Butchers Association realigned itself with the women's boycott campaign and ceased selling kosher meat. By May 27, major Orthodox religious leaders had publicly affirmed support for the boycott, and by June 9 the price of meat dropped almost to pre-boycott levels. Throughout this upheaval in the kosher meat business, which Joseph nominally oversaw for the entire city, the Chief Rabbi himself was sidelined by the stroke he had suffered five years earlier. He died on July 28, 1902, at the age of 62. His funeral was one of the largest in New York, attended by more than 50,000 Jews. It was disrupted by a public disturbance in which a number of people were injured. Employees of R. Hoe & Company, manufacturer of printing presses, threw water, paper, wood, and iron from the upper floors of the factory at 504 Grand Street. Two hundred policemen responded to the call, hitting and pushing the mourners. Some of Hoe’s employees, who had been harassing local Jews for some time, joined the police in the riot and beat mourners. Jewish oral tradition blamed the antisemitism of both the Irish factory workers and the police. Recent historical research suggests that the factory workers were mostly Germans, not Irish, and that the police were following standard practice in quelling a riot. On the whole, the police kept a tight lid on inter-group violence. After Joseph's death many congregations began to give him the honor which they had withheld during his life. Aside from the tens of thousands who came to see him lying on his death bed, forty rabbis gathered in the cemetery for his funeral. The congregations also competed with each other, each one desiring to bury him in its own cemetery. Congregation Adath Israel on Elridge Street promised to give his widow $1,000 right away and $10 a week all the rest of her life. Congregation Beis HaMidrash HaGadol was permitted to bury him in their plot at the Union Field Cemetery in Ridgewood, Queens. The plots near the grave of the chief rabbi became extremely valuable. Congregation Adath Israel sent his widow the amount promised for several years, and then stopped. With Joseph's death, a succession dispute arose which diluted the office of Chief Rabbi, and the title was rendered effectively worthless. Descendants His grandson, Lazarus Joseph (1891–1966), was a NY State Senator and New York City Comptroller. A playground on Manhattan's Lower