[RBS] Suishiagogo updated information

[Jack Kalla - Aish.com]

This is updated information from http://www.jerusalemkoshernews.com

After hours of phone calls before and after shabbos, Baruch Hashem, the
issue regarding Sushiagogo (listed as a Ramat Beit Shemesh business) has
been clarified, thanks mostly due to cooperation of Rabbi Shimon Kroizer, a
senior official and a Jerusalem mifakeach in Badatz Agudat Yisrael.

I must comrommend everyone dealing with the issue, since it was not until
very close to shabbos that the actual picture became somewhat clear, and the
persons representing Sushiagogo, Badatz Agudas Yisrael and Ramat Beit
Shemesh all understood that the situation was due primarily to a lack of
communication in the badatz organization, as well as a failure to update the
Sushiagogo website, which still shows the business operating locally in RBS,
which simply is not the case.

In short, JKN acted responsibly, confirming information with senior badatz
officials, including the rav/posek who administratively runs the
organization, but the badatz’s internal sloppy procedural realities resulted
in misinformation given to consumers and JKN. JKN fulfilled its mandate of
informing the public, at the behest of an established kashrus certifying
agency.

*I would like to point out the following:
*1.     No names were mentioned, for this was unnecessary and the goal was
to inform the public, not besmirch the name of the owner
2.     The alert stated “there was no hechsher” and no accusations of
non-kosher were intimated. This would have not been factual since there was
no evidence of this
3.     Only the minimum information required as per the badatz alert was
relayed to the public. Suffice it to say that after hours of conversations
and emails, much information is learned but halacha dictates boundaries of
what needs to be shared with the general public.

For RBS customers’ familiar with Sushiagogo since its inception, you may or
may not know that today, there is a new owner and there simply is no
connection to the operation that existed in Ramat Beit Shemesh.

Secondly, an agreement was reached a number of weeks ago between Rabbi
Kroizer and Sushiagogo, which has been operating out of the Jerusalem-based
Maxim Restaurant [which is under the Badatz Agudah hechsher]. The Agudah was
uninformed of this arrangement, and thus took and had no acharayus
(responsibility) on the food, as told to us on Friday.

According to Rabbi Kroizer, this deal began a number of weeks ago but as of
today, it has ended.

Rabbis Adler and Kroizer stressed to me in conversations this morning to
inform the public that as of motzei shabbos, Sushiagogo no longer has a
hechsher.

For reasons that are not going to be shared with readers since they are not
relevant, Rabbi Kroizer simply did not get around to informing Rabbi
Binyomin Adler, the head of the badatz, and therefore, when calls were made
on erev shabbos to Rabbi Gefner, a badatz official, and Rabbi Binyomin Adler
Shlita, the rav/posek of the badatz, JKN was told that there was no
hechsher, urging us to warn the public that the use of the badatz logo by
Sushiagogo was unauthorized.

Rabbi Kroizer expressed his sincere apology for the mess that resulted from
his failure to update the head of the badatz, and perhaps is now
increasingly aware of the need to enhance the badatz’s administrative
procedures.
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