Call them La Kosher Nostra.
A clique of rabbis on Long Island are being accused of Mafia-like tactics to maintain what amounts to a monopoly over the local kosher certification process — sparking a twisted turf war that has outraged local residents and businesses alike, The Post has learned.
A lawsuit filed last month by Chimichurri Charcoal Chicken — located on the busy Rockaway Turnpike across from a McDonald’s — claims the rabbis behind the Vaad Hakashrus of the Five Towns and Far Rockaway ordered observant residents to stop eating at the chicken joint last year after it started using a competing certification service.
The Vaad — led by Rabbi Yosef Eisen, who is also named in the suit filed in Nassau County — even killed Chimichurri’s lucrative catering work in a retaliatory move, court papers claim.
“The existing Vaad does not want competition, is afraid of the competition, and is trying to use its power to drive them — or attempt to drive them — out of business,” the lawsuit says.
The Vaad’s lawyer, Frank Snitow, told The Post the lawsuit “is entirely without merit,” adding that “Rabbis have an obligation and a right under the First
