Professional Documents
Culture Documents
P E R
I O W A
IN
Group Campaigns
Against Kosher Meat
BY Y. ELCHONON
The militant vegetarian group People consequently, American Law.” filed a complaint with the US Department of
for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, better Lewin also suggested that PETA could itself Agriculture. alleging that the plant is violating
known by its acronym, PETA, has embarked be subject to legal action for its unwarranted Jewish law by not instantly killing the animals,
on a new public relations campaign attacking efforts to harass legitimate kosher meat and is therefore also violating the 1902 federal
AgriProcessors Inc., the Postville, Iowa- operations in this country. Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act.
based one of the world’s largest kosher meat PETA is known for its aggressive tactics The complaint sought suspension of the plant’s
processors, and the source for kosher meat in promoting its animal-rights agenda. In license and possible criminal proceedings.
products widely sold under the Rubashkin one of its more tasteless campaigns, it ran Steven Cohen, a spokesman for the USDA,
and Aaron’s Best labels. PETA accuses the advertisements a few years ago with the phrase confirmed that the agency had received the
company of violating both civil humane “Got prostate cancer?” showing Rudolph PETA letter but said it was waiting to review
slaughter laws and Halacha. Giuliani, the then-New York City mayor who the video before deciding how to handle the
PETA began by sending the meat processor had been recently diagnosed with the disease. complaint.
a letter a year and a half ago with unspecific The ads also included the line: “Drinking milk Rabbi Menachem Genack, head of the
complaints about the company’s operating contributes to prostate cancer.” Orthodox Union’s OU Kashruth Division,
procedures. The company’s lawyer, Nathan AGUDATH ISRAEL which also provides supervision of kosher
Lewin, responded by offering to discuss and, RESOLUTION CONDEMNS meat products from the same plant, said he had
if necessary, fix any problem the group had. discussed the issue with USDA officials, and is
But Lewin told Binyamin L. Jolkovsky, of ATTACK ON SHECHITA confident that government guidelines are being
JewishWorldReview.com, that PETA never PETA’s campaign against a prominent kosher followed to the federal agency’s satisfaction.
responded. meat manufacturer prompted the passage of a The company also issued a statement saying,
Last week, Lewin, was contacted by the special resolution at the closing session of the “Agripro-cessors does not control anything
New York Times seeking comment on an Agudath Israel of America’s annual convention that happens in the kosher ritual processes. We
undercover videotape the paper received from in Stamford, Connecticut, at the behest of adhere strictly to the instructions given to us
PETA, which it claimed documented abuses by Chaim David Zwiebel, its executive vice by the rabbinic authorities and will continue
the kosher meat manufacturer. Lewin viewed president of government and public affairs. By to do so. As we always have, we will also
the tape at the New York Times’ Manhattan unanimous vote, Agudath Israel condemned continue to follow the strict guidelines set out
offices, along with Rabbi Chaim Kohn, Chief what it termed a “vicious and unethical attack by both federal and Jewish law for the humane
Dayan of Khal Adath Yeshurun, which is one of on Jewish religious practice.” The resolution treatment of animals during the slaughter
the kashruth supervision agencies that provides also noted that among the first Nazi attacks process.”
the Hashgocha on the meat plant. It was not against Jews was “peddling photographs of Rabbi Genack even tried, unsuccessfully,
clear when or if the Times plans to publish a allegedly ‘cruel’ kosher slaughter,” and that to explain the OU- approved and supervised
PETA “now follows in that vile course.”
story based on the PETA accusations and tape. shechita practices in use at the plant to Aaron
The resolution also declared that the Torah’s
Lewin told Jolkovsky that the videotape, Gross a Jewish student at Harvard University
concept of humane treatment of animals is well
which was supposedly shot at the meat packing who is a militant vegetarian group, and is
ahead of the standards promoted by secular
house in August and September of this year, PETA’s self-appointed expert on kosher
organizations such as PETA.
contains graphic and bloody pictures of the requirements. Gross denied that the PETA
“Shechitah often comes under attack by
kosher slaughter process, in an attempt to campaign is motivated by anti-Semitism and
elements that are unsavory, and in general
shock the viewer, but no violations of either claimed that it does not object to shechita
PETA is not an organization that commands
civil law or the rules of shechita. “when properly practiced.”
our great respect,” said Rabbi Avi Shafran, a
Lewin, who is acknowledged to be the spokesman for Agudath Israel Another PETA expert who criticized the
foremost legal experts in church-state issues, OU-approved shechita procedures at the
contends that “all PETA wants to do is inflame PETA FILES A COMPLAINT Agriprocessors plant was Temple Grandin,
the public against kosher slaughter.” The WITH THE USDA an associate professor of animal science at
group, he added, “just doesn’t understand On Monday, PETA took the next step in Colorado State University, with no religious
shechita — what’s permitted under Jewish, and its campaign against Agriprocessors, when it credentials at all.
BY DEBBIE MAIMON
foreign
f
fo workers were “illegals.”
The search warrant cited suspicions
of “identify theft and fraudulent use of
soc security numbers, as well as reports
social
of multiple violations of immigration
law that came from an “informant” at
laws”
the plant, Des Moines Register of Iowa
rep
reported.
A
According to the federal search
warr
warrant, authorities relied heavily on
this informant who infiltrated the plant
w th documents provided by ICE. The
wi
with
inform
informant was hired in January and wore
secret recording devices monitored by
th Des Moines Register noted.
ICE, the
A s Many The rraid at Agri mimicked the dozens of
part of a w e r e car
raids carried out in recent months on firms
nationwide detained in local jails, emp
who employ foreign labor, in a nationwide
crackdown while the majority were herded into buses federal eeffort to curb illegal immigration
on illegal and driven to a makeshift detention center into the United States, an AP article noted.
immigrants, in the town of Waterloo
Waterloo, an h
hour and a half It was the largest raid of its kind ever
fe
fede
federal
ed ral authorities out of PPostville. carried out in U.S. history.
in league with state and In public schools throughout Postville, Company leaders cooperated fully with
local law enf
enforcement
f mounted a ICE officials halted classroom proceedings federal authorities, halting operations and
ma
massive
i raid this Monday on the world’s to interrogate the students. “ ‘Who in opening up the facilities for a thorough
largest kosher meat-packing plant, this room is legal?’” an officer would search.
AgriProcessors, in Postville, Iowa. ask. “They separated all the kids with a By evening, the police had released
Hundreds of officers from Immigration Latino look, and took them to a room for dozens of people, either for “humanitarian
and Customs Enforcement (ICE), FBI and interrogation,” a Postville resident told reasons” or because the detainees
Homeland Security officers, together with Yated. were able to produce valid documents.
state troopers and local police descended Families were left in limbo, as husbands, Hundreds remain in detention, under threat
on the 60-acre plant Monday morning. wives and children searched worriedly for of deportation.
After cordoning it off on all sides, arrested family members.
they conducted searches and interrogated COMPANY COOPERATED AMAZING GROWTH
hundreds of workers, arresting almost 400. Agriprocessors Inc. opened in Postville,
The plant employs well over 1,000 WITH FEDS Iowa, nearly 20 years ago, under Aaron
people. In addition to shochtim and Regulations at AgriProcessors require Rubashkin, bringing with it a promise
mashgichim, hundreds of workers from all workers to show proof of residence, of jobs and stimulating a revival of the
Mexico, Guatemala, Russia and Ukraine valid social security numbers, and legal region’s economy. Rubashkin and his two
as well as many native Iowans, make a papers permitting them to work in the sons, R’ Shalom and R’ Heshy, built up
livelihood at AgriProcessors. United States, a spokesman for the the company over the past two decades,
In the raid, 314 men and 76 women- company told Yated. turning it into the world’s largest kosher
including any foreign workers who could Yet, the federal affidavit, while meat-packing plant.
not immediately produce evidence of their acknowledging the plant’s regulations, said A small community comprised of
legal status -were arrested for immigration the raid was authorized after information shochtim and mashgichim and their families
violations. was received that many of AgriProcessors’ grew up around the meat plant. Today they
BY DEBBIE MAIMON
Antonio Escobedo ran to get his wife the Postville Community Schools are too blunt, they said, Congress should
last Monday when he saw a helicopter superintendent, David Strudthoff, 51, who create a fairer system.
circling overhead and immigration agents said the sudden incarceration of more than But the pressure on employers - whose
approaching the meatpacking plant where 10 percent of the town’s population of wages and hiring practices have lured
they both work in Postville, Iowa. The 2,300 “is like a natural disaster - only this illegal workers to both large cities and
couple hid for hours inside the plant one is manmade.” small towns - has mostly been indirect
before obtaining refuge in the pews and He added, “In the end, it is the greater and economic: While workplace arrests
hall at a local church, where hundreds of population that will suffer and the have risen tenfold since 2002, from 510
other Guatemalan and Mexican families workforce that will be held accountable.” to 4,940, only 90 criminal arrests have
gathered, hoping to avoid arrest. Congressman Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) involved company personnel officials.
“I like my job. I like my work. I like said enforcement efforts against So far, no officials at Agriprocessors
it here in Iowa,” said Escobedo, 38, an corporations that commit immigration have been charged. The company, founded
illegal immigrant from Yescas, Mexico, violations have “plummeted” under the by Aaron Rubashkin, has a storybook
who has raised his three children for 11 Bush administration. “Until we enforce history whose recent chapters have turned
years in Postville. “Are they mad because our immigration laws equally against both murky. After some of the Rubashkin family
I’m working?” employers and employees who break the moved to Postville from Brooklyn in
Last Monday’s raid on the law, we will continue to have a problem,” 1987, the firm became the nation’s largest
Agriprocessors plant, in which 389 he said. processor of glatt kosher beef. It produces
immigrants were arrested and many held Julie L. Myers, assistant homeland kosher and non-kosher beef, veal, lamb,
at a cattle exhibit hall, was the Bush security secretary for Immigration and turkey and chicken products under brands
administration’s largest crackdown on Customs Enforcement (ICE), said that to such as Iowa Best Beef, Aaron’s Best and
illegal workers at a single site. It has the contrary, the agency has seldom been Rubashkin’s.
upended the tree-lined community, which so aggressive, including opening criminal According to an affidavit filed by
calls itself “Hometown to the World.” Half investigations of company officials. an ICE agent in conjunction with last
of the school system’s 600 students were While cases have netted only a handful week’s arrests, 76 percent of the 968
absent Tuesday, including 90 percent of of sentences for low-level managers so employees on the company’s payroll over
Hispanic children, because their parents far, Myers said, such white-collar crime the last three months of 2007 used false
were arrested or in hiding. investigations typically take years to or suspect Social Security numbers. The
Current and former officials of the develop. affidavit cited unnamed sources who
Department of Homeland Security say its “Can we really execute a search alleged that some company supervisors
raid on the largest employer in northeast warrant without taking any action against employed 15-year-olds, helped cash
Iowa reflects the administration’s decision [illegal employment] that we know is checks for workers with fake documents,
to put pressure on companies with large taking place?” she asked. “Or will just and pressured workers without documents
numbers of illegal immigrant workers, taking business records through a search to purchase vehicles and register them in
particularly in the meat industry. But warrant cause illegal aliens to leave, and other names.
its disruptive impact on the nation’s then we’re not fulfilling that part of the In addition, the affidavit alleged that
largest supplier of kosher beef and on the mission, as well?” company supervisors ignored a report of
surrounding community has provoked Lobbyists and former officials say that a methamphetamine drug lab operating
renewed criticism that the administration in unleashing ICE, the administration is in the plant. It also cited a case in which
is disproportionately targeting workers trying to “turn up the pain” to motivate a supervisor blindfolded a Guatemalan
instead of employers, and that the resulting businesses and Congress to support the worker and allegedly struck him with a
turmoil is worse than the underlying comprehensive immigration changes meat hook, without serious injury. The
crimes. sought by President Bush, such as a rav hamachshir, Rav Menachem Meir
“They don’t go after employers. They temporary-worker program and earned Weissmandl, has flatly denied these
don’t put CEOs in jail,” complained legalization. If the existing legal tools claims.
Rubashkins:
Buckling Isn’t An Option
How goes it in Postville, Iowa? alleged “abuse.” if the company were to be convicted
Two weeks have passed since an Apparently advised of the legal of criminal charges, “a change in
army of U.S. immigration and FBI consequences of presenting allegations AgriProcessors management would
agents, backed by local and state police as proven fact (libel), Epstein probably preclude” the radical step of
and members of other agencies, stormed stopped short of issuing an outright removing the OU’s hechsher.
AgriProcessors, the kosher meat- condemnation. Rabbi Moshe Elefant, head rabbinic
packing plant in Postville, Iowa. Conservative groups have been coordinator of the OU’s kashrus
389 immigrant workers were hauled seeking to carve a role for themselves department, noted the intense pressure
away, the bulk of them to a makeshift in the kashrus certification domain by being exerted on the OU by various
detention camp at the nearby Waterloo promoting a new kind of endorsement. groups under the OU umbrella, to
Cattle Congress grounds, an arena used Touting their concern for human withdraw its supervision from the meat-
for livestock. rights and humane treatment of animals, packing plant.
Criminal proceedings were begun and insisting that “kashrut is about more “The fact that we have publicly
immediately. The hearings ended with than adherence to halacha,” they propose announced that we maintain our
297 people entering guilty pleas in four to issue a special stamp, “Hechsher hechsher in the face of enormous
days. The vast majority agreed to plea Tzedek,” issued by a national body of pressure to withdraw it, is the strongest
bargains that stipulated five-month American Conservative rabbis. possible evidence of our confidence” in
jail sentences followed by immediate The supervisory board of Hechsher the Rubashkins’ integrity, he said over
deportation. Tzedek would rate a company in terms the telephone.
[Prosecutors made it clear that had of how it treats its workers and the He added that the Rubashkins have
the workers chosen to go to trial, they animals it slaughters. Conservative done American Jewry an enormous
would face charges of identity theft, Jewish leaders have been trying service by “making it their responsibility
which carries a much harsher sentence unsuccessfully to market their proposal and their goal that Jews in every part of
-at least two years behind bars, the New to their constituency as well as to kosher the country had access to kosher meat
York Times reported.] meat-packing plants. and poultry.”
LYNCH MENTALITY AgriProcessors has consistently “It’s in the interest of our entire
The media glare has since moved brushed off their bid for legitimacy, community to see them prosper,” he
from the immigrants’ plight to the antagonizing Conservative rabbis who said.
plant’s management and owners, issuing are trying to get their foot in the industry’s ESPRIT DE CORPS
a stream of pious op-eds calling for the door, and who are now retaliating. Meanwhile, in Postville, itself, and
investigation and prosecution of the OU: WAIT AND SEE especially within AgriProcessors,
Rubashkin owners for alleged worker The Orthodox Union [OU] informed few seemed to be worried about the
abuse. the Rubashkins that for now, the speculation abounding in the media
A particularly strident call to prosecute OU certification on their meat and about a possible federal indictment
the company’s management has come poultry would remain in place, but hanging over the management, or
from Iowa Congressman Bruce Braley. that the organization “was watching predictions that the plant would close
Both the general public and some developments carefully.” down.
Jewish leaders have swallowed media “Rabbi Menachem Genack, the head “Buckling is not an option,” one of
reports uncritically, generating a of OU’s kashrus division, said the OU the managers said. “In fact, morale here
lynch mentality. The head of a leading would sever its relationship with a firm is very high and production is picking up
Conservative Jewish group, Jerome if it had “some serious violation of the every day.”
Epstein, was widely quoted in the law,” such as a felony conviction,” Chaim Abrams, who works in sales
press as urging his constituency to give Jerusalem Post and JTA reported. at the plant, said that the company had
“serious consideration” to boycotting In an interview with Yated, Rabbi been bouyed by the esprit de corps in the
AgriProcessor products to protest the Genack qualified his statement. He said town, as volunteers from Postville and
Agriprocessors continues to hire new Orthodox establishments, headed by been addressed long ago and are under
workers in an effort to fill shortages of the late Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. constant supervision by a large team of
glatt kosher meat and poultry in the These included participating in interfaith on-site USDA inspectors. Uri L’Tzedek
marketplace in the aftermath of a federal dialogues and organizing joint yemei also cited unsubstantiated rumors about
raid in which scores of illegal immigrants iyun with Conservative and Reform child labor and stories of abuse. In other
were arrested. Sources say that Agri is clergy. words, they bought the propaganda of the
nearing full production on its deli and Uri L’Tzedek has raised all of the issues UFCW and the PETA activists and called
poultry lines and is working around the in the allegations against Agriprocessors for a boycott against a company that is
clock to hire skilled workers for its beef that were contained in the federal affidavit tirelessly working to restore the supply of
production. that led to the raid in Postville, Iowa, kosher meats all over America. The call
These developments come against more than a month ago. It did not seem for the boycott is against the Torah that
the relentless onslaught of animal to matter to them that a call for a boycott they claim to represent and is shameful,
rights extremists, PETA, the UFCW, based on allegations was unprecedented. shortsighted, and despicable.
and leftist Conservative and Modern Nor were they fazed by the fact that the With the growth of the Orthodox
Orthodox groups. A petition organized boycott might be damaging to a company community in recent decades, and its
by Uri L’Tzedek, a group affiliated with that supplies a significant portion of the desire for tough kashrus standards,
the Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, is said kosher meat in the country and which the dominant institutions in kashrus
to include 1,300 Modern Orthodox, has been responsible for keeping prices were led by the large agencies such
Conservative, and Reform rabbis. They down. There was little concern that as the OU, OK and Chof K, and by
even went so far as to use the term boycott hundreds of Jewish families in Postville Chassidishe hechsheirim in the Chassidic
when they are fully aware that no group would be hurt, or that the plant is closely communities. In local communities,
has suffered more from boycotts than monitored by a large team of USDA Conservative rabbis have virtually
Jews. Many of their ancestors were in inspectors and rabbis. Even supermarket dropped out of kashrus supervision, which
fact involved in boycotting the Orthodox- chains regularly audit the plant and, in is now almost exclusively in Orthodox
run Vaad Hatzoloh when it attempted to fact, asked for their own investigation, hands. Nevertheless, recognizing that
send aid to the impoverished Jews in the again unprecedented. kashrus is today a major part of Jewish
ghettos during Churban Europe. In their letter to Mr. Aaron Rubashkin, life, many liberal rabbis, particularly in
The Yated Ne’eman, most recently
the founder and owner of Agriprocessors, the Conservative movement, are trying to
in an article titled “Yeshivat Chovevei
the Uri L’Tzedek group raised issues make a comeback with a new “Hechsher
Torah’s Continuous Assault on Judaism,”
such as humane slaughter, despite Tzedek.” They believe that kashrus is
in the April 18 edition this year, exposed
the fact that the last five independent not just that the animals are slaughtered
the left-leaning and anti-Torah behavior
audits gave the plant high marks for its in accordance with Torah and halacha and
of the yeshiva, which has included
humane slaughter practices. They also how food is prepared, but it also must pass
going against the poskim of the Modern
referenced the undocumented workers, the liberal test of social responsibility.
even when the plant had hired a former One can follow every government
U.S. attorney, Jim Martin, to deal with regulation, with job standards, minimum
They want to force kosher compliance issues during a time when wage, safety regulations and all the
undocumented workers are a huge dictates of halacha, and even have 30-40
consumers to adhere to problem for America. The leftist leaning USDA inspectors in one’s plant, but not
Orthodox activists challenged Agri about be acceptable because it is not “socially
social engineering the low pay without a shred of evidence correct.”
that this was true and also raised concern They want nothing less than to force
about some 39 violations that are the traditional observer of kashrus to
routine for slaughterhouses, which have adhere to their view of social engineering.
Uri L’Tzedek (“Awaken to Justice”) employment and safety infraction a shred of evidence upon which to base
is a self-described social justice group imaginable, although many of the its anti-Rubashkin activities - activities
comprised principally of students of allegations were dropped upon having which can cause severe and irreparable
Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (“YCT”). (YCT been immediately discredited. harm to over a thousand workers and
is a left-wing fringe “Open Orthodox” thousands of Jewish businesses, as well as
rabbinical seminary in Upper Manhattan
ORTHODOX COMMUNAL numerous non-Jewish agricultural entities
which has been the subject of much RESPONSE which depend upon Agriprocessors for
controversy due to its radical departures The general consensus of Orthodox livestock transactions, as well as local
from accepted Orthodox standards. Most leadership and organizations has been to and state businesses which service the
Orthodox organizations - including the await the government’s full investigation Agriprocessors workforce. Uri L’Tzedek
main Modern Orthodox groups - have and allow for due process before passing bases its aggressive attack solely on
shunned YCT and do not recognize its judgment on Agriprocessors. the thus-far unproven allegations in the
semicha.) Although Uri L’Tzedek is a Meat companies are very frequently recent government action. Aside from the
small and little known group, its recent targeted by federal and state agencies, allegations having been thus far unproven,
activities speak volumes about the type of as was the case with Pilgrim’s Pride (of they have not even been deliberated upon
justice that Uri L’Tzedek claims to pursue. Butterball poultry fame), the nation’s by the attorneys for Agriprocessors and the
The April 2008 federal government raid largest (non-kosher) meat packer, which government, much less presented in any
on the Agriprocessors (“Rubashkin”) main was likewise the subject of a large legal proceedings. Nonetheless, despite a
facility in Postville, Iowa, which targeted investigation. Swift Meat Co. was similarly total lack of proof, Uri L’Tzedek has taken
illegal immigrants who were employed by subject to government raids for illegal serious steps to harm Agriprocessors and
the company, was widely reported by Yated workers at six of its plants. Furthermore, the many thousands of others who would be
Ne’eman and numerous other publications prominent and good-standing industrial directly affected by Agriprocessors’ losses
and media. Hundreds of Agriprocessors food manufacturers are commonly cited as a result of Uri L’Tzedek’s pursuits.
workers, nearly all of Guatemalan and and even fined for technical breach of a The many issurei Torah which pertain
Mexican origin, were rounded up and plethora of often unknown government to damaging the reputation and finances
removed from Agriprocessors as a result regulations, such that one cannot pass of another person without requisite proof
of charges that these workers were in judgment on violations of these companies seem to not matter to the self-righteous Uri
the United States illegally and obtained without knowledge of the nature and L’Tzedek group, whose use of the word
employment at Agriprocessors by using scope of the transgressions. Being dan tzedek truly begs for explanation.
false immigration documents. Pursuant l’kaf zechus finds no greater fulfillment THE URI L’TZEDEK
to the raid, government attorneys made than in this area, whose challenges
countless allegations that Agriprocessors and complexities require thorough ANTI-RUBASHKIN
was the site of nearly every type of investigation and due process before one CAMPAIGN
can pass judgment. “The following is a list of kosher meat
Contrary to the precept of being dan l’kaf suppliers around the nation that do not use
Uri L’Tzedek is a zechus, Uri L’Tzedek has called for a total Rubashkins products. It is not complete.
boycott of Agriprocessors and has joined Help us complete it. Call your local kosher
with non-Orthodox Jewish groups toward meat establishments, find out if they are
natural outgrowth of this goal. Although there has not been using Rubashkins, then send the names,
a single indictment or legal proceeding city...that do not do to Uri L’Tzedek...
placing liberalizm first against Agriprocessors’ management, Uri This list will be updated as you provide us
L’Tzedek has perverted the meaning of with information...” (from Uri L’Tzedek’s
and halacha second tzedek by engaging in an all-out effort to website)
harm Agriprocessors to the fullest extent In its very public effort to damage
possible. Uri L’Tzedek has not mustered Agriprocessors, Uri L’Tzedek claims to
On Tuesday, Uri L’Tzedek cancelled its The raid also severely impaired the employees. Slightly more than 3,700 illegal
boycott of Agriprocessors, the largest meat company’s production capacity, sparking immigrants have been arrested in dozens of
producer in the United States. The New fears of a kosher meat shortage in the sweeps since last October, according to the
York-based social justice group, which is United States. federal government.
run by graduates of the “Open Orthodox” To date, no charges have been brought In a rare example of company owners
Chovevei Torah school in Riverdale, NY, against Agriprocessors’ owner, or any facing charges related to illegal workers,
stated that it dropped its boycott because the other members of the company’s upper federal authorities last week charged
company is “beginning to take significant management. two owners and three supervisors at a
steps” to address alleged claims of worker But Nathan Lewin, a prominent attorney rag-exporting company in Houston with
mistreatment at its plant in Postville, Iowa. representing the company, is accusing the conspiracy to harbor illegal immigrants,
Uri L’tzedek launched the action in mid- U.S. government of “selective prosecution” inducing them to come into the country and
June. in its targeting of the company. engage in illegal hiring practices.
“In light of these early signs of reform, “The government should be asked why Those arrests follow the June 25 roundup
Uri L’Tzedek is no longer calling for the it picked on Agri, a relatively small meat- of 166 illegal workers at the company,
community to abstain from purchasing packing plant, to make its point about Action Rags USA.
Agriprocessors’ products,” the group said. illegal immigrants working at such plants,” The Houston case bears other striking
“Time will show what kind of results Lewin wrote in a statement to JTA. “This is resemblances to what unfolded in Postville:
these reforms will yield for the workers at a great injustice in light of the fact that Agri Both featured months-long undercover
Agriprocessors.” has made a major contribution to Jewish investigations involving government
In calling off the boycott, the group said religious life in the U.S. by providing informants posing as illegal workers in an
it was encouraged by reforms instituted by high-quality packaged kosher meats now effort to gain employment.
a former federal prosecutor hired recently available in supermarkets across the Like Agriprocessors, Action Rags is
as the company’s compliance officer. country. facing claims that it employed underage
The move by Uri L’tzedek represents “The Orthodox Jewish community workers and that working conditions
the first bit of good news in a while for should call the government to account for were substandard. Representatives of
Agriprocessors, which has been reeling the damage it is doing by this selective the Houston company have denied all
since federal authorities carried out the prosecution of Agri.” wrongdoing.
largest workplace immigration raid in Under the Bush administration, federal Agriprocessors also has denied the
American history in Postville on May 12. authorities have escalated their crackdown charges leveled against the firm while
More than one-third of the company’s on illegal workers. struggling to repair its public image. The
workforce was detained in the raid, including According to the Houston Chronicle, company has hired the high-profile public
18 juveniles. Some 300 employees have 1,755 individuals were detained in May relations firm 5WPR, and last week ran
pleaded guilty to various forms of identity alone by U.S. Immigration and Customs advertisements in major Jewish newspapers.
fraud and are facing deportation. Enforcement, including 389 Agriprocessors JTA contributed to this article.
This week’s parsha begins with the method of killing animals. The reason to provide a humane form of animal
words “Vezos chukas haTorah.” Rashi we eat meat only from animals whose slaughter, and the laws of kashrus were
quotes the words of Chazal who explain innards were checked and found to be designed to provide us with healthy
the use of the word chukas in describing without blemish is not because those and clean meat, it follows that if the
the laws of parah adumah. He says that animals are healthier. slaughterhouse does not conform to
the term chok represents a Divine law, Why, then, do we scrupulously their concept of clean and humane, the
the reasons for which we were not made adhere to the smallest details of ritual meat is unfit for consumption.
privy to. The nations of the world scoff slaughter? For the sole reason that When a company such as Rubashkin
at us, asking why we observe these we are required to follow the word supplies 60% of kosher meat in this
strange laws and customs. Instead of of G-d as commanded in the Torah, country, that is not a situation to trifle
engaging in debates with them, offering as delineated in the Gemara, and as with. No longer are there kosher
up explanations and rationales, we are codified by the Shulchan Aruch. A slaughterhouses dotting the country;
to state simply that we follow these laws mashgiach must attest that the shochet they are few and far between. To
because G-d commanded us to do so. cut the majority of the two simanim, the jeopardize their production is to cause a
End of conversation. konah and the veshet. A hair’s breadth - shortage of kosher meat and guaranteed
But some of us tend not to be kechut hasa’arah - makes the difference price hikes.
content with this approach. We seek to between kosher and non-kosher, Jews were in this country for many
understand the deeper wisdom behind between something fit for consumption decades before systems of competent
the mitzvos and the reasons for the and neveilah. and reliable kashrus were set up. For
gezeiros derabonon. We believe that Rashi states in Maseches Sanhedrin years, the kosher industry was chaotic,
by attaching a reason to a mitzvah, we [90] that one who believes in techiyas controlled by mafia-style gangsters.
will enhance its observance. If we can hameisim because he came to that Rabbonim who came over from the
explain the word of G-d in contemporary conclusion on his own and not because old country and attempted to establish
terms, we can bring more people into the he believes the drashos of Chazal is proper standards were run out of town,
tent of Torah and expand the popularity a kofer, an apostate. We follow the humiliated and maligned.
of its observance. Offering explanations commandments, chukim and mishpatim It was only after the Second World
for the mitzvos will not only make us because we believe with our innermost War that Holocaust survivors such as the
more effective in kiruv, we think, but it fiber that G-d created us for that Satmar Rebbe, the Tzeilemer Rov and
will strengthen our own observance. purpose. Once we inject our own human Rabbi Alexander S. Rosenberg stood
One can’t deny that there may be reasoning into the equation, we are no up to the charlatans and succeeded in
some validity to this approach at times. longer following the will of G-d. finally bringing genuinely kosher food
Yet, when we fail to take Chazal’s Once we get into the business of
advice seriously, we pay the price. We interpreting the will of G-d for the
open the door to a form of Judaism “a la masses, we lose our footing. We lose
carte” - where people choose to observe perspective. We lose appreciation for We don’t appreciate
the mitzvos that “resonate” and suit their the mitzvos as we bring them down to
taste, while neglecting those that appeal our superficial, fallible level. the kindness G-d has
less to their reasoning or emotions. And there is another way we lose.
As an example, let’s take the mitzvah Witness the ongoing campaign against
of shechitah. The reason we eat only the Rubashkins by those who consider
showered upon us
animals whose necks were slit with themselves more liberal and advanced
a swift cut of a shochet’s sharpened than we are. Since they believe that
blade is not because that is the humane the laws of shechitah were created
Lynch by Media
As I waited patiently for my flight given a tremendous boost to secular Jewish Is it possible that they are really that
which kept on being delayed, my attention organizations and agencies that have their wrong? Can it really be true that the
switched to the TV screen broadcasting own ax to grind against the Rubashkins. New York Times, CNN, Representative
to the spaced-out people at the airport In particular, the JTA, the Jewish news Gutierrez, the Des Moines Register, the
gate. I thought I heard someone say the agency that supplies dozens of local Jewish Associated Press and everyone else is
name Postville, so I looked up. It was newspapers with news tidbits to stick making it all up?
CNN. Representative Louis Gutierrez (D- between the ads, has been generating a Having read much about Postville, I sort
IL) was railing against the owners of the stream of anti-Agri articles, as they promote of expected to find a picture-perfect little
Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa. He the Conservative “Heksher Tzedek.” town of homes surrounded by beautiful
was calling for authorities to bring them What is this all about? Why is so much lawns and gardens which could be featured
to justice in the wake of the recent raid by attention being focused on this kosher plant on stunning postcards depicting idyllic life.
the U.S. Department of Immigration and located in Postville, Iowa, in the middle of I was also led to believe that the Agri Jews
Customs Enforcement [ICE]. Nowhere, USA? were ruining this fine picturesque town
In that raid, almost four hundred people To answer these questions and many with their unkempt homes and un-mowed
were arrested on suspicion of being illegal more, I set out last Wednesday night on lawns. In addition, the impression is made
aliens. Hundreds were summarily formally an eleven-hour journey to Postville. After that their strange and poor habits are on
charged and incarcerated, prior to their writing several articles defending the display as they parade around town and
slated deportation. Rubashkins, owners of the beleaguered drive their old jalopies as if they own the
The congressman, for good measure, plant, I wanted to see for myself what really place.
also lashed out at the federal government goes on there. The leadership mission was Well, not exactly. Driving through Iowa
for its “dehumanizing” treatment of illegal organized by Rabbi Pesach Lerner of the is indeed a special treat. As far as the eye
aliens. National Council of Young Israel. I agreed can see, all one encounters is growing corn.
The interview captured the lynch to participate only after being promised You see a lot further in Iowa than you do
mob mentality that has been gathering that I would not be expected to write an in New York, because the land is flat and
momentum against the Rubashkins in article about my visit. there are no hills or tall buildings to block
the press, led by the New York Times. I am no stranger to slaughterhouses. your view. You can literally see from one
The Times has run a spate of one-sided My father has been involved in the field of end of the horizon to the other. The simple,
articles painting the meat-plants’ owners as kashrus for decades and has taken me with pristine beauty is breathtaking. There
unscrupulous people intent on criminally him to visit several facilities. During the are miles and miles of nature’s bounty,
exploiting immigrants for their own years I was learning for semicha, I visited interrupted only by a farmhouse, silo, barn
personal profit. a couple of places on my own. Killing is or tree here and there.
A prominent front-page article in their never pretty, even if it’s only cows and And then you enter Postville, not even
Sunday, July 27 edition, and another one chickens under the knife. a one-stoplight town. Downtown is all of
the following day on page 11 tried to The New York Times, in its lead editorial two blocks long. The homes are neat and
recast a recent demonstration in Postville this past Friday, August 1, described much closer to each other than you would
protesting the government’s mistreatment the Agri plant as “A slaughterhouse in expect. They are nothing grand; many
of the illegals as a demonstration against Postville, Iowa, develops an ugly reputation are old and weathered. Though the Jews
the Rubashkins. for abusing animals and workers. Reports live on the same blocks as the indigenous
The Times article played up the of dirty, dangerous conditions at the population, you cannot tell which homes
complaints of a few aggrieved former Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant are Jewish and which are not. All the lawns
Agriprocessors employees, some of whom accumulate for years… The plant has been are trimmed, and the outsides of the homes
had lied about their age and their status to called “a kosher ‘Jungle’…The conditions are clean. So much for yet another lie which
secure jobs in the plant. The newspaper’s at the Agriprocessors plant cry out for began to spread when the chassidim came
transparent effort to whip up public the cautious and deliberate application of to town and was perpetuated in print and
outrage against the meat-plant owners has justice… made the official truth for years thereafter.
Why?
I have been asked recently why, even hungrier. being charged with things that were
out of all the national organizations, Soon, rumors become fact, and the just too outlandish to believe. The
the regional kashrus groups, and the unimaginable becomes real. Even papers were having an unjustified
many active and outspoken rabbis, the the believing and observant Jew field day at the expense not only of
National Council of Young Israel took unwittingly joins the frenzy, believing the Rubashkin family, but also of the
the lead to organize and coordinate the unbelievable. average Orthodox Jew. They were
last week’s national rabbinic mission Are all the accusations untrue? I did having a grand old time at the expense
to the Rubashkin/Agriprocessors meat not know, but I felt that they could not of our traditions relating to kosher
and poultry plant in Postville, Iowa. all be true either. meat and fowl.
After the facts, post mission, Menachem Lubinsky, CEO I did more homework. I called
it is easy to look back and take of Lubicom Communications rabbis and community leaders across
professional satisfaction that the and marketing consultant for the United States and discovered that
mission was successful. We saw the Agriprocessors, sent out an email to there were communities that began to
reality on the ground. We saw what is a select group of Jewish leaders and experience shortages of kosher meat
now being reported and, iy”H, we will activists. Apparently, I was on his and chicken. There were communities
be successful in getting the truth out, list. He asked: Where is the Jewish where the price of kosher meat and
in turning the tide of false criticism, community? How can we all sit back chicken was rising rapidly. I heard
in assisting members of a good family and allow a respected family to be so stories of the rabbis’ fear that the
who have invested their lives in vilified? Why is no one rising to their kosher meat and chicken shortage
supplying kosher meat and chicken to defense? would cause the marginal Jew, who
Jews across the United States, in large I responded that it’s a good eats kosher because it is easy to do so,
and small Jewish communities. At the question, but none of us have any to give up his kosher eating habits. I
same time, we hope we can increase information; we only know what we heard serious concerns about what
the level of communication between read. No one has shared any other the cost of meat will be in September
the many groups in Postville so that version of the story with us. How and October, during the weeks of the
all members of the community will can we defend that which we do not Yomim Tovim, when the demand
live in harmony. know? How can we challenge that for kosher meat and poultry would
But what went through our minds which we cannot defend? In response, increase.
a month ago as the idea of a mission Mr. Lubinsky organized a conference And yes, we began to hear rumblings
was born? call for Orthodox Jewish leadership from the liberal Jew, Orthodox and
The Rubashkin family was being and planned to share with us the otherwise, who began to challenge our
vilified in the Jewish and secular Rubashkin story, their response, and traditions of what is kosher and what
media. Rumors and accusations their view of things. is not, who began to call for additional
were flying everywhere. One rumor I knew the conference call was and varied kosher supervision, and
was built upon another. People’s coming; I had suggested it. I began who began to challenge the Orthodox
creative but perhaps evil minds were to research the issues. I read various Jew - the Torah Jew - in general.
fabricating things that, in an objective affidavits and numerous newspaper We had this disturbing information
and honest world, would be discarded reports. True, I could not comment in our hand. What would we now do
at once and would be thrown out with on all the accusations, but it was with it? How would we - and how
the day’s garbage. But we do not live obvious to any thinking person that should we - respond?
in such a world. And if the target is a the reports had crossed the lines of As Chazal tell us, “Demus diyukno
Jew and a Jewish custom, the media is believability; Agriprocessors was shel aviv nirah lo.” The appearance of
Recently, the Associated Press ran its HR department, and not by any official to perform the tasks of grown men and
a story titled “Former child workers notification. women, often with little guidance.
describe perilous environment,” alleging AP: The Facts:
that underage workers were mistreated at She was 17, and within days she was Strong statement about teenagers that
the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa. on a fast-moving poultry production line, were either never there or shouldn’t have
This past week, following the delegation of wielding a long, sharp pair of scissors. been there.
25 community leaders to the Rubashkin/ The Facts: AP:
Agriprocessors plant, the Orthodox She was trained and never got hurt. In They said that although their age and
media reported what is really going in the fact, Agriprocessors has an extremely good lack of skills were common knowledge
largest kosher meat plant in the country, insurance rating because of the paucity of inside the plant, they were subjected to
highlighting the fact that the mainstream claims. the same conditions as everyone else and
media has capitalized on every opportunity AP: were quickly immersed in an aggressive,
to defame the meatpacking plant. Here are “They never told me how to use them,” fast-paced operation. Under Iowa law,
segments of the aforementioned AP story, Lopez said in Spanish. “Things moved so no one under the age of 18 can work on a
followed by the facts. fast and I was always worried I would cut meatpacking plant floor.
Former child workers describe perilous myself.” The Facts:
environment The Facts: Agriprocessors published “job orders”
By Henry C. Jackson Every worker is worried that they might - notices seeking applicants for open
Postville, Iowa (AP) cut themselves. It’s simply the nature of the positions - always specify that applicants
AP: job, but the bottom line is that they don’t must be at least 18 years old. It has been
Luisa Lopez says no one asked about cut themselves. The chickens move at a and always will be their policy never
her age when she started working at the safe speed that can easily be handled by the to hire underage workers. Applicants
nation’s largest kosher meatpacking plant. line staff. sometimes falsify their ages in order to
The Facts: AP: gain employment, which apparently the
Every job applicant must fill out an Yesenia Cordero, whose round baby people in this story have.
application and provide documents, face makes her look even younger than AP:
including Photo ID. Ms. Lopez did the her 16 years, also said age was never an Cordero said she quickly grew to loathe
same. Those documents were seized by issue at the Agriprocessors plant, which coming to work inside the dank, cold walls
ICE in the May 12th raid. As Agriprocessors state officials allege employed dozens of the plant.
stated in its earlier statement, published of underage workers in an “egregious” The Facts:
“job orders” - notices seeking applicants violation of labor laws. Cold, dank walls? Is that what she saw?
for open positions - always specify that “I never think about how young I am,” From the various reports out last week, it’s
applicants must be at least 18 years old. Cordero said. “I never think I shouldn’t be not what members of the large delegation
It has always been Agri’s policy never here. I just think I need to work.” saw the previous Thursday. They saw a
to hire underage workers. Applicants The Facts: modern state-of-the-art plant and no dank
sometimes falsify their ages in order Desperate for work, she and whoever and cold walls.
to gain employment, which Ms. Lopez aided her in forging documents successfully AP:
apparently did. In 2007, Agri fired four did so. But she had no choice.
women in the sausage department who AP: “I was providing for my family,” she
had falsified their birthdates. Agri had Former underage workers at the said. “It was the only way.”
discovered that they were minors by an northeast Iowa plant describe a perilous The Facts:
independent investigation conducted by environment where teenagers were asked That’s why she broke the law, falsified
Second Opinion
In an August 15 editorial the Forward from the checkered one portrayed by the construction of a non-Jewish
attempts to apply to the Rubashkin the Forward. Aaron Rubashkin and his community center in Postville. As
family the talmudic principle of mu’ad wife are famed for treating everyone the Presbyterian minister told us,
— the proclivity of an animal to follow with dignity. They dispensed food and “everyone knows if they have an event
previous behavior — claiming that charity to Jew and gentile for more than in the community you call Agri and
Agriprocessors has a checkered past four decades. Anyone who grew up they are willing to help.”
and therefore cannot be trusted in the in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn But no matter. The past is no
future (“Judging Character — And surely remembers the Rubashkins’ indication of the present, and so I and
Kashrut”). The editorialist uses the restaurant, which has fed more non- two dozen other rabbis and community
argument to discredit the Orthodox paying customers than real patrons. leaders went to see for ourselves.
rabbis and community leaders, Postville’s mayor and the local Contrary to media reports, we
myself included, who earlier this Presbyterian minister reported that discovered a clean, modern facility.
month inspected the Agriprocessors Aaron Rubashkin is still up to his old The factory could not have been
slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, tricks: He helps with the local food prepared or constructed for our visit; it
and deemed its operations to be bank and the families of the workers was there before we arrived, and before
satisfactory. who have been detained still live in the media tumult began. We found a
The Rubashkins do indeed have a Rubashkin housing, many paying state-of-the-art quality control lab with
history of past behavior, but it is far discounted rent. He contributed to experienced American lab techs. The
control lab was four years old.
We found a remarkably large and
clean cafeteria with free bottled water
available for the employees. Curious,
we inquired of the employees how
long they have had the bottled water.
The response was that it had been
made available since they first started
working.
We also found happy workers who
worked hard but were paid fairly for
their efforts. And they welcomed the
overtime.
“Where else can you get an
overtime rate of $15 per hour,
starting?” we were told by one of the
workers.
In the August 15 editorial, the
Forward pejoratively references the
“three hours” that we spent touring
the Postville plant. “Three hours,” the
editorialist writes, “could not uncover
the extensive, egregious child labor
violations. Three hours wouldn’t turn
In Every Generation
In this week’s parsha, we learn the powerful manifestation of Amaleik that, hate-driven people who then peddle their
positive commandment to constantly in previous times, decimated the Jewish wild allegations to mainstream media
remember what Amaleik did to us when we people. But we have suffered acutely outlets which, in turn, publish them in
left Mitzrayim. “Asher karchah baderech” in other ways at the hands of this evil their papers as authenticated facts.
is commonly explained to mean that nemesis. We have been humiliated and Last week, the nation’s “newspaper of
Ameleik, by flaunting their contempt for vilified in the court of public opinion. record” ran a story headlined, “Kosher
the Jewish people, dispelled the “shock A cursory reading of the current events Plant Accused of Inhumane Slaughter.”
and awe” that suffused the world when in today’s newspapers will give ample Who accused them? Read on and find
details of the miraculous redemption of evidence of the damage done by the out that it was none other than PETA, the
the Jews reached the surrounding nations. Amaleiks of our time. group of misfits who parade around the
Amaleik watered down that reaction Consider how the media has taken world ludicrously arguing that man is no
by brazenly attacking the weary Jews, on the cause of the unions in their battle different than animal and, therefore, both
showing the nations of the world that there against the Rubashkins of Agriprocessors species are entitled to the same rights.
was no need to fear people who had so in Postville, Iowa. It is only when you get to the fifth
recently been a slave population. For all Anyone who takes the trouble to visit paragraph that you find out that the
time, the Torah exhorts us, we are to keep the far-off plant, tour it and interview its accusation is bogus. The plant, in fact, was
alive the memory of the evil Amaleikim employees will find a state-of-the art, found by the Department of Agriculture
who, out of sheer wickedness, set out to modern, safe, clean facility we should all (USDA) to be “in full compliance with
destroy a fledging nation who had never be proud of. humane slaughter regulations.”
done them any harm. In so doing, they This week, charges were brought The sensational headline was intended
encouraged other nations to treat the Jews against the company for allegedly hiring not to inform, but to aid and abet the
with enmity and belligerence. under-age workers. Let us not be hasty to smear campaign against kosher slaughter.
Since our earliest encounter with the rush to judgment. Wait until the accused Decency and integrity would have
degenerate Amaleikim, they and their have a chance to defend themselves in a dictated that the story be dropped. Or, had
descendants throughout the ages have court of law. All the other charges bandied the editors felt that there was a great need
sought to instigate crisis and disaster about in the media are mere allegations for the public to know of the allegations
for the Jewish people. Whether through based on hearsay and don’t deserve to be against an already beleaguered kosher
actual warmongering or outrageous treated as fact. plant, they should have at least formatted
scandals, they have tried to undermine That hasn’t stopped the leading media the story in a way that would leave no
the Jewish nation and to poison our in this country from forming a figurative doubt that the USDA gave the plant a
image in the eyes of the world. In every lynch mob and going after Agriprocessors clean bill of health despite the charges of
generation, malicious individuals with the with the obvious intent of destroying the a radical left-wing vegetarian group.
defining streak of cruelty that exemplifies company. They slam it with all kinds of But if you are doing the work of the
the murderous Amaleik have exacted a false allegations, as if it were a cattle- and enemies of the Jewish people, why worry
tremendous human toll from our people. man-killing jungle of the early 1900s. over a lapse of journalistic integrity?
Amaleik sometimes manifests a Jekyll Blatant lies are passed around as truths Amaleik appears in so many different
and Hyde syndrome whereby he appears often enough that even many of our own guises. When a Jewish university
to want to co-exist benignly with us, but people believe them. Amaleik perceives maintains on its payroll a person who
behind the scenes works devilishly to that he can’t destroy us, so he slanders openly lives an immoral lifestyle and the
wreak havoc by portraying us as devious us instead, telling the world that we don’t institution’s president tells the New York
bloodsuckers who take advantage of the know how to treat animals or people. Post that he is “proud of my university and
weak in our zeal to amass fantastic wealth He says that we are mean, vicious and all my faculty,” is that not an expression
and rule the world. heartless, and he gets all the papers to of “asher karchah”? Such a person is
Thankfully, in our generation, we have print this rubbish. conferring legitimacy on behavior the
been spared the most venomous and He plants perverse ideas in the minds of Torah considers abhorrent.
are therefore taking aim at the Satmar Alle Most Important American Jews.” It piqued why it is happening. We need to recognize
Packing Company. my interest. I thought that if it was sent to the insidious wiles of Amaleik and know
And they don’t just write against the Yated, perhaps it contained a message that Hashem will rescue us from them if
shechitah. They have other pet topics as for me. The author was kind enough to we remain loyal to his commandments.
well. Take yeshivos, for example. They write that the article appeared in last We need to greet everyone who we meet
never tire of proclaiming that our yeshivos Thursday’s Jerusalem Post, but he was with kindness and civility. We must display
are dirty, sloppy and intellectually- making it available to other newspapers. proper patriotic symbols and behave
lacking, and foster no interest in history, To commemorate the 354th anniversary honestly in all our financial interactions.
community or architecture. of the arrival of the first boatload of Jews That way, when our neighbors read
A recent article against the Waterbury to America, the author “surveyed several scandalous charges about us in their local
Yeshiva in the local Connecticut dozen leading American Jewish historians papers and hear ludicrous allegations on
paper reports: “Leaders of the Hillside about who they think would qualify as the the local news, they will know that these
Neighborhood Association say the sect three most important figures in American charges that tar all Jews with the same
has failed to bring enough Jewish families Jewish history.” brush are far from the truth. They will say,
into the neighborhood, has allowed its Your answer would likely include Rav “Well, I have a religious Jewish friend and
properties to deteriorate and has failed to Aharon Kotler zt”l, the Satmar Rebbe he’s dignified, upstanding, scrupulous and
maintain the once-grand Benedict-Miller zt”l, Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz zt”l, cordial. These accusations can’t be true.”
house…Empty buildings owned by the or some other men of similar caliber. This is why the pesukim are there in
yeshiva pepper the neighborhood. Several According to this survey, however, you the Torah for all time. For even when
are falling into disrepair.” would be wrong. we are not able to identify precisely who
According to the article, religious The winners are: Amaleik is, we are to be on the lookout
Jews are “a sect,” an offshoot branch of Louis Brandeis. “He was the first Jew for those who follow in his ways, seeking
Judaism marked by a goofy and unkempt appointed to the Supreme Court, the to badmouth and undermine us. We are to
appearance. Yet with all this, they still personification of the American-Jewish remain undaunted and counter their base
complain that there aren’t enough of synthesis.” tactics with dignity and refined conduct
us in their midst! Though the paper, the Mordecai Kaplan. “The key figure befitting bnei Avrohom, Yitzchok and
Republican American, in its September 7th in the Americanization of Judaism. Yaakov.
Interview with
Rabbi Menachem Genack
Chief Executive Officer
and Rabbinic Administrator, OU Kosher
Q: Agriprocessors, in Postville, Iowa, reporting to Mr. Feldman, who will work, The second thing we requested was
recently hired a new Chief Executive together with the compliance officer, to that they appoint a new CEO, to manage
Officer. What are your thoughts about ensure full compliance with the law and the plant and put in place a management
the appointment and what challenges will hopefully rebuild the level of production team. The Rubashkins have been besieged
the new CEO face as the company moves both in terms of the supply of kosher meat from all sides. Some of the allegations
forward? as well as from a financial standpoint. are wrong, many are certainly not valid,
A: The company appointed Mr. Bernard Obviously, the quicker all this can be but they were being paralyzed by all
Feldman, a well-known attorney from accomplished the better. We’ve already these things swirling around them and
New York, to serve as the new CEO. I met begun seeing shortages of meat, especially they didn’t have the capacity to move
with him for several hours together with with Yom Tov coming up, so the quicker the company forward. They desperately
the chairman of the Kashrus Commission they can raise the level of production the needed someone to come in and present a
before they announced the appointment. better. new face to talk to the world, to deal with
We were impressed with him. He has We are very happy that the company has the public, to put procedures in place, and
the skills set they need, even though his come to this resolution and we hope Mr. move forward past these allegations.
history has not necessarily been in the meat Feldman will be successful in his new role. Since then, the OU spoke to the owners
business. He’s been an attorney in New Q: To provide some background into regularly to retain a new management
York for many years and his expertise has this recent appointment: Reports earlier team. We told them then that if criminal
been in turning companies around. He has this month stated that the Orthodox Union charges, state or federal - and the federal
done workouts for over 100 companies, had said it would consider withdrawing investigation is still in progress - are filed,
taking institutions in distress and putting its kashrus certification of Agriprocessors we have to have a position in terms of
them back on track. unless new management was hired, after kashrus generally, for the well-being of
He will face several challenges, but has Iowa’s attorney general filed criminal kashrus - not just the OU - that we are in
indicated that he is going to be independent charges against Agriprocessors for control of the situation and that we can
in terms of making decisions. He is going knowingly employing underage workers. move forward.
to look to bring in his own managerial A: This story was not just a local story Our goal in this was not, by any means,
staff, a new CFO and other positions. His related to one plant. It became a national to close down Agri. Our goal has been to
immediate challenge is to bring production story. It was on the front page of the New make sure that people have a favorable
up, to create a stable workforce, and to be York Times, Barack Obama spoke about view of what’s happening there and
the spokesman of the company in terms of it. After the federal raid in May, the OU schechitah in general. In addition, our goal
the media and other matters such as labor had two requests of the Rubashkins who very much is to help move from the status
issues. Based on his background, I think he own the Agriprocessors plant. One was to quo - where the company is now - to a new
has the skills that are required. He is also put in place a new compliance officer to reality, which can only be helpful to them.
going to consider finding a partner to help make sure that the company is running in Hopefully, Mr. Feldman will do exactly
rebuild the company financially. consonance with all state and federal laws that.
Everyone at the company will now be and regulations. They appointed James As an aside, there is no question that the
Martin, a former Senior Federal U.S. government’s initial action in terms of the
Attorney, to serve as Chief Compliance raid in May was completely unprecedented.
Officer and oversee all of these issues. The government - and this was reported in
In addition, they hired a former OSHA the New York Times, so it is not a chiddush
The government action (Occupa-tional Safety & Health Adminis- - had never before taken illegal workers
tration) representative. In our opinion, themselves and put them in jail; they
was unprecedented these were both very good appointments, usually just deported them. What they did
on a public relations basis, and, more this time was put them all in jail for five
importantly, in terms of making sure that months. This, in itself, was terrible. They
the plant is indeed in compliance. denied these people due process, as many
BY RASHI RAICES
American Jews beware. If you run United States. According to Deegan, It would be difficult for Mr.
afoul of the Justice Department, your Jews pose a flight risk. Rubashkin to go anywhere, as he and
chances for bail are slim to none. It wasn’t so long ago that the his wife surrendered their passports to
That’s the new legal concept created American legal system singled out the court some time ago. Still, the US
by the office of US Attorney Matt Japanese Americans for special Attorney claims that Mr. Rubashkin is
Dummermuth in Northern Iowa. treatment under the law. During World a flight risk. His evidence? He found
Their policy singles out Jews as a War II, the Supreme Court authorized a bag in Mr. Rubashkin’s bedroom
special category to be denied bail the imprisonment of American citizens with his children’s passports and some
due to Israel’s Law of Return. The based on their Japanese heritage. This cash. The Rubashkins have an autistic
Israeli law provides citizenship to any ruling has become one the blackest child who opens drawers and closets
Jew immigrating to the country. It’s moments of American jurisprudence. indiscriminately. I know this kid; he
much like the asylum clause in US The issues between the US Attorney gets into everything. They placed these
immigration law, designed to offer and Shalom Rubashkin have been documents in a secure place, away
refuge to Jews fleeing oppressive brewing for a long time. This is his from his reach. Does Deegan think that
regimes. It’s never been used to give second arrest and indictment. If he Mr. Rubashkin could have traveled
haven to American criminals. The US wanted to run, he would have done it to Israel, the country with the tightest
and Israel have an active extradition already. Mr. Rubashkin’s second arrest airline security in the world, on the
treaty. Routinely, accused criminals are took place on a Friday so that the US passport of a ten-year-old?
sent from one country to another. The Attorney could ensure that he would be Deegan didn’t find a ticket to Israel,
judicial systems have been cooperating forced to be in prison on Shabbos. He nor did any travel agents testify that
for years. was already wearing an ankle bracelet
Mr. Rubashkin ordered or inquired
We have yet to see if this policy of from the first arrest, and Deegan
about a ticket. Nor did he discover
singling out Jews will only apply in this knew where he was. He could have
any evidence that Mr. Rubashkin even
part of Iowa or if it will serve as new allowed Mr. Rubashkin to surrender,
made a Google search for tickets.
legal precedent across the country. This as is common in such cases. Instead,
innovative legal theory was constructed he chose “shock and awe,” rolling into The fear of fleeing to Israel is a theory
by Peter Deegan, prosecutor for the US Postville on Friday when he knew he that the US Attorney created, a new
attorney’s office, in order to prevent bail would be able to hold Mr. Rubashkin risk, not based on any legal precedent
for Shalom Rubashkin. He is accused over the weekend. or evidence from the investigation.
of a non-violent financial crime related The people of Postville know Mr. So all American Jews, religious Jews
to the meat plant in Postville, Iowa. The Rubashkin very well. It’s clear to us in particular, be careful. If you keep
US Attorney argued in front of Federal that he has no intention of evading your children’s passports tucked away
Magistrate Jon Stuart Scoles that prosecution. He wants his day in court in your bedroom with a few dollars,
Israel’s Law of Return could provide so that he can defend his reputation. you will be denied bail.
a safe haven to Shalom Rubashkin and He feels maligned, singled out for As a kid, I studied the Constitution
therefore bail was denied, as the judge prosecution. What other case of illegal and the Bill of Rights. It promised equal
wrote in his ruling. workers has prompted such aggressive protection under the law. How can we
French can run to France, Mexicans prosecution? be sure of this in America today, and
to Mexico. If you have a Russian That’s why over thirty of us, myself particularly in our great state of Iowa?
heritage, there is little fear that you included, pledged our homes as bail for •••••
may return to your ancestral homeland. Shalom Rubashkin. We know him best Rashi Raices is a principal of an
Jews, in the eyes of the US Attorney, and we are willing to put our families’ elementary school in Postville, Iowa.
are a special category of law when it security on the line for him. We, his She has lived in Iowa for over 13 years
comes to bail. They are to be treated friends and neighbors, know that he is and Postville is her home. Her email
different than all other citizens of the not planning on running anywhere. address is gr8aba@yahoo.com.
BY YISROEL LICHTER
The scene was surreal. Reb Shalom was slated to attend but was unable to At the same time, we are here to visit
Rubashkin standing in jail in bright do so at the last moment. Mr. Rubashkin and hopefully give him
orange prison sweats with the words In conversations with the Yated, strength to get through this difficult
“Dubuque County Jail” emblazoned Rabbi Zwiebel, Rabbi Lerner and Rabbi ordeal. This continued incarceration,
across the back, incongruously wearing Hecht all expressed the profound feeling while he awaits his day in court, is
a borrowed black hat and gartel as he of chizuk that they felt Reb Shalom had difficult for him and his family,” said
said the words of chazoras hashatz. received from the visit. Most amazing Rabbi Lerner.
It was the first time that he was zoche was that they all expressed a feeling of The delegation headed out of New
to daven with a minyan since his chizuk that they themselves got from York early Monday morning, changed
incarceration on November 14. Reb undertaking the trip, speaking with planes in Chicago and finally arrived in
Shalom, who in an unprecedented and Mr. Rubashkin and davening with snowy, freezing Dubuque, Iowa, where
troubling ruling was denied bail by the him. “This was the primary purpose they were joined by some local rabbis.
magistrate, davened with great feeling, for which we undertook the trip,” said Although each rabbi was originally to
as the words emotionally poured Rabbi Lerner. “To give chizuk to Reb be allotted a fifteen-minute slot to visit
from his mouth. “Go’el Yisroel - Who Shalom.” privately with Reb Shalom, in the end
redeems Israel. Ki lishuascha kivinu The second purpose of the trip was the prison authorities permitted all of
kol hayom - for Your salvation we hope to express concern over the reason for the rabbis to visit together and they were
everyday…” which the magistrate refused bail for thus able to daven Minchah together.
Indeed, the scene may have been Mr. Rubashkin. Mr. Rubashkin is being “It was clear,” said Rabbi Hecht,
surreal, but the circumstances of forced to sit in prison because he has “that Reb Shalom derived tremendous
Reb Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin’s been deemed a “flight risk” as a result chizuk from the visit. Nevertheless, Reb
imprisonment are certainly not. They of the Israeli “Law of Return” that Shalom told me and the other rabbonim
are downright troubling. grants automatic citizenship to Jews. that although he now seems upbeat,
On Monday, January 12, a This represents a precedent that could there are times when it is extremely
remarkable gathering took place at the conceivably be used in the future to difficult. Being separated from his
Dubuque County Jail. Rabbinic leaders deny bail to any Jew. family, his children and especially
representing a broad range of the cross- The third purpose of the trip was his autistic child, with whom he has a
section of American Jewry came to the to express their collective feeling that special relationship, is very hard.”
Dubuque Iowa Jail where they met with Shalom Rubashkin does not represent “In fact, Reb Shalom is not even
Shalom for about one and a half hours, a flight risk, and declare their trust in allowed to meet with his younger
after which they held a press conference Mr. Rubashkin by publicly putting the children. Even the periodic meetings
outside of the jail. reputation and credibility of each of with his wife are by video conference,”
The group of leaders included Rabbi their organizations on the line. “Shalom explained Rabbi Hecht. “The only Jews
Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Agudath Israel is well aware of how many people have with access to him are clergy. Yes, his
of America; Rabbi Pesach Lerner, advocated on his behalf, and a betrayal religious needs, seforim and kosher food
National Council of Young Israel; Rabbi of their confidence would cause are provided for, but Shalom Rubashkin
Yaakov Wasser, Rabbinical Council of irrevocable damage to himself, his belongs at home with his family until he
America; Rabbi Moshe Elefant, Union family, his community, and the many has his day in court.”
of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of honorable individuals who have shown Rabbi Zwiebel related that davening
America; Rabbi Shimon Hecht, National their support for him,” said Rabbi Minchah in the jail was something
Committee for Furtherance of Jewish Yaakov Wasser. that he was sure none of the rabbonim
Education; and Rabbi Yossi Jacobson, “We are just seeking fair and equal will ever forget. “It was an extremely
Chabad Lubavitch International. Rabbi treatment, from the justice system, moving experience; an experience
Gershon Tannenbaum, Rabbinical for Mr. Rubashkin, no more and no that simply can’t be put into words…
Alliance of America/Igud Horabbonim, less than anyone who applies for bail. seeing Reb Shalom, nobly serving as
BY LEAH LEDERMAN
As a member of Postville’s Jewish for a villain by portraying Shalom “filthy lucre.” It might not be that
community, I am constantly exposed Mordechai Rubashkin in the most surprising that mainstream America
to the media frenzy created by the ICE nefarious light possible. likes to forget that little concept of
raid, which occurred at Agriprocessors My husband and I have been close “innocent until proven guilty” when
in May 2008. The raid, and later friends with Shalom Mordechai for convenient. However, for President-
attempts to completely destroy almost 15 years, and the fiendish elect Barack Obama, who obviously
Agriprocessors, has currently become demonization of his character would be took no effort whatsoever to find out
one of the media’s favorite topics, hysterically funny if the consequences what the events surrounding the raid
because several components of these resulting from it were not so dire. I, on Agriprocessors actually were,
events are highly controversial. As a myself, generally try to avoid the stress to express his condemnation of the
result, the secular American public caused by the sight of these terribly company is terrifying. This portrayal
has been whipped into a blood-thirsty warped versions of events. But every of Shalom Mordechai as some sort of
frenzy over issues such as illegal so often a family member brings a modern day Fagin is inconceivable to
immigration, Jewish business ethics, copy of an article home, and the next those of us who really know the man.
unionization and problems with the thing you know, I am shaking my head Greedy? Is it greedy to single-
American economy. These issues are in disgust after reading it for the third handedly subsidize nearly every mosad
wide-ranging and complex in structure time. in one’s community - including but not
- requiring research and intense If one is to believe what has been limited to two chadorim, a high school,
concentration to be fully understood. claimed by most of the media, Shalom a mesivta, a kollel, a first-class multi-
The majority of the American public Mordechai Rubashkin is a greedy media library, a shul, a spa-like mikvah
is not inclined to spend a great deal of unscrupulous excuse for a human being and a kosher grocery store?
effort when it comes to formulating who gleefully and cruelly exploited Is it cruel to subsidize families who
opinions about current events. This, his workers and brazenly flouted all cannot afford rent or tuition?
perhaps, explains why the main fury sorts of laws to fulfill his desire for Is it selfish to run the grocery at
of the American public a loss so as to maintain
has fallen upon the affordable prices and
Rubashkin family, carry thousands of
in particular Shalom dollars worth of habitual
Mordechai Rubashkin, debt owed by various
former CEO of community members?
Agriprocessors. People What about hosting
who are dissatisfied with a weekly melava malka
their lives very often for over 15 years, and
tend to find a scapegoat Shabbos and Yom
upon whom to vent their Tov meals with guests
frustrations. It’s much consistently in the
easier to simplify things double digit range?
into good vs. evil than to Perhaps giving
take the effort to form discounts on meat to
their own opinion about some Chabad Houses
complicated situations. and even delivering
The media, always tons of meat absolutely
willing to bow to the free to those hosted by
desires of the consumer, family and close friends
is doing their best to could be seen as greedy,
satisfy this demand but I’m not quite sure
Do Your Part
We live in a world of turmoil. Every know that they are one of the most giving, your behalf?
day we hear of tragic stories. I don’t generous, caring and devoted families We must act and we must act now. If
remember the last time a day passed around. While Shalom Mordechai sits you get a Tehillim text, appreciate that
without a Tehillim text being sent to me. in jail, not found guilty of anything you and your family members are healthy
I find that we are so wrapped up in our but being treated like a murderer, his enough to open a Tehillim and daven. If
own worlds that we just shake our heads unassuming mother spends these freezing you have the opportunity to help someone
in disbelief and then continue on with winter days in her restaurant which serves else, even if it is a little inconvenient,
whatever we have to do. Of course I as a soup kitchen to the poor people of the be happy that you are able to be the one
care and wish that everything would be neighborhood. to help rather than the one who needs
okay, but what does it take for me to get I don’t know about you, but when to ask for help. And if a fellow Jew is
involved and do what I can for my fellow I face a difficult challenge, I become imprisoned, do your part, however small,
Jews in distress? When I get a Tehillim nervous, angry, jumpy and introverted. I to try to get him freed. Make a difference!
text, do I ignore it? Do I forward it like am not serving latkes to the poor and I am I urge you to help get Shalom
the sender asked me to or do I stop for not worrying about everyone else’s needs Mordechai Rubashkin out of prison and
a minute and say a kappitel Tehillim? It before my own. I don’t think that makes back with his family.
only takes minutes, but the impact that it me a bad person. I just think that it makes How can you get involved?
could make is immeasurable. me human. 1. Call our state senators and
When I hear about families affected by Imagine that, chas veshalom, you were demand that they get involved in this
terror attacks, do I pull out my checkbook arrested for something. Whether you unprecedented injustice:
and write a check for whatever amount I were guilty or innocent, would you want Senator Chuck Schumer’s Washington
can? everybody and their neighbor talking number is 202.224.6542.
I am tormented by the thought of about it? Would you want your children Senator Hillary Clinton’s Washington
Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin sitting in going to school knowing that everyone number is 202.224.4451.
jail. I am very close to the Rubashkin is staring and pointing? Would you want 2. Write a letter to your local newspaper.
family. But this is not the sole reason that your spouse to be left trying to pick up 3. Say Tehillim for Shalom Mordechai
it takes up so much of my thoughts. It is the pieces and hold the family together? Halevi ben Rivka.
the injustice of how Shalom Mordechai Or would you hope that everyone would 4. Donate whatever amount you are able
is being treated, when he hasn’t even had give you the benefit of the doubt? Would to Pidyon Shivuyim Fund, 53 Olympia
his day in court, and the way that our you hope that people would respect your Lane, Monsey, New York 10952.
society has reacted and is still reacting to privacy and wish the best for you? Would In these challenging and uncertain
the story. you hope that someone would be sitting times, choose to be an individual who will
If you know the Rubashkins, then you with a Tehillim, davening to Hashem on make a difference.
BY AVROHOM BIRNBAUM
“Why are you guys so busy with butcher. as we complacently think that it is
Shalom Rubashkin?” was the question When an issue such as the one of ‘them’ being attacked and not
posed to me by an acquaintance last Agriprocessors matter turns from one of ‘us,’ we have been lulled into
week. Long ago I learned that the provincial to national, with multiple false complacency with potentially
term “you guys” refers to any writer articles expounding on it in the grave ramifications for all Jews.”
who works the paper for which I New York Times and much time The blank look on his face made it
write, and my erstwhile acquaintance devoted to it in the national broadcast clear that he hadn’t really understood,
seemingly assumed that I have an media, it is important for us, Torah so I explained.
editorial red-pen that can veto or observant Jews, to try to understand “The raid on Agri and the
approve everything published in the why it has been propelled to the imprisonment of Mr. Rubashkin on
paper. forefront of national headlines. Why federal immigration related charges is
Disregarding the multiple, does a relatively small, kosher really the culmination of a year-long
mistaken assumptions implicit in his slaughterhouse that processes a campaign to impugn Agriprocessors.
words, I answered in the classical fraction of a percent of the meat in There are people and organizations
Jewish way: “Why not?” the country merit such attention? that have been at the forefront of
“Well,” he replied, “Shalom Out of all the millions of questioning the humaneness of kosher
Rubashkin is a guy for whom ‘we’ immigration infractions taking slaughter as practiced at Agri. They
find it a little hard to sympathize.” place daily in this country, why was are determined to get a foothold into
Again disregarding the inherent Agriprocessors singled out? kosher slaughter, and if not outlaw
meaning of the word “we,” I repeated Turning to my acquaintance, I shechitah outright, at least be able
my question: “Why not?” said, “It’s important that members of to control and regulate the process.
Exasperated by my failure to “get our community understand what is at Do you hear? They want to tell our
it,” he said, “You know, he definitely stake. The issues have nothing to do rabbonim what is humane and what
did things that he shouldn’t have with Chabad, nothing even to do with isn’t humane about the shechitah
done, so why are ‘you guys’ sticking Rubashkin or Agri per se. Personally, that we have been practicing for
out your necks for him?” I think Mr. Rubashkin has become a thousands of years.
Okay, now that I finally useful caricature and punching bag in “They have found a sympathetic ear
understood the question and its the hands of those who seek no good at the New York Times and numerous
premise, I felt that perhaps I could for our community. other national media outlets. PETA,
give an answer. My answer was that “The issues and concerns that you the ultra-radical ‘animal rights’
although I had nothing to do with may have,” I continued, “are not the group even illegally planted a worker
the editorial policy that vociferously issues that made this story a national at Agri and had him illegally film the
and unapologetically defended Mr. story and a national ‘scandal.’” shechitah. This illegal video was then
Rubashkin, I think I understand it. “So what is this all about?” He given to the media and subsequently
The Rubashkin issue is not a asked. spread around the world to inflame
small, provincial issue, limited to I replied, “It’s about the Torah’s the masses against what they called
the relatively small Orthodox Jewish commandment of shechitah. It is the ‘cruel and inhumane practice of
community. Although it concerns about singling out Orthodox Jews. kosher slaughter’ practiced at Agri.
the meat that we eat, it has exploded It is about freedom of religion “The next step in the attempt
into something far beyond which and freedom from government to shut down the biggest kosher
brand name will appear on the tray of intervention in religious matters in slaughterhouse in the country was
meat or chicken we purchase at the the United States of America. As long to find Agri guilty of immigration
Judge Linda Reade of U.S. District Court these times,” said Mrs. Rubashkin after the They had called upon everyone to daven for Mr.
of Northern Iowa ruled Tuesday that Shalom decision. Rubashkin’s freedom during the bail hearings
Mordechai Rubashkin will be freed on bail The following day heard similar testimony on both Monday and Tuesday. The Rubashkin
this week, overturning the original, heavily to Mr. Rubashkin’s character - from Amy family and members of the community
criticized decision to deny him that freedom Dickel, a Postville Insurance Agent, Rabbi gathered on Monday, Rosh Chodesh Shevat,
partially based upon his religious background. Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Executive Director to daven on behalf of Mr. Rubashkin. They
Advocates for Mr. Rubashkin praised the of Agudas Yisroel of America, Joe Shochet, had asked other Yidden around the country
decision as a victory for equal rights and a family friend, and Mr. Joseph Sarachek, a to set aside a few moments at home, school
religious freedom. trustee for Agriprocessors who submitted a or shul to recite Tehillim and learn Torah in
“Justice prevailed today,” said Guy Cook, written affidavit. Arguments were also made the zechus of Shalom Mordechai Halevi ben
Mr. Rubashkin’s attorney. “Judge Reade that Mr. Rubashkin was being unfairly treated Rivkah. The community of Postville, Mr.
protected this man’s constitutional rights. She because of his religion. Rubashkin’s home, also designated Sunday,
made those rights come alive.” Many legal scholars have criticized Erev Rosh Chodesh Shevat, as a half day
Mr. Rubashkin will be freed on $500,000 the decision to hold Mr. Rubashkin on the voluntary fast day.
bail Thursday, and will be required to grounds that his Jewish heritage made it more The tremendous achdus this case
surrender his birth certificate and family likely he would flee to Israel. By citing the engendered was seen by many observers
passports. He has pledged, as mandated by the Israeli ‘Law of Return’ policy, which grants as an additional zechus through which Reb
court, not to contact a list of people related to expedited citizenship, the U.S. Attorney Shalom Mordechai merited that his tefillos
the case and to wear an electronic monitoring would have created a special class for all 5.3 were accepted. Through the many months he
bracelet. The judge ruled that more extreme million Jewish Americans in which every spent in jail, his bitachon never wavered. In
measures, such as armed guards or additional Jew would be viewed as a greater flight risk fact, he related that he took advantage of the
surety, are not necessary. than non-Jews. The Anti-Defamation League time to learn more Torah than usual, deriving
Over the course of two days, Judge Linda had sent a letter to Attorney General Michael much chizuk from his learning in general and
Reade heard substantial testimony that the Mukasey asking him to reverse this decision. in particular from seforim such as the Chovos
U.S. attorney had trumped up evidence that ADL lawyers said they were unaware of any Halevavos.
Mr. Rubashkin was planning to flee. His other case citing the Law of Return as a means The Rubashkins are widely recognized
lawyer was able to prove that he has strong to withhold bail. for their many acts of kindness, chesed and
ties to the community and intends to fight the Mr. Rubashkin, former CEO of the kosher maasim tovim. They developed a kosher
charges against him in court. meat packing company Agriprocessors, slaughterhouse which became the trendsetter
On the first day, Monday, Mrs. Leah Inc., had been held without bail since being in the industry for quality and price. Around
Rubashkin, Shalom Mordechai’s wife, testified arrested on November 14. Since his detention, that company they developed and supported
that the U.S. attorney had misconstrued the dozens of Jewish Iowa residents have offered an entire town, including a bais medrash, shul,
purpose of cash found at their home, saying it their homes as collateral for bail, totaling yeshiva, cheder, mikvah, and everything else
was to pay for family expenses. She described $2 million, as has a Brooklyn man whose that religious Jewish life requires.
Mr. Rubashkin as a loving family man with home is valued at $4 million. The court had Agriprocessors Inc., which closed
10 children, one of whom, his 15-year old also received nearly 300 letters testifying temporarily after being raided by authorities
son Moishe, is autistic. The money and other to Mr. Rubashkin’s character. A delegation last year, is moving forward under a court
documents were put in a closet to hide them of prominent Jewish leaders from around appointed trustee. They are continuing to
from Moishe, Leah Rubashkin said, who the country also visited Mr. Rubashkin provide kosher meats to the many Jewish
often rifles through drawers and cabinets. in Dubuque County Jail this month, later communities all around the country and look
“We are very grateful for the beautiful publicly stating that he had strong ties not forward to prospering in the future.
outpouring of good wishes and prayers from only to the local community but to the larger Now Shalom Mordechai will be able to
all around the world. It means so much to Jewish community in America. work from home to prepare his defense to
Shalom and me to know that we have this Family members and prominent Jewish the many charges he is facing. He adamantly
continuous spiritual strength behind us during community members applauded the decision. maintains his innocence.
In Parshas Yisro, we learn of Kabbolas only Yisro? parsha of Kabbolas HaTorah is named for
HaTorah. Following the makkos in Everyone knew about it. Everyone was Yisro, the convert.
Mitzrayim, Kriyas Yam Suf and the giluyim impressed, even awed. Some might even But it is not enough to stand up and take
the Jewish people had experienced there, have been inspired. The entire world might notice. We’ve got to do more than that.
Klal Yisroel was ready to become the Am have been nispa’el, but it was for a mere The Torah recounts that Yisro noticed
Hashem and receive the Torah. moment, not long enough for the miracle that Moshe Rabbeinu was teaching
It is most interesting that the parsha to impact the heart. A fleeting impression halachos and judging the Jewish people
which deals with Matan Torah carries the was all they experienced and they quickly from morning until night. Yisro advised
name of Yisro and not something more returned to their old habits of thought. Moshe that the system was improper. He
descriptive of the gift we received on Har They reverted back to being exactly the urged Moshe to set up a well-functioning
Sinai. It is also intriguing that the Torah way they were before they were amazed court system in which other people would
interrupts its account of the Jews’ journey by the power of Hashem. adjudicate the simpler cases and the more
in the Midbar and the apex of their journey The only one who heard about Kriyas difficult ones would be brought to him.
at Midbar Sinai to tell the seemingly Yam Suf and Milchemes Amaleik and was Yisro told Moshe that the present
tangential story of Yisro’s arrival. affected to the core of his being by these system, in which he was busy all day
The parsha should have continued where events was Yisro. He was the only person paskening all the shailos, was too
it left off at the end of Parshas Beshalach, who was so overcome that the experience difficult for one person and would end up
when the Jews had miraculously crossed transformed his life. destroying him. He advised him on how
the Yam Suf, received the monn and were The pesukim recount: “Vayichad Yisro… to choose competent judges to whom he
rescued by Hashem’s intervention in the - And Yisro rejoiced over all the goodness would teach the halachos so that they
battle with Amaleik, and the next leg of that Hakadosh Boruch Hu did for the would be knowledgeable enough to
their journey that took them to Midbar Jews and rescued them from Mitzrayim… educate the people.
Sinai to receive the Torah. Why is the flow And he said, ‘Now I know that Hashem is He urged him to get Divine approval
of the narrative interrupted with the story greater than all the gods… And he brought for the new system and thus be able to
of Yisro’s arrival? korbanos to Hashem…” function optimally.
What lessons are implicit in the No one else came to the Bnei Yisroel in Yisro was a newcomer to the Bnei
narrative of Yisro that justifies its insertion the Midbar saying, “Atah yodati kee gadol Yisroel’s camp. He wasn’t the first person
after the description of Kriyas Yam Suf, Hashem.” Everyone else remained mired to see what was happening to Moshe
prior to Matan Torah? in their pagan beliefs. Rabbeinu. Everyone saw that Moshe was
The parsha begins with the words This is why the Torah interrupts the consumed all day long with dinei Torah.
“Vayishma Yisro - And Yisro heard.” Rashi chapter of the Bnei Yisroel’s sojourn in the Anyone could have figured out that is
quotes the Gemara in Maseches Zevachim Midbar to tell the tale of Yisro’s arrival. wasn’t a normal situation. Anyone could
which asks what it is that Yisro heard A prerequisite for Kabbolas HaTorah is have figured out a more effective system
that prompted him to come. The Gemara to let the experience of Hashem’s majesty that would allow Moshe Rabbeinu to
answers that he heard about Kriyas Yam envelop the mind and the senses so, that it spend his time more productively. Anyone
Suf and Milchemes Amaleik. Upon hearing forces a person to draw closer to Torah and could have realized, as Yisro did, that
of those events, he left his home in Midyan G-dliness. Moshe would become exhausted from the
and came to meet Moshe Rabbeinu in the Divine acts are intended to teach us the grueling regimen and unceasing pressure.
Midbar. power of Hashem. Torah demands that a And that is exactly our point. Everyone
Obviously, Yisro was not the only one “hisorerus” last for longer than a day or saw it. Anyone could have realized where
who heard about Kriyas Yam Suf and two. Torah demands that we always seek it would lead, but no one did anything
Milchemes Amaleik. One would imagine to learn and grow. about it. It took Yisro to internalize what
that there were few people who hadn’t That was the lesson of Yisro and that he saw and to do something constructive
heard about these two earth-shattering is why his parsha was placed before about it.
events. Why did these miracles galvanize Kabbolas HaTorah. That is why the So often, the urge is to turn the other
Q: What is your reaction to the recent – surprise you. I knew full well the damage that PETA had
article by Nathaniel Popper of The Forward Every Jew, religious or not, can see the caused to kosher shechitah in other countries,
in The Wall Street Journal? deep-rooted disdain this reporter has for and what they were trying to achieve in
Shalom Mordechai: By means of Torah-based Judaism. England and now in the United States.
introduction, allow me to share the following: To bring out our point a bit more clearly, What is important to note is that although
The haftorah that we read on the first day let’s take a simple test. What if it was not the public was made aware of what the
of Pesach focuses on Yehoshua bin Nun, the Nathaniel Popper who wrote the article in shechitah process looked like at Agri, no video
great novi and successor of Moshe Rabbeinu, The Forward, but rather Louis Farrakhan? of any other kosher shechitah operation was
who becomes the leader of Klal Yisroel Imagine that Farrakhan described religious ever shown for comparison. If that had been
following Moshe’s petirah. Yehoshua was to Jews as “bearded Orthodox rabbis buzzing done, it would have proved that the shechitah
bring the Bnei Yisroel to Eretz Yisroel, the about the plant” and wrote about our “narrow at Agri was indeed what shechitah is supposed
Promised Land. The Torah relates the story kosher laws” in sharp contrast to “the clean to be, and how it’s been done for centuries.
of how he encounters a malach with a drawn shaven progressive rabbis.” There would be The fact is that the slaughtering process
sword. Yehoshua’s question to the malach is condemnations from all sectors. He would is not exactly ideal viewing for the general
simple yet profound. “Are you for us or for never get away with making such statement! public. The cutting of an animal’s neck,
our enemies?” he asks. Yehoshua needed to But Popper may have done all of us a favor the blood, and the loss of life are all things
know what side he was on. by removing any doubt about what the recent that can cause anyone to turn away or react
When there are two sides, it is vitally anti-shechitah, anti-Agri campaigns were all negatively. Most people are simply not aware
important to identify a person’s loyalties about. Mr. Popper’s vitriol has made it all of the nature of shechitah or any other type
before engaging him. This was the case in a abundantly clear. of slaughter, and even if they are, seeing it in
physical confrontation of war. How much Mr. Popper, in his recent article, clarified person or on a video can be disturbing.
more so does this apply when the war is a for all the underlying agenda behind the attack After the PETA video was released, there
psychological one. this past year on what was the jewel of kosher was great turmoil in certain segments of
The lesson we learn about on the first day meat and poultry production, Agriprocessors, the Jewish community over what it showed
of the Yom Tov celebrating our freedom is and its proprietors, the Rubashkin family — and how it was explained by PETA. In fact,
not to take our freedom for granted. There are a family committed to kashrus and quality, PETA’s claims in the narrative were either
friends and there are enemies. It’s important, with a deep-rooted respect to Torah, mitzvos overstated or complete fabrications. They sent
says the Torah, that when encountering a and rabbonim. It was actually a place the letters to lawmakers demanding government
stranger who can be potentially an ally and rabbonim called home. intervention. This was a serious threat, because
friend or enemy and foe, one must first ask a Q: You’ve said that this tumult we have seen what other governments have
critical question: “Are you for us or for our surrounding Agriprocessors, in truth, done to inhibit the kashrus of the shechitah
enemies?” began some 5 years ago with the action of process.
Last week, Mr. Nathaniel Popper, a Jewish PETA. In order to provide an explanation of what
reporter, actually answered that question for Shalom Mordechai: Correct. Back in 2004, shechitah is, why it is absolutely humane, and
us. He identified himself to the Torah-true PETA released a video of the shechitah at Agri. why the government should ignore the lies and
community by mocking us. He blatantly The video was taken illegally, and was PETA’s outlandish demands of these troublemakers,
degraded religious Jews and rabbonim. He response to Agriprocessors’ refusal to agree I wrote a rather long letter to the public. I
explained that if you are bearded – perhaps to its demands to allow the organization’s invited people to send questions to my email
for further clarity he should have added to representatives access to the shechitah address. I invited the renowned veterinarian,
the description a hooked long nose with plant and incorporate PETA’s suggested Rabbi Dr. I. M. Levinger, to come and see
a veracious appetite for money – and you modifications regarding the shechitah process. for himself what goes on at Agri. I invited
believe that G-d really means what He says in There was no way that Agriprocessors, the Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, Patty Jean
the Torah, then you are automatically narrow- which had given over full control of production Judge, to come and see for herself what the
minded. It pays to read Mr. Popper’s words. to the supervising rabbis, could overrule that truth is. The USDA was engaged and all
They will - though they shouldn’t at this point arrangement by acceding to PETA’s demands. questions and inquiries were fully answered.
BY YISROEL LICHTER
It seems that prosecutors are doing a lot recent incident of egregious prosecutorial espionage-law case against two former
of rushing to judgment these days. Not an overreaching. Last month, prosecutors AIPAC lobbyists, Steve Rosen and Keith
innocent rush to judgment, but a libelous, dropped all alleged charges against 85-year- Weissman.
diabolical rush to judgment that shamelessly old former Alaska Governor Ted Stevens. The Atlantic Monthly’s Jeffery Goldberg
and irrevocably ruins the reputations of Everyone remembers how the corruption put it succinctly when commenting on the
innocent people, causing them and their indictment against Stevens caused him government’s decision to abandon the case:
families irreparable damage, heartache and to lose his bid for reelection in the Senate, “It’s about time. It was an idiotic case to begin
emotional trauma. thereby ending a 40-year Senate career. The with; the men were being prosecuted (under
A number of recent news stories have fact that charges have now been dropped, of an ancient, seldom-used law) for receiving
proven the increased aggressiveness of course, will never reinstate his Senate seat. classified information passed orally - not
many prosecutors and the near lynch mob According to a report in the Anchorage even on paper - from a government stooge,
atmosphere they seek to create regarding Daily News, “The Justice Department and then passing it on to a reporter and to
their defendant. moved to dismiss former Sen. Ted Stevens’ an official from the Israeli embassy. Rosen
indictment on Wednesday, effectively voiding and Weissman did what a thousand reporters
PROSECUTORS’ DISMISSAL OF
his Oct. 27 conviction on seven counts of in Washington do every day - hear about
IDENTITY THEFT CHARGES filing false statements on his Senate financial information that’s technically classified. The
AGAINST RUBASHKIN disclosure forms. only difference is that these two worked for a
HAILED AS VICTORY AND “The decision by U.S. Attorney General demonized lobby.
Eric Holder comes after a new prosecution “It’s a sad day for the Walts and
GOVERNMENT ADMISSION team discovered a previously undocumented Mearsheimers of the world, who believe that
OF “OVERREACHING” interview on April 15, 2008, with the star AIPAC is a treasonous organization, and it’s a
On Monday, prosecutors dropped the witness in the case that sharply contradicted sad day for AIPAC too, because it abandoned
identity theft charges - the centerpiece of its the most dramatic testimony in the four-week the two men to the fates when it should have
immigration violation allegations - against trial. The information had never been turned stood by them.”
Reb Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin of over to the defense, the Justice Department With regard to the Rubashkin, the
Agriprocessors (Agri). The government cited said in its motion. “Overreaching” of the prosecution in the
the fact that a recent Supreme Court ruling “‘I always knew that there would be a identity theft case seems to just be the tip of
determined that prosecutors who file identity- day when the cloud that surrounded me iceberg.
theft charges must prove that the defendant would be removed,” Stevens said in a written 9,311 COUNTS OF
knew that the identity used belonged to statement. “That day has finally come. It is
CHILD LABOR FROM
another person. Knowing that their case was unfortunate that an election was affected by
doomed and in response to a motion filed last proceedings now recognized as unfair. It was 25-30 ALLEGED MINOR
week by Rubashkin’s lawyer, the prosecutors my great honor to serve the state of Alaska in EMPLOYEES?
asked a federal judge to dismiss seven counts the United States Senate for 40 years.” On the State level, prosecutors for the
of aiding and abetting aggravated identity In a written statement, Stevens’ attorneys Iowa Department of Labor (IDOL) have also
theft. decried the “corrupt” conduct of attorneys and been guilty of egregiously overreaching in
Defense lawyer Guy Cook hailed the the FBI in the case. “It was a bad judgment to the child labor violations case, according to
request as a victory for his client and a have done so in the first place,” said Brendan a motion submitted by Rubashkin’s lawyers
government admission of “overreaching in Sullivan, the defense counsel for Senator last week. On September 9, 2008, a Complaint
this case.” Stevens. “He’s a war hero. He served in the and Affidavit was filed in Allamakee County
SIMILAR GOVERNMENTAL Senate for 40 years, and he was the target of accusing Shalom Rubashkin and others
prosecutors who wanted to enhance their own with 9,311 counts of claimed “child labor”
OVERREACHING IN STEVENS reputation.” violations in Chapter 92 of the Code of Iowa.
AND AIPAC CASES Two weeks ago, in another high profile Rubashkin Attorney Monty Brown, who
The Rubashkin case has not been the only case, Federal prosecutors abandoned an filed the motion, told the Yated in a telephone
My column last week about the not to feed him anything other than what are in a different reality. If you want to
Yerushalmi demonstrations elicited varied he received from his feeding tubes. It was stay in the Brooklyn ghetto, maybe that’s
responses. It was painful to realize how only after the mother was dragged off that okay. But if you want to go out into the rest
many people think so little of our chareidi they began force-feeding the child in a bid of world and get involved in real business,
brethren that they believe whatever they for him to gain weight. you can’t just have the same paradigm we
read which denigrates religious people. Of all the people, the mayor of had in Europe or the Middle East.”
It is painful to be attacked for writing a Yerushalayim, elected because the When he stood beside liberal union
sensible article laying out the facts and religious community could not organize groups seeking to unionize a Chicago
defending people for trying to exercise around a candidate, found the perfect way hotel owned by religious people, he
commonly held freedoms of expression to respond to the riots. He called off all said, “I remember the ads defending
and assembly. garbage collection and municipal services Agriprocessors - talking about how it’s
The entire Israeli media was engaged in a to the areas which the shababnikim this modern, clean factory. People were
conspiracy once again to paint the religious damaged. So, not only do the parents just deluding themselves. That’s the
community as a bunch of backward suffer by having such children, not only impression I have here, as well.”
infidels who are an embarrassment to does the community suffer by having Anyone who visited Agri had to be
their religion. It is no wonder that the anti- fires burning under their noses, but the impressed by the high level of cleanliness
religious groups readily gobble it up, but benevolent mayor decrees that there will evidenced in the USDA inspected plant.
it hurt to note that their reports were oft- be no more garbage pickup. Thankfully, That was never in doubt. Yet this rabbi
repeated by religious people and believed his tactic was overturned by the courts. was able say anything with impunity, for
by almost everyone. Mayor Nir Barkat also targeted he was talking about a plant owned and
Since that article was published, another Americans as scapegoats, blaming them operated by old-style religious Jews. Who
spate of demonstrations broke out over the for the violence, with no evidence. Of would go after him for playing up the
arrest of a loving Yerushalmi mother for course, the people inclined to mock centuries-old canard that religious Jews
allegedly starving her child. Without any yeshivos and yeshiva bochurim cheered are dirty and slimy? He can freely posture
examination or proof, the health system, him on, without bothering to ascertain for the media and the liberals who write
police and media diagnosed her as being how many bochurim, if any, were involved him up in glowing terms.
mentally ill and suffering from an ailment in anti-social behavior they could not have Though he is Orthodox, he does seem
which forced her to starve her sick child. learned at home or school. to have an agenda against the black-hatted
In the fifth month of pregnancy, she was Typical of the reaction to all this was Jews. It is to be expected that the secular
dragged away, chained hand and foot, sent an article posted by Rabbi Asher Lopatin media would play him up. What hurts even
to the jail in Ramle, which is reserved for on a secular Jewish media site, as well more is when the Orthodox media quotes
the most dangerous of criminals. She was as a religious one. The Chicago rabbi, him and publishes his missives, such as
held under inhumane conditions, sleeping who stood with those who castigated his recent one against Yerushalmi Yidden.
on a concrete bed in a cell she shared with the Rubashkins and their Agriprocessors He writes, “Rather than rioting against
an Arab woman accused of murder. Corporation which supplied much of what seems to be saving of a child’s life
Is that the way a civilized country treats the United States with affordable kosher - piku’ach nefesh - didn’t you question
anyone? A separate article in this week’s meat, is now advising the members of for a moment what is going on? What
paper highlights the inconsistencies with Yerushalayim’s yishuv on how to handle are the names of chareidi organizations
the case and presents the other side of their affairs. that protect children - and spouses -
the story as documented by people in Back then, he said that “there seems from abuse? The chareidi community in
Yerushalayim who, for quite some time, to be a pattern of Jews, and especially America has such organizations which
have been involved with the medical issues Orthodox Jews, not knowing how to relate serve the entire Jewish community - have
facing this family. There are witnesses to gentiles. We have a history of really you set up yours? I haven’t seen them
who can testify that the child lay in the trying to survive as Jews and having to involved or consulted. No, instead of
hospital for months with a standing order protect ourselves constantly, but now we blaming Hadassah hospital, the doctors
Hints of Dreyfus
BY DEBBIE MAIMON
Allegations of anti-Semitism surfaced Not long afterward, the two were arrested and the defense department at the time. Many, like
recently about a 2004 FBI sting that entrapped indicted for conspiracy. Wolfowitz and Feith, were associated with
two Jewish members of AIPAC (American The arrests astounded the political and the “neoconservative” faction in the Bush
Israel Public Affairs Committee) in espionage- journalism community in Washington. In administration that supported close U.S. ties
related charges. singling out the two AIPAC staffers and with Israel. Stereotypes about Jewish power
The allegations raised fresh concerns about prosecuting them for information-sharing mushroomed in the aftermath of the Iraq
the FBI’s true motives in the case which, to that is routine between lobbyists, government invasion, giving rise to conspiracy theories
the government’s embarrassment, collapsed officials and reporters, the FBI clearly seemed about excessive Jewish influence over
after four years of pre-trial maneuvers due to to be trying to strike a blow at AIPAC. President Bush and U.S. foreign policy.
lack of evidence. The men were fired from their jobs, and These theories infected the State
Because the FBI operation invoked an endured four years of exhausting litigation Department, a branch of government that
archaic law to indict the men, attempting to leading up to their trial. Then, following a has traditionally been pro-Arab and has
crimin-alize activities that are acceptable and relentless pre-trial battle, involving dozens of manifested hostility to Israel. Some point to
routine for lobbyists, the Bureau’s actions hearings, depositions, rulings and appeals, the the near-obsession on the part of numerous
invite suspicion that its real aim in the bizarre Justice Department came to the conclusion State Department officials with the notion that
sting was to curb the influential pro-Israel that despite all its efforts, it was not going American Jews hold “dual loyalties.”
lobby, AIPAC. to win a guilty verdict. With just 30 days to “The anti-Zionist concept [pervading parts
By falsely discrediting some of its most go before the trial began, the government of this department],” writes the Washington
prominent members, many now think the FBI dropped the charges. Post, “holds that Israeli objectives run contrary
was really seeking to weaken and discredit the By then, the ten-year investigation to U.S. national interests; that many American
entire organization. and prosecution case, costing the federal Jews, including those in senior policymaking
The allegations of anti-Semitism were made government millions of dollars, had positions, suffer from divided loyalties; and
by former Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin, destroyed the reputations and livelihoods of that pro-Israel political influence holds sway
an expert on Iranian affairs. Franklin, who is two innocent men. As the reaction to Larry over U.S. government decisions.”
not Jewish, served as a key player in an FBI Franklin’s testimony suggests, the affair has Franklin was apparently sent out by his
operation that targeted AIPAC members Steve also prompted suspicion of religious bias and FBI handlers to tempt Jews, the article notes.
Rosen and Keith Weissman. an abuse of power in the top echelons of the “He tried Adam Ciralsky at CBS News, who
Last week, Franklin broke a silence of FBI. had once sued the CIA for anti-Semitism,
many years, telling the Washington Times that “FRANKLIN WAS SENT and Richard Perle, who was on his way
anti-Semitism tainted the entire affair and may to vacation in France, as well as Pentagon
have been an “incitement in the investigation.” TO TEMPT JEWS”
Franklin’s claims of an anti-Semitic agenda employees who had done nothing more than
DANGLING THE LIVES driving the FBI’s campaign against AIPAC work with Franklin. All turned down the offer
OF JEWS AS BAIT were backed by Rosen in the Jerusalem Post. of classified information.”
As an FBI “cooperating witness,” Franklin “Within the counterintelligence bureaucracy He then went to work on the AIPAC
was wired with FBI recording devices during of the United States government, there is a lobbyists, using tastier bait - the prospect of
staged meetings with Rosen and Weissman virulent ideology about Israel and Jews,” he saving Jewish lives - and here he succeeded.
that were aimed at trapping them with said. “These guys believe there’s a Jewish Using ‘Dead Laws’ To Prosecute
irresistible bait: he told them that Israelis in cabal, a Jewish conspiracy.” The Justice Department prosecutors
Iraq were being targeted for assassination by Rosen said that some insiders feel that the decided to indict Rosen and Weissman under
Iran, and begged them to help. FBI’s real target was not Franklin, but his the Espionage Act, a law which has never
Rosen and Weissman fell into the trap. superiors, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul previously been invoked. As Harvard Law
Hoping to save lives, the men hurried with the Wolfowitz and Undersecretary of Defense for Professor Alan Dershowitz notes, it is not
classified information to an Israeli embassy Policy Douglas Feith, outspoken advocates even clear if the statute, so long ignored,
official and to the Washington Post. They also for Israel. actually remains law! In his words, “It is a
tried to alert the National Security Council. Several Jews held prominent positions in well-established norm in the U.S. that when a
What If?
The driver who took us from self-inflicted. We hear a good story, and their salaries.
Postville back to the Minneapolis we jump to quick conclusions without But as the only media outlet to
airport for the flight home summed it bothering to ascertain the truth, and constantly take up the cause of reporting
all up. As we were approaching our in the process we destroy people, what was really transpiring in that
destination after a three-hour drive families, careers, and much else. plant and in the town of Postville, our
through the darkened cornfields in the It’s not a secret to Yated readers efforts, regrettably, were not enough to
wee hours of the morning, Jonathan that we are haunted by what happened turn the tide and convince the masses
Saphira turned around and said to me, to Agriprocessors and to Shalom of the truth.
“I must tell you something. Last year, Mordechai Rubashkin. I have read People who should have known
when you came to visit after ‘the raid’ the malicious book about the Postville better didn’t. People who are enjoined
and I drove you from the Minneapolis experience and the reports of the not to accept lashon hara and hotzo’as
airport to Postville, it was a life-altering disgusting manner in which the workers sheim rah did. People who should
experience for me.” there were treated. I read the articles have given their brethren the benefit
I was worried that I had done painting the company managers as of the doubt didn’t. People who should
something wrong. I listened with rapt modern-day shylocks trading in human have perceived that the real target was
attention as our driver, a resident of misery and making their living off of shechitah, and should have raised a
Rochester, Minnesota, and a translator the virtual enslavement of a servant hue and a cry, didn’t. Thus, the lynch
who worked with Hispanic Agri class of workers. They were rolling in mobs were able to vilify and destroy
workers before the raid, continued. money like typical evil capitalists, the the reputation of a family renowned
“You see, I don’t know if you articles claimed, enjoying the fruits of for its charity and care of the less-
remember, but you were in the car with the labor of the illiterate, the unskilled, fortunate.
another rabbi. I had thought that I knew and the proletariat, whom they ruled A dream of the highest standards
everything about Agriprocessors and over. of kashrus coupled with the highest
the Rubashkins and that I didn’t have The facts as I saw them with my quality of USDA inspected meat was
to pay attention to the media reports. own eyes on my visit to the plant last allowed to turn into a nightmare, and
But then I heard how that rabbi was year were so obviously contrary to the few who could have made a difference
speaking and how you were arguing media portrayals that I didn’t have to can say, “Yodeinu lo shofchu es hadom
with him in vain, and I realized for the be a conspiracy theorist to sense that hazeh.”
first time the power of the media and something deep and sinister was at We didn’t care. It was just another
how their unsubstantiated allegations work. news tidbit for us to talk about. It was
took root and gained acceptance. Even The plant was ultra-modern, fodder for conversation, and we didn’t
religious Jews and people like that ultra-clean, ultra-efficient, and so fathom the human toll and cost it
rabbi fell for what they were writing far removed from the jungles of would take.
and that added to the pressure. I am Chicago and Upton Sinclair that it When I saw how wide the gap was
sure that if religious Jews had fought was inconceivable how any objective between the facts and the reports, I
back, the government never would person could confuse the two. The adopted the cause. I had never met
have been able to proceed based on the workers, both home-grown Americans Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin. We
anonymous, unfounded allegations I and those from Spanish-speaking became close over the year of his
knew were wrong, and we wouldn’t be countries to our south, smiled as they travails by speaking on the phone and
where we are today.” went about their work and, when we through emails and text messages, and
Jonathan couldn’t have expressed spoke to them, had only positive things then he decided that it was time we
it better. So many of our problems are to say about their jobs, their bosses, met.
The first of two trials of Reb Shalom man in unparalleled and unprecedented used before in a criminal case.
Mordechai Rubashkin, former manager fashion. “This is the first time in my life that
of Postville’s kosher meat plant, began Reb Shalom Mordechai has prepared I’ve heard of that,” said Chris Kelley,
Tuesday at 9 a.m. A group of Jews for the trial “intensely, but also with the a University of Arkansas law school
traveled from New York to Sioux Falls, peace of mind of a man who knows he professor.
South Dakota, to show support. will be, G-d willing, fully exonerated,” Prosecutors also have revised their
The group chartered a bus in order Getzel Rubashkin said. charges against Reb Shalom Mordechai
to accommodate those who want to The trial comes more than a year after seven times, which defense lawyers and
demonstrate support for a man who for federal agents raided AgriProcessors and legal experts say is unprecedented.
countless years gave selflessly to the arrested 389 illegal immigrants during an “Anyone who ‘knows’ my father from
greater frum community and whose infamous raid of the slaughterhouse. Reb media reports does not know him at all,”
chesed activities were always carried Shalom Mordechai, who has pleaded not Getzel Rubashkin told the Des Moines
out without fanfare and with few people guilty, has steadfastly maintained his Register. “The character portrayed was
being aware of them. Members of the innocence and hopes to be able to prove created out of whole cloth, as anyone
group told us that Reb Shalom Mordechai that in the trial. who knows my father immediately
is “extremely calm and confident, and Agriprocessors filed for Chapter 11 recognizes. … My father is a kind man,
filled with tremendous bitachon.” bankruptcy protection in November 2008. dedicated to helping others, be it in
“It is truly amazing,” Getzel The plant was sold to SHF Industries, a the sphere of family, community (both
Rubashkin, a son of Reb Shalom new Iowa company headed by Montreal Jewish and non-Jewish) or beyond.”
Mordechai, said. “My father continues businessman Hershey Friedman. ANATOMY OF A CASE
to instill chizuk in all of us, when logic Defense lawyer Guy Cook of Des Jury selection began Tuesday and
would suggest that the opposite should Moines has said that his client denies all we can only pray that a fair trial
be true. He is a true boteach baHashem.” of the charges. and constitutional rights remain the
Eliezer Pinson was one of those who The judge has placed a gag order benchmarks of justice in courts of law in
made the long trip to the South Dakota on the legal team, preventing them for this country. However, in a case already
courthouse. “Everyone who knows him, speaking outside of the courtroom. scarred with inequity, one can’t be faulted
knows him as a great man,” said Eliezer. The fraud and immigration trials were for being deeply worried about justice’s
“People look up to him. He has always slated to take place in Cedar Rapids in the chances in this case.
made time for everyone.” state of Iowa, where the plant is located, The recent federal audit of clothing
Shalom Mordechai’s legal team will but U.S. District Judge Linda Reade company American Apparel, which led
work to prove his innocence in the face moved the trial to Sioux Falls because to the discovery of almost 2,000 illegal
of the charges which have been leveled she determined that pretrial publicity so immigrants on the company payroll,
against him. tainted the jury pool that the trial had to highlighted some of these inequities.
“This case has presented an be moved out of state. It raised troubling questions about the
opportunity to many Yidden to help Some of the charges against Reb government’s 2008 immigration raid
Shalom Mordechai in a physical way and Shalom Mordechai are unusual for a on AgriProcessors and the current
demonstrate support to the world, which federal criminal case, legal scholars have prosecution of Reb Shalom Mordechai.
will be carefully watching this trial,” said said. Prosecutors allege that Reb Shalom The two cases bear a number of
one of the members of the group that Mordechai violated a 2002 order by the similarities. A significant percentage
traveled to South Dakota. U.S. secretary of agriculture to pay cattle of the workforce in both companies
Reb Shalom Mordechai will face providers within 24 hours of a sale. The consisted of immigrants who were
163 charges in two trials which could charge stems from a 1921 law, the U.S. discovered to be in the country
effectively send him to prison for the rest Packers and Stockyards Act. The law illegally. Many of them were using
of his life - a shocking reality in a case requires “prompt payment” to protect fake social security numbers, as well
of the Federal government railroading a livestock producers, but has never been as fraudulent identification documents.
Rubashkin On Trial
Week One
The following is a brief roundup of the questions, and then the defense asked A buss full of Yidden from New York
Rubashkin trial which is being held in questions. Basically, they were trying to travelled to Sioux Falls for the opening of
Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The report is find people who would say things that the trial to express public support to Shalom
based on information from a reporter for would disqualify them. Then they had the Mordechai and give him chizuk. Others
Matzav.com covering the trial at the US veto phase during which the jurors went also arrived.
District Court on S. Phillips Avenue off of out of the room, and the defense got to “The court was filled with family, press
West 12th Street in Sioux Falls. veto two while the prosecution got to veto and others,” the Matzav.com reporter
The trial is being held in Sioux Falls two, and then the defense got to veto two shared. “About three or four dozen people
after the federal judge in Iowa, U.S. again while the prosecution got to veto watched the jury selection on a screen in
District Judge Linda Reade, became two, etc. the spillover room in the courthouse.
convinced that the Iowa jury pool had ”Note that these were regular people “We ended at about ten minutes to 5
been tainted by media coverage of the who got letters in the mail stating that with the jury selection. The jurors were
case. they are up for jury duty. Most of them called back into courtroom and the
The trial is expected to last four to probably did not know what kind of case judge swore them in as a jury. She also
six weeks. Reb Shalom Mordechai they might be called for upon arriving at instructed them about who they are and
Rubashkin faces 1995 years in jail if the court to fulfill their civic duty. aren’t permitted to talk to during the
found guilty of the charges he is facing. “Judge Linda Reade first asked if duration of the case. The judge said she
They will be brought in two trials. The anyone has any personal hardships that wouldn’t be quarantining or sequestering
first will consist of 91 charges relating to would excuse them from the case. She them, but that all communication has to
bank fraud. The second trial will focus on then asked if they had read any media be guarded and no info about the case
72 immigration-related charges and will coverage leading up to the case. Four may be heard, read or discussed with
begin one week after the first trial ends. people were allowed to go due to personal others. The jurists will spend their days,
Before being placed under a gag order hardship and one or two due to media 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., in court.”
by the judge, Getzel Rubashkin, Reb exposure. The judge ended up taking at Assistant U.S. Attorney C.J. Williams
Shalom Mordechai’s son, spoke about his least one person aside after he said that has named about 80 witnesses that
father’s matzav ruach. he had read about the case. They didn’t prosecutors might call for their case.
“My father’s bitachon is nothing less want the rest of the jurors to hear about Following the long and tiring day last
than remarkable,” Getzel said, adding what this person had read, so they pulled Tuesday, the group of frum people went
that the continued chizuk provided by him out with the lawyers and the judge back to their hotel, The Country Inn,
the response to the Yated campaign to and this person went to a side room and where they davened Minchah in the
help pay the legal bills is so very much spoke about what he had read. conference room and then ate supper.
appreciated by his father and their family. The Matzav.com reporter continued: A minyan for Maariv was held and the
The following was related by the “Most noticeable to me was that group farbrenged together in honor of
Matzav.com reporter regarding the first Attorney Cook was looking for who the yahrtzeit of Rav Levi Yitzchok of
day of the trial last Tuesday: these people are and what they are about. Berditchov, with Shalom Mordechai,
“In the process of jury selection, the He asked less pointed questions - but who inspired them with his positivity
defense knocked off 11 witnesses and questions whose answers he obviously and simcha.
the prosecution 7. The final result was felt would speak volumes about the “This man is so unique and inspiring,”
a selection of 12 jurors and 4 alternates. person. For example, to one potential said the Matzav.com reporter. “I cannot
The Rubashkin team was satisfied. juror he asked: When you purchase a put it into words what an adam choshuv
“It was a full day affair, from about car, do you make a snap decision or do this is. You have to meet him to see what a
9 a.m. until close to 5 p.m. The judge you deliberate and take your time before special individual Reb Shalom Mordechai
got the first shot at asking questions of buying? Cook was analytical, asking Rubashkin is. He is a true maamin in the
the potential jurors. The judge asked questions to determine the emotional and One Above.”
questions, then the prosecution asked compassionate levels of the people.” The group arose early Tuesday
An Exhilarating Shabbos
in Sioux Falls
Rubashkin Court Case Continues Following First-Ever Shabbaton in South Dakota
BY AVI YISHAI
It was a unique exchange between a Thursday, another ‘first’ was about to take a groundbreaking achievement to be able to
reporter covering the Rubashkin trial place. This ‘first’ - an infusion of Torah and hold a Shabbaton in Sioux Falls.
and one of the frum Yidden present to Yiddishkeit in the spiritual desert that is “We had Jews coming out of the
provide chizuk to Reb Shalom Mordechai Sioux Falls - was initiated by one man, Reb woodworks. They found out about the
Rubashkin. Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin. Shabbos and were drawn. This was the first
The prosecutors alleged that Shalom Facing 1995 years in jail if found guilty breath of Shabbos for these people,” he
Mordechai violated a 2002 order by the of the charges he is facing, Reb Shalom said.
U.S. secretary of agriculture to pay cattle Mordechai remains strong, putting his “From Erev Shabbos to Motzoei Shabbos,
providers within 24 hours of a sale. The faith in the One Above that the truth will there were minyanim. We brought food
charge stems from a 1921 law, the U.S. ultimately emerge in several weeks after the from the Twin Cities and the Rubashkins
Packers and Stockyards Act. The law prosecution rests its case and his defense cooked food. There was nothing lacking.
requires “prompt payment” to protect team can properly present their side of “Reb Shalom Mordechai shared divrei
livestock producers. the story. With his emunah and bitachon Torah and maasos with the attendees, as
As reported here last week, scholars who strong, Reb Shalom Mordechai focused I did. These Jews drank up his words of
studied the law said they had never seen his energies on bringing Yiddishkeit to Torah. The singing was inspiring. The
it invoked in a criminal case. “This is the Jews in South Dakota who never before atmosphere was pure and freilach.
first time in my life that I’ve heard of that,” experienced the bliss of Torah and the “It certainly buoyed Reb Shalom
Chris Kelley, a University of Arkansas law warmth of Shabbos. Mordechai and his family to have such a
school professor, was quoted as saying in “THEY DRANK HIS Shabbos taking place at the site of where
the media. WORDS OF TORAH” the mishpat (judgment) is taking place. It
Rubashkin Attorney Guy Cook stated Rabbi Moshe Feller, head of the was an unprecedented experience.”
that the livestock producers, to this day, have northwest region of Chabad-Lubavitch, Several Yidden who were passing
a positive opinion of Shalom Mordechai has known Reb Shalom Mordechai and through South Dakota, including a couple
and have said that his “word is gold.” Agri the Rubashkin family for many years from Eretz Yisroel and a Jew from Texas,
always paid fair money and the cattle people and traveled to Sioux Falls to take part in joined as well.
were happy with the arrangement. But the leading the Shabbaton at the local hotel The meals and minyanim were held at
government’s prosecutors continued their there. the conference room of the hotel where the
attempt to apply a law that has never been “Shalom Mordechai called me and said, Rubashkins are staying in Sioux Falls for
evoked and that has not been called into ‘Let’s make a Shabbaton,” Rabbi Feller the duration of the trial.
question by the cattle producers. told the Yated this week. “It turned out to “Chavrah chavrah is lei,” said Rabbi
Cook tried to make this point in court, be an unprecedented experience.” Feller. “We look at this experience as the
stating that this law hasn’t been enforced Rabbi Feller made the four-drive with beginning of mitzvah activity in Sioux
for as long as anyone can remember. The his son, R’ Levi Yitzchok. Falls. It was like the chanukas habayis
presiding judge, U.S. District Judge Linda “Reb Shalom Mordechai is a Tehillim of Yiddishkeit in the city - the first Torah
Reade, however, would not allow Cook to Yid,” commented Rabbi Feller. “For retreat in that part of the country.
make this point to the jury, objecting his years, he’s been completing Tehillim every “Simcha poretz geder - happiness breaks
contention. day. Deep in the recesses of his neshama, barriers, as we saw on Shabbos. Indeed, we
“This is a first,” the news reporter there must be fear of the 91 indictments pray and hope that the geder facing Reb
commented, stating that he had never seen he is facing, but chasdei Hashem ki lo Shalom Mordechai will be breached and he
a judge reject a statement of that sort in a samnu. The Shofet Kol Haaretz is in that should merit a yeshuah,” Rabbi Feller told
case. courtroom,” said Rabbi Feller. the Yated.
It was a first, indeed, but just one of Rabbi Feller told the Yated that Lubavitch Rabbi Feller was born and raised in
many firsts surrounding the Federal court has representatives in every state in the Minneapolis. His father, who arrived there
case in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. As the country except for three - South Dakota, before World War I, sold cars in St. Paul
trial concluded its second week this past North Dakota and Mississippi. It was thus and raised a shomer Shabbos family.
Yemei Hadin
The purpose of my articles is always Hashem, I want to stay away from that I came to give Shalom Mordechai
to share some insight and hopefully topic. Instead, I would like to focus some chizuk, I left with much more
offer some direction in the way we on some thoughts that went through than I came with. I remember Shalom
raise our children. While I intend to my mind as I sat in Courtroom II in Mordechai from my days growing up in
do that here as well, I must first share the Federal courthouse in Sioux Falls, New York and I have had some limited
some details about an experience I South Dakota. contact with him over the past ten
recently had as the background for the South Dakota borders the state of years as a recipient of his generosity.
lessons to be learned. Minnesota, where I live. I recently He supported our school because that
Anyone reading the Yated over made the four-hour drive (in each is what he did and it represents who he
the past few months knows about direction) to attend the trial. I didn’t go is.
the challenges facing the Rubashkin as a witness, nor because I am a family I arrived at the courthouse at 12:15
family, and specifically the current member of the defendant, nor because p.m. and Shalom Mordechai was
Federal trial of Reb Shalom Mordechai South Dakota was one of the few states standing outside, getting some fresh
Rubashkin. While there is much to I had not yet visited. I didn’t go because air as the court took a break for lunch.
be said about the reasons for the I wanted to witness a miscarriage of I can’t describe the simcha that he
justice and I didn’t go because I had displayed when he saw us and the
horrible misapplication of justice and
nothing better to do. general calm that he felt. I heard reports
all the reasons why it is difficult to
Instead, I went because Shalom of his unreal emunah and bitachon in
understand why Shalom Mordechai
Mordechai, being a fellow Yid, is my the Ribono Shel Olam, but to see it in
must experience these tests from
relative. I went because I real life was very different.
wanted to create a kiddush I want to share with you my private
Hashem. I went because I thoughts as I was standing outside of
wanted to show my support the courthouse at that very moment. I
for another Yid in tzaar. I was thinking about how proud Hashem
went because I wanted to must be of His children, as two relative
see the face of someone strangers took a four-hour drive just
who was described to me, to give another of His children some
by reliable sources, as a true chizuk. Isn’t that what our mission
maamin. I went because I felt in life is all about - to give Hashem
that I owe him a tremendous nachas ruach?
amount of hakoras hatov As someone who works with
for always supporting our children, my thoughts immediately
school generously, and I turned to the way parents raise
went to show the judge children. Do we take the time and
and the jurors that we are a show our children what it means to us -
supportive people. their parents - when we see love being
On a recent Wednesday shown from one sibling to another?
morning, a friend and I Moving on, we entered the
left for the long journey. courtroom. I had never seen
We thought that we knew proceedings in a criminal trial before
why we were going, but and perhaps it is something that we
we weren’t sure. It felt like should all experience earlier in our
the right thing to do. While lives. There were several things that
BY LIBA LIEBERMAN
Far Rockaway is situated between two the dictates of the wind. incomprehensible problems. Just two
stretches of boardwalks, and at this time At one point, the sun began melting weeks ago, Klal Yisroel read Parshas
of year, they provide sunsets that stagger into the horizon. The intensity of the Bereishis, when Gan Eden was within
the imagination. While walking recently burning peach hues had hit its peak, reach and was lost. This past week’s
on the Atlantic Beach boardwalk after and already behind me at the other end parsha was Noach. It is filled with
work, approximately at sunset, I saw of the boardwalk the sky was beginning despair, yet the seed of Klal Yisroel is
right here in my hometown what Monet to darken. The utter beauty of Hashem’s protected.
was also inspired by - a marbled sky in world! A sunset at the beach can The drama of everyday life is the
blue-gray, and peach-pink tones. I own contain all the emotion in the world playing field of a Yid’s existence.
a copy of one of his paintings with that condensed in a sky burning with life. Sometimes the drama is one of awe,
exact color scheme, which must have The ocean below that sky was whipped like the experience of sunset on an
been painted from a setting somewhere up with the fury of the autumn wind, autumn beach. Or remembering the
in France. But I wasn’t in France, and wave after wave rushed toward first baby steps of a child as that same
and I wasn’t looking at a painting. A the home stretch of the shoreline with child is being walked to the chupah.
miracle that we commonly call sunset frothy determination. Sometimes the drama is about terrible
was happening, changing into a new Olam Hazeh is a world filled with dangers; a casual look at the headlines
masterpiece every few seconds as the extremes. Everywhere one looks, is enough to determine the gravity of
sky darkened and the clouds shifted to there is extraordinary beauty and current events.
Iran’s nuclear potential, the Goldstone
Report condemning the Israeli army’s
conduct during Operation Cast Lead,
and, on a national level, the health
care reform effort that is slamming
the door in the face of any opposition,
are chilling reminders of why we need
to seek the protection of the Ribono
Shel Olam.
The Rubashkin trial in South
Dakota is another example of drama
with implications that recall the blood
libels of yesteryear.
The playing field of life is vast, and
was created for one reason, and one
reason only: that we become inspired
by it to turn to Hashem, Who is always
waiting to hear from us. Real world
scenarios are Heavenly cues for Klal
Yisroel to remember the only Head
of State, and beseech Him for mercy
when necessary, and praise Him for
allowing us to serve as His chosen
people in a world of daily miracles.
Reb Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin’s It should be noted that Reb Shalom allowed, because Reade had split the
lawyers began calling witnesses on Mordechai’s limited resources are trial into two parts.
Monday to counter allegations against somewhat compromising his ability Reade rejected the motions, allowing
the former Iowa slaughterhouse vice to fight back against the blood libel the trial to proceed.
president. The list of possible defense created by the legal team representing In her initial decision to split the trial,
witnesses includes the plant’s former the government. Reade had ruled that allowing all charges
bankruptcy trustee, Joe Sarachek, and “There is no question,” commented in one trial could unfairly prejudice the
Postville schools guidance counselor a volunteer involved in raising funds jury, allowing evidence for one group of
Ron Wahl, who worked extensively for Shalom Mordechai, “that with charges to be applied to others. Reade
with the town’s immigrant population. additional funds, his legal team could had said she expected it to be difficult
Reb Shalom Mordechai’s father, R’ have been expanded to give him a better for a jury to compartmentalize damaging
Aaron Rubashkin, the family patriarch opportunity to refute the bogus charges information.
who founded Agriprocessors, Inc. in being leveled against him.” Last Tuesday, when Billmeyer
Northeast Iowa, testified on Tuesday. Agriprocessors was the site of a May testified, the government presented
The Rubashkin trial, being held 2008 immigration raid that rounded evidence that the company received
in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, began up 389 illegal workers. The raid, one no-match letters from the government
its fourth week on Monday with the of the largest in American history, and - notification that its employees did not
prosecution concluding the presentation unprecedented in nature and scope; have matching Social Security numbers
of its case against Reb Shalom forcing the plant into bankruptcy six - for several hundred employees, as
Mordechai. months later. It was then, prosecutors well as a sharply worded e-mail from
The trial is being held at the US allege, that the court-appointed trustee Billmeyer warning that people could go
District Court on S. Phillips Avenue in discovered a plot to defraud the plant’s to jail if nothing was done.
Sioux Falls and is being presided over lender. The defense on Monday began On cross-examination, however,
by U.S. District Judge Linda Reade. its effort to prove that the charges are defense attorney F. Montgomery Brown
Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin faces totally unfounded. blamed Billmeyer for the failure to
1995 years in jail if found guilty of Shalom Mordechai will face the 72 discover illegal immigrant applicants.
the charges he is facing, which will be federal immigration-related charges in Brown also presented several strongly
brought in two trials. The current trial the second trial now scheduled to begin worded e-mails to other plant managers,
consists of 91 charges relating to bank on December 1. in addition to the one she sent Shalom
fraud. The second trial will focus on 72 DEFENSE TEAM FILES Mordechai. This was to show that
immigration-related charges. FOR MISTRIAL the government’s claim that Shalom
Reb Shalom Mordechai will take Last Wednesday morning, Shalom Mordechai was solely responsible
the stand on his own behalf, defense Mordechai’s attorneys twice filed for the goings-on at Agri is a gross
attorney Guy Cook said, and that may motions for a mistrial after a key misrepresentation.
come as soon as Thursday. government witness, former human The human resources manager agreed
Federal prosecutors concluded resources manager Elizabeth Billmeyer, with Brown’s assessment that she had
their case on Monday after 10 days, divulged details of illegal immigrants “a little bit of a temper,” was “a little
47 witnesses and scores of internal working at the company. Attorney Cook excitable,” and was “prone to drama.”
company records were presented. The protested in court to Judge Reade that In blaming Billmeyer for failing to
prosecution concocted a case on behalf by permitting this testimony about the discover illegal immigrant applicants,
of the government against Reb Shalom alleged hiring and harboring of illegal Brown said, “Someone was asleep at
Mordechai. Observers felt that many immigrants at the plant, the bank fraud the switch for a couple of years, and
of their witnesses were shown to have case currently on trial would suffer hundreds of illegal aliens were hired.”
selective memories, while others were from a “death by a thousand cuts.” The Laura Althouse, who in May pleaded
discredited altogether. attorneys took exception to the details guilty of conspiracy to harbor illegal
The trial of Reb Shalom Mordechai the bank by creating false invoices was responsible for just $1 million. He
Rubashkin wound to a close Monday, to show inflated sales, so as to entitle noted that Agriprocessors had many
with prosecutors and defense attorneys Agriprocessors to additional loan funds. high-level managers, and Reb Shalom
giving closing arguments that painted Cook said, “Shalom Rubashin has Mordechai was not responsible for all
radically different pictures of the acknowledged he made mistakes. But it financial transactions.
defendant. was obvious the bank knew about it and The fact that the government insists
U.S. Attorney Peter Deegan, still continued to lend Agriprocessors on singling out Reb Shalom Mordechai
addressing the jurors first, said the money. In so doing, the bank was exclusively for every minor and major
defendant masterminded an enormous signaling its tacit consent.” violation they uncovered invites
fraud scheme and harbored illegal Interest on the $35 million line of suspicion, Cook said. How is it possible
immigrants at the plant. He accused credit came to $13.5 million and was in a business so massive, he asked,
Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin of being enormously lucrative for the lender for one person to be single-handedly
obsessed with control. bank. It helped shaped the bank’s policy responsible for every single mistake and
Jabbing his finger at the defendant in of not looking closely at Agriprocessors’ oversight?
a theatrical display of pious indignation, paperwork, never once conducting an Cook wondered aloud why
he said “This man knowingly defrauded audit, and continuing to lend the meat prosecutors had not a single question
First Bank by offering false invoices for company millions of dollars even after for Aaron Rubashkin while he was on
orders that never existed! He lied! He the government raid. the witness stand. “It seems they had a
cheated!” Deegan mocked Reb Shalom Given the bank’s intentionally turning script they had to follow, and it called
Mordechai’s claims that he was not a blind eye, how could the government for concentrating all their ammunition at
responsible for all financial transactions possibly cry fraud, Cook asked the my client. Questioning the true owner of
and that he did not know that his actions jury. Furthermore, while the bank itself the plant might uncover information that
crossed the line into illegality. launched its own civil suit against would weaken their case against Shalom.
Deegan urged the jury to find Agriprocessors to recover its loan That couldn’t be allowed. The script had
Rubashkin guilty on all 91 counts money, strikingly, the lawsuit makes no to be followed to the end.”
- virtually sentencing him to life complaint of fraud. Aaron Rubashkin, who opened the
imprisonment. Cook said that this fact underscores Postville slaughterhouse in 1987, told
Defense attorney Guy Cook told jurors that the government has manufactured a jurors that he mortgaged his home,
that the prosecution had invented a story federal criminal case out of a matter that two buildings that he owned and his
that didn’t happen. He asked the jury to should have remained in civil litigation. store in Boro Park after the May 2008
take the necessary time to think about The government had overreached in this immigration raid.
the evidence and to weigh it carefully. case, he said. “I don’t want to describe what was
“The prosecution wants you to set aside He said his client was an inexperienced there (following the raid),” the 80 year-
the evidence, and regardless of whether businessman who tackled too much. old said. “I’m sure the architects who
it makes sense, to find the defendant “My client is guilty of incompetence made it have pictures.”
guilty,” he said. “I’m asking you not to and oversight. That doesn’t make him His efforts to save the company
rush to judgment but to think carefully a criminal. Defaulting on a bank loan is ultimately failed, as the plant slipped into
about what you’ve heard here. Think not a crime.” bankruptcy the following November.
about the evidence. Any reasonable The Government of the United States Defense lawyers called the elder
person can see the government’s case Against…. Shalom Rubashkin? Rubashkin, a Lubavitcher chossid who
is implausible. It goes against common Cook reminded jurors of some of the began his career decades ago processing
sense.” terms in the plant’s loan contract with the meat in Paris after fleeing Russia, to
Bank Signaled Its Consent bank, that Aaron Rubashkin, Shalom’s contest the charges.
Cook addressed the central charge that father, carries “unlimited” responsibility “When we came to Postville, every
Reb Shalom Mordechai had defrauded for the $35 million loan, while Shalom street (had) 4-5 homes for sale; Stores
A Travesty of Justice
BY CHAIM RUBASH(EV)KIN*
*Today we are
all Rubash(ev)kin
Justice Denied
BY DEBBIE MAIMON
The guilty verdicts returned by noon until Motzoei Shabbos. defense team’s objections were filed in
the jurors in the Rubashkin trial last His family was lied to about his true three separate motions for a mistrial, all
week were both deeply disturbing and whereabouts and he was not allowed of which were turned down by Reade.
surprising. In retrospect, however, they to contact them. A sympathetic U.S. “It’s clear that allowing unrelated
should not have come as a surprise, as Marshall intervened and phoned the charges to be brought up in a trial
the rank inequities in the way the trial family to inform them where he was unfairly influences the jury to convict
was conducted all but guaranteed a being held. They rushed his tallis and the defendant,” Cook explained. “Make
miscarriage of justice. tefillin to him. the defendant look guilty of an unrelated
Many who followed the trial had By the time these words are first read, charge, and it’s easier to pin him with
ardently hoped for an acquittal. Reb Shalom Mordechai’s sentence will criminal intent in relation to the real
Disconcerted by the one-sided rulings have been pronounced by Judge Linda charges before the court. Those are
from the bench, they nevertheless prayed Reade. Hopefully, he will be freed on grounds for a mistrial.”
that the truth would emerge. Those hopes bail pending his upcoming trial on In effect, if not intent, Reade seemed to
were dashed as Judge Linda Reade spent immigration charges. Few expect her to be assisting the prosecution. The leniency
close to an hour reading off the list of 86 show any leniency. shown the prosecution contrasted starkly
charges to which the jurors had returned with the severe constraints imposed
APPEAL IS CERTAIN on the defense. Reade’s continually
a guilty verdict.
As parts of the court record become suppressed great amounts of witness
BITTER AFTERMATH accessible to the public for the first time,
The devastating outcome of the trial testimony that might have led to Reb
many are convinced that Reb Shalom Shalom Mordechai’s acquittal.
was made even more bitter by events Mordechai was deprived of a fair trial.
that immediately followed. Upon the The suppression of crucial testimony
An appeal is certain, his attorneys said. crippled the defense in several ways. A
requests of the prosecutors who branded Attorney Guy Cook told WCF Courier lynchpin of the prosecution’s case was
him a flight risk, Reb Shalom Mordechai that a key aspect of the appeal will be its portrayal of the bank as a victim of
was taken into federal custody over the Judge Linda Reade’s decision to allow criminal deception, or fraud, on Reb
protests of his lawyers and was made to jurors to hear vast amounts of testimony Shalom Mordechai’s part. The defense
spend the night in solitary confinement that incriminated Reb Shalom Mordechai was prepared to prove the falsity of this
at the Sioux Falls State Penitentiary. on immigration violations. claim.
He was deprived of basic rights, This decision was in clear defiance of
including the right to contact his attorney Reade’s own earlier ruling that split the BANK NEVER
and to wear his yarmulka and tzitzis. immigration and financial charges. In ALLEGED FRAUD
Prison guards forcibly stripped him. For that ruling, she said it would be difficult Financial experts took the stand to
two hours, they maliciously taunted and for a jury to render a fair verdict if they show that the reviews and audits of
baited him, hoping to provoke him to had to listen to damaging information Argriprocessors by the bank were so
defiance while videotaping his reaction. about a host of different charges. half-hearted and infrequent as to be
He forced himself to remain calm, and Accordingly, the subject of harboring worthless. These superficial “lip-service”
somehow survived the night. His family illegal immigrants was supposed to be audits signaled the bank’s clear choice
is seeking to have the videotape released. barred from the financial trial. to continue their business dealings with
Although his lawyer had informed the company from which they greatly
the U.S. Marshals about his client’s THREE CALLS FOR benefited.
special dietary needs (kosher food), A MISTRIAL It should be noted that the bank never
this information was not given over to Reade contravened her own ruling, alleged fraud in their suit to recover their
the Sioux Falls Penitentiary authorities. Cook said. Over the protests of the monies following the company filing for
Food sent by his family also did not defense, the judge allowed more than ten bankruptcy.
reach him. Thus, Reb Shalom Mordechai hours of damaging immigration-related Prosecutors fought to neutralize
ate nothing for two days, from Thursday testimony against the defendant. The the testimony of the financial experts
Klal Yisroel,
Where Are You?
It was the night before Yom Kippur. Reb Yisroel. be the children, like my own nine-year-
I made my way up the steps of many Allow me to paraphrase the words old daughter, who asks me each day when
Montreal homes, accompanied by a of this great man. In this case, the Reb she comes home from school, “Totty,
new friend, Meir Simcha Rubashkin. Yisroels have shown they care. It’s the what happened with your friend? Will he
Warmhearted Yidden welcomed us, ‘Klal Yisroels’ who have fallen short. have to go to jail? I davened sooo hard!”
understanding that we were there for a I know that things look bleak right It will be the ones who opened their doors
cause. now for Reb Shalom Mordechai, but wide to Meir Simcha and his siblings -
As soon as my companion, Meir the way they look mean little to people who have spent most of their lives doing
Simcha, said his last name, they who inhabit the world that he does. It’s a the opening - smiling broadly and saying,
understood. That Rubashkin. Our hosts sublime place, one that, if we’re lucky, we “Come in.”
involuntarily squirmed when he said get to visit just before the tekiah gedolah They - the individuals - will be the true
who his father is, confronted - despite at the end of Ne’ilah. It’s a place of true, mechutanim.
themselves - with the deep discomfort unwavering bitachon, or clarity, vision And the groups? The ones with
engendered by the name. Was it guilt and security that there is a Plan. large legal departments and media
about not doing enough and not caring One has to see him and sit with him connections and massive banquets and
enough? to understand it. It’s almost tangible. No, conferences with the stated goal of
Meir Simcha, with trademark he doesn’t do the hyperbole thing, letting helping Yidden? They will scratch their
Rubashkin buoyancy and cheer, smiled pesukim and optimistic phrases fall from heads and try to explain where they
brightly and explained why we were there. his lips even when he doesn’t mean them. were when the Ribbono Shel Olam was
A child of wealth and privilege, married I saw him. I sat with him. accepting partners.
just eighteen months, sixteen of which He’s for real. The fact that someone has a beard
were spent back in Postville helping his The bloggers think his smile is one of and peyos doesn’t make him a victim of
mother cope, Meir Simcha asked Yidden smugness. It isn’t. He is smiling - even anti-Semitism if he finds himself on the
to open their hearts and wallets for his after the verdict - because he believes. He wrong side of law. The United States
father. believes! They are the smug ones, sitting government, for better or for worse,
To all those Yidden, thank you for your and passing judgment when the Mighty allowed Reb Shalom Mordechai due
warm response. You understood how hard Hand of the True Judge can come expose process. He had a hearing and a lawyer
it was for him. You saw that underneath them in a moment! and was found guilty by the jury. They
his confident smile was an inner world It’s entirely possible that the many were doing their jobs.
torn asunder by the painful ordeal. You guarantees and promises made to No one says that the government has to
reached into your pockets and withdrew those who choose the path of bitachon love Yidden, to be moser nefesh for them,
more than you could afford, hoping that will be fulfilled in Reb Shalom to believe in them. I am not disappointed
perhaps, this way, He would be merciful Mordechai, and we may yet see some in Uncle Sam. He has no mitzvah to love
on the impending Day of Judgment. surprising developments. He may just Yidden.
I learned, during the few nights that I win on appeal and then we will have But they, the organizations and
was privileged to go around with Meir the seudas hoda’ah that we are so foundations and conferences of kiddush
Simcha, just how deeply you really do anxiously awaiting. Hashem-worriers, do. At this point,
care. Once the initial skepticism imposed Do you know who the mechutanim will it makes no difference if Reb Shalom
on you by the silence of the Jewish be at that affair? Rubashkin made mistakes, if he is guilty
establishment and the vicious hatred of It will be the yechidim, the Reb and if he should have accepted a plea
bloggers faded away, you were more Yisroels out there. The hartzige Yidden bargain. At this point, the only thing that
than generous. who clipped the ads from Yated and should concern any feeling Yid is that
Rabbi Moshe Sherer zt”l is famously mailed in a check. The rabbeim, actuaries, Reb Shalom Mordechai is facing a bitter
quoted as saying that we have an achrayus grocery clerks and everyone else who was punishment. He may, chas veshalom,
to care not just about Klal Yisroel, but about touched and moved to contribute. It will never again see his children not behind
I sit here just hours after having worked. Maybe the jury, like so many bochurim who had come to give him
heard the news. I am dumbfounded and other uninformed people, decided that if chizuk.
confounded. I am shaken up. I feel like a there’s smoke - even if the smoke was The detractors never conversed
ton of bricks has hit me. planted by the Federal government - there with this special neshama who, during
I am experiencing feelings I seldom must be fire. his very own trial, brought Torah and
have felt before. What blinded the five-man, seven- Yiddishkeit to Sioux Falls for the first
It is Thursday night. I should be taking woman jury at the federal courthouse in time, igniting the pintele Yid in a dozen
care of various Shabbos preparations, but downtown Sioux Falls? I don’t know. Jews who have been assimilated in the
instead I sit here unable to move. Was it anti-Semitism? Was it the site of melting pot of America.
How can I possibly go on with life like a bearded Jew that prevented them from They never bothered to sit down
nothing has happened? Our brother was seeing the truth? and study the case, and try to make
just been taken away, in handcuffs, by Reb Shalom Mordechai was targeted heads and tails of the charges that the
four officers, like a hardened criminal. for destruction by PETA and the prosecutors had thrown at Reb Shalom
A jury has found a good man guilty very unions which have destroyed Mordechai.
of dozens of charges in a case that was manufacturing in this country and sent They never bothered to try to
nothing more than a concoction of lies millions of jobs overseas. The Heksher understand why the government had
and misrepresentations. I wish I could Tzedek initiativewas partner in this greater targeted a vice president of the company
go out into the streets of America and let effort aimed directly to bring down this and blamed him for all the crimes that
the world know the truth. I want to tell successful company and family. they claimed were committed at the
people of the evidence and testimony that Even within our communities - and meat plant.
the judge, Linda Reade, did not allow the this is painful to say - there were and There never bothered to try to
defense to present to the jury. Most of there are those who believed the fodder understand how in the world the very
all, I want to let the world know that the that the mainstream press coughed up judge who ordered the unprecedented
American court system is broken. on a regular basis. raid on Agriprocessors back in May
As someone who was in the courtroom If the Federal government charged a 2008 could be the judge presiding
told me a day before the trial wrapped up, man with over 91 counts, how virtuous over the case against Reb Shalom
“If the masses knew the way the court can he possibly be? Right? Mordechai. Wouldn’t she be biased
system in America truly operated, there Wrong. against the defendant and attempt to
would be riots in the streets.” These people never met or spoke to steer the case in a fashion that would
A jury listened for four weeks to flawed Reb Shalom Mordechai. They never now justify her earlier decision to allow
and empty testimony and decided that Reb heard the voice of this man who lives the company to be raided?
Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin is guilty of with Hashem every breathing second In our world, we call that a nogeiah
86 of 91 charges. and has respect for the country we live b’dovor, a conflict of interest. In the
Their task was to consider whether the in and its laws. American justice system, it’s called,
defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable They never spoke to this individual well, justice, I guess.
doubt. Even without the crucial evidence who throughout this first trial was more Last Sunday, I spoke to Reb Shalom
that was withheld, the jury could not have worried about spreading the word of Mordechai. I picked up the phone and
possibly come to a logical conclusion that Hashem than the fact that he is being asked, in a voice filled with admiration,
Reb Shalom Mordechai is guilty beyond a judged for his very life. “Am I speaking with the semel (symbol)
reasonable doubt. They never spoke to this consummate of bitachon here in the United States?”
So perhaps the jury system is broken oveid Hashem who, during the days of He humbly laughed. He didn’t realize
too. Maybe it was bias. Maybe it his trial, was busy making copies of a that I meant it with every fiber of my
was sheer ignorance. Or perhaps the sefer at the local Staples store in Sioux being.
government’s shock-and-awe tactic of Falls. While awaiting the verdict, what He said modestly, “Mir darf hubben
throwing countless charges at their target was he doing? Giving a shiur to some bitachon.”
The Truth
about the Trial
BY DEBBIE MAIMON
Nothing exposes the government’s from the fraud trial, actually played a key expediting their sentencing.
flawed, overzealous prosecution of Shalom role in the jury’s guilty verdict. What is one to make of this breathtaking
Mordechai Rubashkin as much as the U.S. Prosecutor Peter Deegan disregard of due process, the most basic and
prosecution’s decision two weeks ago to acknowledged as much in his motion to fundamental right of every citizen in this
drop all 72 immigration charges against him. dismiss: “The jury’s verdicts on several country? Read on. It only gets worse.
This move followed just a few days after of the fraud counts were premised, at least ‘DIRTYING UP’
Shalom Mordechai’s conviction on bank in part, upon the defendant knowingly
fraud charges, in a trial marked by bizarre [misleading] the bank with regard to THE DEFENDANT
irregularities and one-sided rulings from the harboring undocumented aliens…” he wrote. Defense attorney Guy Cook protested the
bench that all but pre-determined a guilty Jurors already heard much of the evidence prosecution’s tactics of “dirtying up” the
verdict. of Rubashkin’s guilt in regard to immigration defendant with unrelated charges in order to
The move to dismiss immigration charges violations, and even “premised” their verdict criminalize him in the jury’s mind.
took many by surprise. Prosecutor Peter Prosecutors were required to prove that
on it. The “public interest would not be
Deegan, in his motion to dismiss, stated Shalom Mordechai had “criminal intent”
served” by repeating the process, Deegan
that his reasoning was that a conviction on in his dealings with the bank, but lacked
said.
immigration charges would be completely the evidence to support fraud and money-
Wait. Let’s have that again.
“eclipsed” by the severe sentence Shalom laundering charges. Their strategy was to
Prosecution rides roughshod over Judge
Mordechai faces for bank fraud. He also prop up a weak case by selling the jury a
Linda Reade’s ruling to exclude immigration
cited the expense of a second prolonged trial sinister profile of a man who played fast and
testimony from the bank fraud trial; sneaks
and the inconvenience to the witnesses. loose with immigration laws, by harboring
in many hours of such testimony; uses it to
The decision was hailed by defense aliens, conspiring to engage in Social Security
paint the defendant as an arrogant lawbreaker
attorney Guy Cook, who said the charges fraud, and other immigration-related crimes.
which persuades the jury to return a
should have been dismissed long ago, and These tactics worked, but only because
sweeping guilty verdict - only to drop all 72
that the dismissal vindicated his client. Yet Judge Reade made sure they were not
immigration charges afterwards?
many who followed the case closely suspect undermined by defense witnesses who
Simply put, the prosecution won a
the prosecution’s move was self-serving. challenged their credibility. These witnesses
conviction that can send a man to jail for life
They feel it was driven by an unwillingness included lawyers, CPAs and ordinary citizens
based in large measure on charges that have
to hold a trial that might end up focusing who came forward to prove that Shalom
now been totally dismissed!
unwanted scrutiny on the government’s Mordechai had hired lawyers to help resolve
If that isn’t scandalous enough, what of
actions in connection with the raid and the his immigration problems prior to the raid.
the prosecution’s manipulation of the jury by
excessive prosecution of Shalom Mordechai Their testimony exposed the falsity of the
mixing immigration-violation testimony into
Rubashkin. charges of bank fraud and money-laundering.
the fraud trial - with an apparent green light
HOW PROSECUTORS Yet the jurors never heard a word of
from the bench despite Reade’s earlier ruling
their testimony. They were sent out of the
WON THEIR CASE forbidding it? courtroom while these witnesses took the
How were charges deemed so serious The likelihood of confusing the jury by stand.
that they were used to justify the devastating mixing the charges is precisely why Judge Cook said this subversion of the jury
raid at Agriprocessors so simply dropped? Reade ruled they should be separated. Yet, process would be a key argument in Shalom
Weren’t immigration violations part of the over the defense’s objections, she allowed Mordechai’s appeal. “The government
very backbone of the government’s case? the testimony, ignoring three defense motions poisoned the financial trial with prejudicial
The charges of harboring aliens and calling for a mistrial. evidence from the immigration charges,
aiding them in document fraud were in fact This is the same judge who not only which for their own reasons they have now
responsible for almost half of the 163-count authorized the raid on Agriprocessors, but dismissed,” he said.
indictment against Shalom Mordechai. Not helped prepare the plea bargain scripts
only that, but the now-dismissed charges, that illegal immigrants were forced to use, PUTTING ICE RAID
although they were supposed to be barred and worked actively with prosecutors in ON TRIAL
Perfidy in Iowa Page 81
Critics of the government’s ICE raid up in the November cold shoeless, wearing officials about the open-records request,
on Agriprocessors, including immigration light prison-issued clothing and socks with defense lawyers sued for the information
lawyers and activists for immigration reform, thin soles, a community spokesmen told The under the Freedom of Information Act.
were deeply disappointed by the dropping Gazette, a local paper. “Despite several requests for production of
of charges. They had hoped to use the trial WHAT AN IMMIGRATION the information sought, it is apparent ICE
as a platform to expose the mistreatment will not honor Shalom Rubashkin’s FOIA
of the men and women who were seized TRIAL WOULD UNCOVER requests without legal pressure,” Guy Cook
and prosecuted. Sharp criticism of the If the immigration charges against Shalom and Montgomery Brown wrote in the lawsuit.
unprecedented harshness that characterized Mordechai were allowed to go forward and An immigration trial would have
the raid continues to hound ICE and has these witnesses had a chance to testify, ICE produced evidence that would have crippled
led to the formation of a congressional officials would be forced to address a number the prosecution’s charges that Agriprocessors
subcommittee to investigate the matter. of burning questions. not only knowingly hired illegal aliens, but
Many say the trial’s dismissal, in addition “They’d have to answer why illegal aided them in document fraud. The plant
to avoiding unnecessary expense and immigration was singled out and criminalized twice rejected the employment application
inconvenience, saves ICE authorities from at Agriprocessors in a way it has never been of a federal “sting” informant because of
being “put on trial” themselves. Having their before,” writes Dr. Erik Camayd-Freixas, fraudulent work documents.
actions in connection with the raid subjected a professor of Hispanic studies at Miami He was hired the third time he applied
to scrutiny might open up a Pandora’s box. University, who also served as a court after authorities equipped him with legitimate
Critics want to know how and why appointed translator for arrested immigrants papers, and he was thus able to infiltrate the
the huge, coordinated effort that required at Agriprocessors. plant. With clear evidence that the plant
intense planning and vast resources before it “A year later, it is clear that the feds had screening procedures in place and did
swooped down in May 2008, seizing about crushed hundreds of workers and their not indiscriminately hire illegal aliens,
400 workers, was first launched. Who gave families, at an unprecedented scale, to build “prosecutors knew their case was tenuous,”
the go-ahead to this enforcement action? Who an exemplary immigration case against noted Washington attorney Nathan Lewin.
wrote the “stage instructions” for shotgun- Shalom Rubashkin,” he said. “Dropping Is this why they decided to cook up a bank
wielding agents in heavy riot gear to break those charges now as unnecessary makes the fraud case against Rubashkin?
down doors and corral the workers, whisking raid all the more scandalous. Had an immigration trial gone forward,
them away in chains to makeshift courts and “Under the old way of doing things, the ICE officials would have had to address
detention centers in northern Iowa? illegal workers would have been simply the fact that prior to the raid, the plant had
At this far-flung location, far from their and swiftly deported. Instead, more than retained a prominent international law firm to
homes and family members, the immigrants, 260 were charged as serious criminals for negotiate with ICE officials so as to resolve
most of whom spoke no English and were “aggravated identity theft” - for using false the immigration problems and remove illegal
given minimal translation, were pressed to Social Security numbers, and most were employees. The law firm had represented a
plead guilty and serve five to 12 months in sentenced to five months in prison.” large beef-slaughtering operation that had
prison, or face a maximum of 10 years and a At an immigration trial, officials would employed hundreds of illegal aliens, and
$250,000 fine at trial. be forced to address the fact that a few these lawyers had succeeded in avoiding a
Their plea agreements had been pre- months following the raid, the US Supreme raid.
scripted by government authorities, one of Court slammed the charges of ID theft that But in the case of Agriprocessors, the
whom was Judge Linda Reade, and required were used to coerce guilty pleas from the federal agents refused to call off the planned
the immigrants to admit to aggravated immigrants. The court said identity theft raid. Why? The brutal enforcement action
identify theft - a charge that carries serious applies only when the defendant knows and the attendant national publicity poisoned
prison time - and to cooperate with the the correct identity of the owner whose public opinion against Shalom Mordechai
government in helping to prosecute others. documents he steals. and the company.
In the case of the illegal workers, most had
Even after serving their five-month
no clue about the significance or content of
WHAT BECAME OF THE
sentence, the ordeal continued for some 40 of GOVERNMENT’S LURID
the “convicts,” recalled against their will as their false papers. Their convictions should
material witnesses in the charges now being therefore have been vacated and the people ALLEGATIONS?
dropped. freed. Why weren’t they? Remember the first reports that hit the
Why was Agriprocessors targeted when it press right after the government raid last
WITNESSES BEGGED is widely known that the livestock industry year? Agriprocessors was painted as a den
TO BE DEPORTED uses illegal immigrants extensively? With 19 of iniquity by an ICE affidavit that allegedly
Now that they are no longer needed, they million illegals and a cloudy policy at best, uncovered lurid criminal activity.
are begging to be deported. They have no why was Agri singled out? In an immigration In addition to harboring aliens, and
livelihoods, homes or community to return trial, these questions could no longer be exploiting and mistreating their workers, the
to in this country. After more than a year stonewalled. plant was accused of being a front for drug
in legal limbo and electronic shackles, with Shalom Mordechai’s lawyers have production, of harboring a meth lab within
the families they supported enduring severe for months been requesting documents its facility. Weapons and bombs were said
hardship, they have only one desire: to be explaining how the raid was planned, to be present in the plant. One affidavit even
allowed to leave the country and rejoin their organized and executed. They want to quoted a worker who claimed he was tied up
families in Guatemala and Mexico. know how the operation was justified, by a rabbi.
Local community leaders in Decorah how authorities arrived at the presumption The lies and fabrications were so
and Postville, Iowa, said federal authorities that violation of the law was the norm at ludicrous, they would have been laughable
dumped the potential witnesses in their Agriprocessors. ICE officials have repeatedly had they not been gobbled up by a media and
towns without making arrangements for their shunted aside their requests. a public willing to believe the worst.
housing, food or work. The men showed After three follow-up letters asking ICE Whatever happened to these wild,
BY DEBBIE MAIMON
Chanukah has come and gone. For some earned that kind of trust,” Cook added. immigration charges could not be mixed in
of us, the days flew by in a whirlwind “Reason dictates that such a person would with the bank fraud trial.
of celebration and activity. But not never betray his friends, and would never It’s an old trick and it worked like
for everyone. For Sholom Mordechai dishonor himself by fleeing.” a dream, Cook said. Incriminate the
Rubashkin, waiting patiently in an Iowa jail The attorney said that the court of appeals defendant on an unrelated matter, and the
while a court of appeals weighs a judge’s was asked to note that in just a couple of job of convicting him on the charges he’s
decision not to grant him bail, time seemed days after the jury’s verdict, well over a standing trial for becomes much easier.
to be crawling. thousand letters to Judge Reade poured Cook slammed the prosecution for
After prolonged negotiations with in, testifying to Sholom Mordechai’s the “shock and awe tactics” in creating a
various prison officials, Aleph Institute, trustworthiness in keeping a promise. sweeping 163-count indictment that he said
a Florida-based organization that offers The court was also asked to look at overwhelmed the jury.
services to Jewish prison inmates, won the ten months of bail compliance he “Where did this astounding number
permission for Sholom Mordechai to light had already demonstrated in the months come from? If you look into the counts,
Chanukah licht. In view of the regulations leading up to the trial, as well as the extra you see that they consist of a very small
forbidding fires of any sort, and the guarantees his lawyers had offered. These number of charges that were duplicated
vehement opposition they encountered from included an electronic monitoring ankle and subdivided again and again. It’s as if I
officials, the granting of special permission bracelet and home detention, as well as 24- were arrested for J-walking, and was then
was embraced by the Rubashkin family as hour armed surveillance at the Rubashkins’ charged separately for each and every step.
a miracle in its own right. It buoyed their expense. That’s what the government did with the
trust in Hashem for a full yeshuah. Defense Counsel bank fraud charges. A single charge sliced
Each night of Chanukah, a guard Takes Yated Behind The Scenes up into 86 pieces,” said Cook.
escorted Sholom Mordechai from his cell Guy Cook shared his perspective with Jacking up the counts to a shocking
to a cinder-block room. There he lit his the Yated on some of the key issues in number was “duplicitous,” he said, because
menorah and was given an hour’s respite the case, particularly as they pertain to it wrongly prejudiced the jury, making it
to gather his thoughts and daven, while the appeal now being drafted by Sholom easy for them to view Sholom Mordechai
gazing into the tiny flames as they lit up the Mordechai’s new legal team. Cook is as a criminal. It also guaranteed that a
bleak surroundings. working with noted Washington attorney guilty verdict would result in a long prison
In a lengthy interview with the Yated, Nathan Lewin and other lawyers on the sentence.
attorney Guy Cook, who appealed Judge appeal, which can be filed only after a How Non-Crimes Became Federal
Linda Reade’s bail decision, says that sentence is handed down. That could take Felonies
justice moves slowly, but he is very hopeful another month. Cook said the problem facing the
that the bail denial will be overturned in Cook said he is troubled by what he prosecution was that the evidence didn’t
the coming days. He mentioned the strong calls the “duplicitous, dishonest” tactics support the sinister image they wanted to
arguments in the motion filed last week. used by the prosecution which he feels project of Sholom Mordechai as an arrogant
“We’re talking about someone for whom robbed Sholom Mordechai of a fair trial. lawbreaker. It was necessary to stretch the
43 people offered their homes as guarantees He cited the abuse of the grand jury truth, to dress up non-crimes as federal
that he wouldn’t flee. That’s over 8 million system; the trick of massively inflating the felonies, in order to win a conviction.
dollars in equity. Rabbis came forward indictment; intimidating and manipulating And it was necessary to position
to offer their synagogues’ holy scrolls witnesses; and prejudicing the jury against Sholom Mordechai as the mastermind who
worth hundreds of thousands of dollars as the defendant by cloaking non-criminal orchestrated the practice of the so-called
collateral. Guarantees of this magnitude are offenses as serious felonies. “fake invoices,” which then became the
simply unprecedented. Equally destructive, he said, was the prosecution’s “smoking gun.”
“People don’t put themselves on the prosecution’s sneaking in three days Sholom Mordechai testified that while
line to such a remarkable extent unless of immigration-violations testimony, he knew about the inflated invoices, he
the person they’re vouching for has after Judge Reade had earlier ruled that did not generate them. They were part of
With R’ Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin waiting in a him to be allowed home on bail, the present situation The van pulled into Sioux Falls a little before 4:30.
Cedar Rapids jail for a bail ruling from the court of was even more difficult. Everyone missed him terribly. By five o’clock, people were starting to stream out of
appeals, his family, an hour and a half away in Postville, “Another Shabbos without Totty,” the little ones would the building. 23-year old Getzel Rubashkin set up the
gathered in the kitchen the second night of Chanukah say tearfully as Friday rolled around. menorah, and as curious onlookers gathered around,
after hadlokas neiros to plan strategy. Not about the But there was no time to brood. It was Chanukah, a he said a few words about Chanukah, about spiritual
appeal or how to pay for it. Not about lawyers, judges time of miracles and rescue, of joy and gratitude. There freedom and the importance of giving G-dliness a
or motions. Instead, Mrs. Leah Rubashkin and the older were three Chanukah events to put together in Sioux place in one’s life. He recited the brachos and lit the
children were trying to devise a plan that would let Falls on very short notice - two Chanukah parties to menorah. The bochurim sang Maoz Tzur with Getzel
them bring the warmth and joy of Chanukah to Jews accommodate the schedules of two different groups, and accompanying them on a keyboard, as the crowd grew.
who lived five hours away in Sioux Falls, but would a menorah-lighting. Sholom Mordechai was always the In the evening, they hosted a Chanukah party
enable them to return home the same day. They needed driving force behind these events. They would need with music, food and words of Torah. The latkes and
to be on hand early in the morning for a Chanukah play, every ounce of energy and organization, not to mention doughnuts disappeared faster than they could serve
in which the younger Rubashkin children, who were a huge dose of siyata diShmaya, to pull it all off. them. The guests lingered, savoring the music, the
staying behind, would be performing. She thought about the people they would see in warmth and Jewish spirit in the room. So this was
“It was a little bit of a wild idea, but I thought about Sioux Falls. There was the Russian American couple, Chanukah!
the special friends Sholom Mordechai and I had made in Mark and Celia Rogoff, who had little Jewish education At ten o’clock, the Rubashkin clan did the entire
this city during the trial,” Leah Rubashkin said. “Some but were very drawn to Judaism. They’d been rebuffed event over again in Hebrew for a group of Israeli yordim
of them are so thirty for Torah, for the smallest taste by the only synagogue around for miles - a Reform who had just come home from work in a nearby mall.
of Yiddishkeit. It would be a real chessed to bring the temple - because they were too tradition-oriented. Sholom Mordechai had met these young men during
warmth and freilichkeit of Chanukah to them. It’s the Mark had begun to use his Hebrew name, Menachem their first week in Sioux Falls and, in his characteristic
kind of thing that Sholom Mordechai would love to do Mendel. He came to the courthouse every single day way, had forged a bond with them.
if he could. during the trial, giving Sholom Mordechai his blessings By the time the party was over and the room cleaned
“I broached it with my kids and they loved the for an acquittal. up, it was past midnight. Exhausted, they debated
idea. We contacted the people we had gotten to know And there was Stephanie and Philip who had started whether to stay overnight, but decided that there was no
in Sioux Falls and asked if they’d be interested. They out in Sioux Falls but had moved to the East Coast with way they could miss the younger children’s Chanukah
were thrilled. One of the women had a good friend who their two children to be closer to a Jewish community. performance the following morning. So they packed
worked in the Cultural Center in downtown Sioux Falls. They’d lived in Long Island and in Brooklyn. Walking everything up and clambered back into the van for the
She wrangled permission for us to hold a menorah- down the streets surrounded by religious-looking ride back to Postville.
lighting ceremony in the early evening. Another person people, they were dying to make a connection, but could At night, in their state of exhaustion, the ride
arranged for us to use a Wellness Center, connected with never summon up the courage to approach anyone. And seemed endless. Leah and some of the bochurim took
a local hospital, for the party itself. nobody approached them. After a few years, realizing turns driving, and by six in the morning, they were back
“Sunday morning, out came the pots and pans and that their experiment failed and they would always be home.
ingredients for a baking marathon. We rolled up our outsiders, they moved back to North Dakota. Leah recounted the day’s adventures a couple of
sleeves and went to work. A few feverish hours later, we Stephanie and her family had attended a Shabbaton days later, still savoring its afterglow. I tried to visualize
had hundreds of steaming latkes and jelly doughnuts.” that the Rubashkins had made in the hotel during their it, but couldn’t get past the staggering logistics. I
The Rubashkins piled into a 15-seat passenger van first Shabbos in Sioux Falls. At one point, she turned thought of driving a similar distance, say from Monsey
with a group of yeshiva bochurim for the five-hour to Leah with tears in her eyes. “Who would have ever to Montreal and back in one day, never mind the baking,
ride to Sioux falls. The mouthwatering aromas of fresh dreamed that we had to go back to Sioux Falls, where frying, shlepping, party arrangement, socializing,
latkes and home-baked jelly doughnuts tantalized them there are no Jews, to make a connection with Judaism?” serving, and cleaning up involved.
all the way to North Dakota. Stephanie’s friend worked in the Cultural Center, How do you manage to focus on others in the midst
Driving to Sioux Falls without Sholom Mordechai a prestigious building that has hosted symphonies, of your own pain? I wanted to ask. As if reading my
was poignant for Leah. They had made this trip together concerts and other cultural events. The friend got mind, she answered. “It made the kids so happy to bring
many times in the past four weeks while the trial was in the management’s consent to set up a menorah on a a little Yiddishkeit to people who are so thirsty for it,”
progress. That ordeal was finally over, but with Sholom platform right outside the Center, and to have it lit as the she said. “Because that’s what their father would have
Mordechai incarcerated while they wait and pray for Center was closing for the day. done if he could. That’s Sholom Mordechai.”
What was done to Reb Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin can be done to anyone, Chas V’Shalom.
Yidden, NJQOHY JQB NJQOHY, please let’s not turn him down. Please help our brother, Reb Shalom
Mordechai Rubashkin, today.