A pledge of cooperation with the city administration in its efforts to solve the problem of kashruth regulation was made yesterday by the Rabbinical. Assembly, a group representing 200 conservative rabbis, which met at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
The resolution, which was passed by unanimous vote, approved the administration’s efforts to enforce kashruth laws and effect complete and comprehensive rabbinical representation, embracing all interested parties, in all deliberations on the problem. Another resolution was passed, authorizing a committee of five to meet with committees from other rabbinical bodies, for the purpose of securing “further and fuller understanding.” The members of the committee have not been appointed yet.
Arthur Simon, confidential investigator for the Board of Health, presented the Administration’s viewpoint at the meeting, which was presided over by Rabbi Alexander Basel of the Jacob H. Schiff Center in the Bronx.
Appealing for unity among the rabbinical organizations and for “dignified tolerance and patience,” Mr. Simon declared:
“The administration proposes the following suggestions as aids to remedying the kashruth situation:
THE PROPOSALS
“1. A properly organized municipal enforcement bureau.
“2. Lawful licensing of kosher food purveyors.
“3. When the Rabbinate of New York have established a central rabbinical authoring to deal with the questions of Jewish law pertaining to kashruth and in conjunction and in close cooperation with it, a representative public body shall have been formed to deal with the internal problems of administering those laws affecting the Jewish community in the field of kashruth enforcement.
“It is understood, however, that the representative character of such a public body must appear sufficient in the eyes of the city administration.”
Among those who took part in the discussion were Rabbis Charles Sydney, Robert Gordis, Louis M. Epstein, Ben Zion Kokser, Israel Goldfarb, Louis Grossman, Herbert Fedder, Arthur Newlander, Samuel Benjamin, and Professor Morris D. Levine of the Jewish Theological Seminary.
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