Earlier this month, OU Kosher CEO Rabbi Menachem Genack and COO Rabbi Moshe Elefant traveled to France to meet with the Paris Consistoire’s highest officials. Formed in 1808 by Napoleon to organize the Jewish communities, the Paris Consistoire is the most important local Consistoire and includes Jews living in the capital and its suburbs.
Rabbis Genack and Elefant were invited to discuss matters regarding kosher foods. While in Paris, they visited several Jewish communities and schools and participated in ceremonies at the Paris Great Synagogue of La Victoire for Yom Hazikaron and Yom Haatzmaut. The Parisian rabbis were privileged to discuss key issues with the OU rabbis, whose expertise was praised by Rav Jermiyahu M. Kohen, the local Av Beth Din.
The Paris Consistoire is a non-profit service organization. Among their current goals, they hope to make kosher food more accessible to all, including French Jews in financial straits. They seek to enlarge the range of kosher products available and they fight to prevent the adoption of a proposed European ban on shechitah.
We thank Rabbi Genack and Rabbi Elefant for representing the OU in evaluating the possibility of partnering with the Paris Consistoire in pursuit of our common goals of serving the Jewish community, especially in the areas of kosher food availability. You can read more about this visit here.