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<font size=3>At 12:55 PM 1/17/2017, Micha Berger wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">The history RAZZ doesn't discuss
is the era in which the Mafia took over<br>
the kosher meat business. </blockquote><br>
Timothy Lytton in his book Kashrus relates some of this history. It is
worth reading. There were also rabbonim whose hechshers on meat
meant almost nothing when it came to kashrus. The claim is that at
least 40% of the meat sold in the 1930s and 1940s as kosher was not
kosher.<br><br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">In Boston, it drove my
greatgrandfather (R' Yisrael Avraham Abba [Meir<br>
Simchah] Krieger, 1872-1931) to an early grave. And when RYBS took
over<br>
a year later, there was a mess for him to clean up.</blockquote><br>
I do not know what you are referring to here, but I do know that
two outstanding talmidei chachomim who resided in the Boston area gave
supervision to Morrison and Schiff delicatessen which many Orthodox
people in the Boston area would not eat. The late Bostoner
Rebbe, Rabbi Levi Horowitz, Z"L, told me many years ago
that this delicatessen was not reliably kosher.<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">When the Hungarian and Chassidim
for nearby regions immigrated / fled<br>
to the US, they needed glatt shlachthoisen, as it is their minhag to<br>
only eat glatt. More meiqil than Bet Yosef's glatt, because it's
"only"<br>
a minhag, but what was already in place wouldn't meat their demand.
And<br>
because they started from a clean slate, they didn't have these
problems<br>
that the existing slaughterhouses did.<br><br>
During this era, it really was true that the glatt slaughterhouses
were<br>
much more likely to be reliable WRT basic kashrus as well. Even many
of<br>
those who were noheig to ohold like the Rama would look for glatt
for<br>
this reason. And so, the word shifted in meaning.</blockquote><br>
I am surprised that you made no mention of Rabbiner Dr. Yosef
Breuer, ZT"L, and his efforts in the field of kashrus.
He originally opposed Glatt meat for two reasons. 1. It was more
expensive, and his congregants were struggling financially in the early
1940s. 2. This was not the standard in Germany.
Eventually KAJ did certify only Glatt meat, because this gave their
shechita a wider market. <br><br>
For the record, Rav Breuer insisted that any meat under his
supervision be taken from the slaughterhouse on the day it was
slaughtered and not left overnight as was common practice at the
time. The reason - it was discovered that someone was actually
changing plumbas on the beef that KAJ had slaughtered and putting their
plumbas on meat that was under KAJ supervision. A shochet told me
this. <br><br>
Yes, there was a great deal of corruption at one time. Lytton
points out that it was the OU that played a key role in eliminating
this.<br><br>
YL </font></body>
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