Ko Kosher Service

The beginnings of Ko Kosher Service began with a European history. Rabbi Rappaport-Muflag, (to be known as Novoseller in the future) in the Ukraine during the beginning part of the 20th century, was the local Rabbi of a few communities, taking care of the local needs of kashrus. As was the case in the United States, the new modes of transportation allowed companies to produce, and package foods and send them to distant regions. This change in the way food products were consumed influenced the need for kashrus (certifying of goods as kosher), to move beyond the local rabbi’s community. It also created a need for a recognizable selection of symbols identifying items as being kosher.

In the earliest noted days of one of the Rabbi Novoseller’s, he was asked to go out to the local sugar factory to perform an audit of the facility for kosher. Back then, kosher inspections were very different than they are today. Today, not only are there kosher inspections, but there are also government inspections that ensure cleanliness, sterility, and conformity to advertising. No such agency existed back then. Therefore, these agencies needed to go through the exhaustive research and audits to make sure no cross contamination happened. Proper steps were taken to maintain a pure proper product.

Rabbi David S. Novoseller took over the responsibility of kashrus in 1914, and continued providing services until 1928 in Ukraine. Following the Pogroms of 1917-18, he organized a home for orphans and arranged and financed the Orphans’ emigration to United States from Ukraine from 1918-27; In 1928, Rabbi David S. Novoseller was forced to abandon Ukraine and flee to the United States of America.

Giving kosher certification, continued in the United States of America in 1928 when Rabbi David S. Novoseller arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and became a member of the Philadelphia Vaad Hakashrus (Committee of Kosher Supervision) under Rabbi B.L. Levinthal. In 1930 he started first orthodox congregation in Wynnefield, Bnai Yoshia, he was the founder of Mizrachi Organization in Wynnefield and organized Hachnusas Orchim—Uptown Hebrew Sheltering Home.

Rabbi David Novoseller continuously was considered a Leader and Pioneer in elevating Community Kashrus standards and procedures. Parenthetically, after the demise of Rabbi Levinthal in 1952, the Vaad Hakashrus was headed by Rabbi David S. Novoseller and Rabbi Ephraim Yolles.
Following the death of Rabbi David in 1966, his sons continued the work in kashrus.

Rabbi Dr. Sholom Novoseller & Rabbi Moshe Novoseller were inducted into the Philadelphia Vaad Hakashrus by Rabbi E. Yolles, Rabbi Isadore Solomon and representatives of the Philadelphia Kosher Butchers Association after consultation with Rabbi Boruch Leizerowsky. Rabbi Dr. Shalom Novoseller and Rabbi Moshe Schnall, (among the last few to receive Rabbinic Ordination from Rabbi Chaim Soliveichick and Rabbi Aronowitz know as the world’s preeminent Torah scholars) joined Rabbi D.S. Novoseller in response to the expanding field of kosher certification in the food industry. This actually occurred in the early 1940. The Vaad Hakashrus concentrated on the Kosher Meat Industry in the Philadelphia area, at that time supervising the Greater Philadelphia Abattoirs and the multitude of neighborhood Kosher Meat Outlets. The Vaad Hakashrus and Ko Kosher Service continued as parallel and complementary supervisory bodies.

As the Rabbinic Authority—Rosh Bes Din for the Rabbis of Kosher Service, Rabbi David Novoseller helped to established Ko Kosher Service as an institution serving the kosher requirements of producers of kosher products throughout the country. His guidance has helped establish Ko Kosher Service as one the pioneer unsubsidized national nonprofit kosher supervisory organizations.

Ko Kosher Service was formally formed in the early fifties after a number of rabbis organized, first as Agudat Harabonim of Philadelphia, then as Adas Harabonim of Philadelphia – Council of Rabbis, with its many phases of communal services as its objectives. Ko Kosher Service is the kosher supervising wing of Adas Harabonim of Philadelphia. Among those Rabbis involved were, Rabbi David Novoseller, Rabbi
David Wachtfogel, Rabbi Abraham Poupko, Rabbi Eliezer Poupko, Rabbi David Rice and Rabbi Moshe Schnall. Over a period of time their individual supervisions were transferred to Ko (their widows were compensated till their demise). At that time Ko Kosher Service was giving kosher supervision to most of the dairies in Philadelphia. For a few years Ko was a Philadelphia local undertaking for and to the local retail purveyor of Kosher foods and services.