The New York Post has a story about yet another kosher food scandal.
A kosher-food supervisor at an Upper East Side store was fired after complaining about insect-infested food to his boss, who told him, “Don’t worry, it’s protein,” a new lawsuit charges.
Moshe Iskhakov, who worked as a mashgiach at Park East Kosher starting in December 2013, alleges in his Manhattan federal-court lawsuit that conditions at the Jewish butcher were far from kosher — bugs covered the vegetables, rats ran rampant and meat returned by customers was resold.
When Iskhakov complained, his supervisor told him to just “wash the insects off of the vegetables” while store owner Michael Kane quipped, “Don’t worry, it’s protein,” the suit says. The bosses then retaliated, making him dispose of dead rats and refusing him paid vacation and sick time, he alleges.
I see it repeatedly. Religion industrialized = corruption.
I recently put a mashgiach on the spot about trusting kashrut in my local kosher market. He started out with a strong defense of his industry and the market where he was working. And my son who was present at the time became somewhat embarrassed that his father was displaying so much chutzpah to actually interrogate this very religious looking mashgiach. But after some hard questions and citing some examples of kosher food scandals (including the Agriprocessors fiasco), the mashgiach finally admitted the truth; one can’t trust any food product for kashrut that isn’t self-supervised. He even went on to point fingers at a Monsey butcher who was caught reselling chickens from Foster Farms (a story with which I was not familiar).
Yes, I did come off quite forceful and without much tact initially. But sometimes that’s what it takes to get the truth to surface from some religious people trying to maintain a facade of integrity. My young yeshiva bochur was shocked and later said “Wow, you were right, Dad. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t heard it myself.”
(hat tip: Wigmore)
The only reason you need a mashgiach is because you don’t personally know the owner and so you can’t be sure of his reliability regarding kashrus. Therefore, you are hiring someone who represents a supervising agency you do trust. If you can’t trust that guy, do you then hire a mashgiach for the mashgiach?
This is why I thought the recommendation to do 24/6 video surveillance of the mashgiach and shochet at Agri-Star was a dubious endeavor. If you can’t trust the mashgiach and have to hire an independent party to watch him via a remote video monitor, then the whole thing becomes absurd.
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If only this sort of behaviour was shocking.
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The Monsey episode was big news several years ago. Google it.
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You obviously have your head in your ass and your headline demonstrates your illiteracy. Congratulations on embarrassing us all.
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Thanks for the correction. Headline fixed.
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Also, when the owner asks forgiveness from the community he deceived, and pays restitution the the people he stole from, and promises to never do it again, please let me know. I’ll be happy to post it.
Do you care about kashrut? I do. My family goes to great lengths to maintain a kosher standard.
And precisely who should be embarrassed? Me? You? “Us all”? Because this guy was a thief and lied to his customers? HE SHOULD BE EMBARRASSED! And I hope he is.
I’m not embarrassed by this. And honestly, I hope my post will inspire Jews who want to keep a high standard of kashrut to be more critical of the kosher industry.
When I pay for a kosher product I want it to be authentic, not some cheap imitation.
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We must have cared, because we care that he’s gone.
I’m grateful to him. He opened my eyes to a lot of things that are wrong in the Jewish world.
Especially within Chabad, who at one point in my life I felt could do no wrong.
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Below is a comment I just made at Yidscreed in my reply to a mean spirited anti-Shmarya rant ; I won’t waste my time going to that site again. BTW, I wrote the comment below while my head was still in a pre-coffee fog.
“Actually, many people still care about and appreciate Shmarya. He and FM weren’t perfect. None of us are. Shmarya complied and published news that addressed taboo subjects within the Jewish community especially frum community. Don’t over-rated media reporters. Concepts such as investigative journalism and objectivity are more myth than fact. This is my first time at this site.
You failed to address the most important good contributions of FM such as publishing news about frum pedophiles and rapists, child abuse, corrupt rabbis and civic leaders, and other criminal behavior. A community that hides and denies such terrible things is dysfunctional. Sadly, there is a lack of healthy spirituality even among religious Jews.
Everyone, please have a good Shabbos.”
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“Because this guy was a thief and lied to his customers?”
Wow chafraud. Even Shmarya was conscientious enough to hide the guilty before proven innocent attitude toward Haredim with weasel words (“allegedly” and all its ingenious convoluted synonyms Shmarya cooked up) but you just come out and say it straight out. Like a former employee who is suing the company is such a good standard. What dreck.
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“but you just come out and say it straight out.”
Yea, I do. Would you like an “allegedly”?
Okay, allegedly.
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“sometimes that’s what it takes to get the truth to surface from some religious people trying to maintain a facade of integrity. ”
That sums it up and something Shmarya understood all too well.
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Many of the religious people justify stealing to themselfs by holding themselfs more woth then nonjews also they need the money since their lifes are much more difficult its like survival of the fittest.
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Have you seen what’s going on there? There’s now a line above the comment box which says “Comments are moderated, and will not appear until the author has approved them.”
Between that and the awful articles they’re posting, they’ll have no readers or commenters in real short order.
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APC
That’s the whole point: they intend to shut it down.
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It’s done. They even junked Shmarya’s logo today.
Sadly, as I expected, whitewashed and sanitized.
They may as well start posting wedding and bris announcements.
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Chafraud Depravitch
I truly hope that you earn an honest living and are not a burden on the taxpayer. My major issue with Scott of FM O.B.M. was that he held everyone to high values whilst his moral compass was everything but that.
Plagiarizing, copy and paste or plain good old muckraking does not make one a worker. It is by far not a livelihood. Mud slinging is for losers.
He’s an angry person with pent-up hatred towards anything religious. That and only that fuels his sorry life. Please don’t your shortcomings on others. Go out there and try hard to do the best to your abilities to earn as much income as possible. Give your kids a decent education so they have a brighter future than yours.
For the record: so-called child abuse is an overrated theme and given way more attention than it deserves. A few bittet individuals with way too much free time got a kick out of causing such panic. Yemach shemom vezichrom!
It’s time to move on to more important issues plaguing our community.
Rather concentrate on yourself and yours, than being miserable and busying yourself with narishkeiten that concerns you not.
In regards to Kashruth and supervising agencies, all I can say is that it is disatrous. It is not much more than a racket that lines the pockets of those too lazy to work for a living…
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I don’t take any government benefits whatsoever. My wife and I work very hard at earning a living and preserving our Jewish culture. The expenses of Jewish living are an incredible burden on us. And at times we have found our living conditions near poverty and total crap. OTOH, our local Chabad shluchim suck donors for as much as possible, live a far more luxurious lifestyle, and pump the government for everything they can – from religious organization grants to supplemental food programs. I personally couldn’t afford all of the hard liquor they have on their tables weekly.
When it came to Shmarya, I really focused on what I liked most about him. He had the guts to do what many wouldn’t dare. And he was 1,000 times the journalist I could ever be. He always gave credit, as far as I know, I do too. But you’ll find way more C&P out of me with only a brief opinion or thoughts on my experiences. I’m not looking to become ‘Scoop Depravitch.” I just want to be a part of filling the gap left by the loss of FM. And though I can’t keep nearly the pace SR did, I have no intention of stopping anytime soon, nor being bought out (unless the money is absolutely fantastic – LOL). Who knows? Censorship by buyout could become a new form of Jewish philanthropy. Less $2.35 million to bail outs for Chabad and more to the Jewish families in need that Chabad wouldn’t lift a finger to help.
If Shmarya was angry, then it was only for being hurt first. Under different circumstances I have felt the same. It’s hard to leave a people-using cult like Chabad and not feel hurt and angry. I don’t think he hated everything religious, and if he were nearby, he would be welcomed into my home as a friend. My yeshiva kids have fine midot and would treat him with respect. The oldest was an occasional reader of the old FM blog.
And I can’t agree that child sexual abuse is overrated. I don’t plan to cover it as much because several others do it far better than I. And honestly, I find the topic quite depressing. But as long as people like former FM poster ‘A Good Jew’ are willing to stand up to sexual predators and are subsequently shunned by their community for it, we have a very serious problem. I doubt you would feel it was overrated if you were the father who found your child was sexually invaded by discovering blood in your child’s underwear.
I love my people. And part of loving someone is wanting to heal them when they are sick.
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Perv
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CD
There was nothing noble in Shmarya’s work. He is nothing more than a sad chap. His anger stems from the fact that he is a two bit loser with nothing of any substance to show for himself.
I am happy to hear that at least you work hard and attempt to earn an honest living and respect you for that. אשריך ואשרי חלקך. I know that it can be quite the challenge to sustain while keeping a frum lifestyle in the major cities of the great US of A. However, being miserable and hating only make matters worse. Be happy with what you do have: great kids? loving spouse? a roof over your head? good health? C’mon! You really can’t find happiness?
Yes, I am aware that there are those who get off on fondling our children. However, those busying themselves with exposing such and are leading the crusade while driving the community mad, trouble me at least as much. I will even go as far to say that they are closeted pedophiles. So yes, we should deal with the issue, but let’s not blow things out of proportions.
I’d like to see more men and women be occupied and earn an honest living. Much of our troubles would be remedied by it.
I wish you all the best.
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Aw, you make me yearn for the times when Shmarya would take someone like you, call them an “asswipe”, ban them and all was right with the world.
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DH
And you, my friend are a two bit punk who encourages sleaze-balls like Scott. I understand that you can’t get over the fact tha FM is now in the archives of history. Get over it. Find something more meaningful in your life than rolling in mud.
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How much is two bits?
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FMBanned,
So what are you doing here?
Find something more meaningful in your life than chasing after the FM club.
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@ WOOLSILKCOTTON,
I did not know you are an idiot until I read your comment.
Chafraud is trying to inform the public about the evil of the frum communities by publishing articles since the scum who took over from Shmarya
do not do it .
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English is probably not your primary language, and so I recommend you read my comment more slowly in order to understand the turn of the phrase.
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To :FMBANNED ,
Everything Shmarya did was noble . Shmarya was noble himself . Shmarya informed the public about what’s going on in the frum communities and he did it with legitimate articles . We learned a lot from Shmarya , without his help , we would have been in the dark .
‘……..than rolling in the mud ‘….. bc for you discussing about serious issues , life threatening situations is rolling in the mud .
You really proved your worthless yeshiva education .
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FMBANNED–What about covering thievery?you think thats also over covered,.the rabbis are the ones who should be blamed for us covering molestation and abuse not those that cover it to correct an evil, you come here to dictate to others your sick thought of shoving molestation under the rug so to speak in my oppinion any rabbi that is found to have molested a child should be excommunicated from judaism but the rabbi are indifferent ,with their undifference they are as guilty as the molesters themselfs.
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