Bronx, NY – The cockroaches in one of Montefiore Medical Center’s cafeterias were definitely not kosher.
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But the Bronx hospital denies the charges of a food supervisor who has raised holy hell about the creepy crawlers, plus alleged nonkosher foods and other taboo practices in the kitchen at the Weiler Division.
The hospital fired Robert Frank, a mashgiach, or kosher-food supervisor, this month for badmouthing and “spreading false and/or misleading information” about the cafeteria.
Frank, one of three mashgiachs at the Eastchester Road center, claims he was booted for doing his $18.55-an-hour job.
“Nonkosher food comes in all the time and is prepared by the cooks and served to unsuspecting patients and patrons,” Frank wrote Nov. 29 to Rabbi Yaakov Luban, his liaison at the Orthodox Union — a Jewish group hired by the hospital to certify the kitchen as kosher.
How can the hospital fore this mashgiach if he works for the OU? And why would THEY be paying his salary of $18.55 an hour? You can’t employ your OWN mashgiach! That would make no sense because then you could control whatever he sees and says as evidence from this case!
Where was the OU to stand behind him? The head mashgiach was the head of Food services there – he was no help.
This looks like a Rubashkin affair all over again – where the rabbis said one thing but the owners had more power and overuled the rabbis.
First, why were they paying this mashgiach nearly $20/hour for doing what a minimum wage bochur from kolel could have done. Second, how does the hospital fire him if he worked for the OU?
What is not clear from this report is whether this mashgiach is employed by the OU, and pays his salary, or he is truly an employee of the hospital. It may well be that the OU has the contract to provide the kosher supervision and pays the salary. The mashgiach becomes, as per contract, a member of hospital staff. Such an arrangement is common for many different things. The hospital can then dismiss this staff person, essentially firing him. I would not jump to conclude that “firing” means that the hospital paid his salary.
I would also wonder whether this also means that the OU was dismissed as the contractor for kosher supervision.
Regardless, I am proud that a mashgiach took the position mandated by halacha and did not succumb to the pressures of whitewashing such infractions in order to preserve his job.
This looks like a Rubashkin affair all over again
It is libelous to say that the head of the OU or anyone associated with the OU engaged in the same despicable behavior as Rubahskin. There is no allegation here of felony or violoations of federal laws that would suggest any behavior as bas as what took place in Iowa with the Rubahshkin family.
They had really good french fries, now I know why!
A mshgiach in a hospital is hard work it includes shabosim and yom tovim all year long so 18 an hour is not so overpaid
Are you people out of your collective minds? $18 an hour is BUBKES. That’s $37,440 per year. Try paying rent, tuition, buying food, clothes, etc. on that amount–I mean, without getting Section 8 and owning your house in your brother-in-law’s name, scamming foodstamps and welfare by not having a legal marriage to your wife, getting paid in cash to avoid income tax, and any other of the numerous shtiklach.
Man there are a lot of self hating Jews out there. #3 can’t stand that another Jew earned $18/hour
#4 just couldn’t wait to slander the rubashkin family again.
#7 couldn’t stand # 4 comparing the ou to rubashkin saying itbwas libelous buy has no problem making terrible slanderous remarks regarding rubashkin.
Get a life Jew haters. It’s time for the bitter self hating jews to get off the Internet and do something productive like ma-Jong or bingo.
A mshgiach in a hospital is hard work it includes shabosim and yom tovim all year long so 18 an hour is not so overpaid
So you are saying that these ehrleche yiddin do “hard work” so they deserve to be paid $18/hour to be mechallel shabbos and yom tov. I think NOT.
I have personally seen non jewish “hospital employees” with non kosher food using thetoasters and griddle. So kol hakavod to this guy – the OU should reward him with a job in the main office (and throw out some of the garbage there)
$18.00@hr is poor pay. Did he get benefits? The Mcdonalds french fries were caught using lard & claiming it’s VEGAN. They were sued & paid out 10 million dollars, including to the OU & Star-k each got a few hundred thousand dollars.
a few points:
1.he was paid by the hospital not by the ou for employer legalities…
2.the ou stands behind the mashgichim as long as they conform
3.mr. frank is an ehrlicher guy, hard worker & actually worked in the same hosp for many yrs.( i think 18yrs?)
4.he was fired not for blowing a whistle but for an alledged breach of contract
5.had he been smart he wouldve not allowed his ego to get in the way & give the ou a chance to straighten some things out
6. his rigidness & akshonus cost him his job & the ou had no choice but to back the hospital “for the greater good of hospital kashrus” so now its a shtink for a week till it blows over this puts the hospital, the ou & other mashgichim in a terrible light –
7. one ought to look at the the tremendous mesiras nefesh of the ou & mashgichim do all yr. round
8. the hospital bends over backwards to accomodate kashrus & surgeries…!!!!(vehamavin yavin)for a small percentage of “unzere” -of course with thousand+ meals a day & unpteen menus & patient restrictions mistakes happen..
Why not simply use pre packaged or frozen kosher meals and eliminate the need for mashgichim at a hospital where the vast percentage of employees and patients are not shomer kashruth and could care less. Sometimes, I think we are fighting a losing battle trying to be shomer kashruth in these huge institutional facilities that don’t lend themselves to such observance. Yes, it would be nice to have the luxury of good hashgacha but at at time that these hospitals are struggeling to maintain quality medical care, they really cannot be faulted for not making kashruth a high priority.
It is simply amazing what people post about Hasgocho in a hospital setting
The OU has set model standards in bhospital kitchen in a way not to fool the kashrus system. The mashgiach opens the sealed door and then light all ovens (fires where applicable) most hospital kmitchen on$y use steam cattels. Make sure that the peguma system works properly. And then stats his routine work day, all of this happens before 6 am, then reviews the menu and the tally, starts preparing breakfest trays and overlooks the entire kitchen work.the at around 10:30 preparing lunch starts whichast again about 11/2 hours The mashgiach has to deal with union workers and union delegets making sure not to get into any “labor conflicts”.
Part of the mashgiachs work is to identify seperate meat, dairy, parve utensils, silverware, trays etc. Check vegetables, check incomming deliveries walk thru the dry storages the cold and freezer boxes. Inspect the cafetiria if there are kosher vending machines make sure that it complies as well. This would be a routine for the morning shift
And allof the above for only $18.55 an hour
Too bad he did not have videos of this. Why would a mashgiach risk losing his job- because that is what his job sometimes entails.If non-kosher food is being served in the cafeteria, the OU should take off its certification and the hospital should be sued. The OU should take these allegations seriously and determine if they are true. A hospital is a place that is supposed to make people healthy-the cafeteria by serving non-kosher food is injuring people’s neshamas.
To answer the question why frozen prepared food are not served in hospitals and rather kosher kitchens are established. Kosher TV dinners are hardly consumed on airplanes and less for sick patients, I don’t think that anyone would want to serve it for their parent grandparent or their child. Freshly prepared food is the way to go for sick patients. The mashgichim are Makriv them selves 365 days a year including shabosim and yomim tovim erev yom kippur and yom kippur ereve pesach and pesach so let’s respect their work
This was not a case of a kashrus viloations. This was a case of a big mouth employee who didn’t know how to speak with derech eretz to fellow employees and his supervisors. He received repeated warnings and decided he had to go public with his story.
This is NOT about kashrus violations. This is about someone who didn’t realize that he wasn’t the Rav Hamachshir but the low man on the totem pole.
The guy had NO sechel, NO brains, and NO derech eretz.
This mashgiah is not telling the truth.
He is currently suing the hospital for firing him claiming religious discrimination. He says they would not let him daven on company time.
But he can’t go public with this story. So he comes out with the kashrus violations.
It’s a made up story for the newspapers.
By his standard every food serving business in Boro Park should lose their kosher certification because you will not find a single place where there are no roaches and mice swarming the kitchens or the Mexicans preparing your kosher food with clean hands at ALL times.
there should be a fond setup for all Mashgicim
that come froward and uncover these hidden ….
It’s quite clear that people who blow the whistle on illegal or unethical actions by an employer face serious retaliation. Anything is theoretically possible, but one wonders if in fact there may have been serious violations of kashrus, which this fellow reported to his supervisors, and which resulted in his being dismissed.
It is very easy for an employer to create the impression that an employee was fired for ’cause,’ ie for a legitimate reason.
This fellow clearly had some concerns. Whether he was ‘rigid’ is irrelevant to the heart of the mattter, and that is that there is now some doubt as to the kashrus of the eating facilities at this cafeteria.
My father was in the culinary business lost jobs, even from seemingly frum employers, when he raised issues about kashrus.
Let’s not be so naive as to readily accept the story being put out by the secularly run Einstein hospital.
It’s sad that the OU chose, as it apparently did in at least one other recent case, to side with the employer rather than its own hardworking, honest mashgiach. That’s my guess, as I am not privy to the facts, but my guess is based on experience.
Perhaps the solution to these ongoing issues is selecting and training mashgichim that are professional in behavior and presentation, knowledgeable in halacha and updated periodically with all policies by their superiors. Constant support and reinforcement in the field should be done by the supervising organization, through its senior administrators. And perhaps by doing so, the mentality of the company representatives (or owners) will change along with their perception that the mashgiach is there at their mercy or as something imposed on them by the agency to justify a fee. Perhaps too many think that the mashgichim do this kind of job because they suck at everything else. Perhaps….
Anyone agree?