Many voices have been heard in the wake of the kashrus scandal that rocked the frum world when a food establishment in Manalapan, New Jersey, was caught serving customers treif meat and chicken. Various suggestions have been made to resolve the issues that plague the kashrus industry, but none rise to the occasion and truly resolve anything.
Until now. I have the answer to fix it all. Perhaps as President Trump said, “I alone can fix it.”
What we must do is put into place a framework in which every single person involved with kashrus – mashgichim, consumers, store employees, etc. – are all searching for issues that may exist within food establishments.
How do we go about doing this? Well, I’ve thought about this for a bit, and the answer is simple. And elegant. Elegant in its simplicity, actually. Gather ’round and listen (or read).
What we should implement is a system in which people are not only being paid to ensure the kashrus in stores, but also to find problems. For example, if a mashgiach discovers an issue that ultimately causes a store to lose its hashgacha and shut down, that mashgiach should get, say, a $100,000 bonus.
The same goes for anyone else. If a store employee reports to the hashgacha that he or she noticed a serious violation of kashrus standards, they should be compensated. If a customer notices an issue, they too should be compensated.
If we are only paying people to stop kashrus problems from arising, those problems will keep cropping up. It leads to apathy. If you don’t see a problem then there’s nothing to report. But if you’re actively searching for issues, that changes the entire ballgame.
Imagine a world where mashgichim, store employees, and customers are all looking to cash in on some sweet bonus cash action. Imagine the level of scrutiny – both paid and unpaid – that every kosher food establishment would have. The situation in Manalapan never could have happened.
As investing guru and a dear admiree of mine Charlie Munger says: “Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.”
And my own quote: We have to realize that kashrus is a team effort. There is no I in kashrus. There is only kash.
Is the idea a brilliant one? Yes, if I may say so myself (and I may). All we need are some bold and hearty individuals to take my advice and implement it swiftly, efficiently, and with aplomb. And you can all thank me later.
Y.L.
Brooklyn, New York
NOTE: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of YWN.
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32 Responses
An absolutely awful idea.
Here is one reason why it is a horrible idea:
You’ve given an 18 year old minimum wage employee a $100K incentive to treif up the restaurant and report it to claim the money.
How many hours would he need to work to get $100K legit and how quickly can he get it by bringing cheese into a fleishigs establishment?
When considering a potential idea, one must consider the law of unintended consequences, of which this suggestion of yours would have plenty.
This is one of the most ridiculous things I have heard. It it a totally negative approach and will create a huge lack of trust within the industry. Crazy.
what nonsense beginning with the headline , kashrus is at its best in history , kashrus by its nature is driven by the customer , the customer level of adherence is driven by many factors… as an example there are 1000 restaurants full every night that many “would never eat there” . thats fine for the business as there are many that will eat there – the big orgs offer a basic level if one is too strict & “bothers the owner” its easy to go to another thats more makil most customers have no way of knowing better or weaker…
finally the same way you cant pay a teacher in school as the corporate world u cant pay low level mashgichim executive salaries so the best agency is dependent on the employee pool they can attract … like hospitals & nurses
I don’t know who Y L is, but he is clearly nuts. How could a self-respecting website like this one even contemplate publishing this stupidity?
Oh boy your feelings are gonna be hurt pretty bad
This is an example of orthodox Jewry having lost its way
We are not policemen of Hashem we are his children we don’t ask our kids to bust their siblings we encourage them to protect one another
In Iran and Saudi they have the religious police
It sounds a unjewish idea to me
this is a very negative approach. “Imagine a world where mashgichim, store employees, and customers are all looking to cash in on some sweet bonus cash action”. the amount of headaches this would cause store owners, mashgichim, and kashrus org with people trying to make money.
PS
Do I get a cash reward for my comment
It sounds kosher to me 😀
Where is the $100,000 going to come from? Such large bounties would cause those who scheme to find a way to collect a cash bonus fare in excess of a part time mashgiach’s salary. An absolutely ridiculous proposal lacking any merit.
I think the other commenters have shot down the idea but in case they haven’t, here are several reasons why this is not a good idea:
1)Did you ever hear of the story of the difference between a housewife and a cat? The housewife wants the mice out, the cat wants to eat the mice.
2)Money does not grow on trees.
3) Nobody should be actively seatrching for issues as Yidden have a chezkas kashrus.
Among other reasons, this is not a good idea.
Haha coffee room trolling is bleeding over to the ywn front page. What a terrible idea!
A couple problems with this:
1. This is the same as incentivizing police officers to give more tickets as boost to their department. And will generate problems where they aren’t any.
2. Fraud will be prevalent and easy to commit.
3. The prices of kosher food will increase dramatically in order to pay these “kashrus fines”.
This is in line with –
Crime Stoppers: “Do you have information about a crime? Provide it anonymously and receive up to $3,500 for a tip that leads to an arrest and indictment.”
Whistle-Blowers: “The IRS Whistleblower Office pays monetary awards to eligible individuals whose information is used by the IRS. The award percentage depends on several factors, but generally falls between 15 and 30 percent of the proceeds collected and attributable to the whistleblower’s information.”
You can never trust a rat.
Snitches get stitches and end up in ditches.
I agree to the everybody’s comments, but also think it is in place to compliment the OP for his creative thinking, and trying to be solution-focused.
As with many good ideas, he should consider all the feedback and try to tweak the idea, or think of an alternative solution.
We need people thinking out-the-box in order to get any real improvements.
Obviously this is a trial balloon for a new YWN news feature called “Gevaltdik….the stupidest policy ideas that never made it to prime time”. Each week they will find some kollel dropout who will offer his own prescription for how take yiddeshkeit to the next step.
Y.L. from Brooklyn, are you going to be paying all the $100,000 payouts? Otherwise, who is?
I echo the sentiments expressed. If it was Purim, I would have thought it was a joke. Ludicrous and will only drive owners away from Kashrus. Look at Israel. Too stringent rules and penalties and alternatives will be found.
Inflation makes food cost enough without adding on layers of cost.
Meshugeh- totally. Go back to your Ivory Tower.
I have a much simpler cost effective idea. The Mashgich’s should once a week / period of time be required to review the businesses credit card/bank statements. The establishment must show a kosher store(s) on said statement where the food is purchased along with corresponding receipt. Armed with this information you can calculate how much food/cost the establishment needs/pay over a period of time. Any large discrepancies in the numbers will be easy to spot. Can the establishment still sneak in minor purchases of Trief this way? Sure. But they won’t. Because with minor numbers it’s no longer profitable and not worth the risk/bother.
As others pointed out the dangers, there is a precedent for this approach – computer companies pay for bugs found in their software, especially cybersecurity problems. This works. So, maybe the idea deserves consideration, but a lot of safeguards are required. Say, employees and mashgichim and their reltives are not eligible, only third parties. Rewards need to be way less than $100K. Information remains private until agency checks it out.
Of course all the Naysayers jump to attack YL’s well intentioned idea. Let’s eat Tarfus mamash and don’t even try to fix the system. Where are all these commentators actually proposing solutions. Pure negativity. Tsk Tsk.
That being said, some have pointed out that given incentives, people may create counterincetives to falsely create treifos. Thus, I think we need to offer a $100,000 incentive to those who determine someone else made a false claim. Those who make a false claim should be put in cherem and banned from YWN.
@gadolhadorah sounds like you have something bothering you. “Each week they will find some kollel dropout who will offer his own prescription for how take yiddeshkeit to the next step”. There is help call relief 7184319501
Y. L. is nothing more than a total fool with incredibly greedy passion for money.
So how about you Y.L. staying at home and never eating out at a restaurant:-
1) You would save so much money on not eating out.
2) Guaranteed you shall never be served Treifa food at a restaurant.
first of all, i appreciate the humor in the letter. it made the letter worth reading to the end. as far as the idea itself, i think its worth exploring. obviously, $100k as a blanket reward is goofy but in broad terms, the concept that some form of reward is awarded to someone who tips off the hashgacha is not a bad idea. of course, there needs to be a thorough investigation performed by the hashgacha to eliminate the possibility of fraud in the reporting process. i like it.
What are the rules? You can’t see much in the customer section. Can Any unemployed oisfarf “Consumer” demand to be allowed into the kitchen to “Investigate” & ask a million questions? Can they stop production while they double check the lettuce?
The whole idea is ridiculous but consumers is beyond that.
So…. the OP’s idea in different words is that the issue with Kashrus is pretty much the same as any financial auditing regime, which is why there have been so many financial scandals. There is little incentive in finding issues as closing down an establishment causes a loss of revenue to the Vaad Kashrus. Therefore it would be better if the Kashrus was independently funded, much like it would be better if auditors were not paid by the company they are auditing.
I entirely disagree with this assertation. Our Vaadim are thorough and dedicated. Yes, fraud happens, but it can be sophisticated and very hard to detect without a level of hashgocho that goes way beyond what halacha dictates. Practically speaking, unless you go back to the European model of Kehillo funding via Kehillo taxes, it’s not going to happen.
Jack: Thanks so much. I called the 718 number you provided and Joe Namath told me I can get free kishka with a top of the line chasideshe hashgacha with my Medicare advantage benefits.
On a serious note, I can’t be serious about some trollish letter written to demonstrate the obvious potential for fraud in our kashruth system. However, consider that in all liklihood, the vast percentage of restaurants and markets subject to hashgacha seem to do a reasonably good job of providing quality products at a reasonable cost and that recent incident in New Jersey is an exception to the riule. For some even a single incident is too much but we live in a real world.
All those who commented: Are you Jewish?? How on earth can you speak to someone in such a mean way? Are you aware that there are plenty of non-Jews who view this site? There are real human beings behind the screen names!
YL, the idea that you mentioned has potential, although there are details that would need to get worked out. I suggest that you speak to kashrus agencies.
Let’s intelligently and calmly, welcome and discuss ideas
Out of all the negative comments I don’t believe anyone touched on the obvious
Why is a cash incentive “whistleblower “program needed when there is already an incentive, to prevent people from eating tarfus ?
As frum yidden we should be worried about other yidden eating traif and if you see something you should say something (without the need of cash incentives) wouldn’t everyone here do the same. If we worked at an eatery and saw something wrong wouldn’t we tell someone?
I think an independent review board makes more sense. A privately funded investigator that anyone can call who would then make it his business to check out complaints.
Incentive? How about Yiras Shamayim and knowing that you are protecting Jews from treifus?? How about honesty and integrity? How about sleeping soundly at night with a clear conscience?
When a non Jewish business owner tricks the mashgiach, (assuming mashgichim were honest) it just means that the he lacked experienced and was gullible, or the kashrus organizations policies werent strict enough.
The organization here must take responsibility as we depend on them, not the restaurateur.
Great idea, we should implement this everywhere. Imagine if we told our lawyers that they can bill minimum wage, but if they actually do their job then they get $100,000 bonus.
The term cobra effect was coined by economist Horst Siebert based on an anecdote of an occurrence in India during British rule. The British government, concerned about the number of venomous cobras in Delhi, offered a bounty for every dead cobra. Initially, this was a successful strategy; large numbers of snakes were killed for the reward. Eventually, however, enterprising people began to breed cobras for the income. When the government became aware of this, the reward program was scrapped. When cobra breeders set their now-worthless snakes free, the wild cobra population further increased.
– wikipedia
Sounds like deblazio idea with the parking tickets. Did deblazio make his way into YWN??