Cheskel’s Shwarma King located at 3715 13th Avenue in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn, the site of an unfortunate incident involving the sale of a non-kosher frankfurter is currently very busy. No longer answering questions about what transpired–that has been answered to the satisfaction of its supervising agency–Bais Din Tartikov but extremely busy trying to fulfill orders of everything ranging from Shwarma, fries and its trademark VIP Chulent.
Says Shmuel Baron, owner of Cheskel Shwarma King “I have been extremely heartened by the support of the community for their trust and continued patronage of my restaurant. We have instituted new policies which in essence means that any type of purchase of meat will be handled by me personally, and not delegated to any employee Jewish or non-Jewish”.
While the integrity of Shmuel Baron, owner of Cheskel’s Shwarma King has never been questioned, the discovery of non–Kosher meat—albeit for brief time span of several hours created an uproar in the greater Jewish community for several days. However after an exhaustive investigation by the certifying agency resulted in confirmation that this incident was an innocent yet tragic series of mistakes that could happen any restaurant.
Cheskel’s Shwarma King is a popular destination for consumers who keep a late schedule–open from 3 PM daily till past midnight. It offers a tasty selection of a specialty menu that has been personally put together by its owner Shmuel Baron who takes every facet of his restaurant operation very seriously. After the incident, Mr. Baron was very distraught at the prospect of a non–Kosher frankfurter being sold at his establishment and considered closing down Cheskel’s Shwarma King out of a sense of internal reckoning. However in deference of community Rabbis and leaders who felt that this would constitute an acknowledgement of guilt, Mr. Baron was encouraged to re–open his establishment which in fact he did to the delight of his loyal customers and the general community.
“Again, I would like to thank the Tartikov Bais Din and all my friends, too numerous to mention, whose confidence in me enabled me to draw the strength to reopen Cheskel’s Shwarma King and continue serving the community with highest standards of Kashrus. I look forward to serving the community and on behalf of my family would like to express my HaKaros Hatov to everyone for their continued patronage of Cheskel’s Shwarma King”. Ezra Friedlander, CEO of The Friedlander Group, a spokesman for Mr. Baron, reiterated that the trust by the Tartikov Bais Din in Mr. Baron was never in doubt stating “from the onset of the investigation it became apparent that they were dealing with a situation of mistakes not intentions to G-D forbid cause anyone to eat non-Kosher. The enormous anguish on the part of Mr. Baron is indicative of an upright, highly ethical and moral individual who takes his responsibilities very personal and the continued certification of the Tartikov Bais Din is clearly the only proof of any consumer would need to be assured that Cheskel’s Shwarma King utilizes the highest standards of Kashrus”.
(YWN Desk – NYC)
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22 Responses
Thank you for this commercial for Shwarma King however to say it could have happened in ‘any’ restaurant is simply untrue. Granted it can happen but you increase the odds of it happening with the kashrus standards in place. Had you had hashgocha from one of the ‘national’ reliable agencies this probably would not have happened due to a mashgiach t’midi.
I am CHV not questioning your shmiras shabbos & being a shomer torah u’mitzvos however there is something about having a mashgiach t’midi who has the power of the agency to oversee all kashrus standards & aspects thereof.
Contrary to what people think, there is no ‘perfect’ agency out there however we can learn a lot about an agency when we see how the recover from a terrible incident. I am hoping your agency learned something here as well.
I have never been in your store & I don’t know if I ever will either as I don’t live in your area however I truly hope YOU learned a lot from this too.
ML
Someplace Outside of NYC
I don’t remember if I wrote this in my post however we see the ownership learned from the mistake and if so we must wish them hatzlocha raba.
go to ant catering hall or restaurant at 11-12 o’clock at night. who is in charge? what stops any manager from running to a local store to buy franks, ice cream etc…?
especially in off premise catering halls & Pesach hotels!
The kashrus agency has to strengthen itself and use better supervising methods and standards. Certain botei din will not re-issue a hashgocho when a breach like this happens. They even do not remain supervisors if the store bought 100 % kosher items,if however from a non-authorized supplier.
To 1, 2, and 3:
I have a hard time understanding what you’re talking about. Nothing really “happened”. Basically the system in place worked very well and the packaging revieled the problem before it was a problem. so what’s the problem?
People, let’s be nice. A one-time serious mistake happened, but they’re working on making sure it won’t happen again. Nothing was intentional. Loshon hora is a “lav” just like (in many ways actually worse than) eating treif. btw #3-A goy is allowed to buy fruit, but not meat. Let’s stop all the stupid & unneccesary intensity and nervousness, which are caused by turning kashrus into an “avoda zara” and forgetting we keep it because it is a mitzvah Hashem gave us.
Quite “frankly” (no pun intended), I was very disappointed with Yeshiva World’s coverage of this incident. Following this incident, the store was closed to the public while the details were being investigated by the Kashrus organization and a Beis Din, so why did Yeshiva World feel the need to put out a story whose facts were not substantiated ??? Even in your intital release you emphasized that you did not verify the information !!! There was no benefit to the community by releasing a half-baked story and it caused tremendous grief and unnecessary anguish to an ehrlicher storekeeper trying to make a living in these very difficult times. I heard him on Zev Brenner thanking Hashem that B”H the mistake was caught and no one was Chas V’Shalom nichshal.
It should be reiterated again and again that these kashrus michsholim will always plague us until we arrive at kivros hata’veh. Of the gedolei Yisroel involved in hashgacha, how many of them would personally eat at any of these restaurants for whose kashrus they take responsibility? None of them, is the only correct answer. That should make people think, but that’s only wishful thinking.
I have to tell you that I am quite shocked and even disappointed with SOME OF the comments I’ve seen for this post… Those who allege and give the impression that they are frum Jews– writing Lashon Hara about another Jew. We know that Lashon Hara is classified in 2 ways. Negative Speach and Damaging Speach… These comments contain both! We also know that we have an obligation do judge “lekaf zekhut”- favorably… I think that before a person speaks (or writes) he should stop and think and not just concern himself with HIMSELF…
I would also like to point out that I was not commenting about all the comments-just the ones that spoke in a damaging way about someone who is “mukhzak” by his supervision as being a yerei shamayim…
No one did anything wrong and no one meant anything and the Hashgocho is a good hashgocho. BUT why in the world is such a thing allowed to happen? People almost ate real treifes for the price of kosher. There should some mechanism in place so these mistakes don’t happen. Who are we fooling? This was unacceptable even for the first time. The people could of gone and eaten better cheaper franks at Macdonalds. They paid the full price and innocence going into a store that they are sure mistakes can’t happen and were all disappointed and let down. Where is the responsibility and apology instead of saying how good the store and hechser are????????
A few comments. 1- Arizona # 12 is absolutely right. None of the rabbis who give hasgasha would even EAT a piece MEAT,nowadays,much less eat in ANY restaurant. 1- sabra #5 is also absolutely right. There is no control any night anywhere. EXCEPT when and where a mashgiach Temidi is present. i take this information from friends of mine who are restaurant owners,and caterers. Case in point North Miami, 2 weeks ago fleisheig restaurant 7 pm at night,OK certification, on wall,I called OK Labs to inquire about the status of this restaurant,they said a mashgiach is always present on the premises no problem. I waited a few hours,and no mashgiach. Ok called the ownner of the restaurant to inquire where is the mashgiach,owner claimed that the mashgiach,is in the back of the kitchen,then he calimed that he stepped out of the store for a few minutes i waited 2 hours,still no mashgiach. When I again called the OK labs,they had no answer,but to say that they have strict regulations,and policies with all restaurants,that they certify,and they dont know what happened in this case. I’ll tell you what happened. There is NO CONTROL. it all comes down to 1 thing. The ehrlichkeit and chazaka of the OWNER. this is why KIC was formed a few years ago. TO CHECK ON THE MASHGICHIM. Not that they cant be trusted chas v’sholom,but that you need an oveseer on the kashrus policies,and the owner himself. Anyone who is involved in selling kosher products,and foods to yidden MUST be a yiras shomayim jew,Unfortunately,some of these store(and I dont mean to be choished anyone)owners leave a lot to be desired as far as their religious observance is concerned. No compromises,no shtick,no penny pinching,no looking for heiterim to save a few pennies.Of course the above things that i mentioned,is only applicable after we have established that,the meat itself is kosher enough.But thats a story all in itself for another day.
A “shem tov” created by a PR agency (such as the Friedlander Group) is of dubious value. Make no mistake, even accepting the facts as the restaurant itself presents them, there was a serious breach here. A simple, “I’m sorry, I exercised poor judgment, measures have been taken to prevent a recurrence”, on the part of both the owner and the Kashrus agency is in order. Indeed, an agency that shuts such an obvious barn door only after the horse escapes doesn’t deserve to be in business, apology or not. But it’s business as usual and we are being treated to professional spin doctoring instead of apologies or tikkunim. Feh.
From the story released, the store does not need to be shut down, as he seems to have kept to the flawed guidelines of the hechsher. However, the hechsher which issued the flawed guidelines and seems to be brushing off any incident here…….. Lets just say that I will bl”n not be eating from them until I can verify that they have a working system in place.
!oli, is the issue really what was paid?
#3: “I just wanted to add that no “modernishe” hashgacha would allow a store employee to go replenish supplies at the local grocery store. He admitted that employees would go to buy fruits, etc. That is unacceptable. ”
Why on earth not? What’s wrong with it?
JOLI, can you guarantee that the kashrus in your home is always going to be 100%, and no mistakes will ever occur?
To joli and others who commented in that fashion: are you smarter then rabbanim?!!? Every Rav came out supporting this establishment and you think you know better?!!? I don”t mean to rant, but this is the quintessential “chossid shoteh”- (being overly and folishly “religious”)
How unfortunate that this community lives on gossip.
There is only one way to totally stop this unfortunate event from happening again; just stop eating altogether!
The Shuchan Aruch was written for whom, for chazar fressers? No, for things that happen to frum yidden.
Ask any Kashrus agency, from the CRC to the OU to the Star K or local hasgachas: THINGS HAPPEN, even with mashgichim that are there all the time.
But the sharks smell blood and can’t wait for the kill. It’s r’tzicha mamash and with the vicious comments on the internet where you have destroyed a frum yid’s reputation, parnossa and shidduchim; it’s virtually impossible to do t’shuva. So good luck to you all.
A goy being sent to buy meat and it then ending up on the rollers without being checked by a yisroel is not an innocent mistake which can happen anywhere. It means that the goy was trusted where halacha does not trust him. whoever it is that caused this, whether proprietor or hashgacha, should not be in the kosher food business. In this case, it seems that the hashgocha’s guidelines were followed. If so, do the math. 2-1……
baki: you can say that, in hindsight, about any mistake in kashrus, and like I said…it happens to the best of hashgachos.
There was a 24 hour hour camera focused on the area and it was thought that was enough.
Do you want to close every hashgacha agency after a mistake is made? You try to anticipate every scenario but when you don’t, you learn and correct it and it’s never repeated.