Rabbi Kestenbaum was also very concerned. He saw a little girl of 9 weeping bitterly because she feared that she will not be able to have any matzo on Pessach even after she will become Bas Mitzva Rabbi Kestenbaum was determined to help her.
Dayan Westheim and the Manchester Beis din arranged for a small amount of oat flour to be harvested. The milling was done by hand by the staff of the Beis Din and sent to Rabbi Kestenbaum, who had it baked by hand and packed in Rabbi Kestenbaum's home.
There was only enough for approximately 15 people and to the surprise of the Kestenbaum family, hundreds came calling for such matzo and Rabbi Kestenbaum was only able to give one Ka-tzayit per person.
Dayan Westheim was in constant contact with Rabbi Kestenbaum and he and his staff at the Manchester Beis Din worked very hard to progress this venture.
The hand baking was very difficult and time consuming and therefore more costly than anticipated.
For the first three years, these matzos were distributed free of charge and the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations in London and the Golders Green Beis Hamedrash helped to subsidize them. It was not anticipated that the costs and demand would increase so greatly during these three years. It was therefore decided that people using these matzos should pay for them. Anyone who needs these matzos and cannot afford them should contact his local Kimcho Depischo and his Rabbi and then in strict confidence Rabbi Kestenbaum of London. Hospital patients can receive these matzos free of charge with their kosher meals but must firstly request them.
Rabbi Ephraim Kestenbaum’s gluten free shemura oat matzos machine made and very mehudar hand made matzos are the only matzos in the world which are free of gluten. Patients of celiac’s disease and some other diseases may not have matzos containing gluten.
Rabbi Kestenbaum together with Dayan Osher Westheim were looking far and wide
for gluten free oats and asked many farmers all over the world to test their
oats at his expense.
They then started to breed oats with a lower gluten content and after 4 years
were happily surprised to come across a very small patch of gluten free oats
on the farm in Scotland. Tests at health laboratories confirmed that these
exceptional oats are free of gluten.
He then used them for seeding in Scotland and the following year a beautiful
crop of gluten free oats appeared. He has since continued with these gluten
free oats with his own seeds for years and they are constantly tested. These
matzos are sent all over the world.
The milling is very difficult. Sometimes 80% of the flour and grains are lost
because of other difficulties. We cite one example. Oats have a very bitter
enzyme and are normally injected with steam in the groat stage to eliminate
the bitterness which of course makes oats chometz. As we could not inject
steam the matzos therefore had a very unpleasant taste, but people who could
not otherwise keep the mitzvah were still grateful to have them. In due course
we overcame this problem by special cleaning, grinding and milling numerous
times.
The baking also presents many problems and because the oat flour lacks gluten
it is very hard to knead and to bake. Often we suffer a huge amount of wastage
and the baking procedure has to be done very many times until we are able
to produce a small amount of matzos. There is only one machine matzo bakery
in the world at this time which is able to cope with these problems. Their
specially trained staff are to be commended for their exceptional performance
and unstinting efforts and strict adherence to the complicated halochos. The
baking requires the presence of Rabbi Kestenbaum and his children at all times
for guidance and support.
The production of these matzos is under the hashgocho of Dayan Osher Westheim
Shlita from long before the harvest until after the
finished matzos are packed in boxes, which are sealed and stamped. The growth
of the grains must be closely monitored and supervised from the time of seeding
to avoid contamination from other growths containing gluten.
All our matzos, machine and hand are gluten free and shemura. The hand matzos
are very mehudar. The machine matzos are not completely made by machine and
very much hand work goes into them, particularly during the kneading. However,
we refer to them as machine matzos because they differ from the completely
hand baked. The hand matzos are round and each box holds 3 matzos.
The gluten free matzo meal is made from broken pieces of gluten free shemura
oat matzos, ground into matzo-meal and packed into attractive one pound boxes.
Apart from celiac’s disease, there are patients suffering from a range
of other medical conditions and illnesses who may not eat any other matzos.
A gentleman from the Far East telephoned and did not want to speak to Rabbi
Kestenbaum but only to Mrs. Kestenbaum saying that he “needs to speak
to her about matzos which she bakes in her kitchen”. A number of overseas
people believe that.
When in doubt, Rabbi Kestenbaum recommends consulting with your own doctor
and he is always happy to assist with further information upon request.
The gluten free shemura oat matzos and matzo-meal and flour are available
at numerous distributors in Israel, Britain, USA, Belgium, Canada, Australia
and South Africa and can be sent to any address in the world upon request.
For further information, please contact Rabbi Ephraim Kestenbaum at:
Tel: (44) 020 8455 9476 Fax: (44) 020 8455 3212
E-mail: sula@waitrose.com