[Avodah] Kashrus

[Michael Escott]

While recently perusing your archives I saw the following:

On Monday December 7, 2009 at 13:42:21, Akiva Miller <kennethgmil... at juno.com> wrote:

> I'd like to begin with a history lesson. When I was at YU in the 1970s, both
> Hershey's chocolates and Kellogg's cereals were sold in the cafeteria,
> despite not having any formal hashgacha. I cannot testify who actually ate
> them, but the fact that they were sold their says a lot about how well their
> kashrus was accepted......
:
> During the 20th century, the United States frum community developed this
> new concept of hashgachah. It began in the early 20th century with certain
> categories of food, and it grew to include other categories of food. Milestones
> were passed in the 1980s when Hershey's and Kellogg's got formal hashgacha.....
:
> I will quote now from a pamphlet entitled "The Foods We Eat", by Rabbi Yosef
> Wikler, now publisher of Kashrus Magazine, previously titled The Kashrus
> Newsletter. This pamphlet, copyright 1981, contains several articles which he
> had previously published. I quote from the article titled "Kellogg Corn Flakes",
> originally published February 15, 1980.....
:
> "Kellogg Corn Flakes is a familiar cereal in many Orthodox homes, even
> though it has no rabbi or organization attesting to its kashrus. Actually, most
> every Orthodox person eats Kellogg Corn Flakes. Do you eat food from a
> take-out store? [begin italics] Almost Every Take Out Store Uses Kellogg Corn
> Flakes. [end italics] They are used as Kellogg Corn Flakes crumbs. ... In most
> cases the heimishe take-out stores do use this product.....
:
> Finally, at the bottom of page 6: "FLASH - Kellogg's has applied for supervision
> by the V.H. - Vaad Harabonim of Boston. Watch The Kashrus Newsletter for
> further information." A short while later Kellogg's did receive VH supervision, and
> is still supervised by them today. I can't help but suspect that these articles
> contributed to that.......
:
> That issue included a reprint of the Recommended Cereals list of the Vaad
> Hakashrus of Baltimore, which included a Kellogg's Corn Flakes and other
> Kellogg's cereals. "When we inquired how information was obtained for its list,
> the Vaad Hakashrus of Baltimore responded as follows: The cereal list which we
> have prepared is based upon information which we have received from reliable
> sources who have inspected the plants or who are knowledgeable of the process
> and/or ingredients."........


Kellogg's actually had a hashgacha as early as the mid 1920s.  My great-grandfather,
Rabbi Yaakov Eskolsky z"l, was the rav hamachshir from then until his petira in early
1931.  My great-uncle, Rabbi Mitchel Eskolsky z"l, began assisting his father in the
hashgacha during the late 1920s and became the rav hamachshir upon the elder
R. Eskolsky's passing.  I believe that he remained in this position until his own
petira in early 1959.

I received a general knowledge of this history from my father many years ago.  I have
seen more specific evidence of the hashgacha in several Yiddish language ads from the
1920s that Kellogg's placed in Der Morgen Journal.  Those ads listed R. Yaakov Eskolsky
as the rav hamachshir.  I once saw an old poster board Yiddish ad for Kellogg's being
offered on eBay. That ad also included R. Mitchel Eskolsky as a mashgiach along with
his father.  There's also an article titled "Vos Far a Bracha Men Zol Machen"
in the Degel Yisroel journal of November 1929 pp. 13,14 (see http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=13155&hilite=7d6c4664-1e0e-4582-a782-d3977b34e503&st=%d7%a7%d7%a2%d7%9c%d7%90%d7%92%d7%a1&pgnum=157)
that refers to this hashgacha when answering the question of what bracha to make on
various Kellogg's cereals.  R. Yaakov Eskolsky mentioned that he had been giving a
hashgacha to Kellogg's cereals for a few?/several? years ("etliche yohr").  An elderly
niece of R. Yaakov Eskolsky, who attended his levaya in February 1931, recently told me
that Kellogg's sent some men to represent their company at the funeral (In my mind I of
course conjure up images of a somber contingent of Snap, Crackle and Pop in black shul
yarmulkes! :-)).

Evidence of R. Mitchel Eskolsky's tenure as rav hamachshir can be seen in six articles
from The Jewish Criterion (Pittsburgh) from the 1940s and 1950s.  (The articles can be
found by going to http://diva.library.cmu.edu/pjn/index_adv.jsp and searching ALL THE
WORDS "Eskolsky Kellogg").  One can see many details of the hashgacha from a 1941 report
given by R. Eskolsky to that newspaper (see http://pjn.library.cmu.edu/books/pages.cgi?layout=vol0/part0/copy0&call=CRI_1941_098_024_10171941&file=0019)

Regarding the period from about 1960 to 1980, I've been trying to determine (without
success) as to whether a Kellogg's hashgacha existed for part of that time.  I remember
eating many Kellogg's cereals back in the 1970s except that we avoided Frosted Mini-
Wheats due to the ingredients.  I do seem to remember a practice that might have been
more prevalent back then where an organization would grant a hashgacha, but no kashrus
symbol (even a K) would appear on the label of the package.

About three years ago I e-mailed Rabbi Halbfinger of the KVH to see if he knew of any
previously existing hashgachos on Kellogg's cereal. He replied that he was not aware of
any.  I also have contacted Kellogg's and they didn't seem to keep track of any past
kosher supervision history other than what's going on now.


Moshe Escott
Clifton, NJ


      
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