A very serious affair, in which Jews were nearly served meat
which hadn't been kashered, was disclosed a number of
days ago. It occurred in the simcha hall affiliated
with the Beis Knesses HaGodol in Jerusalem. Due to this
serious occurrence, the Chief Rabbinate fined the managers of
the hall, and decided to assign an on-site kashrus
supervisor to the hall from the time it opens until it
closes. In addition to this, instructions were given to
kasher the utensils which had come in contact with a
kli rishon. Officials in the Jerusalem rabbinate
warned that one should not expect to receive mehadrin
meal at a hall that does not regularly have mehadrin
supervision.
Mr. A. M. of Jerusalem recently married off his daughter. On
the copy of the menu which he had ordered prior to the
wedding from the owners of the hall of the Great Synagogue,
it was clearly written: "Lemehadrin, glatt kosher
meat, Beis Yosef."
On the afternoon of the wedding, Mr. M. arrived at the hall
in order to inspect the proceedings. He entered the kitchen,
and noticed the mashgiach standing there, but he
claimed that he wasn't the mashgiach of the food for
that evening. "I only supervise the mehadrin produce,"
he said to Mr. M., in a manner which seemed to imply that the
meat products at the wedding were not mehadrin.
Mr. M. decided to investigate the situation more carefully,
and began to examine the labels on the wrappings of the meat
which had been prepared for cooking for his wedding. A brief
examination indicated that the meat was Dutch calf meat,
which hadn't been kashered yet at all. "On the crates
of the meat was a label which clearly stated: Kosher, Not
Kashered."
"I took a few of those labels and approached the man in
charge, who at first adamantly claimed that the meat was
kosher and glatt. I showed him the labels, which said :
`Kosher, Not Kashered,' and then he began to evade my
questions, claiming that he had purchased the meat at a well-
known store, and that those labels simply hadn't been removed
from the box after the meat had been kashered," Mr. M.
told Yated Ne'eman.
"I told him, `You're feeding Jews treifos. More than
400 people are liable to eat treif meat here tonight,
and you're trying to tell me that the meat is kosher?'
"I was forced to forego meat at the wedding and had chicken
served instead. After the wedding, the affairs director of
the hall admitted that the meat hadn't been kashered,
and said that the mashgiach was to blame."
The disappointed and offended host turned to the Chief
Rabbinate, and filed an official complaint in the Nationwide
Unit for the Enforcement of the Prohibition Against Kashrus
Fraud. Rafi Yochai, the director of this unit in the Chief
Rabbinate wrote a letter to Mr. M. saying that it had become
clear that the owner of the hall had indeed violated
kashrus procedures in a gross manner. Rabbi Yitzchok
Ilovitzki, the head supervisor of the Chief Rabbinate who
conducted the investigation, claimed that a number of
decisions were made in the wake of this serious
occurrence.
It was decided that the supervision in the hall would from
now on be constant and that a mashgiach would be
present in the hall from the moment of its opening until its
closing. All of the dishes and pots which had come in contact
with a kli rishon had to be kashered. The owner
of the hall was fined an administrative fine, due to his
violation of the Law Against Fraud in Kashrus, which he had
committed by his failure to abide by kashrus
standards.
The Rabbinate says that halls can reliably maintain only the
level of kashrus as agreed on their original
documentation, in order to prevent the possibility of
deceiving the person who has ordered the food for the affair.
Officials in the Rabbinate said that it is not inconceivable
that similar occurrences occur at other times, and people
must carefully examine the food which arrives at the
halls.
The deputy chairman of the Religious Council of Jerusalem,
Rabbi Yehoshua Pollack, who is responsible for its Kashrus
Department, told Yated Ne'eman that mehadrin
level of kashrus can only be reliably ordered at a
hall if that hall has a regular certificate attesting to the
fact that it provides mehadrin services. "If a person
wants to supervise the food and the kashrus of the
hall himself, let him do so. But he should know that in doing
this, the owner of the hall will have to bring in food
products from outside which are not regularly used in the
hall, and this is liable to cause problems."
He then added that the host of a simcha who wants to
hold a celebration in a hall which is not mehadrin,
should not make an agreement with the owner of the hall,
regarding the provision of mehadrin food products,
because the Rabbinate does not approve this. There is no
mehadrin supervision whatsoever on a hall which does
not have a kosher lemehadrin certificate.
The Rabbinate said that publicizing this information will
deter attempts to violate kashrus procedures, and save
innocent Jews from eating treifos.
