Under consideration at Albany are resolutions passed by New York independent grocers, designed to protest against alleged Nazi influence in the food distribution industry.
Lending expression to the convictions of many Jewish grocers in New York City that Nazis are making inroads in the grocery business, the United Independent Retail Grocers and Food Dealers Association of New York has called to the attention of Governor Lehman alleged discrimination against Jewish grocers in New York.
The Association, at its twelfth annual convention Sunday night in the Broadway Central Hotel, passed resolutions to end restrictions allegedly unfavorable to Jewish grocers. Copies of the resolutions are being forwarded to the governor with the request that he act on them.
Charges that the NRA grocery authorities of the city and state are controlled by Germans or firms dealing with Germany have been openly voiced. The recent election of the city code authority was annulled, because of complaints of a “fixed” election.
SABBATH CLOSING LAW
Resolutions passed by the convention include one to call the attention of the governor to the Sabbath Closing Law, which provides for the closing of all grocery, dairy and similar stores at 10 o’clock Sunday mornings with the provision that they may reopen for business between four and
The resolution also states that many grocers, observing the Sabbath on Saturday, are inconvenienced to the extent of closing on part or all of both days. It asks that the term “delicatessen store” be more clearly defined so as to restrict those establishments selling any but prepared food products, and that grocery stores be permitted to remain open until twelve noon on Sundays, without reopening later. The part of the resolution asking that groceries remaining closed Saturday be permitted to remain open Sunday was voted out by the convention.
Whether the national food and grocery industry is directly under the control of German Americans, whose sympathies are allied to those of the German Nazis, and whether Berlin’s influence is being felt throughout the country’s retail food trade is a question now being discussed by independent grocers, particularly in New York.
Grocers have brought to the attention of the Jewish Daily Bulletin the fact that the national, state, and local food and grocery distributors code authorities are principally fo German “Aryan” descent and that they are indirectly connected with large German grocery interests.
NATIONAL ASS’S CONTROLS GROCERS’
It is claimed that the Grocers’ code has remained in the control of the National Association of Retail Grocers, who are said to represent 68,000 grocers throughout the country. One of the members of this group now serving the NRA grocers’ code is C.H. Jansen, who serves as committee chairman of the national Association of Retail Grocers and who is also chairman of the grocers national code; Hector Lazo is Chief of the Coordinating Unit of the National Industrial Recovery Act and has recently served as attorney at Washington for the National Association of Retail Grocers; P. C. Friese is serving as an organizer for the association and the NRA at the same time in a number of states.
It is claimed that in New York City there are 11,000 Jewish grocers inclusive of 3,000 managers of chain stores, whereas there are only 1800 German grocers in the city. It is also clamed that in New York state there are 29,000 Jewish grocers and only 6,000 German grocers.
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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.
