Restaurant Update - Max Burgers Goes Bogus
Max Burgers located on Paran Street in Jerusalem’s Ramat Eshkol Shopping Center is no longer under the Badatz Agudat Yisrael hechsher, but it is now under the bogus Tiferet Kashrut, an off-shoot of Keter Kashrut, which now has a case pending in the Supreme Court with the Chief Rabbinate.[Hearing set for Sept]. (more…)

Picking Blueberries
Let me begin by pointing out that this is not intended as a rabbinical treatise, but more a newsletter informing you, the reader, that certain problems do exist regarding blueberries and each person should do as he/she sees fit. This is my usual format and I am compelled to remind you that I do not profess to be a rabbinical authority on matters of kashrut. Since I published yesterday’s information regarding blueberries, I feel compelled to provide you with the follow-up as well.  (more…)

The ‘Zman Jerusalem’ Hebrew weekly reports the Vitamin Café and Vitamin Meat restaurant located on the Hebrew University Mount Scopus Campus is threatening the Jerusalem Religious Council with a NIS multi-million lawsuit, represented by attorney Ashri Dahan.  (more…)

Mitz Pri – Fruit Juice
Geula, Jerusalem

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Hi folks,
I happened to get to the Geula area of Yerushalayim today, not having
planned the trip. I made the time to enter the popular Mitz Pri (Fruit
Juice) Store located on HaYeshiva Street, opposite Salon Geula
Electronics and next to the supermarket down the flight of stairs.

With Shabbos on the horizon and Baruch Hashem lots of guests, there is
no time to get into a long report. Bottom line, this guy has NO
HECHSHER AT ALL.

He has another one of the bogus Badatz Chatam Sofer photocopied
letters on his wall that is absolutely meaningless and he relies on
the fact that he is situated in Geula and everyone “assumes” he is
Badatz Eida Chareidit or another great supervision.

He has some frozen fruits, berries in particular, that no respectable
Badatz hechsher will give supervision due to the issue of bug
infestation.

Please, please pass the word around. Many yeshiva and seminary
students are drinking his product, believing “it is Geula so it must
be good”. This guy has no supervision!

A Look at the Kosher Scene

Ramat Eshkol Shopping Center – Jerusalem

16 Shvat 5769
February 10, 2009

When I first began sipping coffee in the Ramat Eshkol Shopping Center on Jerusalem’s Paran Street about 25 years ago, it was not the bastion of mehadrin shopping that it has evolved into today. At the time, I lived in Yishuv Eli in  Shomron and Ramat Eshkol represented the first Jerusalem neighborhood, perhaps the first oasis, a wealth of civilization, offering the niceties of life such as coffee, a Danish, some light shopping. Perhaps it was just a place permitted me to reflect back to my earlier days as a New Yorker. Simple as it was, it was the “big city” in those days.

Amazingly, one of the original stores from the post 1967 Six Day War era, when the shopping area came into being, is Bambino stationary and toys, which is still there. The owner [who is the son of the fine gentleman from Argentina who was bold enough to open up in 1967 in the then-border community] still remains a friend and I never miss the opportunity to say hi when I visit the area, albeit infrequently.  (more…)