Articles and Court Documents Relating to Lawsuit Filed Against Rabbi Eliezer Silver and Criminal Case Against the Accusers of Rabbi Eliezer Silver

1941

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Court Verdict Against Rabbi Silver

CINCINNATI BAR ASSO. ORDERS INVESTIGATION OF PRACTICE OF SOME RELIGIOUS LEADERS WHO ADVISE THEIR FLOCK ON LEGAL MATTERS

Fireworks Expected Within Ranks of Synagogue Following Much Publicized and Heated Court Action Which Left Rabbi "Out"

By JACK ELLIS
"Helz-Appopin' " in the Keneseth Israel Congregation, Rockdale and Washington avenues, Avondale, since a jury in Judge Frederick L. Hoffman's Criminal Court, acquitted Mrs. Ann Sherman and her husband Edward Sherman, 711 Ridgeway avenue of an alleged attack upon Rabbi Silver in front of the Love Brothers Synagogue, December 9.

"Silver's tyranny over members of his flock ended, kosher butchers are lukewarm toward him, the Shermans broke the ice for a new deal in the synagogue."

Expressions of that kind have been heard frequently by members of Rabbi Silver's congregation since the trial.• The acquittal verdict when read by Criminal Court Clerk was greeted by handclapping in the crowded audience. The .demonstration was hushed quickly when the Court Bailiff, Andrew Hitz, rapped for order.

After Judge Hoffman left the bench, the majority of those in the audience rushed forward and surrounded the acquitted man and wife, patting them on the back. "I think I got the right kind of justice I expected to get in the courts of the United States", sobbed Mrs. Sherman, who came to this country from Russia nineteen years ago. "I knew  the truth would come out" her husband commented.

The jury of five women seven men returned its verdict in seventeen minutes.

Origin of the trouble between the rabbi and the Shermans, which led to the alleged assault on Silver, was over a contract he drew up concerning a laundry in which the Shermans and Max Kut, a German refugee and a relative of the rabbi, were partners at the start. Eventually, Kut, with the aid of Silver, took over the laundry business himself.

In his closing argument to the jury, William F. Hopkins, attorney, for the Shermans said: "When a man such as Rabbi Silver, under the cloak of his office prostitutes that office through crooked dealings, he ought to be drummed out of the country. Mrs. Sherman shoved him harder than any woman in history ever shoved a rabbi. He got what he deserved."

Hopkins charged that Rabbi Silver, the President of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis in the United States and Canada, committed perjury on the witness stand.

Does he get a fee for every piece of meat or fowl sold by kosher butchers and other foodstuffs that he blesses? Complaints regarding his tactics of doing business have been registered by E. Kahn's Sons Company and the B. Manischewitz Company, matzos bakers in the past.

It was brought out at the trial that Rabbi Silver has been acting as legal advisor for members of his church. Although not mentioning the name of Rabbi Silver, the executive committee of the Cincinnati Bar Association has ordered an investigation of the practice of some religious leaders of advising the parishioners on legal matters. The investigation will be conducted by the bar committee on unauthorized practice of law.

Action followed a complaint that rabbi drafted a memorandum to be used as the basis for a partnership agreement.

Up until Rabbi Silver suffered this setback by the Shermans, he has members of his synagogue dancing "to the tune of his music" so I speak. "The Shermans broke the ice" is the tune many members of the Keneseth Israel Congregate are humming these days.