Returned from a vacation trip to Montreal, Louis Lande, chief examiner for the President of the Board of Aldermen expressed the opinion that New York has a great deal to learn from the Canadian city in the administration of Kashruth.
Interviewed by the Jewish Daily Bulletin, Mr. Lande, who has played a prominent role in Kashruth problems in New York, said that in Montreal shochtim are hired by the Vaad Ha’ir, local Jewish community council, rather than by market-owners as in New York.
“I had a great opportunity to observe the operations of the Vaad,” Lande said, “through the kindness of Mordecai M. Peters, its executive secretary.”
45 LEADERS
Mr. Lande explained that the Vaad comprises forty-five communal and religious leaders elected annually at a meeting of delegates of every synagogue, fraternal, educational and social service institution in the city.
The Vaad employs rabbinical supervisors and shochtim. By this method, these functionaries are more interested in the Jewish community which employs them than in the market-owners who are motivated by a desire for profit, he said. In New York shochtim are employed by market owners.
“Another reason for payment of rabbis and shochtim by the Vaad,” Lande pointed out, “is that it is beneath the dignity of the sacred profession to take instructions from a layman, in so important a religious function as kosher slaugthering.
The revenue from kosher slaughtering, Lande said, helps Jewish educational institutions which are in great distress. The Vaad has given Jewish schools $25,000 during the past year and a half, he said.
QUOTES CONSTITUTION
Mr. Lande quoted the Constitution of the Jewish Community Council as setting forth the following purposes:
“1. To maintain and further Orthodox Jewish life.
“2. To organize and supervise Jewish activities.
“3. To supervise manufacture, preparation and distribution of all products used by the Jewish people.
“4. To establish in Montreal a council of Orthodox rabbis who shall have complete supervision and control of preparation, manufacture and distribution of kosher products.
“5. To engage qualified shochtim.
“6. To engage staff for inspection of premises where kosher products are prepared or sold.
“7. To organize a ladies’ auxiliary to assist the Council.
“8. To establish and maintain an Arbitration Court (Mishpat Hasholom) to arbitrate disputes.
“9. To do all things necessary for the enhancement of religious, cultural, philanthropic and national life of the Jewish community.
“10. To aid in the enforcement of laws relating to false labels and misrepresentations in sale of kosher food products.”
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