The Charedi community of Antwerp was incensed today after it was reported that a man posing as a Charedi man selling Kosher meat in the city, was exposed for selling Neveilos in place of Kosher chicken. What’s worse, the suspect had claimed that he had a hechsher (certification) from the Rabbonim of the city.
The issue has become a trend of late and the Rabbonim have issued a series of proclamations denouncing any kosher certification given to butchers and sellers in the city.
Rabbi Yaakov Dovid Schmahel, Dayan of the Shomeri Hadas community of Antwerp was one of the signers on the letter, as were the Rabbonim of the Sephardic community in the city.
In one of two letters published today, the Rabbonim urged the community to: “not only look at the sticker advertising the meat as kosher, but to inspect the sticker and only purchase meat that has the stamp of a Rav Hamachshir whom the consumer knows as being trustworthy as there have been to many cases of falsified hechsherim being given. In addition, the Rabbonim clarified that certain local stores are operating without a hechsher and are not under the supervision of the Rabbinic Council.
Over the past few days, the Jewish communities in Europe have been dealing with the falsification of hechsherim letters that have allowed non-kosher meat, both treif and neveilos to be sold to Jewish customers. The leading suspect in the investigation is a man who has been impersonating a Charedi man. It was also recently discovered that communities in Hungary and Austria have suffered from the same con-artist.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
Some years ago, in my home town, the goy butcher working in the community butcher shop was discovered to be using the store’s equipment to cut up treif meat that he shipped up north for sale. This “trustworthy” goy had been working there 25 YEARS. What was the outcome: NOTHING. The store was supposedly scrubbed and was open the next day. Consumers were told their dishes weren’t treifed up. BH my mother bought from a Chassidishe butcher in another city (she had never shopped there) so we were OK, but i never understood how the psak was derived at – especially when the goy admitted he had been doing it for years. What do the Antwerp Rabbonim pasken apart from telling the kehilla which stores aren’t supervised? What’s the status of their keilim?
Europe follows Monsey…
Meat?
Or Poultry?
Or both?
It would appear to be a no brainer that if a yid encounters a new market or butcher shop offering “kosher” meat or if new owners acquire an existing market, or if a familiar mashgiach is no longer around or NO mashgiach is visible, it would take no more than 30 seconds to pull out your phone and go online to check the alerts from local kashruth authority or place a call to the local vaad/beis din to confirm the authenticity of the hashgacha certificate of the establishment. Those who don’t bother making such obvious inquiries obviously are not truly concerned with kashruth or simply don’t feel it is a priority
Why all hush hush? What is the big scare about naming the culprit? Let’s see who he is before he turns up elsewhere!