude of their doing that, “can you make that happen?” Potgieter has assured us that the appropriate instructions will be issued to 1time staff tomorrow morning and that she will put out a media release to the Jewish media as well. She also undertook to keep us in the loop on this problem, investigation and the solution.

Wow. They really sound serious. We almost feel guilty of using the spoof-logo we made up – but we like it so much that we’ll use it anyway.

Anyone wanting to contact 1time about the problem, or to propose solutions, can contact Anya Potgieter directly at 082 923-7400 or click here to email her: anya@1time.co.za

It would be nice if Shtetlers sent her e-mails just to thank her for taking her new-found friends so seriously!