Dear [email protected],
Yesterday’s Chinese restaurant story is very troublesome on so many levels.
Thousands of people presumably ate tarfus.
Yes, mistakes happen. Any serious kashrus agency can end up slipping up. Error isn’t necessarily indicative of a systematic problem.
However, when error unfortunately happens, the response is quite telltale. Reliance on a kashrus agency is essentially accepting that they are responsible and accountable. They are agents on behalf of us, shluchei didan, to ensure that kashrus is upheld and that G-d-fearing Jews can rely on their word of honor that the food is kosher. In case of a problem, they respond by taking charge, writing a signed letter, writing what is and is not known, and what steps will be taken to ensure this does not happen elsewhere.
It’s not easy. But it’s the mature responsible response.
Nobody is immune to failure.
Such a response, while difficult, is what is necessary to be done. This confirms to the consumers that this agency takes this matter very seriously and can be trusted to be on top of their game, and they can trust that troubling error is the mi’ut she’aino matzuy.
But so far, the response to yesterday’s tumult, or scandal, or whatever you call it was exactly the opposite.
Publishing one single vague letter with no signature, sending the consumers to their LOR to ask for guidance (with no details to actually ask!), no number or email to send questions to, and no response online or to any news sites like Matzav.com regarding the event is appalling.
I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt that the reason for this type of response stems from some method of crisis management instead of what it is being perceived as: a flippant attitude toward the consumer, hoping the issue will blow by and time will heal the wound. Whatever the case, it’s a really bad way to try and salvage credibility, and not an effective method of damage control.
I sincerely hope that they take the bull by the horns and help everyone and themselves get out of this mess with some clarity and sage rabbinical guidance.
A Concerned Kosher Consumer
OK Labs is a Lubavitcher company, so it is under the supervision of the Rebbeh shlita.
Anyone who starts up with them is as if they started up with the Rebbeh!
dumb comment
If you have nothing bright to say don’t comment.
this is unfortunately a FIRST for the OK – they are usualyy a very reliable hechsher – don’t know how this happened.
The OK needs to publish a letter of how and why they were misled by this owner(s)
“Thousands of people presumably ate tarfus.”
No, not really. Only sick selfish narcissistic lowlifes go eat out in a goyishe restaurant. They all deserve what they got. That is why chazal say it’s assur to have rachmanus on an idiot. Let’s support a goy over a yid. It’s a Mitzvah to support goyim when fellow Yidden are struggling. I’ve had enough of these crocodile tears stories.
Thank god that you’re not his adviser… mOst ehrlicher yidden that buy takeout, check the hechsher and not the ownership. Many had no idea that it was owned buy a Goy. There was a mezuzah and a mashgiach temidi with a white bared and black hat on all day. Only an idiot would say that Hashem’s children who were tricked into eating tarfus, deserved it, because they did stupid things… אוי לנו.
May we merit the geulah shelaima asap
Refuah shelama
Goish owner doesn’t mean it will cause problems. Lookup last 10 lashrus scandals and I’m sure majority came from yiddish owners. The hashgocha failed here and they need to explain to us how they failed and what they plan to do not to fail the next time.
Bist aza rushu ?
The lesson I take from this is to never ever ever eat at a restaurant or any food establishment owned by a non Jew. No matter how good the food is. No matter who gives the hechser. No matter how convenient it is. No matter who vouches for it. They have no skin in the game.
Do you not realize that in some locales buying from an establishment owned by a non-jew is the only option?? Painful words..you should delete or re-word your comment.
Dead horse, your comments are hurtful and immature. Thousands upon thousands of Ehrlich wonderful Yidden live all over this country who do not have the luxury of Lakewood or Boro Park etc food stores only owned by Yidden and therefore have no option. Don’t belittle them.
The community of Manalapan where this restaurant was has incredible people like Rabbi Oratz and others who have made so many people Frum and having the option of a kosher food place in their neighborhood certainly helped those learning about eating kosher.
It’s a shame you wrote what you did and hopefully you are embarrassed that you vomited in public.
As for the letter writer, I agree. The response from the OK is troubling. I do want to point out though that the OK and many other Hechsherim are members of ACKO with is in essence a Hechsher on Hechsherim as ACKO monitors all the Hechsherim in their pac to make sure they are up to snuff. Perhaps ACKO and the OK can better explain what and why and how this all happened and what we should be doing as well as what they will be doing to assure it won’t happen again
Thank god that you’re not his adviser… mOst ehrlicher yidden that buy takeout, check the hechsher and not the ownership. Many had no idea that it was owned buy a Goy. There was a mezuzah and a mashgiach temidi with a white bared and black hat on all day. Only an idiot would say that Hashem’s children who were tricked into eating tarfus, deserved it, because they did stupid things… אוי לנו.
May we merit the geulah shelaima asap
my comment is directed at “beating a dead horse”
The OK labs had two pesach vinegar scandals.
The OK had the Shufrah cocoa powder for Pesach that was made in China without any Hashgocha, and they packed it in a non-Pesach facility.
They also wrote on the Chinese cocoa powder “product of USA”.
The OK still considers the East Greenvile ,PA as a parve chocolate when it actually is a dairy facility.
There are many others as well.
I am not here to defend any goyish establishment. But this moral rage against OK had nothing to do with the Torah outlook. Who said that you have an obligation to be transparent? Is that a American obligation? A few big poskim said based on all the info there really is no chiyuv to kosher anything. It could be that OK is afraid of the jewish woke mob who will ruin it all even if halachically nothing is wrong. Of course I will not say who these poskim are because they will be passeled from now on because Jewish woke decided.
The obligation to be transparent is actually simple. Kashrus today is a business. The kosher consumer is the customer. I would not do business with someone who isn’t transparent and similarly would expect a kashrus establishment to be as transparent as possible. If they are not transparent I can take my business elsewhere.
A concerned kosher consumer is nothing more than a facade for the woke jewish mob. Caring about you in disguise of wanting to destroy an establishment. There are a few big poskim that said that there is no need to kosher your stuff that the problem is not as big as it’s being made out to be.
Maybe the OK just wrote it to cover their bases. To demand transparency is like New York Times values.
There are more known cases of a food establishment owned by frum Jews that sold tarfus , than non-jewish owned with mashgiach temidi. Ex: monsey meat, Cleveland restaurant….. Which cost klal yisrael millions of dollars replacing dishes.
Hashgacha are usually more lenient if a yid owns(he doubles as mashgiach ) than when a goy owns .
Bottom line all cases should have reliable mashgiach temidi.
There is no excuse for each hamachshir not to come clean unless he is risking losing his parmesan. That isn’t an excuse either. Is he going to pay every victim for their lost jail in?
my uncle A”H was a mashgiach for many years. His guiding principle was if its not kosher for my table its not kosher for yours. Never did he have a scandal like this.
It’s cute how ignorant people are. Anyone who has worked in the food industry knows if you want to eat 100% kosher don’t eat out. Over the last 10 years, I’ve worked in places with the best hechsher you can get (in Israel and America) There are always issues no matter what hechsher. When kashrus is politicized that’s what you get.
What we actually need is a mashgiach on all the hechsherim to tell us what is what……and for that we have Reb Yehuda Shain!!!
It is only him who keeps their feet to the fire so “KASHRUS” will not turn into “CASH R US”…..