As soon as the New York rabbinate declares its ban on poultry, scheduled for next Monday, the wholesalers will bring court action against the Kashruth Association and against each individual rabbi, it was learned yesterday.
An officer of the Live Poultry Slaughterhouse Association, wholesalers organization, said that he could prove the ban, which was passed Monday night in an attempt to force wholesalers to accept rabbinical supervision of markets, is a “racket.”
“We employ duly authorized shochtim,” the informant said, “and our poultry is kosher in every respect. The rabbis are ruining our business by declaring the ban, and we’re not going to stand for it.”
He predicted that the shochtim, or kosher slaughterers, will break away from the rabbinate.
Asked what point of law the association would invoke in its court action, the informant referred to J. Sidney Bernstein, counsel to the wholesalers. Mr. Bernstein, however, was non-committal. “You will see when the case comes up in court what law we’ll use,” he said.
Rabbi Nachman, chairman of the Kashruth Association, asked about the report, refused to make any statement.
An officer of the Shochtim Union Local 440, questioned about the predictions that the shochtim would break away from the rabbis, said that the union has not as yet formulated its stand. A meeting will be held in a few days, he said, at which the slaughterers will reach a decision.
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.
