Bagel Boycott Narrowly Averted? - UPDATED

Dag points us to an article in the Jewish Star regarding kashrut violations found at a local bagel store:

The sign in the window apologized for the inconvenience and said the Bagel Island store on Rockaway Turnpike in Cedarhurst was closed on the Thursday after Pesach due to “a plumbing problem.”

In actuality, the Vaad Hakashrus of the Five Towns and the Rockaways ordered the store to shut down for one dayas a penalty after one of the owners of the store, David Perez, was discovered substitutingcream cheese with an OU-Dfor the Cholov Yisroel cheese the store is required to use. The Vaad’s rabbinic administrator,
Rabbi Yosef Eisen, confirmed that he personally made the discovery.

A spokesman for the Vaad,Rabbi Dovid Weinberger, said there was no cause for concern about the store’s kashrus. “Whatever needed to be corrected was corrected and the hashgacha continues with out any concern,” he said. Rabbi Weinberger, the rav of Shaaray Tefila in Lawrence, also heads the Rabbinic Liaison Committee of the Vaad Hakashrus of the Five Towns and the Rockaways.

Rabbi Eisen “was spot checking, and saw something that made him suspicious,”
according to Rabbi Weinberger. “He saw a knife” on the seat of Perez’s car “and he found the cartons in the dumpster” outside the store. The cartons had contained
three-pound containers of Kosher, but not Cholov Yisroel, cream cheese. “When you take them out of the box they look identical to anything else and you would never know the difference.”

Questioned by Rabbi Eisen, Perez first claimed the cheese came from Ahava Dairy, a Cholov Yisroel producer. “What are you doing with a knife in the car and these cartons in the trash?” Rabbi Eisen asked, according to Rabbi Weinberger. “When he confronted him, he caught him red-handed.”

Another partner in the store, Joe Elbaz, confirmed that Rabbi Eisen immediately ordered the store closed for one day. Elbaz said that he felt that the incident had been handled in a “fair” manner. “It was a situation where we were without cream cheese,” he explained, and the delivery from Mehadrin, the usual supplier, wasn’t scheduled to take place until the afternoon.

“In a second of thought - the wrong thought — it was a stupid mistake.” He added that no customers were served the non-Cholov Yisroel cream cheese. “I presume that no one was served it,” said Rabbi Weinberger, but “I cannot ascertain that for sure.” Elbaz confirmed that Perez purchased two cases of cream cheese with an OU-D which were not Cholov Yisroel, despite signage in the store which tells customers that Cholov Yisroel is what they should expect. “It was not an attempt to defraud,” he said, and admitted that he was “upset” with Perez.

The Vaad has seen receipts which, Elbaz said, confirm thatthe store receives regular deliveries of Cholov Yisroel products from Olam and Mehadrin, two major dairy suppliers. Elbaz brought receipts with him to an afternoon meeting at Shaaray Tefila, Rabbi Weinberger said.

Perez, who is not observant, “is no longer permitted to be inside the store,” effective immediately, said Rabbi Weinberger.

Can customers trust Bagel Island in the future? “Honestly, yes,” said Elbaz. “Olam and Mehadrin are my suppliers. Period. What else can I say?”

Rabbi Weinberger confirmed that the Vaad considers Elbaz to be trustworthy. “We are not looking to hurt a man who owns the store and whose partner took him for a ride, who is himself ethical and honest, because of somebody’s stupid mistake and idiocy.” That’s why, Rabbi Weinberger said, the sign in the window referred to a plumbing problem and did not detail the true reason behind the closure.

“I can attest to it that any time something like this happens customers are lost and it takes a very long time to win them back. That’s why we prefer to say that it is closed for some other reason. It absolutely justifies it.

At least one community rabbi chose to discuss this incident with his congregants, and call for stricter standards than the Vaad presently requires. At the Agudas Yisroel of Long Island this past Shabbat, people who were present confirmed that Rabbi Yaakov Reisman reiterated his oft-repeated preference that his own congregants confine their patronage to kosher establishments with Sabbath- observant owners. For use by members of his shul, Rabbi Reisman updates a list which he prepared long ago of stores which he deems acceptable.

Rabbi Weinberger, the spokesman for the Vaad Hakashrus, was asked to respond. “So close down 70 percent of the kosher stores in the country,” he said. The result, he predicted, would be more Jewish people eating “traif rather than kosher food.” “Most stores are owned by non-Shomer Shabbos proprietors,” he said. “You get a mashgiach temidi and the Shulchan Oruch is fine with it. If the Shulchan Oruch is fine with it, you can’t negate it. “

I can't say that that this makes me 100% comfortable with Bagel Island - though I will say that the fact that the offender is no longer allowed on the premises does mitigate my discomfort. It is nice to see that the Vaad is on the ball with regards to their supervision. In the past, I've heard criticism of the Vaad's policy of only spot-checking of the stores that are under their supervision. However, this incident would seem to indicate that not only does it work when it comes to finding violations, it presumably works as a deterrent for other store owners who might consider trying to pull this type of shtick.

Dag takes issue with the Vaad's coverup of the incident, saying that he doesn't like being lied to - whether by the store owners or by the Vaad. I can completely relate to the visceral dislike of any type of dishonesty, but I actually understand the Vaad's reasoning on this issue. If the other owner of the store agreed completely to barring the violator from the premises indefinitely, then one has to assume that the problem has been dealt with appropriately. Dag also says that the Vaad's handling of this episode is surprising, especially since "they came down so hard on Glatt Emporium." However, to me, this sounds exactly similar to the way the Vaad handled the GG situation. I recall the same type of attempt by the Vaad during the initial stages of the Gourmet Glatt saga to keep the story quiet. Unfortunately, the story began to come out, and the Vaad had no choice but to confirm the details of the Kashrut violations in that incident, as they eventually did in this case as well.

One would have to assume that had the owner who committed the Kashrut violation had refused to follow the Vaad's directives to be banned from the premises, we would have been looking at a bagel boycott.

Also, in regards to mention made in the article of a certain local Rav who tells his congregants not to eat at restaurants owned by non-Sabbath observers? I have just one word in response to that "failsafe": Monsey.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: The Jewish Star has issued a correction on some details regarding the story above:

Correction

Sometimes even the most determined effort at fact checking goes awry and mistakes slip into the newspaper. That hurts. But when the names of two people become reversed — one of whom did something and the other of whom suffered the consequences — an editor's worst case scenario is born.
We reported last week that the Bagel Island store on Rockaway Turnpike was shut down for a day by the Vaad Hakashrus. It had been discovered that OU-D cream cheese was substituted for Cholov Yisroel cream cheese, which is required by the Vaad. Accurate, so far.
However, despite multiple conversations with rabbonim and with an owner of the store, the names of the two partners still came to be reversed in the published story.
Joe Elbaz and David Perez — the partners — each confirm that it was Elbaz who brought in the OU-D cream cheese, not Perez. At the time Elbaz told us, "In a second of thought — the wrong thought — it was a stupid mistake." He now clarifies that he was admitting to his own action, and NOT referring to something done by his partner. He further explained that it was Perez, his Sabbath-observant partner, who was upset at HIM, Elbaz. The story clearly said that the reverse was the case.
We deeply regret the error and apologize to both men.