Search JTA's historical archive dating back to 1923

Police Department Says Sabbath Jews Who Open Stores on Sunday Will Not Be Harassed

June 15, 1970
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
Advertisement

Police procedures to help insure that observant Jewish shopkeepers who do business on Sundays In New York City will not be harassed or be given summonses was announced by Police Commissioner Howard Leary. The city’s business law provides that a person doing business on Sunday is exempted from the Sunday closing law if he observes a Sabbath on a day other than Sunday. Under the new procedures, a continuing survey will be conducted in each police precinct of those enterprises closed on Saturday for religious reasons which are open on Sunday, according to Judah Dick, a vice-president of the National Jewish Commission on Law and Public Affairs, (COLPA) who worked with the police department on the problem. A record of such businesses will be kept in each precinct. Policemen are being instructed not to give summonses on Sundays to merchants who claim they are Saturday Sabbath observers unless the officers personally witnessed that the shop was open on Saturday or after determining from the precinct list that the shop is not on the list of stores closed on Saturdays.

Recommended from JTA

Advertisement