Bizarre, Criminal law, Religion, Society

Something’s Not Kosher: Jewish Market Under USDA Investigation Over Selling Non-Kosher Meat

220px-VengeanceIsMineIn Los Angeles, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has launched a rare investigation into the Doheny Glatt Kosher meat market after a council of rabbis withdrew his Kosher certification. The USDA is looking into allegations that the owner of Doheny, Michael Engelman, served meat that did not meet Jewish dietary standards. The investigation places the federal government in the awkward position of enforcing a religious practice. At issue is whether the meat was not adequately certified by rabbis. However, the tale has more turns than a Mike Hammer movie with a gumshoe, a mysterious rabbi, and boxes of meats carried out of car trunks and warehouses.


The controversy began after Eric Agaki, a private investigator, gave USDA officials surveillance recordings that he said showed market employees repacking meat containers. The facts of this whodunit however have to start earlier . . .

The gumshoe, Agaki, said that a local rabbi came to him to retain his services. Think of Mike Hammer but instead of a beautiful blonde walking to his office late one night, it is a Hasidic rabbi. It started something like this:

Mike Hammer: [narrating] It was one of those hot New York days… oh, not really hot – you drink a glass of water, wait a minute and it gushes out of your pours like Old Faithful in Yellowstone.

Mike Hammer: [narrating] It started out as one of those days when I thought I’d get a little office work done. For a week, I hadn’t been able to use my phone without cracking my nose on the top of the desk and then the door opened and there she was – a living ChinaHasidic doll.

The rabbi complained to the gumshoe that Doheny was selling meat at prices so low that it was “putting a lot of people out of business.” He wanted Agaki to investigate. Agaki knew he would have to be working in a different area from his usual hood:

Mike Hammer: [narrating] New YorkL.A., like any town, has a right side and a wrong side of the tracks… and if you cross ’em, and you don’t belong, suddenly your suit doesn’t fit, your necktie’s the wrong color and you wish you had your shoes shined that morning – things that you never cared about in your own bailiwick.

Agaki however took the job.

Mike Hammer: [narrating] They can’t all be big ones. For every one time an insurance company wants you to find stolen property, three worried parents want news of a son or daughter who stopped writing.

Agaki said that he videotaped Doheny workers picking up empty glatt kosher boxes from restaurants and then one of Engelman’s associates loading his car with repacked glatt kosher boxes at an unsupervised warehouse in Reseda.

Mike Hammer: [narrating] Somehow, in daylight, a nightclub warehouse always reminds me of a tired old woman relaxing without her makeup.

The gumshoe then followed the boxes and reportedly captured Engelman transferring the boxes at a McDonald’s.

Engelman’s supporters however smell a rat and insist that the rabbis moved against him because he was beating their friends in the market. Engelman suggested that he was set up. Agaki retorted “How can anybody set them up?. They did what they did. Nobody made them do it.”

If I was going to earn a bundle, I had the ball rolling, setting myself up as a target. They’d stampede if they were following me as close as I figured. It didn’t take long. The following morning they took the bait – hook, line and sinker.

What is left is like meat cuttings on the floor of an aging deli.

Mike Hammer: My old neighborhood hadn’t changed much since I was a kid. I guess that’s because there’s a limit to how old and dirty and decrepit any spot on Earth can become. I hadn’t been back in a long time and I wouldn’t have gone back when I did if it had been anybody else but Mama Dukas who sent for me but my love for good deli meats.

See ya in the funny papers, shlemiel.

Source: LA Times

34 thoughts on “Something’s Not Kosher: Jewish Market Under USDA Investigation Over Selling Non-Kosher Meat”

  1. Mike,

    Just like kosher labeling if you have a person that does not honor their part of the get it is enforceable as a breach of contract… Been there done that… A mislabeling of a product is still fraud… Regardless of any mosaic law… It is in my opinion enforcing a religious law….

    1. AY,

      Once the “Get” is given the divorce is final. The other divorce details are judicial issues, but the parties to a “Get” can remarry within the religion.

  2. Putting aside the fact that all religion is bu**sh** and “dietary requirements” are chosen, not required….

    This story isn’t about religion, it’s about false labelling. There are many cases of supermarkets caught relabelling foreign produce as “locally grown” or as being “organic” when it’s not. The food involved isn’t actually any different than what the consumer thinks is for sale, but the prices often are different, usually by being higher. Relabelling and false labelling is inarguably a form of fraud.

  3. “But no, on a leftist blog like this one, ”

    Can’t we all just agree that “leftist” is an ugly word. If you’re going to troll, you could at least find a more euphonious word.

    You know what, while I’m at it: from now on, I’m going to start rating the prose on obvious trolling or blatant attempts to change the topic to how horrible _______ political persuasion is.

    You get an F. Points off for the scare quotes, and ungainly meter, and repeatedly using an ugly word. Rhetorically you lost points because all religions are sacred; the fact that this has nothing to do either the liberal\authoritarian or progressive\conservative axises; the fact that the story has nothing to do with Islam; and dissing a post that quotes a great piece of noir and by extension American culture.

    I’ll allow a rewrite, but only if you turn it in by tomorrow.

  5. Oh boy, what a stupid spin on a story. This case is NOT about putting “the federal government in the awkward position of enforcing a religious practice.” It is about TRUTH IN LABELING. It’s material misrepresentation of fact, plain and simple, for the purpose of gaining unfair advantage over another. I call that FRAUD, and most real legal scholars would too.

    But no, on a leftist blog like this one, this story represents a “wonderful” opportunity to make fun of Judaism. And if there were an opportunity to make fun of Christianity, Turley would have done that too. Of course, had this been about Muslims and Halal, Turley wouldn’t even touch the story. Leftists don’t dare to make fun of Islam. That’s a sacred religion to them.

  6. Mike S.,

    Why don’t we have the government regulating other areas…… Why not have the Courts enforce a “get”…… It is a Divorce after all…..

    Enforcing something because its a fraudulent act is not the same rational to enforce it being branded Kosher…..

    As you stated some Rabbis like the skim…..

    1. AY,

      To me the difference between a “Get” (Jewish divorce) and kosher is this. A “get” only dissolves a marriage in the Jewish tradition. It does not set the terms of divorce, nor rules on children if any. It is not enforceable by the courts and has little effect on yhe actual disdolution of thr marriage.

      Kosher laws directly refer to false advertising and fraud, both of which the govrrment should monitor.

  7. “The investigation places the federal government in the awkward position of enforcing a religious practice.”

    or …

    The investigation places the federal government in the position of enforcing an awkward religious practice.

  9. Agreed Darren. Either what you are selling is as advertised or it is not. If not, that is fraud.

  10. Darren,

    While I agree that there are laws on the books…. It does not mean that they should be enforced by the state…. I wonder what time frame that law was passed…. Was it passed when the FDA finally did something about rats be ground into hotdogs….. Tainted meat being sold as aged…. I bet your state has laws against swearing in public, adultery not being a criminal act…. How about defrauding an inn keeper…. Some states have a 7 day SOL that an action has to be filed under…. Seriously, there is a time and place for some laws….

    The one I like is its against the law for a male to swear in front of women and children…. But a woman can swear in front of a male and children and its not against the law…. How did that survive equal protection…. But it did…

  11. i would disagree that this is a religious issue for which the government has no business. I view it from a consumer protection / false advertising angle.

    It is similar to labeling a product to be Organic because the public chooses to purchase the provenance it is actually organic. Kosher is, even in the most secular sense, an expectation to product preparation or quality. Plus, I would imagine the Kosher label to have greater cost than ordinary meat due to the inspection and costs. Someone bypassing the Kosher regime would have illegal comparative advantage in price due to the lower costs that puts legitimate and compliant businesses at great price disadvantages. This only encouranges greater violations of the law and in fact dilutes the labeling.

    Also, it is a crime in Washington State to sell labeled Kosher products that are not in fact Kosher.

    http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=69.90.020

    RCW 69.90.020
    Sale of “kosher” and “kosher style” food products prohibited if not kosher — Representations — Penalty.

    (1) No person may knowingly sell or offer for sale any food product represented as “kosher” or “kosher style” when that person knows that the food product is not kosher and when the representation is likely to cause a prospective purchaser to believe that it is kosher. Such a representation can be made orally or in writing, or by display of a sign, mark, insignia, or simulation.

    (2) A person violating this section is guilty of a gross misdemeanor.

    1. “I would disagree that this is a religious issue for which the government has no business. I view it from a consumer protection / false advertising angle.”

      Darren,

      An excellent point.

  12. “At issue is whether the meat was not adequately certified by rabbis.” (JT)

    So this can go one of two ways … either the grocer committed fraud on his customers or the rabbis committed fraud on the grocer?

    Exactly how is the Department of Agriculture equipped to make the determination and then, once made, to punish the culprit?

  13. The dietary laws are religious…. The FDA has no business certifying kosher or not….

    Mike S.,

    I’m with you on this…. The sins of a sinner….

  15. “I understand that the Jewish concept of ‘sin’ is not the same as it is in the Christian meaning so I seriously don’t know what the consequences of eating non-kosher would be for a true believer. Would they have to undergo some cleansing ritual? I get that this would be personally painful for someone trying to remain kosher but how awful would it be beyond that?”

    Frankly,

    That is a good question. While considered a religious commandment, eating Kosher is a choice that observant Jews make as part of the life of observance they wish to live. To not observe the laws of Kashruth would not be a “sin” in the Christian sense where God would directly punish you for your transgressions, yet for the observant Jew the transgression would be somewhat repugnant. If one ate meat that was purportedly Kosher, but wasn’t then one would enter a state of “ritual uncleanliness” that could be dealt with using a minor ritual.

    To someone who observes Kashruth, the allegations against this butcher, if true, would represent a very upsetting situation. However, the kicker in this is that it is not unknown for some Rabbi’s to use such a rumor to protect their own, or their friends interests. With all due deference to the Professor, this is less a Mickey Spillane drama and more a Marx Brothers Comedy.

  17. I think the local citizenry will avoid the market, and he will have to shut his doors.

  18. I understand that the Jewish concept of ‘sin’ is not the same as it is in the Christian meaning so I seriously don’t know what the consequences of eating non-kosher would be for a true believer. Would they have to undergo some cleansing ritual? I get that this would be personally painful for someone trying to remain kosher but how awful would it be beyond that?

    I have a lot of Catholic relatives and back in the day I remember one hysterical (to me) family get together where some of them ate ham on a Friday. There followed a two hour discussion of how this was ok because they had simply forgotten it was Friday so it was not a sin etc. It made me feel like they were more interested in finding a loophole than in sin.

  19. How long can this guy go away for selling non-kosher meat under a kosher label??? It is a crime against humanity!

  20. If there is a big public park near a restaurant, go observe who is stalking the squirrels and rabbits early in the morning. Follow them back to the restaurant. If they have rat traps be doubly gumshoe. Take photos. Dim Sum anyone?
    If you are a dog, stay far from harms way. If a cat, stray farther.

    HumpinDog says Tower Grove Park in Saint Louis has a host of hunters in early morn. The polo club nearby the dogpac has some early risers who are not manhandling golf clubs or petting ponies.

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