A committee of twenty New York Orhodox rabbis, chosen on Wednesday night at the closing session of the Vaad Harabonim, the federation of Orthodox rabbis of Greater New York, will seek ways and means of putting an end to the kosher scandals in New York City whereby kosher butchers and delicatessen dealers have been able to sell non-kosher products for kosher.
The convention also adopted resolutions condemning the delivery of kosher meat from the slaughter-houses to the butcher shops on Saturday, protesting against those dealers in kosher products who keep their stores open on the Sabbath and calling upon Orthodox Jews of New York City not to buy kosher foodstuffs in such stores. The five-day working week, which would give Orthodox Jewish workers a chance to rest on the Jewish Sabbath, was strongly endorsed by the Vaad, which at the same time condemned those Jewish employers in New York City who take advantage of Jewish workers who are Sabbath observers by paying them what was termed at the convention as a “starvation wage.”
The deplorable situation of the older type of Yiddish-speaking, European-bred Orthodox rabbi in the United States in general, and in New York City in particular, was discussed by many rabbis at the closing session of the Vaad convention. Rabbis in this country, the speakers said, were really no longer rabbis in the sense they were in the Old World, but had become preachers. In New York City especially the situation of the older Orthodox rabbis is bad, because here rabbis are hired by congregations instead of by the whole Orthodox community, as is the case in other cities. The older type of Orthodox rabbi is apparently doomed to disappear in this country, and even in European countries his status is weakening, one speaker stated.
The convention closed after it elected the following officers for the ensuing year: Honorary President, Rabbi Gusik; members of the Praesidium, Rabbis Epstein, Duchowitz and Aranowitz; Treasurers, Rabbis Lakshin and Burak; Financial Secretary, Rabbi Arenstein; Manager, Rabbi Feivelson.
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