JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

11/17/08 06:44 PM

Agriprocessors suspending production, you say. But then you say, production may resume. Which is it?
Didn’t Dewey really defeat Truman? Can news media predict how the news will come out? Only JTA knows!
AR down South, speaking only for myself

11/17/08 10:16 PM

I am amazed that no one has called this for what it is: an organized attack on orthodox Judaism and an act of Antisemitism by PETA and Federal prosecutors. 
When there are thousands of much, much larger meat packers around the country with similar hiring practices, how do you end up attacking ONLY the orthodox kosher one?  And in the middle of Iowa?
What about Perdue and Tyson foods?  Are they too big or too well connected?  How did Hillary Clinton make so much money from Tysons when she and Bill were in Arkansas?  By the way, was it not the so-called “Jewish” and “orthodox attending”, Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s new Chief of Staff, that was the first on the bandwagon as a Congressman to attack the kosher meat packer?  But Emanuel did not need all the facts, it was enough that the attack was against the Jews and supported by PETA.
This attack on Agriprocessors is antisemitism at it best.  It is too bad that the assimilated Jews cannot see for what it is until it is too late.

11/18/08 02:34 PM

Maurice, I felt the way you do when I first saw the Times coverage the story. However, the financial irregularies at the company predate the PETA arrest.  As you VERY well know there ARE Orthodox Jews who are thieves and predators. If Rubashkin is one of them, I say put him away and take away his business. We don’t need kosher meat produced under these conditions. The Kosher meat business has always been plagued with corruption because there is so much money involved in a captive market. I learned this from Rav Nachman Bullman, ZTZL, who was publicly threatened in front of his shul in South Fallsburgh. I know the man who owned the butcher in Far Rockaway who was selling traife meat for years. Rabbi Shlomo Twerski, ZTZL, has many colorful stories to tell about shochtim and their exploits but the best of all happend in public. A schochet had two wives, one in each city he visited. They both showed up in Denver at Zera Avraham in the two different women’s sections on the two different sides of the shul. Duvie Heller tells this story well. They were yelling at each other over the heads of the men.  Not a great guy. Rabbi Twerski quit his job at Zera Avraham over this. They got so disgusted with the behavior of the schochtim that they “assured” Rabbi Twerski’s meat. He left the shul over that issue and founded TRI Sulom in the lower part of his split level a block away from the shul on the West Side of Denver.

Arnold, you should take an English class. If they say that Rubashkin has suspended production and they MAY resume, that means something has happened and we don’t know what might happen. What do you expect them to do, check out their crystal ball?

You should look in yours to learn how to read and write in English!

Nama

11/18/08 04:25 PM

agree with Maurice, not with Nama. There are a lot of Jews that hate Jewish customs, and kosher meat is of course an important part of their hate. So it is not surprizing that Forward worked long and hard to destroy Rubashkin, it is not really about the alleged misconduct, but to price kosher meat out of the market, and to force observant Jews to eat non-kosher meat.

It is not really so new. Back at the beginning of last century, there was a lot of opposition to the establishment of kosher food industry, because when it is not there, you simply have no choice but to buy from the Goyim, without bad conscience. But if it is there, you are always forced to make a decision either to buy unkosher and pay less or to buy kosher and pay more. And if you decided for the first, you will have frum people looking down at you, because of your choice. So the idea was to take away the choice… Not much different today.

11/18/08 05:01 PM

Shalom everyone. I am a congregational rabbi who has kept kosher all his life.  I believe that the laws of Kashrut refine our souls and are a cornerstone of Jewish observance.

For a short while, I lived in Stockholm, Sweden where Shechita (Jewish Ritual Slaughter) was forbidden. Meat had to be imported, usually from South America (there was limited availability from other parts of Europe). In that instance, I viewed the anti-Shechita laws as nothing but cloaked anti-Semitism.  You could shoot an animal with an arrow in the forest and let it die over several hours as you tracked it an gutted it (arrow hunting is a big deal there).  But they wouldn’t allow Jews to slaughter their meat in the prescribed Kosher fashion without first employing an electric shock (by stunning), which posed all sorts of other Halachic concerns (issues of Jewish law).

Rubashkin’s on the other hand, is a cow of a different color.  Their flagrant abuse of their workers - financiall and sexually; their serial disregard of immigration laws AND the horribly cruel treatment of animals that has been long documented in Postville has created a “Hillul Hashem” (a desecration of G-d’s name) of the highest order.  Unfortunately it is self inflicted!  No movement, no rabbi, no organization, no individual has a right to ignore the law of the land (Dinah Demalchuta Dina! The law of the land is the law!)

Their actions are indefensible and to attribute the prosecution of felons like Shalom Rubashkin to “anti-Semitism” distorts the real meaning of anti-Semitism and does no service to Jews.  I grew up in Brooklyn and saw first hand when meter maids (in uniform) were called Nazis for writing citations to people in Boro Park who were parked illegally.  No, they were cited because they were parked illegally, not because they were Jewish or Chassidic.  A false cry of antisemitism is disgraceful.

I want kosher food to be available. I am a life-long carnivore, and the lack of availability of kosher meat has impacted negatively on me.  But I will no longer buy any food with the Rubashkin label, even if the company comes back to life, which seems highly unlikely.  I pray that others will fill the void - but will practice Shechitah and the handling of animals in a humane way, in addition to following all of the state and local laws to which we are all bound.

Sincerely,
A.L.

04/04/09 07:47 PM

Maurice, to call letting out the information about such horribly cruel acts antisemitism is about the most hateful, warped thing I’ve ever seen.  Do you condone any act done by a Jew?  That scum at Agriprocessor deserve to be thrown under the jail.  How can you possibly condone such horror done to innocent animals?  Your attitudes do more to fuel antisemitism than anything a nonjew could possibly say.