An update

This week many sighed in relief.

Finally all the images on the It's Kosher Facebook page were frozen!

Among some of the more dishonest messages were:

• A large series of logos some belonging to the American Conservative Movement, some just a Kosher symbol belonging to nobody in particular and even a logo from Masterchef had written on it, "these are all Jewish, these are all Kosher."
• Another image had marketing for Limors Restaurant on Kooyong road with a large photo of the establishment and even a menu. The sad story regarding Limors is this totally non Kosher restaurant belonging to an Israeli by the name of Yaron that was serving pork 7 days a week was advertising at one stage (approximately 2 years ago) that 6 days a week their breakfast was Kosher under the supervision of Meir Gershon Rabi. Rabbi Rabi even had the audacity to host a sheva brochos for his own daughter catered by Limors. We are aware of numerous people who were confused and ate in this restaurant meals that were cooked with 100% non Kosher meat believing that this restaurant was fully under Rabbi Rabi. As the public would not accept Rabis standards and eat a milchig "kosher" breakfast in a fully non Kosher restaurant serving 7 days a week, the arrangement between Rabi and Yarom from Limors was suspended and according to Limor there was no Kosher food at all available for well over 12 months. But to the disgrace of it's Kosher the marketing on its Facebook page was still there for Limors till 5 days ago. This is even though it was bought to their attention.
• After this it is really insignificant but other images were of Rabbi Rabi's selfies of himself with staff of the establishments he went to visit, be them male or female young or old, appropriately dressed or not.
• On the webpage of Kosher Veyosher/Its Kosher  there is a number of pages of self glorification and self promotion of Rabbi Rabi blowing his own trumpet. This has now been passworded and is no longer accessible to the public.

The reason that Rabbi Rabi's promotions suddenly have been passworded as well as all the images on his Facebook page frozen was due to a legal letter received by Rabbi Rabi from one of the congregations in Melbourne warning him to immediately remove all pictures, comments, logos and names of their organisation and Rabbi as it is falsely being used by Rabi to promote himself. Unfortunately Dayan Abraham from the London Beth Din and many others have also the same dilemma.

What a real Kosher agency looks like

Melbourne's Kosher Australia has broadcast a "Webinar" called Getting to Know Kosher.  This is an initiative that certifying agencies in America have undertaken to inform the public about issues in Kashrus, reasons for certification etc.

The first Webinar from KA features Rabbis Moshe Shreck and Ephraim Baskin discussing how KA goes about certifying factories - in a fair amount of detail.  Unfortunately there were issues with the sound and I am sure this and other technical issues will be rectified in future broadcasts.  In any case go to 1:45 to start viewing.

It goes without saying that "It's Kosher" does not let the public know about their certifying methods. I doubt that they have the expertise of Kosher Australia or any of the other genuine Kashrus agencies in Australia.

Conversion scandal

Two readers have notified us in regards to a rather questionable conversion:

There has also been mention of this on this blog!

As we have previously advised we need to substantiate serious allegations which has 

now been done.

These are the facts:

Some years ago a young non Jewish girl by the name of Avigail Cassell approached 

the Melbourne Beth Din to convert to Judaism. She was told the standard procedure 

and was given a list of teachers who were  approved by the Melbourne Beth Din. 

Shortly after quite a number of concerns starting coming to the attention of the Beth Din.

These issues we are aware of, have had them confirmed but do not feel we should make 

them public. Five prominent  senior Rabbanim from the Melbourne Rabbinate were 

consulted and the unanimous decision was not to go ahead with her Geirus.  

Numerous Rabbonim were hassled and pestered over a lengthy period but the 

Rabbonim would not budge and would not convert her as per advice from overseas.

Ms Cassell then moved to Sydney where she applied to the Sydney Beth Din to convert

to Judaism. After more than a year of her arguing, pressuring, threatening the Sydney 

Beth Din plus other prominent Rabbonim, she was told that she would not be converted 

by the Sydney Beth Din either.

Ms Cassell was engaged to an American Israeli named Netanel. This Netanel was told in 

Israel that the only person who could help to convert Avigail is a Rabbi called Meir Rabi. 

Netanel was told that Rabi has a history of antagonising the local Rabbonim and he is a 

rebel who will probably help if the other Rabbis say not to. Netanel also threatened 

numerous Sydney Rabbonim.

Within a couple of weeks of Meir Rabi meeting Avigail the conversion was carried out. 

Meir Rabi had a letterhead printed pretending to be an official beth din, calling himself 

Harav HaGaon Meir Rabi, Rosh Beth Din and the other two memebers of the Beth Din 

were his business partner Kalmen Gradman (who was given the title Rabbi), and a third 

gentleman by the name of Yitzchak Micha'el. Both of these gentlemen, Gradman and 

Micha'el, cannot halachically be part of a Beth Din for conversion. Kalman Gradman 

admitted in court that he stole over $300,000 while an insurance broker which were 

premiums from his clients (the vast majority of these were of the Jewish faith) 

this offence disqualifies him from being part of a conversion Beis Din. Yitzchak 

Micha'el is himself a convert which disqualifies him from converting others.

Meir Rabi knew that no Mikveh would allow him to come with his two mates to convert 

someone, so the 3 of them took Avigail to the Brighton City Baths to use as a mikvah, 

where she did the tevilla and they "converted" her.

48 hours later in a hush hush ceremony the couple were married. 

The Rabbonim of Australia have their say

Maybe not all the Rabbonim but, in my humble opinion, the one's that carry the most weight.

Exposing "Rabbi" Rabi - "Not so Kosher - Not so Yosher"

Another website has been brought to my attention discussing R' Rabi and his businesses:

https://sites.google.com/site/exposingrabbirabi/

The "It's Kosher" business

On the Ben Pekuah Facebook page a video can be seen of R' Meir Rabi and Rabbi Pinchas Padwa tasting meat from a Ben Pekuah animal.  Although R' Meir Rabi has eaten this meat many times he chose to make two brachot at this time. One bracha was Shechechiyanu and the other one was She'oso Nissim.  While it is puzzling that he made a Shechechiyanu I would like to explain why he made the bracha She'oso Nissim.

R' Meir is in fact a true miracle for numerous reasons.

Together with his business partner Kalman Gradman, R' Meir runs the It's Kosher Authority and associated businesses.

There are many differences between the Kosher certification business run by R' Rabi and Mr Gradman and the three main communal Kashrut organisations in Sydney and Melbourne - Kosher Australia and Adass Israel in Victoria and the Kashrut Authority in NSW:

• The three communual agencies employ between 7 and 14 staff each as well as having Boards of Directors above them. It's Kosher only employs the two partners
• The three communal agencies employ Rabbis and Mashgichim who get paid a set figure each week - a standard which is practiced all over the world to assure no conflict of interest.  R' Rabi and Mr Gradman need to pay themselves from the fees they charge out. On the Ben Pakuah project that he supervises he is on a commission
• Other hechsherim have numerous Rabbis whose only responsibility is to make sure everything is 100% kosher to the standards of the Rabbonim they consult. While R' Rabi and Mr Gradman are under a lot of pressure as they offer a far more inclusive service:

o   Finding new business

o   Checking out if these businesses are acceptable

o   All contracts and accounts

o   Marketing and advertising on webpage and Facebook

o   Photography to promote products and to promote R’ Rabi - including selfies with a range of prominent Rabbonim around the world

o   Visiting potential customers and Rabbonim to push their hashgocha and products

o   Daily upkeep of their Facebook page

o   Travelling the world regularly

o   Checking SCTV which are used as he claims more reliable than mashgichim. A very conservative estimate on the cameras he claims to have in place comes to a minimum of 3,500 hours footage per week

o   Checking and criticizing the other Melbourne and Sydney hechsherim including writing on blogs and Facebook using fake names (eg. Kelvin Mottel)

• The “It’s Kosher” business give more new hechsherim than the other main agencies combined (His facebook page is titled “Australia’s largest and most active independent kosher certification authority"!)

Due to this amazing workload we believe R’ Rabi must be a miracle man, a posek more reliable, pious and knowledgeable than any other posek in the world (unless he can find someone who agrees with him) so making a bracha She'osa Nissim makes perfect sense.

It would therefore seem that when seeing this great rabbi of many hats we should also make this bracha.