01/28/2025
The community’s trust in HKA is dependent on the trust that exists in concert with HKA and its merchants. In order to ensure this type of relationship, it’s paramount that merchants operate under a willingness to collaborate, learn and grow.
We celebrate that we are all humans made in hashem’s image and that perfection is not achievable, nor is it an expectation of HKA and the Vaad, or a requirement for certification. In a trusting relationship, HKA staff can assist when protocols are confusing, when protocols may have been unintentionally broken, when staff members need more training around protocols and more. We do so to benefit our merchant partners and ensure the community can enjoy more dining options with full confidence.
HKA standards are established and enforced by the rabbinic board (the Vaad) of the six head Rabbis from Houston’s Orthodox synagogues. HKA employs rabbinic administrators and staff to implement and monitor its nationally-recognized high standards. If the Vaad no longer feels that it can trust operations within a facility and identifies a pattern of dishonesty, it must act with conviction. Name calling, finger pointing, harsh and/or threatening language and/or consistent mistrust do not exist within working partnerships.
Ultimately, the Vaad alone makes termination decisions based on supervisory reporting, halachic standards, severity and intentionality of infractions, trustworthiness and a healthy partnership with merchants. Terminations are rare and are not made lightly. An HKA administrator’s role is to respect and enforce these decisions on behalf of the Vaad and in the best interests of the Jewish community.
As part of HKA’s standard written operating procedures (which each merchant understands and agrees to uphold in electing to become certified), we share alerts of certifications, terminations and food products found in retail stores in as close to real time as possible. We do not publicly disclose specific infractions or why a termination decision was made in order to protect merchants or individuals from lashon harah (evil speech).
If merchants are able to secure an alternative hechsher (kosher certification), HKA leaves it to individuals to determine their comfort and confidence dining there. While HKA does not provide opinions or endorsements around other Kashruth certifications, it does recommend organizations vetted and overseen by the CRC (Chicago Rabbinical Council, https://consumer.crckosher.org/acceptable-kashrus-agencies/) and consulting with their individual Rabbis for guidance.
We appreciate that the process of applying for certification, ongoing supervision from an onsite mashgiach (who is employed by each merchant) and from an HKA administrator along with protocols and adherence to these protocols can be confusing both for our merchants and the general public and often is accompanied by a learning curve. As such, we look forward to offering future educational opportunities for the community around the practice and observance of kashruth, as we do with our merchant partners throughout the course of our partnership.
