Kosher…but not

The owner of a kosher restaurant in Newton, Massachusetts suspended his kosher certification, letting his former employers know that, simply, he couldn’t afford them anymore.

The rising gap between the haves and the have-nots is incredibly apparent in the Jewish world. Especially in New York, it’s hard to find a kosher store or a kosher restaurant that has any Jewish workers — except for the lone kashrut supervisor, who’s usually a single boy on his night off from yeshiva anyway. When $350-an-hour lawyers have dinner at a $100-a-plate restaurant prepared by a minimum-wage chef with a $3-an-hour waiter* taking their orders, you’ve got to wonder: is Judaism no longer a self-sustainable culture?

Ricardo Bosich, the owner of the deli, said that the official kashrut certification was becoming too expensive to maintain. “I hope to keep my business kosher,” he’s quoted as saying, “but business is business and I have to support my family.â€?

Meanwhile, a representative for the kashrut authority remarked, smarmily, that the kashrut being revoked “was not due to a violation, but a business decision made by the proprietor.�

I mean, yeah. If kosher authorities keep demanding ludicrous standards (my wife and I went to T Fusion Steakhouse, which was an amazing dinner, but the strawberries were peeled to protect against bugs!?) and demanding ludicrous compensation, the righteous person’s fear of G-d isn’t going to be enough to keep the support of kosher-keeping Jews.

The most interesting thing about the article is what it doesn’t outright say, but hints strongly at: Bosich plans on keeping his restaurant kosher. He says he’s searching for a replacement authority that’s more affordable, but if he can’t find one, he may be forced to abandon supervision. Yes, it’s good to have someone watching over a restaurant — but do we have somebody supervise the kitchen when we eat at a friend’s house? It’s not inconceivable that, if you trust the kashrut of the proprietor of an establishment, and he or she says it’s kosher, you’ll eat there as well.

In Bosich’s paraphrased words (and in the words of Tito Jackson), “I gotta eat, too.”

* – Yes, it’s true. Waiters often receive below minimum wage because their tips, which are reported on restaurant forms and taxes, are expected to fill in the gap.