New Treife Meat Scandal Rocks Brooklyn

Or does it? Early reports of treife meat sold in a Borough Park restaurant false.

The corrected report published about 8:30 am CDT:

Below is the real story

A newly employed non Jewish worker of Shwarma King restaurant was asked to go buy a pack of franks at the Kosher KRM super market on 39th street, instead of going to the Kosher store he bought one pack of non Kosher franks. the pack was never opened nor sold to any customer.

This is totally an isolated incident and according to Tartikover spokesman who provides the Hecsher for the store Rabbi Mosha Babad who told VIN news that in a couple of hours they will release a statement verifying the story above. In Fact Rabbi Babad insisted that the store has a 24 hours video surveillance and everything can be verified.

We apologize for our previous report which was based on dozens of eyewitness accounts which turned out to be inaccurate.

as we get more will update.

Comments

[sage]

It's very illuminating.

Here, our Rabbis are justifiably acting on an unfolding Kashrus Scandal.

But where were they during all of the years Rubashkin was selling treif?

[ah-pee-chorus]

just a thought. if kosher meat was priced reasonably close to non-kosher (yes, this might include scrapping the new invention glatt concept) there would be far less incentive for the unscrupulous. with the current differential there are no doubt many others doing the same who have not been caught yet. its a trade-off, would you rather eat non-glatt, which is completely kosher according to all, at more reasonable prices, or have an increased chance of eating actual treif, while paying higher prices.?

[omg]

Historical, hysterical. What's next?? I hate to imagine, its all pretty tricky, but then again, we are only human, Jew, Orthodox, Haredi, every possible kind and type of Jew, and also non-Jew, by the way, has all kinds of people.
So what's the big deal? Somebody cheated. They did an immoral and unscrupulous thing that offended many people and will probably cause them to go to the mikvah and stay there, that's where they belong!! I love so much of my people's ways, but alot I don't like. This I don't like, but so what else is new?? Its human, what this restaurant person did, its only human. Why do we oooohh, and Wow, as I did, first reading this headline. Its posed to shock. But what's so shocking. I think we oooohh and Wow, at least I speak for myself, is because they got caught. Yes, that is right, because this headline exposed their secret, and I want my secrets never to be exposed. And I'm only glad that it wasn't me who secret got exposed. That's called human nature, all of it, them, me, human, merely human.

[Rabbidw]

The price for Glatt should not be much more than the price for normal kosher and the price for normal kosher should not be much more than the price for treif. That is because anything that does not meet the highesr standard is sold at the lower standard, unlike Europe, where the meat was useless, if it cannot be sold to the community. And remember, their was no refrigeration in the good old days.
Yes, there are extra costs but the the costs are spread over many many pounds of animal, so the additional price per pound in minimal.

[critical_minyan]

we must ask ourselves a theological question at this time:
On whom does G-d lay the blame for eating kosher certified, but non-kosher meat.
Certainly the shop owner will go to hell. G-d will punish that person, who has caused others to sin out of venal greed, with an eternal hell, consisting of burning vats of acid, even the forced feeding of shit and pee, similar to what Elior Chen did to that poor child in Betar Illit.
However, G-d must also punish the lazy Rabbis and lazy consumers who were too trusting to do proper inspections. The one who certified the meat is to blame as well. His name was on the package, people trusted him to certify and yet he dissapointed us. G-d must surely punish him as well.
In today's economy, surely the Chezkas Kashrus must be re-evaluated, and stricter inspections by Daas Torah are a necessity, and G-d himself must throroughly increase the pain and suffering meted out to lazy Rabbis and meat consumers.

[ah-pee-chorus]

critical_minyan : it seems like i'm the only one who is safe.

[YW]

VIN took the story off their website.

[Dr. Dave]

This is just greed and fraud.

Violating commandments between adam l'chaveiro (between fellow people) only seem to get people upset when it also involves commandments between adam l'makom (between a person and G-d).

If we spent more time emphasizing v'ahavta l'reiacha c'mocha (loving your neighbor as yourself) things like this would never occur.

[critical_minyan]

ah-pee-chorus,
you may be safe from ingesting fraudulent kosher meat, but you are at danger of dealing with people who think they are holier than you, because they pay extra for a fake certification.
be careful, be very careful.

[norm]

Sounds like someone was hambushed

[Yochanan Lavie]

You didn't hear the postscript of this story. The employee then went to the Kosher Supermarket and bought a package of Rubbishcan franks. So, the store served trief after all...

[Yochanan Lavie]

Paint it Glatt (apologies to the Stones, again)

I see a treif frank and I want it to sell it glatt
No colors anymore my hats have all turned black
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my Rebbe
goes
I see a line of customers and they're all wearing black
With money and an appetite, I want them to come back
I see mashgichim turn their heads and quickly look away
If I will pay them, it just happens evry day
I look inside my shul and see them eating glatt
I see my mezuzah and it the super has painted it black
Maybe the "malchusa" will fade away and I'll not have to face the facts
Its not easy facin' up when your business is "in the black"

No more will my tztitziyot go turn a deeper techailet
I could not foresee this thing happening to my payot
If I look hard enough into the settin' sun
You'll see me davening "vasikin" before the mornin' comes

I see a trief dog and I want it painted glatt
No treifeh anymore I want it to turn glatt
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head because of Modesty patrols

Hmm, hmm, hmm,...
I wanna see it painted, painted glatt
Black as tefillin, black as hats
I wanna see the brand name blotted out from the package
I wanna see it painted, painted, painted, painted glatt

[steve]

You wonder how many of these "innocent mistakes" have happened at this restaurant and others. Shades of Le Marais when the chef bought dairy butter and unkosher fish.

[in the know]

whats interesting is that the OU certified restaurants which serve meat products all have mashgiach temidis.
The majority of so called HEMISHE restaurants do not ! go figure the logic here

[WoolSilkCotton]

They were ready to kill each other over some stupid hotdogs.
What a bunch of medieval a-holes.

[dr. dave]

From VIN:
"Rabbi Babad added that the restaurant is under 24-hour video surveillance and that the Beis Din is waiting for the technician’s arrival so that footage can be examined to determine the precise sequence of events and the parties involved. "

New Chumra (apologies to Bill Mahr's new rules):

We need to install 24- hour video surveilance in every store, shul, beit medrash etc.

Maybe even install them in borsolino hats, just like the dashboard cameras on "Cops".

The modesty police might want to install cameras in ladies dressing rooms to ensure that they are dressing in a tzniut fashion.

On shabbat we may need to hire shabbat "goyeurs" to monitor us.

But then again don't "chumras doche l'shabbat"(ridiculous unhalachic strictures take precedence over the sabbath) ?

[WoolSilkCotton]

So a machgiach can be replaced by a 24-hour video camera? Very nice.

[Rabbidw]

Let us get the rules straight. How can you eat your wife's cooking? (Actally, my wifes cooking is completely inedible but that is not the point). Or, in your case, Shmarya, how do you eat your mothers cooking?
Basically who is the mashgiach at home? The answer is, a mashgiach is not required , either at home or at a restaurant, because we are allowed to rely on one reliable witness, (a wife, a mother, a friend or a friends wife) to tell you that something is kosher. I knew the owner of a kosher Restaurant and I never asked him who was his mashgiach. I ate in the man's home, if I trust him in his home, why should I not trust his restaurant?
So why does every restaurant have a Mashgiach? Obviously. because no restaurant can survive if its customers are limited to the friend of the owner. The Hashgacha allows strangers to patronize the restaurant.
What has happened is the hashgacha institution has to a large degree relied on its knowledge of the owner, to issue a public Hashgacha that is not based on supervision, but based on its certification of the individual. This is not necessarily halachically wrong, but it is not what the community of dtrangers expects of the hashgacha institution. This is what happened in Monsey a few years ago.
As far as video cameras, it sounds like a terrific idea where 5-10 restaurants may be monitored by one Rabbi using video surveillance and someone else making physical spot checks.

[steve]

The mashgichim that the OU hire are outfitted with blinders, muzzle and ear plugs.

[Successful Messiah]

Once again we see a sterling example of why we should all donate to Shmarya schnorer campaign. After all, if Shmarya hadn't copied this information from the VIN site, how would we all know of this important information?

[WoolSilkCotton]

About 220 a-holes have already posted on this article on VIN.
And yet nobody there commented on the adjacent article about obsessive-compulsive disorder.

[Yochanan Lavie]

The mashgichim that the OU hire are outfitted with blinders, muzzle and ear plugs.

Posted by: steve | March 17, 2009 at 12:31 PM

Like the Who's Tommy (I aready did a parody).

[steve]

Instead of Babad, just call the hashgocho, "BAD". Read what Rav Sternbuch has to say about this supervision:

http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/search?q=babad

Mini translation courtesy of Rabbi Shain:

"I have had bad experiences with them in South Africa-They permitted the meat that we banned & the Matzos that we banned, now they want to permit the wine that we banned."

[Anon]

did you see this video yet?? it's crazy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7CzMk6-8Eg

[WoolSilkCotton]

++5-10 restaurants may be monitored by one Rabbi using video surveillance++

Each restaurant kitchen will need about 5 cameras.
So one machgiach can sit and watch 50 TV screens, and that should be good enough to give a kashrus certification. Oy vay. Really, why bother at all?

And will the price of such 'supervision' be reduced by 9/10th's, since now one rabbi can watch 10 restaurants at a time?

[FirstGenerationBavarianAmerican]

I can see something like this happening if the restaurant's manager on duty was new to the area. Many, many restaurants in NYC employ legal and illegal workers who don't speak English. We call them Mexicans, though some come from other Spanish speaking countries. They have this uncanny ability to cook all sorts of different cuisines. Chinese, pizza, Italian, Mexican (of course), sandwiches, Brazilian, you name it. They also know a few hundred food-related words in English. They know the meaning of the phrase 'Gimme a Slice' (of pizza). They also nod like they understand what you are saying even they can't understand a word of what you are saying. They could have fooled the manager.

These 'Mexicans' are also the largest customers of Bar-S frankfurters. If a manager says to them 'Buy Glatt Kosher frankfurters', the only word they understand is 'frankfurters'. To them, frankfurters = Bar-S.

This particular brand is widely distributed in the NYC area, and often winds up in dollar stores and street corner bodegas. It is poor people's food.

[daastorah]

only answer: drones over boro park. that will solve the problem

[maven]

Hey, YL, that was a good one! Sold as glatt, I love it. too bad you weren't writing these when the human hair controversy, you could have done "Brown Sheitel" , I guess "Gimme Shechita" is en route, perhaps and "Turd on the Run" can be used for the Rubaschkin scandal without alteration at all, and I hate to think of what you might do with "Let it Bleed". You'll have to release a whole album, "Schnorrer's Banquet"...

[WoolSilkCotton]

Perhaps an eruv encircling Boro Park, but as a real wall, to allow carrying on Shabbos, as well as closer kashrus supervision, and a sign on the gate reading 'NY State Psychiatric Institute- Boro Park Annex'

[Office of the Chief Rabbi]

YL: Golden! Just Golden!

[Yochanan Lavie]

Thanks, Maven, OCR.

[Hometown Postville]

Maybe some random lab tests need to be done on the burgers served at _____'s(pick any fast food chain). Rabbit, goat, horsemeat?

[shmuel]

"We apologize for our previous report which was based on dozens of eyewitness accounts which turned out to be inaccurate."

Explain. Please.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Shmuel, as Groucho Marx said: "Who are you going to believe, your own eyes, or ME?"