The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902: Immigrant Housewives and the Riots That Shook New York City

2021 Independent Publisher Book Awards, Gold Medal Winner
2020-21 Reader Views Literary Awards Gold Medal Winner
2020 American Book Fest Best Book Awards Finalist in the U.S. History category
2020 National Jewish Book Award Finalist in American Jewish Studies
2020 Foreword Indies Book of the Year Finalist

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, their parcels of meat hurled into the gutters. Butchers who remained open were attacked, their windows smashed, stocks 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 them 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 female 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 a great deal of 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.

Author: Scott D. Seligman
Publisher: Potomac Books
Published: 12/01/2020
Pages: 312
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 9.29h x 6.43w x 1.11d
ISBN: 9781640123588


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 10/30/2020 pg. 1
Choice 08/01/2021

About the Author
Scott D. Seligman is a writer and historian. He is the author of several books, including the award-winning The Third Degree: The Triple Murder That Shook Washington and Changed American Criminal Justice (Potomac Books, 2018) and The First Chinese American: The Remarkable Life of Wong Chin Foo. His articles have appeared in the Washington Post and the Seattle Times, among other publications.