PROOF OF THE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST LE MARAIS' CHEF

  After seven months of failed efforts to resolve the Kashrut crisis at Le Marais directly with the OU, I initiated the website and blog amashgiachspeaksout.com to present evidence of the corruption I personally witnessed. Unfortunately, since the OU invested its time and resources in a steady campaign to deceive the public with propaganda and distorted stories to quell this whole affair,their cover up for the chef has only deepened. The OU has proven very crafty in leading a one-sided whitewashing campaign to whitewash the chef's misdemeanors and restore Le Marais' favor in the public arena. They assisted Le Marais in promptly obtaining an unlawful gag order from the judge when only one side was present. They used the month long duration of the gag order which restrained me from having ANY contact with the media whatsoever or the public regarding this matter, to spread total distortions and blatant lies about Le Marais'chef's past and present status when in fact it is common knowledge that this chef was FIRED FROM LEVANA and documented by the OU that the chef was ON PROBATION AT LE MARAIS.

The highlight of their one-sided campaign includes two episodes of a "one-sided" forum

• on the Zev Brenner radio talk show (whose producer is still trying to make up his mind whether or not to host me on the show to expose "my side" of the story and exercise some kind of "fairness" to its audience)
• as well as obtaining a published opinion from a widely respected Rabbinic authority without having me present. I am very surprised that someone like Harav Yisroel Belsky can state "In my opinion his allegations have no substance and are unfounded" when he never bothered to contact me. How can a Rabbinic authority speak out when hearing only one side?

Maintaining an undeterred and corrupt chef (purposely defiling Kashrut) working at Le Marais, despite the strong public concern is a TAKALA LERABIM (a pitfall for the masses) and publicly and repeatedly lying to keep him there,is an outrage for which the OU must be taken to task.

If so many staff members of such a powerful Kashrut organization as the O U can, not only turn their back on but fuel it with their lies and get support from a Rav. If Kashrut in America is in such unscrupulous hands more concerned with Their "Own Protection"   then with kashrut, with ego, and covering up as expressed in Rabbi Genack's urgent email meant for Rabbi Luban but accidentally sent to me after I proved I knew about the chef's dirty past at Levana's <THERE IS NO SATISFYING HIM , FOR OUR PROTECTION GO BACK TO SOL WITH THIS EMAIL> [Sol is Sol Kirshenbaum]Then the Jewish customers ought to do KRI 'A (garment tearing when mourning) or take Kashrut into their own hands.

  THE FIRING OF LE MARAIS'CHEF FROM LEVANA'S RESTAURANT (As testified by Mrs levana Kirshenbaum herself a few months ago)

       Although, with the help of G-d, I regained my right to free speech as of April 24, I have refrained up until now from further exposing the Rav Hamachshir as well as   Levana's restaurant (this being the reason why I tried to avoid having to go public in the first place, especially out of consideration towards Mrs. Kirshenbaum).Now I realize it will be impossible to proove anything without elaborating on the fact that the chef Mark Hennessy was indeed FIRED from Levana's since the OU, Levana's spokespeople, as well as Le Marais in its affidavit have vehemently denied this basic fact.Therefore I have no other alternative but to present some extracts of Mrs. Kirshenbaum's phone conversation with me (mid Nov 2006),in order for Jewish customers to   fully understand the magnitude of the O U and Le Marais' cover up.

  In his affidavit the chef makes an ambiguous remark stating "concerning the allegations of the circumstances of my leaving my prior employer, Levana's Restaurant, I did not do so under a cloud "

There were a number of reasons I was personally given while working at Le Marais.

•  The first day of his arrival at Le Marais, the French Baguette man reported to me the chef's own version: He left Levana because they were going to lose their lease!

•  The Rav Hamachshir who happens to be the same Rav supervising the Kashrut at both Levana's and Le Marais contradicting himself on two different occasions offered.

•  The chef left on his own because he asked for more money.

•  The chef left on his own because his bosses had cut his hours

Jose   Le Marais' owner claimed he "stole" the chef from Levana.

            -      Judah Englemeyer , the publicist for Le Marais once this was public offered, and I quote: "Mr. Hennessy left his position at Levana simply because his wife had a baby and Le Marais offered him a position that would better suit his family's needs"

•  Meanwhile, recently Rabbi Luban, the Rabbinic coordinator of the OU, in his emergency "intervention" on the Brenner radio show claimed " Levana let him go after 9-11 for financial considerations and nothing to do with Kashrus"

In fact however, the chef WAS fired and left on horrible terms. The fact that all parties try to hide at all cost that Mark Hennessy was FIRED gives away, just by itself, the very reason why they desperately want to hide it: KASHRUT REASONS!

Once I saw that the OU was denying the fact that the chef was fired from Levana's I called her again to see if she would intervene with the OU and attest to this basic fact genuinely hoping this way I would not have to" blow the whistle" and alert the general public.I pleaded with her to place this call to the O U to confirm what she had repeatedly said to me: THAT THE CHEF WAS FIRED. This would have exposed the OU's denial of the fact that the chef was fired as a total farce and they would have to honor their own probation agreement regarding the chef's misdemeanors and this scandal would not have become public. Mrs Kirshenbaum said she was forbidden by the other owners from getting involved .Unfortunately, they missed an opportunity to spare the Jewish public from a terrible scandal.

The fact that Levana's fired their chef for Kashrut reasons, in addition to personality (his jew hatred had become unbearable), was clear to me when I called Mrs. Levana Kirshenbaum for the first time right after the Dairy margarine incident to verify whether there was a precedent for such Kashrut sabotage when the chef worked at Levana's. She responded: "The chef is rotten. Obviously if he is not with us anymore it is because we had problems with him. What can you do? People get burned in one place and rebuild their lives somewhere else." You can hear me remind her of those statements in my second conversation as well as my question as to whether she thought her former chef was capable of purposeful sabotage. She refused to answer that question and directed me instead to Sol Kirshenbaum to get my answer.Unfortunately he had already taken a stance of utter denial.Though now it is clear that Levana restaurant fired their chef Mark for Kashrut reasons,Mrs Kirshenbaum's attempt to pass it off as "not getting along with him" was just an avoidance to explain why they did not denounce him to whom it may have concerned.

         Being that my conversation with Mrs Kirshenbaum was in French (except for a few sentences) and translation is a time consuming process I will only translate for you the specific times she openly declares the firing of their chef. The rest, I'm sure you'll be able to verify it some other way.

THE LIES OF THE OU AND A RESTAURANT OWNER ABOUT THE CHEF'S KASHRUT VIOLATIONS (by simply juxtaposing audio statements public distortions on the Brenner show with their acknowledgements of the truth in private)

THE SCANDALOUS SHELLFISH SHEKER (LIE)

THE COVER UP OF THE RAV HAMACHSHIR, LATER ON ENDORSED BY HIS SUPERIOR: RABBI ELEFANT

In light of what you heard from Mrs. Kirshenbaum you will easily understand why the Rav Hamachshir immediately warned me (the first week the chef was hired by Le Marais) saying   "keep an eye on the chef. He's a Sonay Israel (jew hater)." He had just given his green light to Jose, Le Marais' owner to hire Mark Hennessy, the chef who had recently been fired from Levana's for tampering with Kashrut reasons. Obviously the Rav Hamachshir's conscience was not at peace. He knew to what kind of individual he had opened Le Marais' door: A master of Kashrut sabotage,thus his warning me to watch out with him (and certainly more because he is a jew hater.)He was right on the money with his warning, since I did come to witness the chef 's capabilities first-hand later on. In retrospect it is clear, that the fact that the Rav Hamachshir felt the need to warn a mashgiach about a chef before he did anything wrong (he was still "Kosher" at that time!) was a first clear sign this Rav Hamachshir was implicated in a cover up that would unfold in front of my eyes over the next two and a half years. The next thing indication that the Rav Hamachshir was covering something up was his total denial that he was aware that this chef, the ex chef of Levana was going to be hired by Le Marais. This is a BLATANT LIE .   Jose, Le Marais' owner testified on several occasions that he consulted with the Rav Hamachshir   prior to hiring this chef since he knew he was the same   Rav Hamachshir for Levana's restaurant as well, he wanted to make sure there was no "beef" with him. Only when he obtained the Rav Hamachshir's go ahead did he proceed to hire the chef. The Rav Hamachshir denied this in front of Rabbi Luban, his superior, at the second meeting I held with the O U (early nov 06). At the third meeting (mid dec 06), when I raised the topic, Rabbi Elefant intervened sarcastically offering that the Rav Hamachshir FORGOT THAT HE KNEW that the chef Mark Hennessy was going to be hired (turning it even to a joke like forgetting his wife's birthday!)

          THE 4 th MEETING AT THE OU (late Feb 06) Also recorded

I presented a few clips of conversations I had recorded for Rabbi Luban to listen to .As usual, following the O U's steady policy "not to give in" to a mashgiach's allegations, Rabbi Luban tried to act unimpressed. However when he heard the recording of Jose, Le Marais' owner revealing to me that he made sure to call the Rav Hamachshir to ask his approval BEFORE hiring Mark Hennessy, Rabbi Luban literally "jumped out of his seat" not even trying to hide how much he was disturbed to hear this implicating testimony against the Rav Hamachshir's claim. Rabbi Luban then double checked my transcript , (since that conversation was also in French)   repeating with me the part that disturbed him most and proceeded to call the Rav Hamachshir, right away. You can hear this testimony of contradicting statements that will leave no doubt in anybody's mind about the Rav Hamachshir's attempt to cover-up his unbelievable blunder: ALLOWING AND GIVING A NON-JEWISH OWNER HIS APPROVAL FOR A CORRUPT, JEW-HATING, FIRED CHEF ( WITH AN EVEN BIGGER VENDETTA AGAINST JEWS AFTER HE WAS FIRED ) TO BE HIRED BY LE MARAIS

Rabbi Luban acknowledged on radio the gravity of such an accusation and denied the OU   was guilty of any act of this sort. The recording of the 4 th meeting though will prove just the opposite.

This is what you're going to hear in this recordings sequence :

•  When I remind the Rav Hamachshir of his "Sonay Israel" warning (firstmanifestation of his cover up)

•  I address the same topic at the 3 rd meeting at the O U ( note the Rav Hamachshir's absurd answer that he warns every mashgiach the same way about every chef!)

•  Addressing the Rav Hamachshir about his loss of memory concerning his approval for hiring the chef

•  Discussing the same topic at the 4 th meeting with Rabbi Luban : that's where the Rav Hamachshir gave himself away about his knowledge and direct involvement in the chef's hiring, a thing he had denied over two and a half years.

•  Jose, Le Marais' owner testifying that he had asked the Rav Hamachshir's approval before hiring Mark Hennessy

It is my hope that this evidence of the OU'S cover-up of their knowledge of the chef's murky past and repeatedly lying to the public to maintain him in his place will instigate the public to demand that he be dismissed. Keeping silent is feeding in to the corrupt notion that the O U is so big, they can get away with anything. If you have taken the time to listen to these conversations you cannot feign ignorance about the situation.

Jewish customers are entitled to and must receive complete reliability from the Kashrut organizations that represent their interests. It is time to demand change.

Selected portions of the Brenner Radio Show (April 22, 2007)

For the entire show you may download the MP3