<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;color:#000000;">While recently perusing your archives I saw the following:<br><br>On Monday December 7, 2009 at 13:42:21, Akiva Miller <kennethgmil...@juno.com> wrote:<br><br>> I'd like to begin with a history lesson. When I was at YU in the 1970s, both<br>> Hershey's chocolates and Kellogg's cereals were sold in the cafeteria,<br>> despite not having any formal hashgacha. I cannot testify who actually ate<br>> them, but the fact that they were sold their says a lot about how well their<br>> kashrus was accepted......<br>:<br>> During the 20th century, the United States frum community developed this<br>> new concept of hashgachah. It began in the early 20th century with certain<br>> categories of food, and it grew to include other categories of food. Milestones<br>> were
passed in the 1980s when Hershey's and Kellogg's got formal hashgacha.....<br>:<br>> I will quote now from a pamphlet entitled "The Foods We Eat", by Rabbi Yosef<br>> Wikler, now publisher of Kashrus Magazine, previously titled The Kashrus<br>> Newsletter. This pamphlet, copyright 1981, contains several articles which he<br>> had previously published. I quote from the article titled "Kellogg Corn Flakes",<br>> originally published February 15, 1980.....<br>:<br>> "Kellogg Corn Flakes is a familiar cereal in many Orthodox homes, even<br>> though it has no rabbi or organization attesting to its kashrus. Actually, most<br>> every Orthodox person eats Kellogg Corn Flakes. Do you eat food from a<br>> take-out store? [begin italics] Almost Every Take Out Store Uses Kellogg Corn<br>> Flakes. [end italics] They are used as Kellogg Corn Flakes crumbs. ... In most<br>> cases the heimishe take-out stores do use this
product.....<br>:<br>> Finally, at the bottom of page 6: "FLASH - Kellogg's has applied for supervision<br>> by the V.H. - Vaad Harabonim of Boston. Watch The Kashrus Newsletter for<br>> further information." A short while later Kellogg's did receive VH supervision, and<br>> is still supervised by them today. I can't help but suspect that these articles<br>> contributed to that.......<br>:<br>> That issue included a reprint of the Recommended Cereals list of the Vaad<br>> Hakashrus of Baltimore, which included a Kellogg's Corn Flakes and other<br>> Kellogg's cereals. "When we inquired how information was obtained for its list,<br>> the Vaad Hakashrus of Baltimore responded as follows: The cereal list which we<br>> have prepared is based upon information which we have received from reliable<br>> sources who have inspected the plants or who are knowledgeable of the process<br>> and/or
ingredients."........<br><br><br>Kellogg's actually had a hashgacha as early as the mid 1920s. My great-grandfather,<br>Rabbi Yaakov Eskolsky z"l, was the rav hamachshir from then until his petira in early<br>1931. My great-uncle, Rabbi Mitchel Eskolsky z"l, began assisting his father in the<br>hashgacha during the late 1920s and became the rav hamachshir upon the elder<br>R. Eskolsky's passing. I believe that he remained in this position until his own<br>petira in early 1959.<br><br>I received a general knowledge of this history from my father many years ago. I have<br>seen more specific evidence of the hashgacha in several Yiddish language ads from the<br>1920s that Kellogg's placed in Der Morgen Journal. Those ads listed R. Yaakov Eskolsky<br>as the rav hamachshir. I once saw an old poster board Yiddish ad for Kellogg's being<br>offered on eBay. That ad also included R. Mitchel Eskolsky as a mashgiach along
with<br>his father. There's also an article titled "Vos Far a Bracha Men Zol Machen"<br><span>in the Degel Yisroel journal of November 1929 pp. 13,14 (see <a target="_blank" href="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">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</a>)</span><br>that refers to this hashgacha when answering the question of what bracha to make on<br>various Kellogg's cereals. R. Yaakov Eskolsky mentioned that he had been giving a<br>hashgacha to Kellogg's cereals for a few?/several? years ("etliche yohr"). An elderly<br>niece of R. Yaakov Eskolsky, who attended his levaya in February 1931, recently told me<br>that Kellogg's sent some men to represent their company at the funeral (In my mind I
of<br>course conjure up images of a somber contingent of Snap, Crackle and Pop in black shul<br>yarmulkes! :-)).<br><br>Evidence of R. Mitchel Eskolsky's tenure as rav hamachshir can be seen in six articles<br>from The Jewish Criterion (Pittsburgh) from the 1940s and 1950s. (The articles can be<br><span>found by going to <a target="_blank" href="http://diva.library.cmu.edu/pjn/index_adv.jsp">http://diva.library.cmu.edu/pjn/index_adv.jsp</a> and searching ALL THE</span><br>WORDS "Eskolsky Kellogg"). One can see many details of the hashgacha from a 1941 report<br><span>given by R. Eskolsky to that newspaper (see <a target="_blank" href="http://pjn.library.cmu.edu/books/pages.cgi?layout=vol0/part0/copy0&call=CRI_1941_098_024_10171941&file=0019">http://pjn.library.cmu.edu/books/pages.cgi?layout=vol0/part0/copy0&call=CRI_1941_098_024_10171941&file=0019</a>)</span><br><br>Regarding the period from about 1960 to 1980, I've been
trying to determine (without<br>success) as to whether a Kellogg's hashgacha existed for part of that time. I remember<br>eating many Kellogg's cereals back in the 1970s except that we avoided Frosted Mini-<br>Wheats due to the ingredients. I do seem to remember a practice that might have been<br>more prevalent back then where an organization would grant a hashgacha, but no kashrus<br>symbol (even a K) would appear on the label of the package.<br><br>About three years ago I e-mailed Rabbi Halbfinger of the KVH to see if he knew of any<br>previously existing hashgachos on Kellogg's cereal. He replied that he was not aware of<br>any. I also have contacted Kellogg's and they didn't seem to keep track of any past<br>kosher supervision history other than what's going on now.<br><br><br>Moshe Escott<br>Clifton, NJ<br><br></div><br>
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