“They said ‘we have to raise our standards and keep an eye on what’s going on and just be vigilant about it,’” he said The same mashgiach also added that he had been in touch with OK Kosher about what happened in Manalapan. “In Brooklyn, the mashgiach has the key to the restaurant,” he said. In OK Kosher’s most recent statement, they said that the mashgichim, the kosher supervisors, “were the only people who had keys to the restaurant, refrigerators and freezers.”Ī mashgiach who has intimate knowledge of the Brooklyn restaurants and the certification process and who asked not to be named told the New York Jewish Week that he heard that the mashgiach in Manalapan “does not have the key.” He was concerned, he said, that the owner had a key to the establishment. Shain, meanwhile, has posted warnings about the Manalapan restaurant not being kosher on his blog ever since he stopped working there. The collage picture of the Kosher Chinese Express owner purchasing non-kosher meat was widely shared on Facebook. The post now has hundreds of comments, and led to dozens of Orthodox media articles and blog posts about the subject, sending the community into a frenzy to warn people about potentially eating non-kosher meat. 5 via a Facebook group called Great Kosher Restaurant Foodies, run Elan Kornblum, who also publishes a popular blog under the same name. The photos and video of the non-kosher meat were widely shared on Sept. The statement said the owner permanently closed the store “essentially acknowledging wrongdoing.” “Later, we obtained verbal admission from the owner that he brought in non-kosher chicken and meat in small amounts over an extended period of time.” “The owner was questioned by OK Kosher Rabbis about the boxes in the dumpster,” the statement said. The statement said that empty boxes from non-kosher chicken and meat were discovered by OK Kosher rabbis in a communal dumpster where the restaurant is located. In a statement released on Thursday, OK Kosher revealed findings of its investigations saying that Kosher Chinese Express “intentionally violated its obligation to the kosher consumer.” Others in the community confirmed that the store is closed. When this reporter attempted to call the Manalapan restaurant the phone lines were off. The company put out a statement on Monday saying that they went through an “intense and careful investigation” of the Manalapan Chinese restaurant. “They are tough here,” Tony said.“The mashgiach over in Manalapan must have been sleeping.”Īsked for comment, someone answering the phones at OK Kosher hung up on the New York Jewish Week. Many kosher agencies demand that only the kosher supervisor be given a key to a restaurant in order to ensure that the kosher rules are being followed.) Tony added that there is nothing to worry about in the Brooklyn stores because the owner does not have a key, adding that “the mashgiach is here all the time.” ( In many kosher restaurants, a mashgiach, or kosher supervisor, is assigned full-time to supervise the kashrut status. “You can’t just say, ‘he’s Chinese, you must be related to him.’ I’m not related to him. “The guy who owns the restaurant now is a different guy,” Tony said. He confirmed that 20 years ago, he owned the Manalapan restaurant in Jersey. When the New York Jewish Week called Glatt Kosher Family, a man identifying himself as Tony answered, but said that he was only the manager. Shain, who obtained the photographs implicating the Manalapan restaurant, told the New York Jewish Week that he was the supervising rabbi at the New Jersey restaurant 18 years ago. Indeed, Rabbi Yudel Shain, a resident of Lakewood, New Jersey who runs an organization called Kosher Consumer, alleged that the owner of the Manalapan store is related to a man who goes by the name of Tony who, according to Shain, owns the two restaurants in Brooklyn. Some commenters passed on rumors that the Brooklyn restaurants, which are also certified under the OK Kosher brand, were somehow connected to the New Jersey store. Although it is unclear what, if any, connections there are between the restaurants in New York and New Jersey, the scandal was enough to generate a frenzy of comments on blogs and Facebook groups catering to those who keep kosher.
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