Kosher Tax

Oldest (32 years) and largest (400) of orthodox rabbi groups, the Agudath Harabonim (Union of Orthodox Rabbis of U. S. and Canada), met in Lakewood, N. J. last week to tackle money matters. Rabbis' salaries were running in arrears. For charities and schools there was a serious lack of ready cash. The Union voted to solve its financial problem by levying a tax on that cornerstone of orthodox Jewish life, the kosher slaughterhouse. It figured that if it could collect 1/2-c- on every pound of kosher meat sold. it could raise $1,000,000 or more in one year.

How many of the nation's 4,000,000-odd Jews are orthodox no man can say, because any congregation may include varying stripes of belief. But many a Jew cleaves to kosher dietary laws even after he has discarded other orthodox practices. In New York City where live nearly one half of all U. S. Jews there are about 6,500 kosher butcher shops. A kosher tax would be profitable, but whether the Agudath Harabonim could levy it effectively seemed doubtful. If all Jewish congregations approved it might be done by agreement with meat dealers. Or the rabbis could exert gentle pressure. Tho.ugh the rabbi does no slaughtering, which is the job of a trained and learned shochet, he or an assistant supervises it in the slaughterhouse, has the final say on what is kosher, what is not.

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