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By: Rabbi Yehuda Kravitz

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In the year 1900, the famed “Ridbaz”, Rabbi Yacov Dovid Wilowsky, Slutzker Rov, visited America for the first time and observed first hand Rabbi Joseph’s pain and suffering. On September 8th, 1903, he returned to become Chief Rabbi of Chicago, where he immediately embarked upon upgrading the level of Kashrus at Chicago’s four largest meat packaging houses.

The Ridbaz found a shocking situation. The shochtim were hired directly by the slaughterhouse owners, and it was the Shochtim who thereafter voluntarily agreed to accept a Rov as their supervisor! They didn’t accept the Ridbaz as their supervisor, and the Rabbi that they did accept didn’t allow the Ridbaz to inspect the Shechita!

The Ridbaz was left with no other alternative but to ban the meat. The uproar that followed was devastating, and during the summer of 1904, merely one year later, fearing for his very life, the Ridbaz resigned his position and left Chicago!

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In May of 1928, an editorial in the “Hapardes” Torah Journal, compared the Shochet of Eastern Europe to his American counterpart:

“Nothing has been altered more that the position of the Shochet. In the old home his profession was considered a sacred calling, he was a Klei Kodesh. The European Shochet did not view his position as simply a “business”, a way to earn a living, but rather he was completely dedicated to the Torah. Here in America the Shochet considers his vocation a means of attaining a livelihood, simply as another profession. His fondest wish is to join a “Union” so his salary will be increased.

The results: the Shochtim no longer wish to be under Rabbinic influence! In these cities the rabbis are now unable to properly control the kashrus situations!”

Kashruswise, chaos continued to reign in all major Jewish communities across the nation.

In 1929-31 a court case issued against the “Council of Orthodox Rabbis of Massachusetts” by a non-religious butcher, whom the Rabbis would not grant kosher certification, caused a great controversy. The Rabbis ultimately won in court; the Judge upheld the Halachah.

America’s major Jewish communities, New York, Massachusetts, Kansas City, Chicago, Akron Ohio, Youngstown, Buffalo N.Y., St. Louis, Cleveland, Boston, Los Angeles, and even Toronto Canada, experienced at that time great controversies between the Rabbis of the communities and the butchers and Shochtim who were set in their ways and wouldn’t upgrade Kashrus standards.

Rabbi Yehuda Levenberg, Rav Hakollel, Chief Rabbi of Cleveland, wrote in a letter to Rabbi Eliezer Silver of Cincinnati dated September 26, 1932:

“…Non-Jews stand right next to the Shochtim. While the latter ritually slaughtered, the foreman killed the chicken. Time after time the dead chickens are mixed up. Those killed are sold as kosher, while the kosher slaughtered ones are mistakenly considered non-kosher.

The salaries of the Shochtim vary in accordance with their speed. They average about $35.00 per week. One Shochet actually earns over one hundred dollars a week! This Shochet employs his own Rabbi to supervise him!”

The kosher meat industry boomed at the expense of Kashrus!