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The Most Powerful Rabbis in the World Are Going After Whisky’s Kosher Status

The Chief Rabbinate of Israel has declared half of the Johnnie Walker Black Label imported into the country not kosher, while the other half is. But the whisky is identical.
Photo via Flickr user Michael Meusburger

What is a Jewish boy's worst nightmare? Having to explain why a bunch of rabbis are disputing the kosher certification of only one of two literally identical bottles of Scotch whisky. (That or having to sit through an entire marathon of The Nanny with your Charles Shaughnessy-obsessed grandmother. This is all hypothetical, of course.)

Well, get ready to bust out that old pair of Y2K safety sweats, because the first (or is it both?) of the above scenarios is true.

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The Chief Rabbinate of Israel has just announced that it is revoking the kosher certification for certain bottles of Johnnie Walker Black Label Scotch. The catch, however, is that the new rescindment only applies to one of the two major whisky importers licensed to bring Johnnie Walker Black into the State of Israel from Scotland.

READ: Meet the Woman Who Invented New Orleans' Version of Kosher Cuisine

Here's the deal. Two importers distribute Johnnie Walker Black in Israel: the Paneco Group and Israel Beer Breweries Ltd. Spirits, more commonly known as IBBLS. They both handle the exact same product: authentic Johnnie Walker Black.

The Chief Rabbinate—which is headed by Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef and Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau—recently notified Paneco that it had purposefully mislabeled the whisky it imports as certified kosher. The rabbinical board claimed that Paneco's spirits were not certified kosher by the OK kosher certification agency.

Certification agencies like OK verify that a particular food or drink conforms to the regulations of Jewish dietary laws. As OK's website says, "When your product or establishment is certified kosher, shoppers know that you comply with a strict policy of kosher food laws, including cleanliness, purity, and quality."

However, IBBLS's imported Johnnie Walker Black was correctly labeled kosher, according to both the Rabbinate and the certification agency. And—did we mention this already?—it's the same stuff as what Paneco imports.

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How could two identical bottles of the same exact spirit from the same source be differently classified—one kosher and one not? Talk about turning water into whine! (Do you think its possible to slowly go braindead from writing shitty dad jokes?)

Anyways, this whole holy affair seems to quite possibly stem from a complaint lodged by IBBLS, who allegedly "paid for the kosher inspectors to fly out to Scotland and examine the whisky" in order to originally receive the kosher certification that the Paneco Group then allegedly tried to capitalize on.

READ: This Texan Jew Is Bringing Kosher Tacos to the Border

The Rabbinate seems to want to acknowledge that the stuff is kosher—just not "certified" kosher. As one of the certifying rabbis explained: "We must understand that everyone is right in this case. IBBLS is right because they paid for the kosher inspectors to fly out to Scotland and examine the whisky … The rabbinate is also right in withdrawing the kosher certification … [and] so are the people who continue to buy the whisky because it is truly kosher."

Confused?

The Rabbi continued as follows: "Private consumers can buy and drink 'Black Label' without hesitating. But the same does not hold for restaurants or event halls which hold a kosher certification from the rabbinate, as they must work according to the Rabbinate's standards, which include serving only Rabbinate certified beverages. Even if it doesn't seem fair, these are the rules."

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Does that clarify everything for you? Us neither.

In any event, we can tell you that according to The New York Times, certifying whisky as kosher is a no-brainer: "Part of the spirit's appeal to many Orthodox Jews is that most whisky is naturally kosher."

Say what?

The Times points out: "But that hasn't stopped prominent Scotch producers … from courting the Jewish consumer by obtaining official kosher certification for certain bottlings."

Paneco says that their bottles of whisky and IBBLS's should have the same certification: "All products sold on Paneco.com are completely and solely original. The Johnnie Walker whisky products sold on the site are created by the primary manufacturer at the Diageo distillery in Scotland, and is the exact same product being marketed by a competing company in Israel, which holds the kosher certification for the product."

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