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Farmington Hills, Michigan

Friday, September 26, 1986 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

855-8800 ,

COMMENT

Rabbi Responds
To Report On Butcher

ELIMELECH GOLDBERG

Special to The Jewish News

am penning this response
not as an. officer of the
Council of Orthodox Rab-
bis but as a Young Israel
rabbi. It is out of the requis-
ite of my constituents for
consistency and reliability in
the world of kashrus and the
general need of a united voice
for the Orthodox community
that I have elected to become
an active member of the
Vaad Harabonim.
Of the 25 rabbis of the
Vaad, there is certainly more
than one opinion on many
subjects. We come from
different congregations and
institutions as well as back-
grounds. yet, there is incredi-
ble unanimity in• our work.
We share a commonality of
direction and dedication to
the needs of the Jewish corn-
munity that has been the
foundation of the dynamics of
our group. I am proud, that I
have seen, through the Vaad,
correction of a substantial
problem plaguing every
Jewish community in the
world, from Los Angeles to
Jerusalem, namely, the pro-
liferation of non-kosher
mezuzot.
In food supervision and cer-
tification, the Vaad continues
to move in the direction of a
professional and consistent
agency, bearing in mind the
mandate of Jewish Law in
consonance with the needs of
the entire Jewish community.
I cannot say that there are no
problems or difficulties re-
maining. I can, however, un-
equivocably state that time,
energies and substantial fi-
nancial resources are being
directed to maintain and im-
prove the system.
It is with this in mind that
I direct myself to the com-
ments and innuendos of last
week's Jewish News that
dealt with the Bernard and
Son meat market story. It
was my hope that enough
had already been said about
this sad issue. It is not pleas-
urable to wring out the dirty
laundry that has already
been washed in the public
eye. yet, the very possibility
that one person, and I fear
that there are probably more
than one, could be guiled into
believing that all of the
members of the Orthodox
rabbinate in the community
counselled together in order
to perpetrate a crime against
one singular butcher or that
we acted with careless negli-
gence even though the liveli-
hood of an individual was at
stake, is mandate enough to
warrant a response.
Our suspicions of wrongdo-
ing on the part of Mr. Rayber
began when his purchase of
kosher meats from the
wholesalers began to slip dur-
ing certain periods below the
level of what he appeared to
be selling. At that time, we

I

asked the supervisor of his
store, who was there at least
twice a day, to be extra care-
ful in his inspections. At the
same time we engaged the
services of a private detective
to follow Mr. Rayber in the
early morning hours as he
went to purchase his meats.
Our investigator spent a
great deal of time asessing
the hours and mechanism of
meat pick-up. What he wit-
nessed was a 1985 Chevrolet
station wagon registered to
the Bernard and Son Com-
pany make its first stop at
6:05 Thursday morning, July
the third, at the Monarch
Meat Plant in the Eastern
Market, which is kosher. He
then drove the vehicle to
Feldman Brothers which is
also kosher and there carried
out several paper wrapped
packages of meat into his car.
The man, fitting Mr. Ber-
nard Rayber's description,
then drove to the Edwin Beef
Co., 5050 Edwin Street in
Hamtramck. This plant is not
kosher and is owned by Ber-
nard Rayber's brother. It was
there at 6:47 a.m. that a
large man in a meat cutter's
coat pushed out a large cart
with one box and several
packages. In truth, we don't
know what was in that one
box. However, all of the
packages were wrapped in
meat wrapping paper. They
were sizable pieces, shaped
and carried like large sec-
tions of meat. They did ev-
erything but taste like meat
to the detective who was ob-
serving the scene.
Our investigator is willing
to testify in a court of law
that he was witness to the
transportation of meat. The
excuse given by Rabbi Jack
Goldman = who felt driven
by the compassion of alleged
injustice to exonerate the
butcher — that what was in
the box was plastic bags and
frozen dinners just does not
stand up to the reality of the
situation. All of the packages
that were placed in the car
were driven to the Bernard
and Son Store and after the
man fitting Mr. Rayber's de-
scription changed into his
white meat coat, they were
unloaded into that store.
As I had hired the inves-
tigator on behalf of the Vaad
and was acting as the inter-
face, I was called with the
news of this report that very
Thursday morning. Our pri-
vate investigator, Mr. Ed
Ritenour, is an experienced
police officer, one who is de-
liberate in his investigation
and analysis. He served for
many years as the chief of
police of the City of South-
field. He is a non-Jew; he is
also a mentch. He was sad
and angry when he gave me
his report. He felt such a
sense of violation that he re-
fused to accept payment for
his investigation despite the
fact that we had run up a

Continued on Page 18

