Book
The great kosher meat war of 1902 : immigrant housewives and the riots that shook New York City
Publication Information
[Lincoln, Nebraska] : Potomac Books, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press, [2020]
Physical Description
xxxiii, 276 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm
Summary
"In the wee hours of May 15, 1902, three thousand Jewish women quietly took up positions on the streets of Manhattan's Lower East Side. Convinced by the latest jump in the price of kosher meat that they were being gouged, they assembled in squads of five, intent on shutting down every kosher butcher shop in New York's Jewish quarter. What was conceived as a nonviolent effort did not remain so for long. Customers who crossed the picket lines were heckled and assaulted and their parcels of meat hurled into the gutters. Butchers who remained open were attacked, their windows smashed, stock ruined, equipment destroyed. Brutal blows from police nightsticks sent women to local hospitals and to court. But soon Jewish housewives throughout the area took to the streets in solidarity, while the butchers either shut their doors or had their doors shut for them. The newspapers called it a modern Jewish Boston Tea Party. The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902 tells the twin stories of mostly uneducated women immigrants who discovered their collective consumer power and of the Beef Trust, the midwestern cartel that conspired to keep meat prices high despite efforts by the U.S. government to curtail its nefarious practices. With few resources and little experience but steely determination, this group of women organized themselves into a potent fighting force and, in their first foray into the political arena in their adopted country, successfully challenged powerful, vested corporate interests and set a pattern for future generations to follow."--
Contents
- A city within a city
- Greater power than ten Standard Oil Companies
- The conscience of an Orthodox Jew is absolute
- Each one is an authority unto himself
- A despotic meat trust
- As scarce around Essex Street as ham sandwiches
- Let the women make a strike, then there will be a strike!
- If we cry at home, nobody will see us
- They never saw such assemblages in Russia or Poland
- Hebrews with shaved beards
- And he shall rule over thee
- No industry in the country is more free from single control
- Essentially it is a fight among ourselves
- Vein him as he veins his meat
- Patience will win the battle
- Disregard all verbal or written agreements
- This cooperative shop is here to stay
- There was never such an outrage on our race
- We don't feel like paying Fifth Avenue prices
- It is not our fault that meat is so high
- A great victory for the American people.
Subjects
- Meat industry and trade > New York (State) > New York > History > 20th century.
- Kosher food industry > New York (State) > New York > History > 20th century.
- Boycotts > New York (State) > New York > History > 20th century.
- Jewish women > New York (State) > New York > History > 20th century.
- Women immigrants > New York (State) > New York > History > 20th century.
- Consumer movements > New York (State) > New York > History > 20th century.