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There have been some questions on Jewish Twitter about whether rioting is a Jewish value or not. Well, the Kosher Meat Boycott of 1902 has entered the chat. [thread]
In May 1902, after the price of kosher meat jumped from 12 to 18 cents a lb., thousands of Jewish women poured into the streets of the Lower East Side, breaking into butcher shops and flinging meat into the street. They orchestrated a successful 3 week boycott.
This boycott and rioting (which went on for a month) was organized by Jewish immigrant women, mostly housewives, who were in their late 30s and 40s, not by the same young women who were Union leaders.
During the riots, women were pushed around by police, thrown to the pavement, trampled on. One policeman was reportedly slapped in the face with a piece of liver.
The women even used an organizing tactic of interrupting the Torah reading on Shabbat to get rabbinic support.
The women even used an organizing tactic of interrupting the Torah reading on Shabbat to get rabbinic support.
The boycott was eventually considered a qualified success, as they got the price of meat reduced at the time, but the price continued to rise in the following years. In the process, they started an org called the Ladies’ Anti-Beef Trust Association, an incredible name.
In the end, the women saw the power of their neighborhood network and showed the community that women had significant political awareness and organizing power. It was a short-lived grassroots movement, but it alerted the labor movement to the political potential of women.
Anyway, normalize slapping cops in the face with liver, 2020
