Bondi, Sydney, Australia - Kashrus Authority Taking Action Against 'Unreliable Kosher Butcher'

A KOSHER butcher in Perth that exports meat to Sydney claims the Kashrut Authority of Western Australia (KAWA) and the Kashrut Authority (KA) of NSW are driving him out of business by placing negative advertisements in the AJN.

Right: Oren Cohen

However, KAWA accuses the butcher of cutting corners by not hiring a mashgiach (kashrut supervisor) to oversee packaging of the meat it sends to its Sydney subsidiary, Healthy and Kosher, on Bondi Road.
KAWA and the KA have placed three advertisements in the AJN stating that meat purchased at Healthy and Kosher is not supervised by them. The shop’s owner, Oren Cohen, claims it has caused a massive slump in sales and cost him tens of thousands of dollars, forcing him to take a second job.

“I am disgusted and embarrassed by the way the kosher authorities have acted,” Cohen said. “I urge every rabbi and consumer to inquire for themselves about our hechsher and not be misled by these accusations.”
Until July, the meat being sold in Healthy and Kosher was produced in Perth’s WA Kosher Butcher under KAWA’s supervision. It was considered kosher for consumers in Perth, however KAWA said that if WA Kosher Butcher wanted to send meat to Sydney, it needed to hire a mashgiach to oversee the packaging process and pay KAWA 40 cents per item.

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The owner of WA Kosher Butcher, Mordechai Cohen – Oren’s father – refused to pay a mashgiach to oversee packaging because the cost was prohibitively expensive, he said, as KAWA was demanding “full-time” supervision. He continued sending meat to his son’s shop in Sydney.
In response, KAWA placed a second advertisement in the AJN telling consumers that Healthy and Kosher’s meat was not fully supervised, causing a further slump in business.
Since then, WA Kosher Butcher has taken the unprecedented step of obtaining a new hechsher (kashrut licence) from an Israeli kashrut authority, Badat’z Shomrei Hakodesh. The cheaper rates have enabled Cohen to pay for a mashgiach to supervise the packaging process as well as the meat’s preparation.
But last month, KAWA and KA placed a third advertisement in the AJN, advising kosher consumers not to use meat with a hechsher from Shomrei Hakodesh. The advert referred to a letter that the chief rabbinate of Israel had sent KAWA, stating that the rabbinate had not given permission for Shomrei Hakodesh to grant kashrut certification in Israel.
However, the chief rabbinate of Israel has also sent a letter to Mordechai Cohen, stating that Menashe Malkah (the head rabbi of Shomrei Hakodesh) does not need permission from the chief rabbinate to grant kashrut certification.
Cohen also received letters from several high-profile Israeli rabbis, stating that Rabbi Malkah is highly respected and has a deep knowledge of halacha and kashrut. He says the letters verify the legitimacy of his hechsher from Shomrei Hakodesh.
But the KA argues that an Australian butcher cannot be given a hechsher from an Israeli kashrut authority, and it still maintains that the meat being sold in Healthy and Kosher is not properly supervised.
Cohen believes the advertisement advising consumers against using meat with the Shomrei Hakodesh hechsher has ruined his business. “It is obvious that Australian kosher authorities will not accept non-Australian kosher authorities in their jurisdiction, but we are offering the community a choice,” he said.

BB: mmm, something smells wrong and I'm not so sure its the meat! All I know is that the price of Kosher Meat in Sydney is terribly expensive, and the word is when some restaurants tried to bring it from other States, the Kasrut authority wasn't happy. With such a shortage of reasonably priced Kosher meat in Sydney, surely level heads would prevail.

VOS IZ NEIAS is following this story too.

References:

Article from AJN :Bondi kosher butcher cries foul