The New York City Department of Public Markets was praised for its cooperation with Orthodox Jews in their efforts to regulate the sale of kosher and non-kosher meat, in a letter written this week by Benjamin Greenspan, a lawyer, to Mayor Walker. In his letter Mr. Greenspan expressed the opinion that the present graft charges against employes of the Markets Department might merely be an effort to intimidate the Department against carrying on a campaign against butchers who violate the kosher laws.
Commissioner of Accounts Higgins began on Thursday the investigation of an anonymous letter in which four supervisors of the Department of Public Markets were charged with taking graft from butchers for allowing them to violate the kosher meat regulations. Commissioner Higgins declared that he would question John R. Shea, a market supervisor, who is accused by H. J. Reiter, a kosher butcher, of attempting to extort $100 from him. Shea was arrested a few weeks ago after $50 in marked money was found in his possession. Mr. Reiter, who said he gave Shea the money, withdrew his complaint because he said that politicians had warned him against going through with the case.
A charge that a large east side meat market was paying off market supervisors by check each Wednesday, in order to be able to sell non-kosher meat for kosher, was investigated this week by Commissioner Higgins, who declared that after a thorough investigation of this complaint he found it had no basis in fact.
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.
