From present indications, the five “city fathers” who comprise the local City Commission are due for a headache before the proposed kosher meat regulation ordinance is effected here.
Final action on the motion has been postponed until interested parties and rabbis can get together and draft an ordinance acceptable to all. Last week’s initial hearing developed into a heated session.
Meyer Zemel, one of the largest property owners in the city, urged complete withdrawal of the pending ordinance, asserting he “wanted peace among the Jews.” When Mayor Meyer C. Ellenstein asked him to avoid racial insinuations, Zemel asked the mayor to withdraw from consideration of this ordinance because he is the only Jewish member of the Commission.
Zemel’s contention was that most of the Jewish families in the city are compelled to buy from 120 to 130 kosher butchers, “in a combination, who charge from forty to fifty cents a pound for meat.”
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.