Kashrut scandal in Germany

Much of our kashrut system, even with all the organizations, supervisors, systems, etc, is based on trust. At the end of the day, you are trusting somebody - whether it is the proprietor, the supervisor, the organization behind the supervisor, the guy behind the counter, a piece of paper on the wall. You are trusting somebody. Oftentimes you must be trusting more than one person, and I'll point out that these are generally people you do not know, in the chain.

This is unlike the era before mass-production of food and the advent of food technology, and the formation of major kashrut agencies. Back then, there was only one person to trust. You did everything yourself or you trusted the person giving you the food.

It gets complicated. and with trust, that trust is sometimes broken, sometimes taken advantage of. We occasionally hear stories about breaches in kashrut. The most famous in recent times is probably the scandal in Monsey a few years ago. Another might be the meal at the President's House in Jerusalem where they ran out of meat and a chef was caught having served treif meat he bought from Arabs when at the last minute he had to replace meat that went bad.

Now there is another big one. Arutz7 has the story (I saw it in Mishpacha newspaper (offline) as well.

Two kosher butchers have admitted to doctoring non-kosher meat and selling it to Jewish institutions for "years," German newspaper Juedische Allgemeine reported earlier this week, during proceedings against them in the Frankfurt District Court.
Leslie W., 48, and his partner Akiwa H., 56, are being tried for fraud after they sold more than 88,000 pounds of non-kosher meat to Jewish schools, individuals, and institutions claiming the meat as "kosher."
To doctor the meat, the two admitted they bought beef cuts from discount supermarket Metro and then removed the veins and soaked it in saltwater.
While the meat appeared kosher - kosher meat is always salted - the beef had not been slaughtered according to ritual slaughter laws.
Regardless, the beef was sold labelled as "kosher" at a high markup. The two said that the sausages, at least, were always kosher, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The now-bankrupt Aviv kosher butchery was estimated to have made more than $710,000 in profit from the sales. It was busted in 2012, however, after investigations were launched into the fact that it allegedly sold more meat than it bought.
During the proceedings, Akiwa asked for forgiveness.
“I want to ask the forgiveness of everyone whose religious sensibilities were wounded,” he stated.
Leslie added that he "deeply regretted" his role in the fraud. 

As careful as you can be regarding kashrut, once you are trusting other people to supply you with your food, you are at their mercy. All we can do is our best, within the halachic guidelines, but it is a shame that so often there are people who will take advantage of that for their profit.

------------------------------------------------------

Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------