While you were busy nursing a hangover this weekend, New York State wiped out pretty much its entire kosher-law-enforcement division as part of a budget cut planned under outgoing governor David Paterson. We’re not talking undercover cops dressed as Hasidic Jews (which Bar Boulud bizarrely tweeted about yesterday), but rather the eight inspectors responsible for making sure that food labeled as kosher has come though the proper processing and inspection channels. An assistant was also cut, and now only the division director remains. Some fear kosher-labeling fraud will increase without inspections and are already lobbying newly sworn-in governor Andrew Cuomo to restore the division.
Kosher Inspectors Eliminated [WSJ]
Restore kosher division, new N.Y. Gov. Cuomo urged [JTA]