Sabbath Observers Win Case As Magistrate Sets Precedent

Urging liberal construction of the Sunday observance law as applied to store closing, Magistrate Anna M. Kross yesterday afternoon dismissed wholesale complaints against some forty East Side merchants. A precedent was thus set whereby observers who keep their shops open Sunday and closed Saturdays will be free from police interference.

”Where the neighborhoods are exclusively Jewish, Sabbath observers should be permitted to keep stores open on Sunday instead,” Magistrate Kross said, promising a written opinion for the record later.

The arrests originally resulted from a special complaint made by the Lord’s Day Alliance against a number of small shopkeepers on the East Side. It was charged that the peace and quiet of the neighborhood were interfered with Most of the defendants were butchers. They were defended by Herman Koenigsberg, counsel for the Jewish Sabbath Alliance of America.

The attorney moved for dismissal yesterday on the ground that the evidence was insufficient since no sales were proven. He pointed out that the defendants cannot be held for doing labor on Sunday because Section 2144 of the Penal Code exempts from prosecution those who observe any other day of the week as a day of rest, provided their Sunday work does not interfere with the peace of the neighborhood. He cited similar cases dismissed by the Court of Special Sessions.

After summarizing the evidence and reading Mr. Koenigsberg’s brief, Magistrate Kross dismissed the complaints.

ALLIANCE HAILS VICTORY

In a statement yesterday afternoon to the Jewish Daily Bulletin, Rabbi Bernard Drachman, executive director of the Jewish Sabbath Alliance, characterized Magistrate Kross’s court action as one that “will have a great effect on the Jewish Sabbath keepers in New York City, especially those in the Jewish sections who have from time to time been molested when opening their stores on Sunday and being conscientiously closed from Friday sundown to Saturday night.