The Vaad Hakashrus of the Five Towns and Far Rockaway is a community organization that caters to every community facility that requests kosher certification, working with each individually and focusing on its particular kashrus concerns and challenges. Its staff is on call 24/6 with a singular mission – to ensure the kashrus integrity of every establishment and affair in our community under its supervision and certification.
The Vaad is proud to announce a new and groundbreaking advance to better service the kashrus needs of our community. Our neighborhood represents a unique amalgam of diverse communities, and our unified communal Vaad provides for the kashrus needs of all. The Vaad’s Executive Rabbinic Board is comprised of prominent local Rabbonim representative of a cross-section of the diverse 5T/FR community, who work together with achdus and dedication for the benefit of our entire community. No member of the Board receives any remuneration for the many hours of dedicated service outside of their regular Rabbinic responsibilities to their kehillos.
In response to the needs of our expanding and flourishing community, the Vaad has launched an innovative and fresh initiative. Today’s kashrus consumers are highly educated, and many individuals have very specific and often varied needs. A one-size-fits-all approach may no longer be the best way for everyone to be able to get what they require. Under the guidance and leadership of the Rabbinic Board, the Vaad is excited to enact a new, breakthrough measure of posting kashrus profiles on the storefronts of each Vaad establishment. These profiles provide many important kashrus details regarding each individual establishment, set forth in a clear and transparent way. The profiles provide an easy way for the discerning kashrus consumer, in consultation with his or her Rav, to make their own individualized choices according to their specific kashrus requirements, all the while relying on the Vaad’s stellar hashgacha to ensure that every detail is properly supervised. Store owners, consumers, and Rabbonim alike have greeted this innovation with enthusiasm, and believe that this will help the Vaad best fulfill its mission to provide for the kashrus needs of our entire community with excellence, providing clarity and transparency, and fostering a spirit of respect and achdus in our diverse 5T/FR community.
See sample profiles here: Sample Meat, Sample Dairy
The profiles are also posted on the recently revamped website Vaadhakashrus.org, which includes real-time updates and kashrus alerts. The website also includes tutorials on how to prepare your favorite fruits and vegetables at home in accordance with Vaad standards. It also provides background information as well as insightful articles and shiurim on different kashrus-related topics provided by community Rabbonim. You can register your email on the website to receive real-time emails of the same kashrus alerts posted on the website.
This is only one of many recent innovations at the Vaad. Rav Shimon Adler, renowned kashrus expert recently installed as the Vaad’s Assistant Executive Administrator, has been working on a number of exciting new initiatives. “I am proud to be working with Rabbi Eisen to service the kashrus needs of one of the greatest communities in the world,” said Rabbi Adler. “We are always looking to increase our level of supervision and standards.” Rabbinic Kashrus Administrator Rabbi Eisen adds: “It is an incredible chizuk for the Vaad Administration, and we are grateful for all the selfless time, effort and commitment of the Rabbinic Board in their endeavor to set the highest standards of integrity and transparency for our community’s kashrus. And we look forward to continuing to collaborate with our wonderful establishments in a dialogue that enables the free exchange of ideas to foster better communication, better process, better supervision, with an infrastructure that enables the Vaad to continuously strive to new heights.”
And of course, all of this is in addition to the everyday labor of the Vaad. This involves countless hours of product research, new and innovative Mashgichim training and continuing education programs, and enhanced review and inspection by Roving Mashgichim to ensure the store Mashgichim are qualified and doing their jobs properly. Rabbi Eisen and the Vaad’s administrative staff are in constant touch with the Rabbinic Board, and are always on call for issues arising at establishments and catered events, constant monitoring of stores to ensure no mistakes occur, and taking calls as the first stop for kashrus questions both from within and outside of our community. These are just some of the tasks of the Vaad’s dedicated and hardworking staff.
We live in one of the greatest communities in the world, and our unified Vaad’s success is one of its most special and unique accomplishments. In truth, all of this is a tribute to the tireless dedication of our community’s Rabbonim, and we take this opportunity to express our heartfelt and abiding hakaras hatov and bracha to them and for their tireless efforts and time, for their leadership, and for their commitment to set the highest standards of integrity for our community’s kashrus.
Thank you!
Hoping this will improve the availability of our local VAAD to have kashrus questions answered in a timely fashion.
Hatzlacha rabba
Just Curious,
Is there any way the Vaad can certify
1) That there is no way a restaurant owner can bring in treif meat or any none kosher product at a time no one sees?
2) That a Jew is the only one to ignite the fires or stoves?
3) That the mashgiach doesn’t get free Breakfast, Lunch or grab to go while checking out the place, assuring he doesn’t have any self interest in certifying the establishment?
Nice to see that the introduction of the new Hashgacha of the Mehadrin of the Five Towns finally made you folks of the Vaad to be better and to do better.
Might I add, in case I wasn’t clear.
Thank god for the Mehadrin, and the competition that ensued.
Will this have the disastrous effect of dividing the community (as it has in Israel) into those those who eat in certain restaurants and those who don’t? We had no such issues before but now with this awful episode and this new solution it seems we will no longer enjoy the beauty of a diverse community eating and shopping together… Mikveh next?
How sad for the 5T…
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