January 17, 1920 was the day when the Volstead Act officially became enacted throughout the United States. The Volstead Act states thusly:
CHAP. 85 (H R.28919).”An act to prohibit intoxicating beverages, and to regulate the manufacture, production, use, and sale of high-proof spirits for other than beverage purposes, and to ensure an ample supply of alcohol and promote its use in scientific research and in the development of fuel, dye, and other lawful industries
CHAP. 85 (H R.28919).”An act to prohibit intoxicating beverages, and to regulate the manufacture, production, use, and sale of high-proof spirits for other than beverage purposes, and to ensure an ample supply of alcohol and promote its use in scientific research and in the development of fuel, dye, and other lawful industries
In pre-revolutionary America, “each person consumed about three and a half gallons of alcohol per year. This is about double the present rate of consumption.” And by “1830 consumption of alcohol, mostly in the form of whiskey, had reached more than seven gallons a year for every person over age fifteen or three times the current rate.” It was common to drink socially and non-socially throughout the day, from waking up to going to bed.
One Chicago columnist wrote in 1907 about the saloons saying:
“The liquor interests are vastly more extended in Chicago than any other. There are 7,300 licensed liquor sellers in Chicago, and in addition about a thousand places where liquor is sold illegally. The only business which approaches it in number of establishments ... is the grocery trade, which has about 5,200. The city spends at least half as much for what it drinks as for what it eats.”
“The liquor interests are vastly more extended in Chicago than any other. There are 7,300 licensed liquor sellers in Chicago, and in addition about a thousand places where liquor is sold illegally. The only business which approaches it in number of establishments ... is the grocery trade, which has about 5,200. The city spends at least half as much for what it drinks as for what it eats.”
While prohibition became the land of the law, alcohol was not completely banned in the United States. The Volstead Act as stated before had within it conditions allowing scientific, medical, and industrial uses of alcohol. In addition to these allowances, there was a section within the law with particular interest to the Jewish community.
The law stated that:
“Nothing in this title shall be held to apply to the manufacture, of wine for religious sale, transportation, importation, possession, or distribution of wine for sacramental purposes, or like religious rites... any conference or diocese or other ecclesiastical jurisdiction may designate any rabbi, minister, or priest to supervise the manufacture of wine to be used for the purposes and rites in this section mentioned, and the person so designated may, in the discretion of the commissioner, be granted a permit to supervise such manufacture.”
The law stated that:
“Nothing in this title shall be held to apply to the manufacture, of wine for religious sale, transportation, importation, possession, or distribution of wine for sacramental purposes, or like religious rites... any conference or diocese or other ecclesiastical jurisdiction may designate any rabbi, minister, or priest to supervise the manufacture of wine to be used for the purposes and rites in this section mentioned, and the person so designated may, in the discretion of the commissioner, be granted a permit to supervise such manufacture.”
The law as it was stated gave congregations the ability to appoint a person as a Rabbi and distribute wine to their congregations. This created a large loophole in the act that was vigorously exploited. When Prohibition became the law of the land, orders for sacramental wine went through the roof. “Sacramental wine used by churches and synagogues was permitted as well, and orders for it quickly increased by millions of gallons a year. Not more than one-quarter of this is sacramental, one churchman admitted, the rest is sacrilegious.”
“When Congregation Talmud Torah of Los Angeles made its jump from 180 to 1,000 members in the first months of Prohibition, its Rabbi Benjamin Garder bemoaned his memberships clamor for “wine, wine, and more wine”. Some Rabbis used the law to its intended purpose and other Rabbis used the loophole as a way to bolster their finances as well as other Jewish organizations. While many people did abuse the exemption there were many cases where Jews and Rabbis acted in good faith and in accordance with the law.
A document from the 1925 CCAR convention states that “The so-called Rabbis who make a business of dealing in certificates are a disgrace to us. Perhaps if one or more would have to do involuntary service in some institution it might serve as a salutary lesson.” The same document also addresses the issues of how laxly a person would be appointed a Rabbi by a community that was not a functioning synagogue but rather a collection of individuals who would gather and appoint someone with or without formal ordination as their Rabbi for the purpose of obtaining wine.
The document states:
“It is now charged and probably with some truth, that under this act wine has been secured in some cases not for sacramental purposes but for profit. I think it is safe to say that more than ninety percent of the Rabbis are citizens who believe that the voice of the people is the voice of God and therefore must be obeyed. But there are schochets(butchers) who are called Rabbis, for in any congregation, no matter how small any one of its members may be elected as Rabbi. Under such circumstances, it is a wonder that a “Rabbi” so-called, can be found who will be very liberal issuing certificates.”
The document states:
“It is now charged and probably with some truth, that under this act wine has been secured in some cases not for sacramental purposes but for profit. I think it is safe to say that more than ninety percent of the Rabbis are citizens who believe that the voice of the people is the voice of God and therefore must be obeyed. But there are schochets(butchers) who are called Rabbis, for in any congregation, no matter how small any one of its members may be elected as Rabbi. Under such circumstances, it is a wonder that a “Rabbi” so-called, can be found who will be very liberal issuing certificates.”
So well known was the problem that there was a congressional hearing on fictitious Rabbis “in 1926 on a Senate committee investigation which found that hundreds of thousands of gallons of wine were distributed by thousands of “fictitious Rabbis.''There are Irish Rabbis and Rabbis of every description,” said the committee’s counsel, Earl J. Davis, who testified “Not only wine, whiskey, and in some cases, champagne are released for religious uses.”
“Julius Rosenwald of Chicago denounced the "sacramental wine scandal", in a speech which was roundly cheered Wednesday morning. Mr. Rosenwald said:
"Sacramental wine is becoming a scandal. Our Rabbis are becoming bootleggers. We don’t want any privileges. We want to be like other Americans. The Union of American Hebrew Congregations should petition Congress to stop issuance of permits for sacramental wine".
"Sacramental wine is becoming a scandal. Our Rabbis are becoming bootleggers. We don’t want any privileges. We want to be like other Americans. The Union of American Hebrew Congregations should petition Congress to stop issuance of permits for sacramental wine".