Court Bars Rabbis from Passing on Unsupervised Kosher Slaughter Houses

continued to perform their duties.

The Vaad Hakashruth then posted pickets around the stores owned by Cohen and where the alleged kosher meat was being retailed. This action called forth the petition for the restraining order in which it was charged that the Vaad Hakashruth was racketeering and that it was limiting the production of kosher meat and fixing prices. Judge Powell’s decision restrains the Vaad Hakashruth from asserting orally or in writing that the meats sold by Cohen for Swift & Co. are not kosher or that they are not prepared in strict accordance with the dietary laws of the Jewish people.

The attempt to secure the restraining order was strenuously fought by attorney Joseph H. Mellen, chairman of the executive board of the Federation of Jewish Organizations in Cleveland, who maintained that the right to interpret the Jewish laws on the question of kashruth was a matter to be determined by the authorized orthodox rabbis and not by the civil courts. Mr. Mellen pointed out that 60,000 Cleveland Jews are interested in having kashruth maintained.

It was generally expected that the judge who once ruled favorably that religious matters have no standing in the civil courts, would make a similar ruling in this case. Mr. Mellen will file an answer shortly and the case will be fought to the limit.