There’s this bakery in my neighborhood where I usually buy my bread They sell nort-african pastries too, and are “arab”-looking. So at first, I assumed they were arabs. Until the day when I noticed the placard on the wall stating “the oven is alight by Mr. X…etc…”. Then , I assumed the owners (it seems to be a family) were actually Jews of North-African origin who for some reason had an unusually arab look and had retained north-african habbits (the pastries, for instance).
But yesterday, one of them mentionned the Ramadan while speaking with a customer. So I asked. they told me they were muslims, so I enquired about the placard. They told me that no, Jewish religious authorities didn’t reserve these certificates to Jewish-owned businesses.
Which seemed somehow weird to me since I hadn’t noticed until then a shop selling kosher food products which appeared not to be owned by Jews. So, a rabbi would light the oven. But still, the bread, the pastries, the sandwiches etc…would be prepared by muslims, cooked by muslims, handled by muslims, etc…Wouldn’t it be an issue? They even sell things like “quiche lorraines” , the recipe of which include a kind of bacon and cream, which would as unkosher as humanely possible. It’s my understanding that one (say a restaurant owner) can’t sell prepared kosher food items including meat and others including milk prioducts in the same place. How could they then sell something kosher prepared by a muslim employee presumably handling pork meat?
Now, a last question. These kind of certificates usually mention the “Paris Beit Din”. But this one mentioned the “Beit Loubavitch”. I haven’t noticed such a thing previously, but very likely I never really paid attention and it’s only because the whole situation seeemed weird to me that I noticed the difference.
But what difference does it make exactly? Are the “regulations” on food different for the Loubavitch? Can an orthodox Jew, for instance buy food in a shop certified by a Loubavitch authority (I never noticed an orthodox Jew in this bakery, and since I shop there regularily and there are a large number of them in the neighborhood, with two synagogues essentially both across the street, I assume they never shop there)?
Now, another question which cross my mind. Is there a way to tell apart a Loubavitch? Do they dress in a particular way, or something? I’m asking that in relation to the presence of two synagogues so close to each other. I used to assume that they were used by two different denominations, but someone told him they actually were used by two comunities belonging to the same denomination, but originating from two different places in Algeria. However, though this man is both Jew and a long-term resident of the neighborhood, what he says isn’t always reliable. So, after reading this placard in the bakery, I wondered again whether there could be a Loubavitch community in the neighborhood. How could I tell?