Jules Polonetsky
In a development stirring conversation across the kosher wine community, the Tzohar Rabbinical Organization has launched a new kosher supervision program for wineries that breaks with a long-held convention. Tzohar’s initiative — unique in that it allows even non-Sabbath-observant Jews to handle wine during production under strict rabbinic oversight — aims to broaden the field of kosher wines without compromising Jewish law. The move is being hailed by some as a welcome inclusion of boutique producers previously shut out of the kosher market, while others in the Orthodox establishment voice concern over its departure from accepted practice.
Tzohar is a Religious Zionist organization of over 800 Orthodox rabbis founded in 1995 with a mission to “expose people to the beauty of Judaism” in an accessible, noncoercive way. After the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Rabbi David Stav and several colleagues formed Tzohar to help bridge the divide between religious and secular Israeli Jews. Tzohar has become known for offering user-friendly lifecycle services — officiating at weddings, bar mitzvahs and funerals in a warm, welcoming style while adhering to halacha (Jewish law).
In 2018, Tzohar expanded into kosher certification, setting up its own supervision authority as an alternative to the government’s Chief Rabbinate. According to Tzohar, the goal was the same as in its other initiatives — to uphold halacha in ways that “help more people observe Jewish tradition,” ensuring religious practice is not a cause for division in society. Tzohar’s kashrut department began certifying restaurants and food businesses with an emphasis on transparency and a service-oriented approach.
Now Tzohar has turned its attention to Israel’s wine industry and is tackling one of the most rigid norms in kosher production. Traditionally, once grapes are crushed and fermentation begins, kosher certification agencies have required that only Sabbath-observant Jews handle the wine. This standard derives from ancient rabbinic decrees meant to prevent idolatrous use of wine: any wine touched by a non-Jew was rendered not kosher, and in more recent years many authorities extended this stringency to non-Sabbath observant Jews. In practice today, virtually all certified kosher wines are produced exclusively by fully observant Jews — a rule that posed a barrier for secular-run wineries and even for traditional winemakers employing workers who are not strictly Shabbat observant.
Tzohar’s new kosher wine certification challenges this status quo. The organization contends that the blanket exclusion of nonobservant Jews is a stringency, not an absolute requirement of halacha. “Our policies are in accordance with the Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law), where there is no prohibition against a non-Sabbath-observant vintner working in a vineyard,” a Tzohar spokesperson explained.
Under Tzohar’s supervision, wineries must still meet all the classic kosher requirements: they close on Shabbat, follow the biblical agricultural laws and use only kosher-certified ingredients in processing. The key difference is that Tzohar will certify the wine even if winery staff who handle the wine are not Sabbath observers. “Sometimes a chumrah (stringency) leads to a kula (leniency),” Rabbi Grunstein of Tzohar observes — meaning, excessive strictness can backfire by driving people away from observance. In the wine industry, many winery owners simply opted to remain non-kosher rather than be told they couldn’t touch their own product or would have to hire new religious staff.
Wine writer Adam Montefiore cites two leading figures in Israeli wine who discuss this in a recent documentary on Israeli wine. “I made my wine kosher because I wanted all Jews to be able to enjoy my wine, but when I’m forbidden to take a sample of my own wine, it makes me feel like a second-class Jew,” admitted Eli Ben-Zaken, the proprietor of the acclaimed Domaine du Castel Winery, describing his experience under traditional kosher supervision.
Yair Margalit — one of Israel’s veteran vintners, who is secular and refuses to make his wine kosher — put it even more starkly, likening the system to a “caste” hierarchy: a winemaker might be welcomed as a Jew in synagogue, yet “not considered Jewish enough” to handle wine in his own cellar. I recall visiting the Flam Winery before it became kosher and asking one of the Flam brothers why the winery wasn’t kosher. They pointed to their father, a former top winemaker at Carmel where he couldn’t touch the wine he made. At Flam he was without hindrance, regularly tasting and assessing wine all throughout the winemaking process.
Approximately 25 Israeli wineries have joined Tzohar’s kosher wine program, but reactions to Tzohar’s wine certification initiative have been mixed. Critics worry that Tzohar’s program could blur lines and erode hard-won standards that ensure trust in kosher wine. Rabbinic authorities, including the Chief Rabbinate, question the halachic basis outright: they note that a primary opinion of former Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef that Tzohar relies on was meant only post-facto in social situations, not as an ideal for mass production. A prominent kosher expert, Professor Ari Zivotofsky, argued that Tzohar introduced “radical, novel leniencies” in wine kashrut and hasn’t provided the transparency needed. Zivotofsky contends that these departures from normative practice should have been clearly disclosed on labels, so consumers could choose whether to rely on them.
But many in the kosher wine aficionado community are more positive. “Tzohar is providing a private alternative to make kosher wine more accessible,” says Simon Jacob, host of the Kosher Terroir wine podcast. Wineries that once felt alienated are now working hand-in-hand with rabbis — an image that would have been hard to imagine a decade ago.
I am personally excited about this development but don’t claim the expertise to assess the issues of Jewish law, so seek more information or consult the religious authority you look to for counsel. The leading U.S. distributors of Israeli kosher wine aren’t importing wines with Tzohar certification at present, so for most this will only be a relevant question when purchasing wine in Israel.
Jules Polonetsky is a Wine and Spirits Education Trust Level 3 Certified wine expert who writes for the Wine and Whiskey Globe when not occupied with his day job as CEO of a tech policy think tank. He is a former consumer affairs commissioner of the city of New York.
