Chaim Shapiro – Yeshiva World News
A photo that went viral on social media on Tuesday has caused much grief for a business that has been servicing the Frum community for more than 50 years.
The photo in question was taken on Tuesday morning in JFK Airport. The photo shows a Reisman’s “Black and white cookie”, which was displayed by a vendor in the airport. On the package, it says in Yiddish “Gebaken Noch Pesach” (Baked after Pesach 5775). The photo spread like wildfire on Social media (Whatsapp, Twitter etc). Voice notes began spreading in the name of Rabbonim, and eventually a fictitious letter – along with a forged signature surfaced as well.
One bogus letter even claimed that an individual took responsibility for what he called a bad joke and had Photoshopped the image.
YWN spoke with Shia Friedman of Reisman’s Bakery to inquire what transpired.
Despite many statements currently viral on WhatsApp, the following is the only statement put out by Reisman’s Bakery regarding this issue:
Reisman’s Bakery sent an order to a vendor at JFK airport a few days before Pesach. Labels that were meant to be used after Pesach were mistakenly put onto a total of 24 “Black & White Cookies”. Minutes after hearing of this error, a representative of the bakery ran to the airport to ensure that these items were immediately disposed of. Other than these 24 pieces, all other products that will have the label “gebaken noch Pesach” will indeed be baked after Pesach.
We have become aware that people are circulating letters allegedly signed by us. Any letter other than the above statement did not originate from Reismans Bakery.
We respectfully request that people stop writing false letters using our company name. Even if you have good intentions, we prefer to speak the truth. Thank you.
Whats the problem? It already is after pesach why not eat that cookie it sure looks good!
“heard that Reb Groner’s father used to say that if one eats ready made products, bemeshech a year they eat up a whole chazer ”
not sure what you mean by that, and what was the context in which this was said
Isn’t the issue of ‘baked after Pesach 5775’ connected to ‘yoshon’ rather than mechiras chometz?
We will never hear a public explanation from the kashrus organizations who let these labels loose. Who could seriously trust them after this. It won’t be just one Yid’s parnassa who I will no longer be supporting, but ANY company under any of those hashgachas.
great track record relax let their kashrus agencies investigate and explain
You are absolutely rite!
It cant stop hear, do you try to eat kosher? If they wand to sell pig why do they say its kosher? and its a mitzvah to tell your friend about something that is agents the torah and tell them to stop doing it. they should stop pretending to be holy, and say Yes they do bake things before pesach, and that they don’t keep the hidder of baked after pesach. and I don’t want to eat not kosher just because someone is going to loos his parnoso. people gave their lives to keep kosher and some black and white… Read more »
The reason sounds plausible 100% and there’s no reason not to trust them. Every company makes mistakes, every hashgocho makes mistakes and every human makes mistakes stop being so vicious. We are Jews we are not Catholic inquisitors.
The lashon Harar and motzei shem ra along with killing a yids parnassah is a deorysa. Gebaken noch pesach is a issue of derabnan at worse
its just a mistake
i dont know if this is correct, but i thoght the prob was with the stuff baked AFTER pesach due to the problem of yashan-?-
So your telling me that everyone who has an issue with this and doubts the bakery…. your the ones who will still be eating them regardles. (Especially right after pesach)
Eat at your own risk my friends…non the Hashgacha nor the bakery are out there as a public service companies, they are out there to make money. period.
Bake your own “after Pesach cookies” at home and be happy (and is cheaper too)
“The printer made a mistake!”
i once bought mints (from a different company) that said “kosher prave” on the back. i called my rav and he said its fine and sometimes the machine makes errors. in this day and age i think people realize that mistakes happen.
iT MAY NOT MAKE A DIFF. ABOUT THE FACTTHAT IT WAS BAKED B4 PESACH, BECAUSE WE SELL PURE CHOMETZ. However, does it sound right to u that they sent 24 cookies , & they say they had Nothing left in their warehouse?
&2) why did only some mistakenly have the label?
eben if we do eat chametz which was sold to a goy and rely on that “heter”, the issue here is that it wasn’t in the possession of reisman’s, it was by an airport vendor. not every vendor or gas station that they sell it to is going to sell their chametz, so people are concerned that this chametz may have not been sold at all (which would be a problem if the company/store is owned by a jew). so to avoid this problem people try and be careful to eat things which were made after pesach I don’t understand… Read more »
The issue is that the company can label their products without anyone noticing what goes on.
To the people who would not want to but a product that wasn’t baked after pesach this would be a problem.
To us the use of a non kosher ingredient would be a problem.
There should be someone who takes responsibility for what it says on the label.
Are all three kashrus agencies giving a hechsher closed for pesach?
Don’t eat gluten, but this makes me want to buy one after Pesach. Really people. Can’t we all just get along?
the truth is that NOT all things are baked after passach.
so, instead of saying a big story, just say, “yes but we sell them
to a non Jew before passach”
I hope they are not going to put a stickerNOW saying “bebaken nuch passach 5776. or that would be really old
Why all the hechsher bashing.
As Lubavitchers who rely on mechiras chametz even on chametz gamur, this makes no difference to our lives. This is only nogeah for the people who do not sell chametz gamur. Additionally mistakes happen even to the best hechsherim. There are lists and updates that go out all the time with stop being mislabeled. Take a chill.
this happens all the time this is just the first time it goes viral
The reason why the bakeries put these stickers on in the first place is because there are people who are machmir not to eat any chometz that was sold to a goy. (Because of a chumra they have regarding mechiras chometz being haarama, anyine whi usee AR shtar mechiras chometz does not have the issue).
What they do not realize is that majority of flour sold nowadays is already chometz, because the kernels are washed and the flour is bleached. Besides the obvious that although it is baked after pesach, in most cases the dough is prefrozen before pesach.
Someone saw this at the airport and sent it to the kashrus agencies. Someone a the kashrus agencies posted it online.It seems like the labels were printed after Pesach to be available for use after Pesach and whoever pus on the label somehow made a mistake. The bakery did not want the cookies sold after Pesach so got rid of them. How many companies put labels on products that they were baked after Pesach?
Mistakes happen everywhere. Your only other options are to eat only homemade food
No harm done.
mistakes do happen, they are human too
cut them sum slack, and enjoy your kugel
Vendor means the guy selling it. So the bakery is saying that THEY, the bakery, labeled it wrong before they sent it to the guy selling it in jfk,the vendor.
The representative didn’t use a black marker but made sure they were disposed of. Since this incident happened during chol hamoed he couldn’t take them back or replace them.
As a former משגיח , I have some questions. A) why were these labels even available before pesach was over? A VERY big problem to start with.
B) some one mentioned the rep if the company went to Ck out חמץ גמור on chol hamoed pesach? Wow very nice to publisize such a thing.
Just saying” where there us smoke theres fire”
Does that mean that they may have ‘mistakenly put’ reismans labels on non-kosher cookies?
Debrecin is a very weak hegshe known to rely on frum balabos, ou most likely relies on them or crc.
As la mashgiach i know that we are carefully watching what’s on the label and what containers are used and what
i heard a similar story from Dayan Shuchat at his shabbos hagadol speech last year in 580 crown
“Minutes after hearing of this error” in other words minutes after being exposed via social media!
How can such an error happen in the first place?
Who is to guarantee that there aren’t more errors?
How do we know that the rest of their stickers are reliable?
Mistakes still happen even with 4 hechsherim
It’s sounds like it was in every way intentional the only thing that was unintentional was being caught. Think about it what would we say if just by accident they substituted the sugar with salt…
How can a rep from the company check out what’s by the airport?
It’s חמץ…..
If they used the ‘after pesach’ labels, why does the top cookie only have the words? Another thing, why didn’t the representative who ‘ran’ to the airport take a black marker and blacken out the words?
Everything leaves the reisman facility already packaged and labelled. The vendors do not package and label themselves
company damaged and that’s the way the cookie crumbles!
So they admit that they have access to labels attesting to their kashrus that they can use at random, that this was actually done and that if not for social media exposing it they would have gotten away with it?
Why should we trust them that there were only 24?
Why should we trust them that their items are even kosher? Obviously the three hechsherim combined don’t have oversight in this company if mistakes like this can happen and get fixed not by the kashrus agencies, but by the bakery representative.
B”H
Spark of Chassidus: Yey! They have Kosher cookies at the airport! Hurray!
You rectified an error and will triumph for your effort