The coming Passover night might bring us a new brand of matzot: fake ones.
In a well-hidden Be’er Tuvia cache, the Chief Rabbinate found no less than seven tons of matzot. Their boxes were adorned with the highest standard kosher seals, but the certifications were actually a clever fake. The product was found to have been made in poor conditions with leavened bread remains lying around the bakery, suspected use of regular flour that hadn’t been approved as kosher for Passover and no evidence of supervision.
The Rabbinate issued a statement Wednesday warning the public against buying matzot appearing on store shelves with fake kashrut seals. The Rabbinate
Internet site contains updated information as to the legitimate seals.
The fraudulent products were marketed in two different packages, one
bearing a fake seal and the other with a seemingly genuine
manufacturer's label, making their detection more difficult. Some of
the products are being sold at rock-bottom prices and even include
labeled promises that all proceeds go to charity.
The scam
appears to be an attempt to exploit the lucrative matzot manufacturing
industry, since many families including those at a low-income level
make the utmost effort to obtain hand-made matzot, at least for the
Passover night itself, at the cost of hundreds of shekels.
It
was still unclear what authority would handle the issue, with the
police claiming it was under Rabbinate jurisdiction, and the latter
countering that a fraud of this magnitude justified criminal
proceedings.