A comprehensive plan for introducing a system of regulated supervision and control of the preparation and sale to the public of kosher meats, poultry and other food-stuffs, labeled and priced as such, as an aid in the effective enforcement of Section 435, Sub-Div. 4 of the New York State Penal Law, will be put into operation beginning with January 1st, 1933.
An announcement to this effect was made yesterday by Samuel Rottenberg, president of the Kashruth Association of Greater New York, Inc., a representative body composed of leading lay Jewish leaders and two hundred and eighteen rabbis, representing the united Orthodox Rabbinate in the metropolitan area. The Kashruth Association is the result of a movement and agitation which have been going on in the Jewish community for many years, aiming to correct the evils prevailing in the kosher food-stuff markets. Cognizance of these evils claimed legislative attention as far back as 1915, when the New York State Legislature passed Section 435 of the Penal Law, amended on September 1, 1922 and on March 24, 1927, making the sale of non-kosher food-stuffs as kosher food-stuffs a misdemeanor.
The Kashruth Association is a direct outgrowth of the Mayor’s Kashruth Committee appointed by Mayor Walker on May 25, 1931, as a “fact finding body” to ascertain the extent of the problem and to propose effective means for the enforcement of the State Law within the metropolitan area.
The plan, which will be put into effect beginning with January 1st, is based upon the recommendation contained in the memorandum submitted to the Mayor. It calls for the introduction within the Greater City of a unified system of “kosher” supervision and the display in all kosher butcher shops and similar establishments of a uniform “kosher” sign, which is the emblem of the Kashruth Association and is to constitute a Certificate to the effect that the establishment in which this sign is displayed is under the supervision, from the point of view of the Jewish religious requirements, of the authentic religious and communal authority vested in the Association.
As a condition upon which the issuance of the “Certificate of Kashruth” is dependent, the owners of such establishments are required to agree to scrupulously observe the rules and regulations laid down in the Jewish Religious Laws pertaining to the sale of kosher products in conformity with Section 435 and to sell only such products as have been supervised or attested to as to their being “kosher” by the Kashruth Association.
PROMINENT LEADERS BACK ACTION
The plan has the support and backing of a number of prominent Jewish leaders who serve on the Board of Directors and the General Committee of 100 of the Association.
Among the leaders of the Association are Judge Otto A. Rosalsky, Magistrate Jonah J. Goldstein, Bernard Semel, honorary secretary of the Jewish Education Association; Rabbi Israel Dusowitz, president of the Rabbinical Board; Peter Wiernik, editor-in-chief of the “Jewish Morning Journal”; Dr. S. Margoshes, editor of the “Jewish Day”; Harry G. Fromberg, president of Young Israel; Louis J. Gribetz, Hon. Benj. E. Greenspan, Jacob H. Cohen and others. Rabbi M. S. Margolies, dean of the Orthodox rabbinate of this country, is honorary president.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
