The following – including the photo – is from the New Yorker:
A photographer earlier today found Kosher Pork being sold at a supermarket in Sunnyside, Queens.
Philip Gourevitch of The New Yorker reports that Israeli artist Oded Hirsch snapped some cellphone pictures of pork spare ribs, pork cutlets, center-cut pork chops, all labeled in Hebrew “Shechita Bais Yosef,” on the shelves of Associated Supermarket at 4407 Greenpoint Avenue, in Sunnyside, Queens.
Hirsch forward the pictures to Gourevitch who phoned Aris Duran, the supermarket manager, for an explanation.
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE
“What are you saying?” Duran asked. “Pork cannot be kosher.” So he e-mailed him the photo. He called him right back, and said he was going to pull all the meat off the shelves. “It was a mistake,” he said, and a few seconds later he called back and left a message to say, “Thanks for alerting me.”
Gourevitch reports that he also called the Orthodox Union, whose voice-mail recording describes it as “the global leader in Kosher supervision and the world’s largest Jewish resource.” He pressed two for matters Kosher, and listened to another menu until he heard: “To report a product that may be mistakenly labelled, press four.” and was invited to leave a message for Howard Katzenstein, who called right back. He told him about the kosher pork for sale in Sunnyside. “If the price is right, I say go with it, right?” Katzenstein said, and giggled.
But seriously, Katzenstein said, he hears of such outrages only “rarely.” “Computer-generated labels,” he said, “they’re a nightmare waiting to happen.” The last two words of the stamp on the pork in Queens, “Beit Yusef,” mean “according to Sephardic custom,” said Katzenstein, an Ashkenazi Jew. “But I don’t think even the Sephardim would accept that.” For further information he referred to the head of Kosher-law enforcement for New York State, Rabbi Luzer Weiss (“but he’s a winner in my book,” Katzenstein said). In this era of budget cuts, the state has laid off all eight of its Kosher-enforcement inspectors, leaving Rabbi Weiss as a one-man department, and apparently he was on other cases, because he haven’t heard back from him.
Hirsch, meanwhile, went back to the supermarket with a proper camera. By the time he got there, he found the meat department almost entirely purged of pork. “A pack of six workers were scanning the fridge frantically,” Hirsch reported.
(Source: New Yorker)
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28 Responses
About 10 years ago I found a product that had pork and cheese in it and it had a reliable hechsher. I surmised it wasn’t vegetarian and so I didn’t buy. Also the state I was visiting is big on pork and so I was sure there was pork in this product.
It is said – although I don’t know where the CHaZa”L is – that the name chazir implies it will one day be chozer and be kosher. Close, but no cigar (or in this case no apple in the mouth).
The Label did Not say Kosher, so what’s the big deal
What is most terrifying about this story is that this fraud was at least easily exposed because it was on a product that is so obviously treif. Had it been eg on packets of chicken, it may have gone unnoticed. And who’s to say it hasnt appeared on chicken in the past or future. How can we be sure that what we are buying is the real thing? What hechsher did it have if any?
if you look closely it’s not beit yosef rather beit yayseif (two yuds)
Look closely not a word about Kosher and it says something that resembles שחיטת כית ייםף I wonder if Rabbi Weiss can do anything about it if he still has any enforcement powers.
A manual job for sure. Does not look like a computer font
That is absolutely crazyyyy …… I mean people know pork is not kosher …but what about the rest of the meat that people r buying from ther wow u realy have to be so carful
was it pork or some sort of kosher meat ? stupid mexican workers
wellmeaning,
ur right it is a chaf
HEY! LETS BE DON LEKAF ZECHUS HERE! Maybe Beis Yosef is releasing a new product line, Pork Chops. In this economy people wil do the strangest things for money. JUST KIDDING! Oh, and #6 (name to long): It is a computer font. The font is supposed to look hand written.
Nu. So someone named Yusuf runs the place where it was shechted. He didnt claim it was kosher, did he? Its like the “basar basar” signs of old. Or the Glatt Kosher Chalav Yisroel Cheese.
#4, look no further than Monsey 2006
Perhaps we should all write NICE letters to Associated Food Stores to let them know how terrible this is & how they have lost credibility from this incident.
Thats why you shouldn’t buy meat from Associated unless owned by a Yid!
coffee addict Nice one!
Also, regarding the article…”…even Sepharadim…”
almost as foolish as not keeping the workers and leaving the inspections to one person.
#4, 7 and 12 and all of who realize that if it were chicken, how frighteningly easily it could go undiscovered, there is only one solution which was discussed in the wake of the Monsey disaster: buy only in stores that have a mashgiach who checks all products that come into the store. That means no buying in supermarkets that also carry treife products, and not buying in store that appear to be heimish but whose proprietors do not agree to allow a mashgiach the strictest controls of supervision.
After reading the story on a real computer and seeing a full size picture of the label in question, THERE IS NO DOUBT IN MY MIND THIS WAS ON PURPOSE!
If All Kashrus authorities would set-up a hologram serial numbered system, it would stop fraud and enable traceability.
This would stop any possibility of error or fraud.
Why should they allow kosher meat products to be sold in Goishe supermarkets?? Are there not enough Jewish retailers that could sell Kosher meat?
Even after the Monsey story, there is still more reliability by a Yid and also easier to check on.
All the Kashrus authorities should together pay for some mashgichim to constantly check on all stores selling Kosher Meat. It’s not a great expense when sharing the costs and in today’s times, it creates another job!
Give credit where credit is due. Associated took immediate action. How the Bais Yosef (or whatever it said) got there in the first place is still a muystery.
It reminds me of the time I saw a stock clerk in another major super market pasting Kosher for Pesach labeel on bottle of soda already on the shelves.
Mark Levin: It did note that as soon as it was brought to their attention they pulled all the product from the shelves within an hour or two.
Guess what in business sometimes people mess up, even the best places do. The measure of a place should not be that they never mess up but that they fix it quickly when they do.
“But I don’t think even the Sephardim would accept that.” For further information he referred to the head of Kosher-law enforcement for New York State, Rabbi Luzer Weiss (“but he’s a winner in my book,” Katzenstein said)”
I thought this was a Purim joke. Is this guy serious? What a laughing stop (Luzer’s a winner…) and the comment not even the Sephardim would accept that is downright offensive to Sephardim. What a terrible PR spokesman…
And the comment – even though it’s a joke – about the price being right. Chachamim hizharu bedivrechem That quote will be quoted without the “only joking” part in the name of the OU! All the OU certified companies will wonder why they bother if it’s all a big joke…
I can’t believe he said “… I don’t think even the Sephardim would accept that”
1) It is obviously derogatory to Sephardim
2) Bais Yosef is even more strict than Glatt
Terrible comment!
“But I don’t think even the Sephardim would accept that,” inplies to the casual observer that their (and Briskers’) standard for Shechita is a kula (leniency). In fact, it’s more stringent. As for the mistaken letters, it might arouse some suspicion, but incorrect letters, in the absence of anything other danger sign, could easily be overlooked. I can think of examples of incorrect Hebrew lettering, some really laughable, on product labels from at least two reputable companies, under reliable hashgacha, that were probably not even noticed by most people buying them.
`Bais Yosef is even more strict than Glatt’ A shochet friend told me that שחיטת בית יוסף makes as much sense as Glatt chicken. In hilchos Shechita the Bais Yosef is the מיקל It is in Hilchos treifas where he is machmir
This reminds me of my father a’h who was a Rav and how he used to laugh at the people who bought glatt chickens.
“Are there not enough Jewish retailers that could sell Kosher meat?”
No. In many small communities, there are no frum retailers. By your standard, Jews in most of the world would need to become vegetarians. As has been pointed out in a recent chatroom thread, even the numerous rabbis who support being vegetarians agree that there is no halachic preference for being a vegetarian in our time. We are NOT supposed to take it on as a stringency because of the questionable kashrut of much of today’s meat.
“That means no buying in supermarkets that also carry treife products, and not buying in store that appear to be heimish but whose proprietors do not agree to allow a mashgiach the strictest controls of supervision.”
A similar argument applies here. Even a mashgiach tamidi would allow mislabled chicken to pass, as he would assume that the label is valid.
Sunnyside is not exactly a hotbed of Yiddishkeit. I doubt if anyone who knows what Beit Yosef shechita is would shop for it in a random supermarket in Sunnyside. The mystery is how the misspelled Hebrew ended up on the labels. Perhaps the store bought a used labeler from a kosher retailer.
A convenience store in Far Rockaway opened as halal, but apparently changed hands. The new owners kept the neon sign in the window that I’m assuming said halal in Arabic (it was a random squiggle to me). They also had a sign advertising their BLT. The squiggle’s gone now.
I just looked at that other website (the one that begins with a v), and found that my surmise that the labeler was bought used was correct. The misspellings are probably just a reflection of the poor spelling that’s found all over these days (especially in comments on websites like this!)