Kosher clash
OK RESPONSE TO RCBC IMA’S RESTAURANT, TEANECK NJ
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PrintOK KOSHER CERTIFICATION
RABBI DON YOEL LEVY
Rabbinic Administrator
301 TROY AVE. BROOKLYN, NY 11213
TEL: 718 756-7500 FAX: 718 756-7503
November 15, 2010
OK RESPONSE TO RCBC IMA’S RESTAURANT, TEANECK NJ
• OK Kosher took the hechsher at Ima’s only after speaking to members of The RCBC. The OK investigated the RCBC’s allegations of kashrus violations, and found them to be completeLy without merit The RCBC was well aware of our decision to give a hechsher at Ima’s, and the reasons behind it.
• OK Kosher has raised the kashrus standards at Ima’s, as follows:
The entire restaurant was kashered.
The restaurant bought all new dishes.
OK has upgraded to a professional Mashgiach Tmidi on premises.
All locks on the restaurant have been changed to Multi-locks purchased and brought to the restaurant by OK personneL Only the OK Mashgiach has keys to these locks. The restaurant owner does not have a set of keys. The Multi-locks cannot be picked even by a professional.
The restaurant is 100% pas Yisroel and bishul Ylsroel. All the meat is Chassidishe shechita. All vegetables are checked according to the OK Vegetable Guide (which is available on our website at http://www.ok.org, or as an app on yoUr IPhone).
•OK Kosher maintains the hIghest possIble kashrus standards in all of our certified restaurants, regardless of where they are located. It is unfortunate, but RCBC’s objection to our certification of Ima’s Restaurant is based solely on non-kashrus related politics.
•Rabbi Berel Za!tzman of Fair Lawn. NJ originally asked OK Kosher to certify Ima’s. He has vouched that that the restaurant’s owner, who davens in his shul, is a fine, upstanding woman, who respects the Rabbinic authority of the certifYing agency.
More on: Kosher clash
Response to latest accusations
Regrettably the RCBC chooses to continue this sparring in public. Our response to their latest accusations follows:
• Our statement that the OK contacted the RCBC before giving a hechsher to Ima’s does not in any way imply that the RCBC endorsed our decision to grant Ima’s a hechsher. Our policy is always to contact the previous hechsher for a kashrus history. To read anything deeper into that statement is absurd.
Some RCBC rabbis circulated this e-mail among their congregants last month
Teaneck restaurant at center of OK, RCBC dispute
A kosher restaurant can be made or broken on the quality of its certification. In Teaneck, Ima Restaurant, open for less than a year, has become embroiled in a feud between the local rabbinical board and a national kashrut agency, each accusing the other of impropriety.
Ofira Zaken of Fair Lawn opened Ima in late May with supervision by the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County. It occupied the former site of Café Adam, a dairy restaurant that also had issues with certification that eventually led to its closure.
