## Facts

- Under Jewish law, Jews may not consume or come into contact with leavened bread products (*chametz*) during Passover.
- Raayk was a non-Jewish prisoner in a prison operated by Israel’s Prison Services Authority.
- Raayk was housed in a unit with other non-Jewish prisoners.
- Raayk sought to eat ordinary bread during the Passover week and petitioned the Tel Aviv District Court to require that non-Jewish prisoners have access to bread during Passover.
- The district court rejected the petition.
- Raayk filed a request for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court of Israel.
- Chief rabbinical authorities submitted opinions stating that non-Jewish prisoners housed only with non-Jewish prisoners could be given a fixed amount of bread before Passover begins, to keep and eat during the holiday.
- The rabbinical authorities also stated that Jewish guards could not be required to come into contact with bread or to distribute additional bread during Passover.
- The rabbinical authorities further stated that for non-Jewish prisoners housed in mixed units with Jewish prisoners, bread could not be provided during Passover because there was no practical way to prevent cross-contamination with Jewish prisoners’ food.
- The Prison Services Authority’s chief rabbi noted that prisoners’ private storage was generally not searched, and that if a prisoner saved bread from before Passover and ate it privately, it had not caused problems with Jewish cellmates.

## Issues

1. Whether the Prison Services Authority was required to supply or allow leavened bread to non-Jewish prisoners during Passover, given the religious restrictions affecting Jewish prisoners and Jewish prison staff.
2. Whether a policy allowing pre-Passover provision of bread to non-Jewish prisoners in all-non-Jewish units, while restricting bread in mixed units and during Passover distribution, was a lawful and reasonable balance of prisoners’ rights and prison administration needs.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Israel declined to order the Prison Services Authority to provide fresh bread to non-Jewish prisoners during Passover.
- The Court accepted an arrangement consistent with the rabbinical opinions: non-Jewish prisoners in all-non-Jewish units could receive a limited amount of bread before Passover to keep and consume during the holiday.
- The Court did not require Jewish guards to handle or distribute bread during Passover.
- The Court accepted that in mixed units containing Jewish and non-Jewish prisoners, the prison could restrict bread during Passover because of the difficulty of preventing *chametz* from entering shared spaces and affecting Jewish prisoners’ observance.

## Legal Principles

- Prisoners retain basic rights while incarcerated, but those rights may be limited by lawful prison rules tied to security, order, and workable administration.
- Courts review prison restrictions through a reasonableness and proportionality lens, weighing the burden on the prisoner against the legitimacy and practicality of the prison’s objectives.
- Where a restriction is time-limited and the authority provides a workable accommodation (such as pre-holiday provision and private consumption), a court may uphold the policy even if it limits ordinary access to preferred food.
- The state may take account of the religious rights and obligations of other prisoners and of prison staff when setting institutional rules, and it need not require staff to perform acts that would violate their religious duties.
- Practical feasibility in a closed institution matters: if a proposed alternative cannot realistically prevent spillover effects in shared areas (such as food contamination in mixed units), the authority may adopt a broader restriction.

## Conclusion

The Supreme Court of Israel left in place the Prison Services Authority’s Passover approach to *chametz*: it would not require the prison to supply bread during the holiday, approved pre-Passover bread provision for non-Jewish prisoners housed only with non-Jewish inmates, refused to require Jewish guards to handle bread during Passover, and accepted stricter limits in mixed units because preventing contamination in shared prison spaces was not realistically manageable.


Raayk v. Prison Services Authority, Request for Permission to Appeal 4201/09 (2010)