Plan to Solve Kosher Tangle is Submitted

Striving to bring order out of a chaotic situation resulting from the failure of agreements between groups interested in the kashruth situation, Louis Lande, member of a special committee appointed by Bernard S. Deutsch, aldermanic head, and led by William Weiss, worked long over various aspects of the perplexing problem of enforcing the Kosher Law.

Lande announced yesterday that a plan to solve the kashruth situation, submitted by Benjamin Koenigsberg, attorney and vice-president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish. Congregations, had not reached his hands. The plan, however, has been received by Deutsch, as was stated in a letter delivered to Koenigsberg yesterday.

“We shall certainly appreciate the Koenigsberg plan.” Lande said yesterday. “We need the help of an attorney in solving this mess.”

Lande said that thus far he has received no indication of a let-up in the demands of opposing factions for representation and control of the Kosher Law enforcement.

The plan submitted by Koenigsberg, who said yesterday that he is working in the interests of the community rather than for any faction, would make rigid inspection a duty of the city. He said that under his plan the Kosher Law can be enforced to the satisfaction of all concerned.

Responsibility for enforcement he would assign to either a bureau in the Department of Public Markets headed by a deputy commissioner and assisted by a number of inspectors or to a specially created bureau, a Department of Kosher Food Supervision headed by a commissioner and assisted by a staff of attaches and inspectors. He believes that the great Jewish population of New York City and the number and variety of businesses handling kosher products warrant such action.

He said that the department, which can be created by the municipal assembly without recourse to the Legislature in Albany, should have a commissioner, five borough chiefs, a law clerk, two stenographers and about seventy inspectors at a cost of about $225,000 a year. He also suggested that a number of honorary deputy commissioners from the ranks of rabbis be appointed at nominal salaries of one dollar a year, who shall act as referees or judges on complaints of violations, aid in inspection work, and enjoy powers of subpoena.

Koenigsberg suggested that revenues for the upkeep of the department be raised through a levy of $25 a year as license fee from every dealer in kosher food. The larger dealers, he stipulates, may pay larger fees.

He also advocates special training for all connected with the proposed department. He suggests that those employed should be able to differentiate on sight between kosher and non-kosher products, and be interested from an ethical, moral, and religious viewpoint in seeing the law enforced. He recommends rabbis or laymen with religious education as the best qualified.