Michigan State Enacts Kosher Food Measure

(Jewish Daily Bulletin)

Governor Fred Green signed a bill last Friday making it a punishable offense to sell or offer for sale any meats or meat products as “kosher” which are not so in accordance with the strict requirements of the Jewish dietary laws as observed by Orthodox Jews.

The new law provides a penalty of a maximum fine of $500 or four months imprisonment for any butcher, restaurateur or delicatessen store operator who attempts to sell non-kosher food as kosher. A second section in the measure makes it unlawful for merchants to sell non-kosher along with kosher foods unless they display a sign at least four inches in height reading: “None-kosher meat sold here”. This section is described by friends of the measure as the “teeth” on which the new law depends for its enforcement.

The bill passed the House of Representatives of the State Legislature two weeks ago and the Senate last week. Both houses passed the bill by a unanimous vote.

The new Michigan kosher food law is similar in content to the laws now in force in New York and Pennsylvania which upon appeal were reviewed and declared constitutional by the United States Supreme Court. Michigan’s law, however, is described as “more explicit”.

The Chief Rabbi Onderwyzer of Amsterdam, president of the Holland Rabbinical Conference, in a letter to Dr. Bernard Drachman, president of the Jewish Sabbath Alliance of America, requested that he draw for them a bill bearing on the kosher question similar to the ones recently passed in New York and California.

The Chief Rabbi explained that it was necessary to enforce the observance of Kashruth by law in Holland. The Government of Holland has given assurance that such a law would be passed without difficulty.