The Brooklyn Jewish Community Council warned Mayor Robert Wagner yesterday that the curbing of Jewish funerals on Sunday would cause “serious difficulties” for the “traditional American religious freedom of 1,900, 000 Jews in this city.”
The appeal to Mayor Wagner from Surrogate Maximilian Moss, president of the council, was evoked by the contract demands of Local 643 of the Teamsters Union, representing 1,000 funeral car drivers, who are seeking a five-day week. Their demands make no provision for servicing Jewish funerals on Sundays, when many Jewish burials take place because of the religious ban on Saturday burials. The local threatened to strike for its demands but the strike was postponed until February 28 for further negotiations.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
