Keeping it kosher
One problem my mother did not have was finding a kosher butcher where she could pick and choose which chicken she wanted or have the meat cut especially for her. According to the 1950 Providence City Directory, there were 25 identifiable kosher meat markets in Providence, most of them in South Providence, others in the North End and East Side. Then, as now, on receiving the bill, there was that sigh that needed no words to say, “It’s so expensive to keep kosher.”
The problem was even more acute in 1910. Kimberly Nusco portrayed this situation and the events that followed in an article in “R.I. Jewish Historical Notes” (“The Kosher Meat Boycott of 1910,” Vol. 14, No. 1, 2003). According to Nusco, the average income of the Jewish residents of South Providence varied between $10 and $15 a week, 60-65 percent of which was generally spent on food. For the women, tasked with providing food for their families, the rising costs were a major concern. The price had tripled in the past three years. They also worried about the sanitary conditions of the shops and suspected some of the meat came from sick or dying cows. It was time to take action.
On June 21 of that year, according to newspaper accounts cited by Nusco in the RIJHA article, some 700 women packed Bazar’s Hall to air their grievances. A smaller number later met in the Workman’s Circle Library. There was unanimous agreement to begin a strike against the six kosher butchers located in their area. Who issued the call for the mass meetings is not known, nor did there appear to be any connection to the violent protests that occurred in New York and New Jersey the previous April. Strikes, simultaneous to the Providence action, also occurred in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Brockton, Massachusetts.
A delegation presented a list of demands to the butchers. These included “fresh and healthy meat wrapped in a clean paper and not in newspaper as is custom in some shops, and respectful treatment of customer, and a reduction in the price of all kinds of meat” (page 103). Three of the butchers agreed to consider the petition; three rejected it outright.
The following morning at 5:30, women protesters appeared on Willard Avenue between Gay and Hilton Streets, the location of the shops, to urge potential customers to join the boycott. The demonstration remained peaceful. The rancorous activity came from the other side, most notably from the wife of one of the butchers. However, at the end of the day, police were called for fear of possible trouble. It proved unfounded. Five policemen were easily able to disperse the crowd of 500 pickets, sympathizers and gawkers.
Six days later, a headline in the Journal and Evening Bulletin predicted that the “Kosher Butcher War” would soon end. Although the butchers had agreed to improve the sanitary conditions of their shops, they agreed to nothing more. What had changed? Three members of the community who had previously owned stores in the neighborhood agreed to reopen in the vicinity of Willard Avenue, sell meat at cheaper prices and comply with all the other demands of the strikers.
At that point, Nusco wrote, the newspapers lost interest in the situation, which left no way to assess the efficacy of the boycott or the new competition. The offending six shops remained in business while suggestions that a meat cooperative be formed remained merely suggestions.
In retrospect, the strike was an act of community solidarity organized and carried out by women – primarily immigrants – acting on their legitimate grievances. These women, despite their status, had grasped the possibilities of political action, a freedom available to them here in the “goldena medina” of America.
GERALDINE FOSTER is a past president of the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association. To comment about this or any Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association article, email info@rijha.org.
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