Millions in matzos were figuratively juggled before Judge Knox in the U. S. District Court on Monday as Philip Halperson, East Side matzos jobber, testified that the Manishewitz and Horowitz matzos companies had repeatedly enjoined him not to buy goods of Rabbi Weinberger, Inc. Mr. Halperson proved a telling witness for the Weinberger interests, who are charging that Manishewitz Bros., together with the Horowitz and Margareten Company, have used trust methods to prevent open competition in the matzos market.
The industry, it was pointed out, is not a small one, as about two and one half million dollars worth of matzos are consumed annually throughout the world, and 75% of that product is made in America.
Up to 1921, Mr. Halperson testified, he had handled about 150,000 pounds of matzos a year. Then the Manishewitz and Horowitz interests came and suggested that he be their dealer, and take into partnership with himself one Mr. Unger. But before they would do business with him, the Manishewitz and Horowitz and Margareten people said, “you’re a Weinberger man. You’ll have to stop that.”
Mr. Halperson testified that he repeatedly promised to stop selling Weinberger goods, but nevertheless kept the “bootleg” cheaper matzos in a separate store, or in a loft.
Halperson said, “before the 1922 season, Mr. Manishewitz came to me and I agreed to take about 900,000 pounds of his matzos. But he said I could handle his goods only on condition that I took no Weinberger goods. I said I wouldn’t handle Weinberger.”
Nevertheless, Halperson said, he had about 50,000 pounds of Weinberger and Levy matzo-meal in the loft of his store on Ludlow Street that year.
Then, he said, the Manishewitz and Horowitz interests refused to sell him more matzos unless he bought 30 pounds of matzo-meal, farfel, cake, and other matzo products with every 70 pounds of matzos. When he asked “what’ll I do with all that matzo-meal?” he was told to sell it instead of Weinberger’s “bootleg” matzos, he testified.
Mr. Halperson said that prices on Manishewitz and Horowitz products were almost always uniform. The prices were nexer fixed until a month before Passover, he asserted.
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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.
