By Howie Silbiger
I don’t usually sit around thinking about stories after they are published. I write them, publish them and move on. The story of MK removing its certification from Benny & Fils, however, has been living rent free in my brain for a week.
The story itself was not complicated. A longtime MK certified restaurant was told to stop using a product because the status of that product had changed. The restaurant resisted. The MK issued warnings and made phone calls that went unanswered. Eventually, after 20 odd years, the MK pulled its certification.
That should have been the story.
Instead, Benny & Fils went on the attack. They called the MK’s actions “disgusting” and argued that they had been using the same product for the better part of 20 years without a problem. What they did not put front and centre in their social media posts was the actual issue. The product in question, Bridor baguettes, may still be under MK certification, but they had lost their pas Yisroel status nearly a year earlier.
In fact, the MK had released a Kosher Alert on May 16, 2025, stating that Bridor products with the MK #325 symbol were not considered pas Yisroel. Benny & Fils lost its certification on May 6, 2026. That means they had almost a full year to change the baguettes. That is not a technicality. That is not “suddenly there was a problem.” That is a restaurant being told that a product no longer met the standard required by its certifier, and then not making the change.
What surprised me was not the restaurant’s reaction, businesses defend themselves. What surprised me was the public reaction, because it exposed something ugly in our community.
First came the crackpots. The MK was accused of price fixing, mafia style corruption and every other fever dream people could come up with from behind a keyboard. Some even named specific rabbis and accused them of corruption, of acting like godfathers or of committing some mysterious crime against the community. It was ridiculous, but sadly predictable.
Putting the crazies aside, there were also people who made a fair point. The MK’s public notice should have included more detail. When a restaurant violates standards, the public should be told what standard was violated. That is not gossip, it’s not loshon hara, it’s transparency. A certifier keeps credibility by making it clear that standards matter and that ignoring those standards has consequences. By telling the public what standards were violated, it helps the public accept the decision to remove the certification, particuarly from a popular long-standing restaurant. If the MK had released a detailed statement saying that Benny & Fils violated standards and listed the standards, it would have been extremely difficult for anyone to argue. A vague statment allows room for interpretation and allowing the business owner to control the story, not only minimizes the authority of the MK, but allows the narrative to naturally sway to compassion for the company, who put themselves in the position to start with.
By owning the story, the MK could have positioned themselves as the certifier who were just enforcing standards, instead of the defender trying to catch up to a story that had already passed them.
Then there were the people who did not know the facts, did not care about the facts and probably could not spell pas Yisroel if you spotted them the first eight letters. They were just there with popcorn, memes and a good old-fashioned hatred for any kosher authority.
I have worked as a mashgiach authorized by the MK for over 30 years. It is not my main job. I am not on the MK payroll nor do I receive money or any financial incentive from them. But I have seen the MK from the inside. I have seen how MK establishments operate. I have spoken to many restaurant owners, caterers and food business owners over the years.
And here is the part some people refuse to believe; The MK is not why kosher food is expensive.
Kosher food is expensive because of butchers being greedy, bakers paying a fortune for flour, suppliers of dry goods raising their prices on a weekly basis, a shrinking kosher market which has resulted in market consolidation that have caused near monopolies, and businesses that know they have a captive market and take advantage of it.
It is expensive because prices go up constantly and because too many kosher consumers have nowhere else to go. I have heard the complaints from owners themselves, and most have told me that the MK standard is not the reason your sandwich costs too much. If anything, proper kosher certification helps keep options open. It allows restaurants to use approved generic products, when possible, instead of being trapped into buying only from expensive kosher brands. That gives establishments more flexibility, not less.
And frankly, if you have an MK in your window and follow the rules, the MK generally leaves you alone.
That is why the hatred directed at the MK and the rabbis who spend their lives making sure this city has reliable kosher food was so disturbing. People can ask questions. People can demand transparency. People can even disagree with a decision. But the jump from “I want more information” to “the rabbis are corrupt mafia bosses” is not normal. It is sick.
Which brings me to the part of this story that bothers me even more.
Benny & Fils quickly announced that it was now under KSR certification.
For a long time, I thought KSR was a good certifier that operated with a different standard than the MK. More Sefardi than Ashkenazi, perhaps, but still serious. After last week, I have lost total faith in KSR supervision.
Here is why. Any certifier that immediately takes on a restaurant that spent nearly a year ignoring its previous certifier is taking on a kashrus risk. That is not politics, it’s not personal, it’s basic common sense.
Before people start screaming, think about it for five seconds. What happens if there is a violation under KSR? What happens if the restaurant is told to change something and disagrees? Will they change it? Based on what just happened, why should the public assume they will?
A certifier’s strength is not measured by how fast it can slap its name on a restaurant after another certifier walks away. It is measured by whether the public can trust that its standards will be enforced when things get uncomfortable. Taking on a restaurant that just fought its previous certifier and got expelled from the certification for, after repeated warnings, not meeting its standards, does not build confidence, it raises questions.
And yes, I suppose this will cause the Benny & Fils representative who publicly warned me on Facebook to stay away from the restaurant “or else” to repeat the warning.
That’s fine. I wasn’t planning on going anyway.
Howie Silbiger is the host of The Howie Silbiger Show on truetalkradio.com and Political Hitman on israelnewstalkradio.com. He is the Editor in Chief of The Montreal Jewish News
I agree with you on all your points above but one . First , I had the same reaction as you when I heard a new organization issued a certification the following day . Totally ridiculous and irreparable. No due diligence or investigation. Shows what kind of nonsense and ridiculous standards they might have .
Where I disagree, is on the point that the mk or its administrators are beyond reproach. That’s just plain wrong . I know of 3 facts that I’ve witnessed where what happened was 💯 abuse of power and theft !!! . Besides for 2 situations I withnessed halachic issues with food and it wasn’t taken seriously. I don’t want to say it publicly unless rabanim authorize it . But you a welcome to reach out in private and I’ll explain . If you have any kind of connections to these people and they’d listen to you , with a meaningful yeshiva they or he would make , I pray might go a long way in helping how montrealers with these admins.
Brilliant detailed and very fair analysis.
Respectfully, I’m going to take the other side of this. A standard is a standard. The clients of the MK expect that establishments bearing the NK certifications adhere to the standards set out. As soon as the Bridor baguettes lost their Pas Yisroel status – not a year later – the MK should have put out an alert stating that the baguettes at this establishment were no longer Pas Yisroel, and that they were working with the owners to find an alternative. Since they didn’t do this, people who are concerned about eating only Pas Yisroel bread ate at this establishment under the mistaken impression that their baguette sandwiches were Pas Yisroel.
I understand the sensitivity. Letting this persist for a year was not acceptable. They would not, to my mind, wait so long if Benny & Fils began serving Schitas Chootz. I don’t care to speculate at why they waited this long. Regardless of the reason, they should have informed the public right away, at the latest after Pesach last year.
As to the current situation, the behaviour of the restauranteurs is deplorable. Those criticizing the MK for adhering to their standards are wrong. It would be much easier to make that case, though, had they acted quickly to inform the public, even whilst maintaining the certification with the clear stipulation that the baguettes were kosher but not Pas Yisroel.
Mr. Silbiger,
Your latest article is precisely why this situation has become such a mess.
Ironically, after criticizing Benny & Fils for emotional reactions and narrative manipulation, you proceeded to publish a piece titled: “The Benny & Fils Mess Was Never Just About Baguettes” — a headline that strongly implies there were broader kashrus violations, despite never presenting evidence of anything beyond the Bridor Pas Yisrael dispute.
That is not transparency. That is insinuation.
If the issue was solely a disagreement regarding the Pas Yisrael status of Bridor baguettes, then say exactly that and stop framing the story in a way that invites the public to imagine hidden violations or deeper misconduct.
You also present yourself as some detached observer while simultaneously acknowledging that you have worked for decades as an MK-authorized mashgiach. Whether or not your paycheck comes directly from the MK is irrelevant. You are institutionally connected to the organization you are aggressively defending while attacking competing certification agencies. Readers deserve to understand that context.
For the record, I actually agreed with some of your earlier points. I also felt Benny & Fils reacted too emotionally and failed to focus on the strongest issues. I also disagreed with many of the public attacks directed both at Benny & Fils and at the MK. It is very easy for people sitting anonymously behind keyboards to throw accusations, insults and conspiracy theories into the air without accountability.
But that standard must apply equally to everyone — including you.
Because writing from the elevated position of chief editor of montrealjewishnews.com while using emotionally loaded headlines and rhetorical insinuations is simply a more sophisticated version of the same problem. It fuels outrage while maintaining plausible deniability.
Their emotional response does not justify your escalation of the rhetoric.
Because the central questions still remain unanswered:
If the MK determined nearly a year ago that these baguettes no longer met its Pas Yisrael standards, why was Benny & Fils allowed to continue operating under MK certification during that period?
Consumers like myself rely on the MK specifically for standards such as Pas Yisrael. If the establishment was knowingly not meeting those standards for close to a year, then transparency demands an explanation. Either the restaurant was compliant or it was not. If it was not, why did the certification remain in place?
And another important point continues to be ignored: what exactly changed with the Bridor product?
Was there an actual manufacturing change? A bake-level change? A processing change? An ingredient change? Or was this a change in halachic interpretation or policy application?
Those are not minor details. They are the core of the issue.
We live in an age where people expect clarity, timelines, and specifics — especially when businesses are publicly damaged and reputations are put at risk. Vague statements like “violations of kashrus standards” followed by emotionally loaded headlines about how “it was never just about baguettes” do not build trust. They erode it.
And finally, your attack on KSR was completely unnecessary and frankly undermined your credibility. Different certifiers operate under different standards. The mere fact that KSR accepted Benny & Fils after the MK removed certification does not automatically invalidate KSR or prove recklessness. That leap revealed far more about institutional politics than about kashrus integrity.
At the end of the day, this entire situation could have been far less divisive if transparency had existed from the beginning.
That — not baguettes — is the real issue.
Hi Phil,
Being an authorized mashgiach really doesn’t really influence my opinion on anything, I am not obliged to agree or defend anything the MK says or does nor do I speak at all on their behalf.
I tend to write honestly, express how I feel. This is an opinion piece and I expressed my opinion. I don’t sit on any loft or throne, I write what I think and allow people to respond, uncensored. You have the option to agree, disagree, read or not read.
In this case, I strongly believe that the focus of the story really should be on the establishment not listening to the certifier. In my humble opinion, if you’re part of the club you play by the rules, even if you disagree with them.
I have no idea why it took so long for the MK to take action, I don’t work for them and haven’t spoken to them at all about this situation. I do not know if there were other violations, but in my opinion, one is too many.
The MK can be more transparent, I actually devoted an entire paragraph to that in this piece.
As for everything else, had Benny and Fils followed the rules, they wouldn’t be in this position.
Howie
Hi Howie,
I appreciate the respectful response.
For what it’s worth, I actually agree with you on an important point: if an establishment chooses to operate under a certifier, it has to follow that certifier’s standards, even if it disagrees with them. I don’t think Benny & Fils helped themselves by reacting emotionally on social media.
My issue was never that you defended the MK’s right to enforce its standards.
My issue was with the framing.
When you title an article “The Benny & Fils Mess Was Never Just About Baguettes,” most readers naturally infer there were broader violations or deeper issues involved. Yet in your response to me, you acknowledge that you do not actually know of any other violations.
That is exactly why I found the rhetoric problematic.
The same applies to the original MK wording about “violations of kashrus standards.” Without specifics, people immediately imagine the worst. In a close-knit community, reputational damage spreads quickly and rarely gets corrected afterward.
And I still believe the biggest unanswered issue remains transparency and consistency.
If the MK determined nearly a year ago that these baguettes no longer met its Pas Yisrael standards, why did the certification remain in place for so long? Consumers who specifically rely on the MK for Pas Yisrael standards were entitled to clarity on that point.
That question is not anti-MK, anti-rabbi, or anti-kashrus. It is exactly the type of question transparent institutions should be willing to answer clearly.
I think this entire situation could have been handled with far less division if the communication from the beginning had been more precise, transparent, and proportional to the actual issue involved.
Phil
Phil, I have listened to shiurim on the subject of Pas Yisrael given by local Montreal rabbis recently in the wake of this controversy. While I can’t confirm anything, I think I can shed some light on your question about the MK’s actions, based on the halachic issue at play.
Basically, even within the laws of Pas Yisrael, there are chumras and kulas (stringencies and leniencies) in terms of their application. In the case of Bridor, the issue was the extent to which the bread was pre-baked. The basic halacha is that if a Jew finishes the baking process, it qualifies as Pas Yisrael. But there is disagreement among the poskim as to how much “finishing” is required. The most lenient view (R’ Belsky, z”l) is that even if a non-jew fully bakes the bread, if a Jew simply toasts it, it’s Pas Yisrael. On the other hand, the strict view is that if the non-jew bakes it to the point that it is edible, then it’s past the point of no return, and cant be Pas Yisrael.
With Bridor, I was told that they changed their process and now bake their breads past the point of being edible. And the MK follows the strict view… so that’s why Bridor was no longer acceptable.
I am completely speculating, but it could be that the MK was very patient with Benny, and and only gave then warnings, precisely because the violation was only on the level of a chumra. Ie, according to the lenient view (which is very widely accepted), Bridor would still be considered Pas Yisrael. So the MK therefore did not feel the need to sound the alarm right away… and only did so after multiple requests and warnings were ignored.