The Information Channel Felist.Com -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do not Reply this message! Please send messages to address on bottom of the message or to kehilasmy@yahoo.com Dear Members and Friends of Kehilas Moreshes Yaakov: Following is a message form Dr. Yitzchok Levine of Orthodox Zeides Kashrus Organization +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |I sent out the message below about Nosh Express last week. I received the| |response in blue below from one of the people on my list who is | |knowledgeable about kashrus. | | | |Nosh Express is now under supervision of Kehilla Kashrus. Kehilla has not| | terminated its hashgacha, and as far as Kehilla is concerned, the | | establishment and its owner are and have always been in good standing. | | | |You may be interested in speaking to the owner for his version of the | |events leading up to the termination of the Vaads hashgacha; he has an | |interesting tale to tell. | | | |I did call Nosh Express and spoke with someone who identified himself as | |"Sharon." I asked him, "Whose Hashgocha are you under?" He replied, "We | |are and have been under Kehilla Kashrus for more than 5 years." Without | |pause he then added, " We decided to drop the Vaad Harabbonim of Flatbush| |in September. Now the Vaad for some reason has decided to publicize that | |we no longer have their supervision. There were no kashrus violations. If| |there were, we would not still have Kehillah. It is all politics. We are | |taking the Vaad to a Beit Din." | | | |Sharon then volunteered to give me the numbers of the Kehilla Office as | |well as of a Rabbi Adler, whom he said was the person who personally | |supervises his store. They are: Kehilla 718-951-0481, Rabbi Adler | |646-739-2464. | | | |I then called Rabbi Meir Goldberg, the Kashrus Administrator of the Vaad | |of Flatbush (347-203-0289). He told me the following. | | | |There are 3 stores that are "related" - Nosh Express, Pizza Nosh, and Mr.| |Nosh. Someone named Amos owns Pizza Nosh and Mr. Nosh and is a partner in| |Nosh Express. Sharon is the other partner in Nosh Express. | | | |In June the Vaad raised its fees for supervision of establishments. | |Sharon did not want to pay a higher fee for Nosh Express. The Vaad | |attempted to work out a reduced increase for all three stores. Amos was | |willing to go along with this, but Sharon refused to pay any increase. In| |fact, Nosh Express has not paid the Vaad for its supervision in months. | |(Rabbi Goldberg was surprised that Sharon had told me that Nosh Express | |had dropped the Vaad in September. Indeed, he said all ads for Nosh | |Express featured the Vaad symbol until this past week. Furthermore, the | |Vaad has never received either written or verbal notification that Nosh | |Express no longer wanted Vaad certification.) | | | |Despite the fact that Nosh Express had not paid the Vaad in months, the | |Vaad continued to send in a mashgiach regularly. However, it did not | |issue Nosh Express a Certificate of Kashrus, because its fee was not | |being paid. | | | |A couple of months ago the Vaad mashgiach came in and saw a gentile | |lighting a burner from a burning piece of paper. Vaad policies require | |that all food be Bishul Yisroel. They insist that as a back up, all | |stoves have working gas pilots. These pilots are to be lit only by a | |Shomer Shabbos Jew. The pilots are kept on, so that in the event that a | |burner goes off and a gentile relights it from the pilot, then food | |cooked on this burner is, according to the RAMA, not Bishul Akum. | | | |When the mashgiach saw a gentile had lite a burner in Nosh Express, he | |immediately turned it off and lit it himself. He also checked the pilots | |of all of the burners in Nosh Express, They were not lit and were not | |working. They were clogged with dirt and grease and could not be lit. The| |mashgiach informed Sharon that the pilots had to be repaired so that they| |were in working order. However, they were not in working order the next | |time the mashgiach visited the establishment. Indeed, after two months of| |visits, the pilots were still not operational. The Vaad then decided that| |it could no longer certify Nosh Express. The notification was then | |issued. | | | |Rabbi Goldberg assured me that the decision to issue this notice had | |nothing to do with the fact that Nosh Express was not paying any fees for| |Vaad certification. It was a result of the owner not having the pilots | |put in working order. | | | |Dr. Yitzchok Levine | |Investigative Kashrus Reporter | |Orthodox Zeides Kashrus Organization | |-------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Isroel Akerman kehilasmy@yahoo.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for keeping in-touch with us! 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