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I heard a couple of guys talking about how a certain Rosh Yeshiva
was hit with a car by the Mafia after he protested against the
kashrus standards (or lack thereof) of local butchers, and that
he went into a coma and died a year later. They weren’t sure of
who it was, though – they mentioned Rav Shmuel Rozovsky and
Rav Reuven Grozovsky, but it isn’t true for either of them.
Does anyone know if this is a true story, an exaggeration
of actual events, or just a bubbe maiseh ?
I think they mean Rav yaakov Yosef.
There were issues with the Butcher and he tried to clean up the mess and they tried to muscle him to back down and unfortunatly it worked
Alizgit, in that thread, it says R’ Reuven was hit by a car, and eventually succumbed to his injuries. He actually had a stroke 6 years before he passed, and was never fully functional (physically) after suffering it.
it was R’ Reuven (as told to me by my father in law a”H who learned by him in bais midrash elyon in Monsey and spend time with him during his illness
It doesn’t seem likely to be Rav Reuven Grozovsky. By the time of his death, the New York Kosher meat industry was no longer controlled by organized crime. Additionally I don’t think he was a big enough threat for someone to put a hit on him.
All that is known is that he was in a hit-and-run and the driver was never apprehended.
Aww it really is a true story?
So sad.
May his memory whoever he is be a blessing ?
I heard that a rav in Queens (I do not remember his name) was subjected to threats for trying to reform the catering industry but in the end he won.
I tried to find some sources for it, couldn’t come up with anything
There was a Rav in Chicago who had to leave town on a Shabbos because he was threatened by Al Capone. He eventually moved to Eretz Yisroel and wrote a number of seforim. This is said to be Al Capone’s chelek in Torah.
I heard from R’ Mendel Kaplan’s grandson that R’ Mendel worked for a short time as a mashgiach in a slaughterhouse. The Mafia was involved there, and he was pressured to declare things as kosher when they weren’t. He refused to give in, and they didn’t press the issue. One day, a new thug was in the plant, and R’ Mendel declared a cow to be a treifah. The guy insisted that he declare it kosher, and R’ Mendel refused. A minute or two later, R’ Mendel went to use the restroom. When he returned, the carcass of the cow was gone. He asked where it was, and the thug told him not to worry about it. R’ Mendel quit the job, and announced that the slaughterhouse couldn’t be relied upon for kosher meat.
The other week my LOR was talking about how it was problematic that mashgichim work for the kosher processing plant, and not a monitoring agency.
If the plant manager does not like how the mashgiach’s certification then he/she can just fire him and get a new one who will do as he says.
Why is this the way? Was it always like this? So OU doesn’t have their own mashgichim that they send out from a central agency?
What are the barriers in implementing a centralizing agency and authority to take over the kashrut process and liberate the mashgichim from feeling pressured to certify something treif or questionable as kosher?
lightbright
“What are the barriers…”
financial (primarily)
Even if the mashgichim worked for the agency whcih they often due, that doesnt really solve the problem. Say R’ Yankel is a mashgiach temidid and yukel’s knish gesheft. Even if the OU is the one paying him, if he pulls the hashgacha he is out of a job. It is not like there are restaurants waiting around sans mashgichim that he can quickly get a new job, and he wont get paid for not working.
Unless there was a communal fund to pay mashgichim whether or not they are currently supervising a store/faciility/plant etc ultimatly you have to relly that the mashgiach is trustworthy enough to forgo hsi own sallary (at least for a time) to prevent you from eating treif.
(There are some smaller chasidish hashgachos that do work this way)
that said
“If the plant manager does not like how the mashgiach’s certification then he/she can just fire him and get a new one who will do as he says.” I dont think that is quite right, if the plant is under the OU, regardless of who is paying the mashgiach I dont think the plant can just replace the mashgiach without the supervising agency’s ok.
“There was a Rav in Chicago…”
Ive heard that with the Ridvaz, though Al Capone must’ve been quite tough at age 6 for it to have been him
I heard that before he left office, Barack Obama bugged Trump Tower. How do I find out if this is true?
Go ask him?
“How do I find out if this is true?”
Repeat it enough, it becomes true.
Much like some of these stories
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