Rabbi Nosson Dubin sets a single standard for kashrus supervision
When my nephew came from overseas to attend Touro College, he needed a part-time job. He’d never attended yeshivah, but managed to get hired as a mashgiach at a Brooklyn restaurant. He spent his time there washing lettuce and occasionally lighting a burner, but otherwise he didn’t supervise the workers. How could he? He only knew the bare basics.
“Being a mashgiach is too often a default position,” says Rabbi Yosef Eisen of the Vaad of the Five Towns. “Other professionals have to get training and certification, and they get respect because there’s a recognized industry standard. But too many mashgichim don’t receive that kind of training.”
That’s why Rabbi Nosson Dubin, the administrator of Houston Kashruth Association (HKA), young, energetic, and tech-savvy, is on a crusade to change this state of affairs. He intends to ensure that mashgichim receive rigorous, certifiable training — and consequently, higher regard and higher salaries. Rabbi Dubin now provides a formal, online training course that any mashgiach can take to receive an official certification showing he’s learned the halachos of running a kosher kitchen. Already up and running, the Kosher Institute of America promises to become an invaluable resource for the Jewish food industry.
Rabbi Dubin meets us in Genesis, a small but swanky steak house in Houston that’s under his hashgachah. He’s of medium height, with a trimmed beard, and while only in his thirties, he carries himself with a quiet authority, as befits an expert in the field and his position as the director of Houston’s kashrus association. It’s nine thirty on a Friday morning, too early for customers, but a good time for a conversation.
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