Brooklyn, NY — He was European rockin' royalty until he saw the light of the rebbe.
Now Isaac Bitton's former bosses at Le Marais, a French kosher steakhouse in Manhattan, may use his fast-living past against him in their $10 million lawsuit denouncing allegations they failed to maintain a kosher kitchen.
More in the Extended Article.
ROCKIN’ RABBI
Brooklyn, NY — He was European rockin’ royalty until he saw the light of the rebbe.
Now Isaac Bitton’s former bosses at Le Marais, a French kosher steakhouse in Manhattan, may use his fast-living past against him in their $10 million lawsuit denouncing allegations they failed to maintain a kosher kitchen.
More in the Extended Article.
In his youth, Bitton was famous as Jacky Bitton, the drummer for Les Variations, a hard-rock band that topped France’s music charts and played on bills with 1970s supergroups Aerosmith, Kiss and Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
More recently, Bitton was a mashgiach, or kosher supervisor, at Le Marais. After he quit the job last month, he posted a blog accusing the restaurant’s chef of allowing bugs in the salad and permitting non-kosher margarine and shellfish in the kitchen.
Bitton also said the chef was a “Jew hater,” and he urged Jews to boycott the eatery.
A spokesman for Le Marais suggested that Bitton’s regret over his former lifestyle made him too strict in applying Jewish laws at the Midtown eatery and too quick to accuse co-workers of breaking the rules.
“He saw the other side and the extremes that a rock-and-roll life can lead to,” said the spokesman, Juda Engelmayer. “He applies his own standards . . . he loses touch with the essence of what Jewish law is about.”
Bitton, under a judge’s gag order, declined to be interviewed. A hearing in the lawsuit is set for next week in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
“I’m sure Jacky is right,” said Marc Tobaly, who was one of Bitton’s bandmates. “Jacky is a great guy, very talented, very generous, but maybe too hard-headed when he thinks he’s right.”
Bitton, 59, grew up in Morocco’s Jewish community. He moved to Paris at age 18 and formed Les Variations with Tobaly and other Moroccan Jews.
“We were the biggest rock band in France in the era of The Who and Jimi Hendrix,” Tobaly said in a phone interview from Paris.
Les Variations usually sang in English and was known for the Arab influence in its music. The band’s best-known U.S. album was called “Moroccan Roll.”
On one of its U.S. tours, Les Variations was to open two shows for the Rolling Stones when a band member took ill, leading to the group’s breakup.
Influenced by Chabad’s famed spiritual leader, the Rebbe Menachem Schneerson, Bitton traded his rock-and-roll lifestyle for the observant ways of the ultra-Orthodox.
He married, settled in Brooklyn and fathered a big family.
Music remains a major part of Bitton’s life. He put out an album of religious rock in 1980, and another in 1984. Some of his music is on a MySpace page, and he is planning to hold a concert next month.
In the 1991 Crown Heights riots, Bitton and one of his young sons were attacked by an angry black mob as police stood nearby in riot gear; Bitton said the cops did nothing to help him. The city settled Bitton’s lawsuit over the incident for $200,000.
Yossi
The OU should be brought to their politically expediant knees on this.
Rachaim
My Dear Friends:
I have worked in kosher restaurants for about 5 years. The owners generally do their best to maintain their kasherus standaeds, but the problem is with the gentile cooks who for them all the “rules” are a headache. Le Marais is not owned by a yid, and neither is the chef. There is no logical reason to believe their word over Mr. Bitton who I have never met, growing up in Crown Heights I get the impression that he is a true chassid.
By BILL SANDERSON - NEW YORK POST
March 28, 2007 — Everything is kosher at Manhattan’s popular Le Marais steakhouse, its owners insist.
And they’ve filed a $10 million lawsuit to bar a former supervisor at the restaurant from saying otherwise.
A state judge yesterday ordered Isaac Bitton, a former mashgiach, or kosher supervisor, to stop posting to the Internet any statements about Le Marais or its employees – including the restaurant’s head chef, Mark Hennessey, whom Bitton called “a Jew hater.”
Bitton’s son said last night that his father will not comply with the order. “We have enough tape recordings and documents to prove the story,” said Yisrael Bitton.
A lawyer for Le Marais, Richard Klass, said Bitton’s allegations have cut business at the French kosher Midtown eatery by 30 percent.
Le Marais is backed by the Orthodox Union, an international kosher certification organization that says it thoroughly investigated Bitton’s charges and found “no evidence of intent” that the restaurant’s chef sought to break kosher rules.
On a Web page, Bitton claims the Orthodox Union “up to the highest echelons” endorses “a cover-up of the facts to protect their business interests.”
The OU responded, “Mr. Bitton developed amazing conspiratorial theories involving crime organizations to explain why people denied his allegations, and attributed dark and evil motives to sincere and honest individuals within the OU.”
One of Bitton’s allegations is that dairy margarine “was placed in a pot with other food” in the restaurant’s kitchen several months ago. Kosher law forbids mixing dairy and meat.
But the OU said it was an honest error, and the food was not served.
Bitton also complains that Hennessey ordered non-kosher fish to be delivered to the restaurant during the Sabbath, when Le Marais was closed. But the fish company said the delivery was a mistake.
And, Bitton says, strawberries arrived in the kitchen without having been checked by Bitton or the eatery’s other mashgiach. “When I later checked those strawberries I found several worms in them,” Bitton said.
To make matters worse, says Bitton, Hennessey sometimes lit the restaurant’s ovens. Under kosher law, that’s a job for the restaurant’s mashgiachs.
Bitton quit working at the restaurant three weeks ago.
“The fact that the chef and owners of the restaurant are not Jewish makes it an even more precarious situation,” Klass said. “The people who eat there are relying on the mashgiach.”
chanie
What exactly is the point of using this picture of Mr. Bitton and his son,in relation to the article of his situation right now? Better not to have used a picture at all.
Boruch ben Tzvi HaKohaine Hoffiniger
B”H
Yitzchak Bitton=W O N D E R F U L MAN!
dovid
yasher koach Yitzchok for standing up to your beliefs.
Yossi
I too know him personally and I can attest that he is in fact an ehrlich’e yid.
The fact that the OU isnt backing their Mashgiach is appalling.
eli
I Would just like people to know that its not the first time this restaurant lost is hechsure it used to be under the..Ok.. supervision and I stopped going there after they took there hechsure off Mr. bitton is kind man for those who know him always a smile always a mentch support Mr. biton as a fellow jew and as a fellow community member be there in court for him next week thank you . All
Eliezer averbuch
Mark
Eli please give us the address to the Court House the day, time.
Thanks
LE MARAIS IS A OK
One minute Ladies and Gentleman, please take a look at the OU webpage and you will see there is NOTHING wrong with Le Marais
www.shirhashirimband.com
he is a holy man … dananananana
oh such a holy man… dananananana
Yitzchok is a real oived- watch the way he davens in frankels shul every morning!
halevay we should daven like him!
anyways a neshomoleh that rocks the way he does cant be wrong
puzzled
hello!!! why didn’t he say anything about the worms and the SHELLFISH and the margarine before he quit???????????????
mendy
for all the people that care. were theirs smoke threes fire my father always told me dont get in to a sick bed. believe a Jew over a goy. and don’t eat there i support Mr. biton
First Hand Info...
i perfer not to publicize my name, yet i know that Kashrus problems are vitally important for those who are truly religious and follow in the the path of the Almighty. Yitzchak Biton has Mesiras Nefesh for what is RIGHT!! Le Marais is just afraid of their name, money and money once again. They dont care about Kashrus – its NOT runned by a JEW – yidden!! back up your brother and may Moshiach come immediately to reveal the truth!
a girl
maybe he thought it was just a few honest errors until he realized that it was more than that….
I know the bittons, and they are an amazing family. Anyone who would trust a restuarant’s that is owned by a non-jew over mr. bitton, should clarify their outlook on life. He is a yiras shamayin, and bieng that we are in galus, he maybe suffering for it now…..but the truth will prevail….it always does!
nickname
Le Marais probably paid the Post for this article, because it said nothing new. I don’t like the way Le Marais blames Bitton’s BT situation for excess stringency.
kASHRUSRULES
besides Yitzchak being an honest mentsch the chazokoh is that when a resaurant is owned by a Gentile chances are there will be problems especially when lots of money is concerned.
use your brain guys.
Thank you, Mr. Bitton!
Thank you and Shkoyach for standing up to what’s right, to strengthening Torah and Mitzvos, and especially the mitzvah of Kashrus, as “you are what you eat,” in this vital time— the last few moments before the revelation of Moshiach Tzidkeinu.
As Mendy said above, we must believe an erlche Yid over a Goy– I urge the Chabad community and all G-d fearing Yidden to fully boycott this restaurant– especially when there are, Baruch Hashem, so many *reliable* Yiddishe places to eat in New York.
Shkoyach & Thank you again! How, as a community, can we rally together to support Mr. Bitton in this lawsuit???
to puzzled
he has tried every thing he can to let people know i knew about this a few months ago.
mordechai ben david
I personally know Mr. Yitzchak Bitton 4 many years… he’s a great, straight, honest, hardworking individual…. I’ve worked with him musically in concertsmany times in the past, locally & on tours in europe. He’s a very talented individual & a great person… I beleive & trust every word he said.. I’ts sad 2 see such a wonderful person being defamed only for speaking out the truth…
I hope & pray justice system will see through all the fabricated lies they’re trying to weave around this innocent individual.
OU just maybe right
here is the article that appears on OU’s website.
http://www.ou.org/news/arti…
they seem to be very adamant about their decision that the kashrus is fine…
“With the exception of Mr. Bitton, everyone found the chef to be cooperative.”
it could have just been a personality clash between the chef and Bitton.
i don’t think Bitton has enough proof, because OU went through all of his complaints, followed up on them and are sticking to their decision.
i think OU and La Marais will come out clean after this.
Most of the people who eat there don’t even read these articles anyway, or are not concerned about the kashrus there.
(i’ve been there more than once, food, service and prices are great)
beats me
if la Marais would be afraid of their name and money then they would have fired the chef and not have all this publicity and court cases against them.
they are not firing the chef because they believe and OU beleive that they are RIGHT.
yossi .k
email.ou. and let them know how you feel @oukosher.org tell them money is not every thing and they should stickup for there mashgichim i used to work there and said something was not checked good and they did not like the fact that i was so strict and i got fired! fired! for doing my job i will be there in court to let the judge how i feel em please mail @oukosher.org no threats please act accordingly
Le Marais, GOOD BYE
what happened to freedom of speech? If a mashgiach is given a gag order by the courts, and he is not allowed to say what he saw, what is next for the Kashruus industry?
I believe there is so much more to this than meets the eye. The OU has 60% of the Kosher market. All the koful shmonedikeh (super frum single rabbi owned) hashgochas are reliant on the OU. If we as Lubavitchers believe that because he is a baal tshuvah he can not be trusted, than all the work that has been done in the world to enhance and further yiddishkiet by all our fellow shluchim is worthless. We need to stand by Bitton. Otherwise why would any mashgiach in their right mind stand up for the truth. Look where this has gotten him? And for those who need to eat out in good restaurants, there are plenty of other establishments.
very upset
I want to know how long there has been these kashrus problems inthis restaurant.As soon as the Mashgiach saw these problems, he should have alerted the public
Berel
koful shmonedikeh ? whats that?
Daniel M.
The Rebbe always said: Do “Machaa”, speak up and show you rage.
Go to the link below for the list of emails to write to or call, be respectful and don’t make Chilul Hashem or Chilul Lubavitch:
http://www.amashgiachspeaks…
Support Bitton by writing to OU, tell them; they must support a Yid who went on Mesirus Nefesh and quit his Parnasa to prevent others from eating Tereif, and they can not escape the responsibility and pretend that every incident was a mistake.
Also call the restaurant and show support for Bitton and tell them that Kashruth is tied with purity of the soul, and is not a game, and they must drop the charges or we will ban them.
Stand for Torah, Tzedek and Ahvat Yisrael.
See the power “Machaa”, see what happend to Don Imus (Lehavdil), last week. CBS gave up millions of dollars under pressure. The Rebbe was right, once again.
Yishok was the escape goat in the riot; don’t let it happen to him once again.
The entire community must rise.
Please make copy of this note and place them in the Shuls.
random.bochur
Daniel, the term is scape goat, not escape goat.
one of the big issues here, in my opinion, is this: if the kashrus organization doesn’t stand behind their mashgichim, they erode the trust for every other mashgiach working in the field. the OU must publicly back up their workers or risk causing mashgichim to make the critical choice of being quiet about problems in the kitchen rather than get into trouble from the chef AND the rav hamachshir.
A fellow yid
yidden ,lets stand up and protect ou fellow jew and Chassid .We dont need to support goyim especially if they dare wrong .lets unite as one to help a fellow jew .this is what will help to bring moshiach .Action. I urge all of us to call the OU .Say tehillim that the trial goes well .
shliach
Has Mr. Bitton asked a Rabbi if he is permited to go public? Is it not considered Loshon-Hora??
Dovie
Let me make a few things clear as someone who knows whats going on. There is an order that bars mr bitton from speaking. what he put up on his site is not even a quarter of the info he has that is completely incriminating. he has clear recordings that contradict every point they make.
Point is tuesday the 24th he will be in court. Everyone should go. its a small room, but we should show that goy that yitzchak has our full support. Its 360 adams st. room 362 at 930 pm. come with your hats to make it clear whos side your on.
And do standby, because when you hear the recordings, and the doubt is removed, you will truly be appalled that at the highest level of this kashrus organization they can so blatantly disregard the basic principles of kashrus.
Also, yitzchak needs help with lawyer fees, as the whole intent of this lawsuit was to drag him into litigation which he doesnt have funds for until he would give in, but those who know him, know that he is not going down.
you can support him by going to the following site. If you cant donate, pass it to someone who can.
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-…
Levi R.
Bless be you, Yizchak Bitton. You’re going to save kashrut and CH will stand behind you.
Morockin
I told the Post’s reporter about Rabbi Bitton’s life because I believe that the world should know what a TZADDIK this man is. He gave up everything that so many dream of to serve Hashem. I hope that many Jews are inspired by Rabbi Bitton’s story, I surely am.
I don’t care what the Goyim at Les Marais say or the OU, Yitzchak Bitton is a TZADDIK who inspires ME to serve Hashem!!
Keep on Marockin’, Rabbi Bitton, how about a Simha party CD??? with LOTS of drums!!
Eli Farkas
Hakol min hashamaim,I think R’ Yitzhak Bitton should open a restaurant and it will be the biggest succes in kosher restaurants.
Why?
Because he’s a man that you can trust!!!!
I don’t eat in restaurants anymore,i don’t trust no one.
And i’m not the biggest “tzaddik”
Rabbi Bitton and his whole family are the most honest people i have ever met,
the most fine ppl.
The Bitton’s home is the warmest and most welcoming home i ever been too.We should all take an example from them.
Unfortunetly we are all to busy making our “millions” that we forget the whole yiddishkeit.
Not for the Bitton’s
The OU has seen to much MONEY over the years,once money gets involved the YIDDISHKEIT goes down the drain.
Who knows how many times these kind of thinks happened in other restaurants or other factories that the OU has to watch,and the OU looked the other way???
I’m sure most mashgichim are honest people, but would they want to lose their jobs,NO.
R’Yitshak Bitton told the OU so many times about different “situations” and the OU looked the other way.
He was doing the right thing,because he didn’t want people to eat non kosher food.
“Do not eat at Lemarais anymore”
Eli Farkas
Yitz Dragoon
Just suppose the OU standards at Le Marais are met, and then the mashgiach begins to overstep the OU’s and impose his own, than what?
The OU is at fault. They saw this coming, they knew there was a personality issue between the chef and the mashgiach, but chose to let it brew.
If I hear many of you correctly, however, you would believe that the mashgiach is infallible and always right on the money, and not ever, ever, ever given to erroneous or flawed personality traits. Wow! You just found the perfect man.
Did you ever just once set aside your disbelief and imagine what could happen if a mashgiach were human and capable of being wrong?
I thought not!
old enough to know better
Dear Yitz,
you wrote:
you would believe that the mashgiach is infallible and always right on the money,
I am sorry that you obviously have not learned the hilchos of kashrus yet.
The whole concept of the Eid Echad whom we are to believe in cases of kashrus is that he IS right even when he makes a mistake.
Its pretty basic halacha and when it comes to Jewish life, halacha is the only standard of right and wrong that we live by.
Yasher Koach Rabbi Bitton!!!
Aviva
Excuse me. After reading the New York Post article, I don’t even have to know Rabbi Bitton to note some glaringly dangerous errors made by the OU and Le Marais.
If there were bugs in the salad, it was TREIF!
You’re not allowed to eat meat that was left alone with a goy!
I never heard of treif margarine, but if someone puts OU-D margarine in meat dishes, that would for sure make the food treif. Maybe that’s what that article meant about unkosher margarine.
If goyim own the restaurant, and the chef’s a goy, and the only one you can depend on is the mashgiach and then you go around saying he’s crazy after they hired him (I’m sure they could figure out exactly what was up with his hashkafa when they interviewed him, hellooooooo), obviously there is something severely wrong with the situation, and I’ll bet there is a lot of money involved.
Yitz Dragoon
Bugs happen by accident in every restaurant. The point you all miss while you pat former mashgiach Bitton on his back is that the issues do not amount to hatred of Israel or Jews, and that is the essence of the argument.
No one argues that mistakes were made, but three issues, relatively minor in 2.5 years, and every shop, whether it is under the KAJ, OK, CRC, etc, has accidents and mistakes.
Bitton claims these are intentional mistakes aimed at making Jews eat treif, but can’t point to an instance where treif food was served to patrons.
Proving anti-Semitism, in fact making the claim itself, is a huge undertaking – and one that none of you bloggers ought to take lightly.
You can argue all that you want on the role of a mashgiach, but to be so bold as to make a claim if Jew hatred against someone who has worked well with Jews for so many years and never exhibited any other signs of such behavior, or was never accused of such by anyone else he worked for in the past, or the kashrus agencies or other mashgichim he had worked with, is outrageous.
I’ll tell you, if he were not a sonay yisroel until now, we better hope we aren’t creating one by this behavior towards him
Supporting a boycott of the OU
I think that people should not eat at le marais anymore and raise all hands against the OU and not trust their certification anymore.
How can we trust that all mashgiachs jobs arent threatened by loosing their jobs for speaking the truth as Mr. Bitton did.
A boycott should be started against all OU product for several months so they learn their lesson and not treat their religion like a business instead of respecting hashem and his laws.
Ezra Landon
Some of you have no idea what kosher certification is all about, how it is conducted and the criteria used to have someone fired or a shop closed.
From your immature and naive comments being made here, it is clear that many of you either don’t know or really wouldn’t eat out under any hechsher if you were aware of the facts of any kosher certification.
Everyone here who is crying foul here over the lawsuit misses the point entirely – the process worked, the OU checked and checked and investigated again and, while they indeed found that errors were made, they could not substantiate the claim of Sonay Yisroel and intentional disregard. The suit came only after the OU told Bitton that he was incorrect about the man being a Jew hater and that they could not justify firing a man over it. Bitton than quit his job – leaving the protection of the OU – and began bad mouthing the OU, the restaurant, the chef and the daytime mashgiach. That is where he lost his right to freely slander someone.
When an incident happens, and it is an important one, a restaurant gets fined or shut down for a day as punishment. if it occurs over and over, they assess whether it is intentional. If it is, they require firings or restraining orders, (like the recent bagel store incident in Woodmere, where an owner is no longer allowed to walk into the store because of willful disregard), and when that fails, they remove the hechsher.
This is standard for just about ALL KASHRUS AGENCIES.
Here, the OU fined and even shut La Marais down for a day over some of these incidents, but were convinced that it was human error and not human intent.
Is anyone actually listening to the facts or are you all just quoting Jewish phrases and pretending to be wiser than everyone else?
A Good Authority
The judge today released the gag order, saying that Bitton can say what he wants to say. Bitton’s lawyer said that his client “was nuts” and that he is “on a mission and would not back down”
The judge also acknowledged the facts and said that Bitton would likely receive a judgment against him in a court of law on libel charges, but knows he could never pay it, nor have any assets worth pursuing, so, unfortunately, he is just about free to do say what he wants.
Bitton’s lawyer said that he’s willing to stop blogging if Le Marais hires a supervisor to supervise the current chef – without firing the chef.
Le Marais will likely not pursue the law suit, as there is little to gain, being that it probably won’t stop the chatting and blogging and there really is little gain from pursuing Bitton any more.
Yankee
At least the earthly judge today was inspired by the Heavenly Judge to rule according to the Constitution of the United States and lift the gag order on Rabbi Bitton.
Now at least Jews in NY can practice the faith in freedom. A Rabbi will not be financially ruined or imprisoned (contempt)merely for doing his job as a religious worker and reporting on kashrus, good or bad.
I am relieved to see that we still have a Constitution in this country and that it still protects Free Speech and Freedom of Religion.