Rabbis: Israeli porno not kosher
Have you ever seen a porn movie with a kosher stamp? Kashrut authority was shocked to discover its symbol on a DVD
Israeli actors are depicted having sex against landscapes such as the Kinneret, the Galilee, and Tel Aviv. Only after US company that grants kosher certificates threatens porn movie's producer with lawsuit is kosher stamp taken off of DVD packages.
The movie "Assraelis" was produced by a Los Angeles-based porn movie company, Tight Fit, which is headed by Oren Cohen, an Israeli. On the package of the DVD version of the movie, which is sold on the Internet for USD 25, is affixed a kosher stamp similar to those appearing on kosher food products sold in the American market.
However, the marketing gimmick Cohen was looking to create was met by a warning letter and the threat of legal charges. The lawyers of the company, Kuf K, which grants kosher certificates to food products in the United States, sent a warning letter to Cohen, demanding that he remove the kosher stamp from the DVD package.
The company claimed in the letter that the kosher stamp used by Cohen is the spiritual property of Kuf K, and that only companies marketing food stuff can place the stamp on their products after having receiving permission to do so from Kuf K.
Cohen was shocked when he received the letter. "Do they have rights to a letter?" he quipped in an interview.
Legal trouble, not just in the US
However, after receiving the warning letter, the kosher stamp was removed from the DVD package, and was replaced with the word 'kosher.'Simultaneously, word of the "kosher" porn film was leaked to Internet sites, and recently has become one of the hot topics of conversation among the Jewish communities in the United States. It has also evoked the anger of the rabbis, who are outraged at the improper use of the kosher stamp.
It seems as though removing the kosher stamp won't keep the porn movie's producer safe from another legal front, this time in Israel.
It turns out that the stars of film don't use their real names, instead preferring to use screen names remarkably similar to the names of famous Israeli singers and actors, thus exposing the movie to more legal troubles in Israel.
