Assemblyman Sheldon Silver (D. Manhattan) said today, after the first hearing in the history of the New York State Legislature on kosher product pricing practices, that the next step would be to determine whether there are grounds for extending the state’s anti-trust laws to apply to such pricing.
Silver, chairman of the Assembly subcommittee on food products, which deals with all aspects of kosher law enforcement in the state, was chairman for the hearing which extended over a 10-hour period last Thursday at the legislative office building here.
The hearing was a joint one of the Assembly and the State Senate. The co-chairperson was Sen Carol Berman (D. Nassau), the ranking member of the State Senate’s Consumer Protection Committee.
Silver said, in advance of the investigative hearing, that “we don’t believe that the production costs can account for the great disparity in the price between kosher and non-kosher chickens. With Passover coming up in less than a month, we want to know why kosher poultry prices are so high.”
He added that wholesale kosher chicken prices are nearly double the cost of non-kosher chickens, declaring that the price for wholesale kosher poultry was 98 cents a pound and non-kosher poultry sold for 45 cents a pound or less in the area.
EVIDENCE OF PRICE FIXING
Silver told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that evidence of a pattern of price-fixing for kosher products, both Passover and year-round, had emerged from the 10-hour hearing and that the testimony was being turned over to the State Attorney General for study and appropriate action. He said a representative of the Attorney General’s office had been present during the hearing.
Silver said that Murray Katz, president of Empire Poultry Company, the largest producer of kosher poultry in the United States, had been scheduled to appear as a witness but that he chose not to testify. Sidney Weingarten, Katz’s attorney, took the stand when Katz was called to testify and told the hearing that, “on advice of counsel, Mr. Katz will not testify” at the hearing.
Silver said witnesses could not be compelled to testify or penalized for not testifying because the investigation had no power to issue subpoenas.
Harvey Potkin, a former vice president of Falls Chicken Company of Woodridge, New York, who became a vice president of Hebrew National Company when Hebrew National acquired the Woodridge firm, testified that Empire Poultry had settled with the Falls firm an anti-trust suit, claiming restraint of trade in kosher chicken distribution by Empire. Silver said Potkin also testified that Empire paid $300,000 in an out-of-court settlement with Falls.
Silver said that Katz had come to the hearing to testify but had left the room after listening to Potkin’s testimony of restraint of trade charges against Empire. Silver said that when, on the assumption Katz was still present, he had called Katz to the witness stand, Katz’ attorney took the stand to announce Katz would not testify.
Silver told the JTA that the Thursday hearing was “the opening gun” of a legislative effort to help protect the consumer of kosher products in the state against price gouging.
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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.
