Kashrut Alert! Fake Rubashkin Meats Being Sold!

From Kashrut.com:

Unauthorized Turkey/Meat Products Bearing KAJ Logo* - January 18, 2006 Turkey or Meat products bearing this symbol - “Khal Adath Jeshurun - KAJ-Canada” are not authorized by “KAJ”-Breuer’s as they do not shecht in Canada and they do not currently use such a symbol. Turkey products bearing this symbol have been recently sold in Tucson, AZ. They are not “KAJ”-certified and may well be not kosher. Anyone spotting such a product is urged to call “KAJ” at 1-845-425-9089.

ed note from the KAJ: These products were sold under the Aaron's label.

That's right folks. Fake Rubashkin meats may be flooding the kosher market. But, for a company that habitually ripped the throats out of live animals, and for the very rabbis who koshered that, it may be hard to find a product short of pork that has a lower standard of kashrut than those produced by Aaron Rubashkin and family.

Comments

[Isa]

There is a difference!
The fake stuff [with hope]had critters that were humanely slaughtered.

[Carl D. Goldin]

It was I who discovered, investigated, and exposed this fraud. The statement by "kashrut.com" is incomplete, and somewhat misleading. The statement you attribute to the KAJ is completely false (the product under discussion was never marketed as Aarons).

For 5-6 years ending in March of 2006, Rincon Market in Tucson was selling meat and poultry with a counterfeit heksher reading (in Hebrew) "Te'udat Hechsher -- Sh'chitat Canada -- Tachat Hashgachat Kahal Adat Yeshurun", and (in English) "KAJ - CANADA".

The local Chabad "rabbi", Yossi Shemtov, personally vouched for the kashrus of the product.

I became suspicious last November, when my wife brought home a turkey with this "heksher". I contacted the KAJ, who said that they had not shechted in Canada for many years, and that they had NEVER shechted turkeys in Canada!

I notified the store, who refused to remove the product from their shelves. I notified "rabbi" Shemtov, who has not responded to date. I then notified Rabbi Wickler (Kashrus Newsletter), who (four months later) published an incomplete and inaccurate account (presumably fearing the repercussions of naming names, or describing the situation accurately).

Although they were initially helpful, both Rabbi Wickler and Rabbi Eidelstein (of the KAJ) now refuse to co-operate in further investigation, and refuse to testify against Shemtov.

Subsequent to the article appearing in Kashrus Newsletter, various (equally inaccurate) versions appeared in other kashrus publications. Meanwhile, Shemtov refused to notify his community that they had been eating treif (approved by him) for the past 5-6 years. He also refused to cooperate with an invesitgation, or discuss his role in the fraud.

Through various proxies he claimed that the meat was stolen and not treif (although no evidence of the former has ever been produced). He also claimed that anonymous poskim had ruled that no one's kitchen need be kashered (although he reportedly kashered his own), and claimed this (fictitious?) ruling excused him from notifying the community.

Despite numerous attempts by numerous persons to obtain information from the source, Shemtov still refuses to discuss this matter with anyone. The owner of the market insists that Shemtov approved the treif, and claims to have purchased it from "Salmon Goldberg" (or "Goldsberg"), who he also claims Shemtov approved. Yet no one else in the kashrus industry has ever heard of Goldberg, nor has the owner of Rincon Market ever produced any credible evidence that Gold[s]berg exists. Nor has the counterfeit heksher been seen anywhere but a single market in Tucson.

Furthermore, the counterfeit heksher is a crude rendition, obviously printed on someone's home computer. It bears no resemblance to any commercial label.

Furthermore, the meat and poultry lacked any indication of USDA inspection!

There is no reason to believe the meat derived from Rubashkin/Aarons. There is no reason to believe that the meat derived from any kosher source. There is no reason to believe it derived from any inspected source. It may well have been shechted in Shemtov's backyard.

And there is no reason to believe it met a humane demise.