As individual rabbis throughout New York City violated the rabbinical poultry ban by entering into agreements with market owners, Judge Otto A. Rosalsky, speaking before the Kashruth Association at the Hotel Pennsylvania, yesterday urged the rabbinate to cast out from their midst all such opposition.
The ban was proclaimed last week by the rabbis of the Kashruth. Association to force market owners to accept a decision of Judge Rosalsky, the Mayor’s mediator in poultry market difficulties, establishing supervision by Kashruth Association rabbis and affixing of leg-bands to fowl.
A prominent East Side rabbi who took an active part in the ceremonies last Monday at which the ban was proclaimed, yesterday defied it by agreeing to supervise a number of East Side markets. His supervisors were affixing manila tags to fowl to certify rabbinical supervision.
Under his supervision, shochtim, previously undecided whether to work or not, were slaughtering in East Side markets.
Judge Rosalsky warned the rabbinate at the Hotel Pennsylvania that “New York Jewry will remember those who defy the issur. “
He castigated the plan brought forth by groups of rabbis in the Bronx and Brooklyn for decentralized supervision on a borough basis. It must be centralized in the hands of the Kashruth Association, he said.
Expressing satisfaction with the progress of the issur, Judge Rosalsky said. “Rabbis who do not adhere to the ruling of the rabbinate will find it difficult in the future to exercise influence over their congregations and the Jewish community. “
More than 140 markets have agreed to accept Kashruth Association supervision, it was reported.
Presumably acting on Judge Rosalsky’s exhortation, the New York rabbinate yesterday planned excommunication services for violators of the ban. The rabbinate proposed to hold a memorial service for the rabbi, and tear their coats as though he had died.
Support for the rabbinical issur, or ban, was voiced Sunday night at a meeting in the Bialystoker Center, East Broadway and Clinton street, attended by about 300 rabbis and laymen. Resolutions were adopted favoring formation of an East Side branch of the Kashruth Association to “energetically help in carrying out its plans. “
Business people were asked to support the issur, and it was proposed the posters be placed in store windows urging Jews to buy only fowl bearing the Kashruth Association leg-bands.
In the meantime, opposition to the issur remained unabated. Bronx butchers called a meeting for tonight at the Hunts Point Palace at which the butchers will be urged to boycott poultry bearing the leg-bands.
Bronx wholesale market owners were yesterday to have signed a contract with a group of rabbis headed by Rabbi Raphael M. Barishansky providing for supervision without attachment of the legbands.
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.
