During the Passover (Pesach) festival, the complainant bought a food item in a supermarket. When he got home, he realized that the item was not marked as being "Kosher for Passover". The complainant claimed that he was unable to return the item to the supermarket since according to religious law, it is forbidden to eat leavened foods that were in the possession of a Jew during the festival of Passover. The complainant asked the local religious council how it was possible that the supermarket had been allowed to sell goods that were not "Kosher for Passover". The Council replied that it was not prohibited to sell a product that was not marked as being "Kosher for Passover", provided it was not itself leavened.
The complainant contended that the Council's answer was erroneous.
The investigation of the Office of the Ombudsman revealed that at the time of the complaint, the directives of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel forbade the selling of goods that were not labelled as "Kosher for Passover" during the festival, with the exception of goods that the local rabbi had authorized in writing after checking them in advance. According to the Council, the local rabbi had instructed the shop owners in accordance with these directives and it had thus been permissible to sell the said item.
However, in light of the complaint, the Council notified the Office of the Ombudsman that in order to prevent complications relating to the kosher status of a product during the Passover festival, it would in future not be permissible to sell a food item during the festival which was not explicitly marked as being "Kosher for Passover".
It should be pointed out that the directives of the Chief Rabbinate concerning the preparation of marketing chains for the Passover festival of 2018, had strictly prohibited displaying for sale during the holiday goods that were not explicitly labelled as being "Kosher for Passover"; they had also revoked the granting of authorization by the local rabbi to display goods that were not so labelled.