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

by Scott D. Seligman

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


 

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Jewish, Food, Judaism

312 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2020

Reviews

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really fascinating story, examining a little remembered protest by Jewish women on the Lower East Side, New York, who joined together to protest the rising price of meat, particularly Kosher meat. These women, mostly uneducated, often not even speaking English, many of whom had only recently immigrated to the United States, felt so threatened by the increasing cost of the meat that that they organised and used their power as consumers in a massive meat boycott that was effective and demonstrated that activism could be a powerful weapon. The book explores these women’s lives, with the author sometimes being able to trace their descendants – who in many cases didn’t know anything of the story. The book also examines the infamous Beef Trust under Gustavus Swift, Philip Armour and George Hammond and the production of beef, and other meats in general. A small slice of history, but a really interesting one. Well-researched and with some excellent illustrations and photographs, I found the book a great read.

[Jules · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not a good book. Most of the research comes from newspaper articles from the time and accounts by men. Given this is supposed to be about the women who started the Kosher Riots, that seems ridiculous. Some of the pictures are sourced to Wikipedia, which makes me question the level of research done for the book.

At one point the author gives only the last names of two women and says 'they are lost to history...' I'm sure a check against the very thorough census data from the time could provide their first names and descendants. Another point the author grandly supposes the women were okay with giving up leadership of the movement because men were in charge of everything else.

There is no context, beyond the Meat Trust anti-trust lawsuits. I couldn't finish this book around 50% because the long quotations from period newspapers and dismissal of the year women leading the movement.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a meticulously researched study of practices which resulted in a large group of mostly unschooled female immigrants with limited English skills successfully challenging powerful vested corporate interests and gained the help of legal means as well as boycotts and the trustbuster Theodore Roosevelt and eventually some very noisy . Learn the realities of tenement life in 1902 in photos and rhetoric, as well as specific realities of European Jewish immigrants. Excellent!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from University of Nebraska Press/Potomac Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy reading books about food, New York City, forgotten historical events, and the turn of the 20th century, so this book landed in the center of my Venn diagram.

I started reading this book just after Election Day, 2020, here in the USA, and as I write this the whole sorry episode is still dragging painfully to its conclusion. I mention it here because what has recently happened in the world directed my thoughts about this book.

I have been thinking about organizing people with a view to winning political power and/or achieving a particular goal. I don't know how history will look at it, but right now it looks like the 2020 election has at least one colossal organizing success – Georgia – and at least one catastrophic organizing failure – Texas. I wondered: What makes organizing a success? What makes organizing a failure? I suppose that, if I really want to know, I should read contemporary journalism and analysis from those two places, but it is in my nature that, instead of going right at the problem, I wonder: Could a book like this – a history of an obscure episode that happened a long time ago – have any lessons for today?

Kosher meat prices rose too high in 1902 New York. Some people, poor immigrant women with no apparent previous experience organizing and protesting, decided to object and mobilize their neighbors in an effort to force prices down. For a while, they were successful. They achieved their immediate goal of a reduction of meat prices. They set off a chain of events which inconvenienced the “Beef Trust” by disrupting the means by which they added to their piles of money. The rich men of the Trust were at no time in serious danger of losing their piles, but the organizers definitely put sand in the gears, decreasing the rate of increase of the rate of increase. And for many years afterwards – so the author says – the example they set seemed to linger in the memory of both future organizers of citizen action in NY City and the journalists who reported on them

However, it's really impossible to completely enjoy this victory, because the most important and lasting effect of protesting and organizing, as told in this book, seemed to be to set neighbor against neighbor, customers against the butchers who ran stores on the ground floor of their tenements, butchers against their local wholesalers. “In the search for villains, nobody seemed able to see more than one step back in the process” (Kindle location 1417).

That wasn't the ringing endorsement of organized political action I was hoping for, but sometimes books tell you the complicated truths. Still, I agree with this book's claim that the episode is “an early case study in consumer activism, all the more impressive because it involved mostly uneducated women, some barely conversant in English, with few resources at their disposal. That they managed to organize themselves overnight to challenge powerful, vested corporate interests in their new homeland is remarkable” (location 46).

I received a free advance electronic galley copy of this book for review. Thanks to Netgalley and University of Nebraska Press for their generosity.

[Jeremy Booty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was eager to read this book as I had never heard of these events taking place. The author gives a blow by blow description of what happened during a time which was eventful both in the history of New York and the history of the United States. This was the era of the big trusts which controlled many of the industries of the time including in this instance, the meat industry. A comparatively few corporations combined to set the price of meat throughout the US. The Jewish population was particularly vulnerable as kosher meat must be specially treated and the animal must be slaughtered in a particular way which makes the price of the meat higher even when subject to market prices. When the "Meat Trust" increased the price of kosher meat, the women of New York rose up and protested, sometimes violently. Many of them were beaten and jailed. The businesses they were rioting against were in most ways as much victims as they were; they were simply passing on price increases handed down from the trust.

This book was indeed very informative. It covered the subject well but I had the feeling that much of the information was culled from the newspapers of the time. There was little about what made these women so very desperate. I would have liked greater use of first person accounts and family histories among other topics. In addition, this story contained the begining of what were to become major themes in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and an opportunity to expand on these beginnings was lost here at the expense of detailed explanations of anti-trust litigation. At least at first, these protests were led almost entirely by women. Although the leadership was eventually taken over by men we can see the blossoming of the women's rights movement. The victims of the trust were almost entirely immigrants. How they were seen and treated echoes in the news today. The New York City police treated the protesters brutally and they were fined excessively. Government sanctioned anti-semitism was clearly at work and although the author covered this briefly I would have liked to have known more.

This was a good book that did not live up to its potential to be a great book

[Reader Views · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scott D. Seligman’s book, “The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902: Immigrant Housewives and the Riots that Shook New York City,” details a moment of American history that has largely been forgotten. In 1902, six big companies in the meat industry colluded together in order to raise prices and, therefore, profits. This resulted in a steep increase in the price of meat. This was felt most significantly by the Jewish population of the Lower East Side in New York City. Mostly Eastern European immigrants, kosher meat was not only an important supplement to their diets, but also to many Jewish rituals and holiday customs. The population of the Lower East Side, especially the Jews, were majorly poor in wealth. In response to the price hike for meat, thousands of Jewish women banded together in May 1902 to boycott butcher shops and commence a meat strike until prices were lowered again. What began as a peaceful protest, however, quickly escalated into weeks of clashing between protesters and the police during the ensuing riots.

“The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902” is a fantastic historical analysis. Half of my heritage is of Eastern European Jewish descent, and yet I had never even heard of the 1902 meat riots or of the havoc the “Big Six” wreaked across the country in the form of price-fixing and collusion. During a relatively quiet time of American history, it is surprising to me that more historians and educational curriculums have not thought to include the events of May 1902 in mainstream historical discourse.

“The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902” emphasizes the fact that you do not need years of formal schooling and education or business smarts to enact change. The women behind the butcher boycott in 1902 simply had one common worry: being able to afford to properly feed their families and also adhere to Jewish laws. When their ability to do this was threatened, they did not sit back and wait for their husbands to speak up. They took action themselves.

Seligman’s account of the meat riots casts striking parallels with what we are seeing in our present day, especially in the United States, with the Black Lives Matter protests and the calls to end police brutality. I especially liked how “The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902” noted that the event has been characterized as being similar in motive to The Boston Tea Party, and thus homing in on an important point: our country was largely founded through the act of protesting and speaking out against perceived injustice. This theme carried through the 19th century, to the 1902 meat riots in New York City, to the Civil Rights Movement, and still largely exists today. It is important that events such as the meat riots are recorded and retold so that the foundations of American culture are remembered appropriately.

There were some small portions toward the end where the narrative seemed to digress at points, such as the chapter largely devoted to the Rent Strike. While I could tell that its inspiration was linked back to the 1902 meat strike, it didn’t feel entirely relevant, and I felt like the book lost a little bit of steam. In general, however, I enjoyed reading “The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902.” History lovers and readers who enjoy cultural analysis and discourse would also find Seligman’s book to be highly insightful.

[Veronica Gavilanes · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the meat industry was controlled by six big companies that had several discrete understandings to keep absolute control of the price of meat. Their desire for more profit caused a sudden rise of around 50% of the price per pound. For the Jewish migrant families that lived in the East Side and other parts of New York, this was a desperate situation, since kosher meat required a careful process and therefore was more expensive. At first, these families and the local butchers agreed to stop the consumption of meat for a while, in order to put pressure on the wholesalers to lower the prices. However, when the butchers reopened their businesses and meat was even more expensive, some Jewish housewives organized a boycott. This was supposed to be nonviolent, but soon it also involved assaults, destruction of products and properties, intimidation, quarrels with the police, and people in the hospital and in jail... If I had to describe this book in a single sentence, I would say this is a story of the determination of women and their discovery of the collective consumer power, which set a pattern for future generations.

What I liked: This book is clearly the product of careful research. The author did a great job, as he presents a lot of information, but the book is never hard to read nor boring (as it happens sometimes with nonfiction). I didn't know anything about these boycotts or the Beef Trust and I learned so much because the author explained everything clearly. Somehow he managed to present the different people involved in this process in a way that they felt like real people, regardless of the fact that he didn't have diaries or personal documents from them. The best part about this book is that it is a story of common women, Jewish immigrants with large families, who were brave enough to fight for something that was important for them, and it is a great story of resistance. And, I also loved that he included pictures. This book is interesting, well written, and empowering.

What I did not like: The book explains how the boycott of 1902 motivated people to fight against similar situations in the next decades, which was great, so I would have wanted to know a little bit more about how these boycotts are seen now and if they are still an important inspiration for current struggles (maybe as a short epilogue).

(I want to thank NetGalley, University of Nebraska Press, Potomac Books, and the author for this ARC, which I received in exchange for an honest review.)

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a time to be alive and read this book. It really could not be more suited to the moment we find ourselves in in 2025. As the title suggests this is the tale of how poor Jewish immigrant women led a boycott against price-gouging of kosher meat from the Beef Trust in 1902, ultimately forming the Ladies' Anti-Beef Trust Association. What I find remarkable is the timeline. Leaders like Sarah Edelson and Carolyn Schatzberg led the charge and instituted a boycott in less than 24 hours, canvassing door-to-door and caroling thousands of neighbors into promising not to buy meat until the price came down. The boycott lasted for weeks and the relentless tactics were copied in later actions taken by Pauline Newman and Clara Lemlich in strikes for workers' rights. These are women who would absolutely torch a Tesla dealership.

The book takes a frustrating turn when it discusses the inability of the legal system or government to hold the Beef Trust accountable in a timely manner. The legal cases took years and the monopoly of 4 of the companies was not broken up until 1920. My takeaway is that people can't wait for the courts or government to hold corporations accountable, they have to roll up their sleeves and do it themselves. A leader of a subsequent meat boycott Esther Dolobofsky, is quoted as saying "they [the retail butchers] have not the courage that we women have. They are afraid to fight, and they leave it to us to begin. Well, we will begin, and we will fight and fight until we win. It will be hard. But if we stand together shoulder to shoulder we can accomplish a great deal, as we did before." Amen, girl.

[Evalina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Previous to reading this book, I had never heard of this issue. However, this is a fascinating look at the power a group can leverage when it works together to overcome injustice. Is that a new concept? No. This is a tactic that has been utilized throughout history. One of the most notable was the Boston Tea Party. In fact, this meat war was nicknamed a modern Jewish Boston Tea Party. This war went from the Lower East Side of Manhattan to the local slaughterhouses, to Washington DC where President Theodore Roosevelt and the Justice Department were also waging war with the mostly gentile midwestern beef barons who had formed a Beef Trust.

Great historical background information was provided to help the reader understand the situation leading up to the rebellion. While the situations varied according to the income and religious views of the family, those hardest hit were the ones for whom kosher meat was a conviction and not a preference. The extent of their efforts only heightened the emphasis on the depth of their conviction.

The author does a wonderful job of laying out the situation so the reader is engaged from the beginning. As a person with an interest in culinary history, I found this book fascinating and not one I will soon forget. This book not only provides a great read for a person with an interest in culinary history, but also as a text for coursework in economics, women’s studies, and history.

I voluntarily reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book provided by the publisher and Net Galley but the thoughts expressed are my own.

[Jo Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

This is a very interesting history of the Kosher meat wars that took place in New York City and other places during the early 20th century. The price of Kosher meat, already higher than non-Kosher meat, was raised dramatically and the immigrant women on the Lower East Side could not afford to feed their families. This population adhered to the strict dietary rules defined in the Torah and required by their Orthodox upbringing and religious beliefs.

The narrative goes through the supply cycle from the cattle ranches to the slaughterhouses and wholesalers to the local butcher shops. Prices and supply are strictly controlled by the "meat trust," a group of six large companies that join together for their mutual advantages. Since the women are the ones doing the shopping, they become outraged.

This is the start of women becoming activists. They boycott, they strike, they break windows, and destroy high-priced meat - all in an effort to force the butchers to close or sell meat more affordably.

I had not previously known about this period of time and the involvement of women in this price battle. The book was written in an engaging manner and the history is fascinating. It also includes photographs depicting the struggle.

[Elisabeth Boas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is *not* a book for everyone even as it’s compelling and lively, well-researched and clear, etc. Maybe the story is more broadly interesting than I imagine it to be. On the pages is effective community organizing of poor (mostly) women by their peers, all immigrants finding voices to challenge the powerful institutions that were squeezing access to a necessity, Kosher meat. Bits of others things known tangentially to many also have parts of this story— completion of transcontinental Railroad, growth of cities, massive immigration, rise of Labor unions, trust busting…
The book might interest historians of the labor movement, lovers of NYC, and books groups with specialized interests.

“Scott D. Seligman has performed a bit of a miracle in letting the immigrant Jewish women who led the Great Meat Boycott of 1902 find their voice today. Seligman shows how and why women publicly organized America’s first consumer boycott. Launched from New York’s Lower East Side to fight precipitous Chicago Meat Trust price hikes, their action spread to other cities, providing a powerful model for future activism.”—Elissa Sampson, visiting scholar and lecturer at Cornell University”

[Vicky · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Great Kosher Meat War was a stand for principle to be heard and that there voices and concerns were valid. This was such an Eye-Opening explosive experience of a piece of history that I had never heard one word about this in any of my history classes.

Women are still fighting strong to be heard and this book examines how the Jewish immigrant women were the first to gather and riot to be heard and say that there opinions mattered! The book is well written and researched and the resources are outstanding!

I found this book to be informative, but emotional and relatable! I enjoyed reading a part of our history that is part of the journey of women’s right to be HEARD!

I would definitely recommend this book to everyone!

I received an advanced copy from NetGalley and these are my willingly given thoughts and opinions!

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE GREAT KOSHER MEAT WAR OF 1902 is one of those great titles that actually fits the wonderful storytelling author Scott Seligmann provides of this little known historical chapter. Seligman provides elaborate and detailed descriptions of the setting and customs of the recently arrived New York City Jews in 1902. Most were very religious and from Eastern Europe with more comfort speaking Yiddish than English. Thrown together in tight quarters, living in poverty, they nonetheless obeyed kosher eating laws and struggled to purchase kosher meat. When the price of meat was raised, by essentially a beef cartel, the housewives were livid and formed their own political response. This book tells the story of how moneyed interests ran up against female intention in the early 20th Century. It is well worth reading. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

[Michael Lewyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title is sort of self-explanatory: meat prices went up because of a price-fixing scheme by some big companies, and Lower East Side housewives not only boycotted kosher butchers, but even attacked customers who patronized meat stores. This book was a quick, easy read.

To me the most interesting part of this book was the context: before refrigeration, meat had to get to the customer very quickly, thus artificially limiting the supply. I was also surprised to learn how important beef was to kosher-keeping Jews: because pork is prohibited by Jewish law and poultry and fish were then more expensive than beef, beef was really the primary source of protein for them. Americans like to complain about so-called processed foods, but a vegetarian diet was much harder in 1904 than it is today, because of the availability of tofu and similar meat substitutes.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story

I loved this book. The storytelling is great and well-paced. Scott Seligman sets the scenes and provides all the necessary background; religious and business. The explanations of relevant Jewish rituals, customs, and laws are thorough enough to give the reader context for the story, without delving into the minutiae. I also found that when Seligman editorializes, his comments are even-handed. I liked the scope of the book in that it covered not just the riots, but also the slaughterhouses, railroads and trusts. The photographs were also very interesting. I recommend this book for anyone interested in history, particularly Jewish history.
Disclosure: I received an advance reader copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.

[George Crowder · Rating 5 out of 5]

While this book became somewhat repetitive, most of it was fascinating. It set the stage with a discussion of the meat trust, an excellent complement to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. It also gave a good description of the process of kosher butcher, essential to understand the cost dynamics of the trade. But the greatest value of the book was the detailed descriptions of Jewish immigrant women organizing by the thousands to stand up for the rights and needs of their families, though the particular target--the retail level butchers--were not truly to blame for the situation. You can imagine that women like this were the precursors of the sufragettes who would secure the right to vote in not many more years.

[Curlemagne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, compelling and sourced. It's a fascinating moment in history and Seligman grounds the consumer boycott well in the context of meatpacking and immigration. I think the moral/inspirational connection to larger labor activism is a bit of a stretch, though, considering how much property damage the women caused and the debatable longterm impact of the boycott. Strikes & boycotts tend to start with a bang and end with a whimper and it's no use trying to obfuscate that with a hasty reference to Clara Lemlich, given she wasn't even in the United States at the time.

I'd have liked to know more about the relationship of antisemitism to policing and newspaper editorials but that's probably its own book. I'd recommend this.

[Gabi Friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I could give this 4.5 stars. The first few chapters are a bit dull and insist on going over what will be familiar territory to anyone who has taken an American history class— robber barons, gilded age, 19th century immigration patterns, etc. but, the story really picks up after that, and I found myself enthralled by the historical drama, trying to picture today’s lower east side overrun by Haredim flinging meat and throwing kerosene. I really enjoyed the lively narrative voice and this opportunity to read about a historical event that I, as an observant Jew from the New York area, had never even heard of.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very detailed and well written. As the author professed in the preface, he is an historian, and not necessarily a novelist. That saying, some parts were quite dry and a bit repetitive. But, I am always looking for books that are based on historical events, that I could learn from, or entertain me. (no romances here or sci fi). Glad to see chapters were peppered with actual photos of the times. Hadn't ever given a thought that even people of the same faith would turn on each other, but I realize that was naïve of me.

[Anita R · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an ARC from NetGalley for an honest review. This is a very interesting story about the immigrant NY Jewish women who couldn’t afford the increasing prices of kosher meat. In 1902 the women organized boycotts and strikes to try to reduce the meat costs. I learned a lot about the Russian and Eastern European immigrants and what they went thru just to survive and exist in America

[Rabb_eye · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really have very little to add that half a dozen other reviewers on goodreads haven't already stated. Interesting piece of American history, especially with regard to women's involvement in protests and strikes regarding social issues. The methodologies used in 1902 to protest kosher meat prices were repeated successfully in subsequent similar protests.

[cynthia Trotter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I chose to read this book because I had no idea that such an event existed. The author gives a very engaging account of the situation and makes for fascinating historical reading. Among other things, I learned exactly what is meant by "kosher beef". I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about life and times in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 1902.

[Asher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good view into an interesting period of New York history. It has all of the items needed for a good read: the little guy battles the evil corporations (and trusts), heroic women, and host of characters (many of whom were characters).

All that was missing was a happy ending, but this is history, not a novel.

[Faina · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting piece of history that left a sour taste in my mouth. The meat prices went sharply up, so the women organized boycotts of butcher shops. They broke windows, looted meat to destroy it, physically attacked the women who didn't join them. Reminded me of the communist slogan "those who are not with us are against us" and the recent riots and looting that I oppose. 

[Marge Congress · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really a work of scholarship, thus very detailed. The main story, of how these Orthodox immigrant woman overnight became the leaders of a boycott of kosher butchers, is fascinating. Lots of pictures, and a deep look into the causes of this uprising. Just a bit too long.

[Annette MacDougall · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book has a basis in the history of when my family arrived in New York City, 1902, as European Jews. And they were butchers at the time. So the story was an eye opener to what it was like then and how they had to survive!

[Abby Hochhauser · Rating 4 out of 5]

So interesting from an historical perspective. Much more to it than just the strike. So much history!! I listened to the audio book which was read quite well. Very clear with careful pronunciation of the Yiddish and Hebrew words.

[Vader · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 star - Perfect
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish

[Edward Weiner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice focused history. Well written. Not nearly as epic as Irving Howe's World of Our Fathers, but a fun read. A bit too much detail for such a narrow event.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit too detailed.