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A mashgiach (משגיח, () "supervisor"; () , mashgichim) or mashgicha (pl. mashgichot) is a Jew who supervises the kashrut status of a kosher establishment. Mashgichim may supervise any type of food service establishment, including slaughterhouses, food manufacturers, hotels, caterers, nursing homes, restaurants, butchers, groceries, or cooperatives. Mashgichim usually work as on-site supervisors and inspectors, representing a kosher certification agency or a local rabbi, who actually makes the policy decisions for what is or is not acceptably kosher. Sometimes certifying rabbis (רב המכשיר, Rav Hamachshir; pl., Rav Hamachshirim) act as their own mashgichim; such is the case in many small communities. The requirements for becoming a mashgiach/mashgicha are being Jewish, being Sabbath-observant (shomer Shabbat), being Torah-observant (shomer mitzvot), and personally fulfilling the laws of kashrut (shomer kashrut). According to Rabbi Matisyahu Salomon, a senior Orthodox rabbi in the United States, the most important criterion is yirat Shamayim (fear of Heaven). Many AKO (Association of Kashrus Organizations) member organizations worldwide require mashgichim to complete the AKO Mashgiach Course, created by Kosher Institute of America, and obtain a Mashgiach ID Card as a prerequisite to working as a mashgiach or mashgicha. Mashgichim take on a great responsibility and the burden of a community. Mashgichim put their good name and the name of the community on everything done under their watch. Most mashgichim are Orthodox. However, there are also Conservative and Reform mashgichim. In 2003, the Kosher Law Enforcement Division of the New York Department of Agriculture and Markets issued fines to two Long Island butchers, Jeff and Brian Yarmeisch, because they had employed a Conservative mashgiach. The United States Supreme Court upheld a ruling by lower courts that New York's 88 year old law regulating kashrut was unconstitutional because it favored an Orthodox interpretation of Jewish religious law.

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Related concepts (5)

Rabbi

A rabbi (ˈræbaɪ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as semikha—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of the rabbi developed in the Pharisaic (167 BCE–73 CE) and Talmudic (70–640 CE) eras, when learned teachers assembled to codify Judaism's written and oral laws. The title "rabbi" was first used in the first century CE.

Mashgiach

Kashrut

Kashrut (also kashruth or kashrus, ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ('koʊʃər in English, כּשר), from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the term that in Sephardic or Modern Hebrew is pronounced kashér (), meaning "fit" (in this context: "fit for consumption").