Even The Bathrooms Are Kosher

Rabbi Weissmandel, the head honcho of Rubashkin's rabbis, says he knows the government's allegations against Rubashkin are false.

No meth lab on premises. No duct taping a worker's eyes and beating him with a meat hook. No extortion. No fraud. No company-run identity theft aggravated or not. All these allegations and more are absolutely false, Rabbi Weissmandel claims.

Why does Rabbi Weissmandel "know" this with "certainty"?

Let Ben Harris of the JTA tell us:

…“I categorically say it’s false, it’s not true, it’s a lie,” Weissmandel said. “I have my rabbis supervising 24/7. We supervise every inch of that place in order to be sure that the place is totally kosher.”

I asked if there might be an area of the plant where workers eat or get changed that is not supervised as scrupulously as the places where the meat is produced. Weissmandel acknowledged that there is such a place, but that it didn’t escape the hawk-eyed scrutiny of his rabbis.

“There is a lunch room over there where the workers eat, and changing room,” Weissmandel said. “My rabbis, the supervising rabbis, have instructions to go inside there every so often just to make sure everything is ok over there.”…

I wonder if Agriprocessors' toilet paper carries a Supreme Kosher hechsher?

Comments

[concerned]

Why is it that every time someone makes a positive comment you have to step in and end with sarcasm.We are now amidst sfiras haomer where rabbi akivas students died because of sinas chinam how can we encourage others to be tolerent of our religion and our kind if we are not tollerant of each other.

[Shmarya]

What "positive comment" are you referring to? A delusional rabbi's attempt to clear his boss – and himself?

[Shmarya]

Also note this "concerned" commenter shows no concern for what Rubashkin allegedly did to his workers.

[yidandahalf]

At least Rabbi "It's Not My Department" Weissmandel is consistent. Here we see demonstrated his concentration on matters of ka$shrus and not on mundane vulgarities like immigration violation, and worker abuse.

[formely frum]

"No meth lab on premises. No duct taping a worker's eyes and beating him with a meat hook. No extortion. No fraud. No company-run identity theft aggravated or not."

Of course he has to say that otherwise he might "god help us all" violate the mesiara law

[Archie Bunker]

http://images.bimedia.net/documents/Agriprocessors-Documents.pdf

Is Shmarya sleeping? Here are the detailed State records showing Rubashkin being socked for mostly "serious" safety violations to the tune of $182,000 in penalties.

Gail Sheridan-Lucht, Attorney for Iowa's Labor Commissioner, appeared on TV a few days ago and said that Rubashkin has still not resolved all the issues that put workers in harm's way.

[Shmarya]

Old news, Bunker:

LINK.

[Archie Bunker]

We know you covered the story, but no one got their hands on the actual documents until now.

[state of the Jews]

Reb Wiessmandl is right on top of things. Sharp as a marble. Only trouble is there are two lunchrooms at Agri. One is new but far away from the work area so workers don't like to use it. They only have a short time for lunch and don't have time to take-off or put on company required gear AND eat, use the bathroom, etc.
The second lunchroom is under the plant and is horrible - one source of multiple health violations, but most workers use it because of time constraints.
Nice to know Reb Wiesmandl is right on top of things. I'm sure "his people" sit right next to the workers so they know exactly what is going on in the plant. They probably have Sunday afternoon barbeques together and are close personal friends. That must be why Reb Wiessmandel knew there was no meth lab in the plant.
Maybe the good Rabbi disguised himself as a Mexican and got a job working third shift when they clean the plant at 2 o'clock in the morning. I'm sure he was right there mixing chemicals used to clean the plant, breathing in toxic fumes. That's why he knows there was no meth lab.
Problem is, ICE had a mole in the plant who says he saw a meth lab. Maybe he did and maybe he didn't, but it is foolish to state catagorically there was no meth lab.

[Carol Ann Varley]

If there are problems in the bathrooms, the feds should flush those out, too.

Two-thirds of Agriprocessors products are non-kosher and sold to the following markets: Albertson's, Kroger, Shop Rite, Wal-Mart, Trader Joe's, Ralph's, Pathmark, and H.E. Butt.

Heed the lessons taught by our country's revolutionary forefathers and boycott!

. . . and H.E. Butt.

That's really the name of a store?!

(Acting like a 12 year old and chuckling. The voices of Beavis and Butthead whisper in the back of my mind . . . the voices grow louder, "Heh-heh-heh . . . the store's name is . . ."

[yidandahalf]

Whatever, 04:22.
The point is that Agri ritual slaughters animals for the purpose of selling the product for ordinary consumption. This presents a conundrum because animals slaughtered for the non-kosher market must be slaughtered under the humane slaughter act without religious exemption. And if Agri is slaughtering using ordinary methods why is the plant not subject to ante-mortem inspections as goy operations are?
Shills need not reply, we have heard it all. Our information is correct. The truth and the facts speak for themselves. We call for a new labelling system to inform the non-kosher consumers that they are purchasing ritually slaughterd animal product and we call for an amendment to the Humane Slaughter Act which allows shackle and hoist to the extent that is is carried out in this country everyday under the control of rabbis.
There I have said it. Now you may call me a moser in addition to a self-hating jew, anti-semite, lapdog, verbissineh and so on. I do not care. I am doing this for the animals. So you can add wacko in there too.

[old time chabad]

what it interesting is mr. rubashkin's preference for russian gentile workers. they seemed to have been singled out for preferred treatment.

lubavitchers are after all russians -in every way. In fact the 'sexual revolution' that is sweeping chabad over the last decade (more sexual permisiveness etc.) is partly due to what has been happening in the 'mother country' since the fall of communism (Russia becoming one of the most sexually promiscious societies in the world). theres an old yiddish saying 'viazoy es kristelt zich azoy yidelt zich'. Jews very much act and react like the gentiles amongst whom they live(d).

[steve]

He still didn't answer the $64M question, who is watching the actual labeling and shipping?

[steve]

"We supervise every inch of that place in order to be sure that the place is totally kosher.”

How could the place be "totally kosher" if 70% of their output is non-kosher?

[steve]

A federal immigration raid at a kosher meatpacking plant in northeast Iowa on May 12 was the largest such operation in U.S. history, with nearly 400 people arrested.

The following Q and A with Stephen G. Bloom. Bloom is the author of “Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America,”

Q: For five years in the 1990s, you researched the Agriprocessors plant in Postville and told the complicated story of how the success of this kosher slaughterhouse transformed a small Iowa town. How do the events of the past week fit into that story?

A: The Postville saga continues. In the late 1990s while researching the book, I quickly learned there were many undocumented workers at Agriprocessors. I learned of guns being bought and sold on the kill floor. Drugs were not uncommon, either. The sanitary conditions were appalling. All four of these same issues were alleged in the government’s affidavit, which resulted in Monday’s raid. An additional element I learned while researching the book was that female workers said they often were victims of sexual harassment.

The central reason for Monday’s raid, though – that undocumented workers were being employed at Agriprocessors – has been one of the worst kept secrets in Iowa for years.

Q: How do the conditions at the Agriprocessors plant compare to slaughterhouses in other rural communities?

A: I only researched Agriprocessors, so I can’t tell you how the plant compares to other slaughterhouses. I can tell you, though, that anyone who knocked on Agriprocessors’ employment window with a minimum of documentation (which could be bought on the local black market) would be on the kill floor within 24 hours.

Something else that’s important to note is that today’s hiring of undocumented workers is the inevitable conclusion of the historic decision to move slaughterhouses from big cities to small rural communities.

Q: What do you mean by “inevitable”?

A: Let’s look at the raid with some historic perspective. Agriprocessors started in 1987 in a defunct slaughterhouse. Before Aaron Rubashkin bought the plant, the only animals inside were the squirrels and raccoons that had made it their home.

Postville had a population of about 1,400 back then. As the slaughterhouse started to flourish, almost a thousand workers eventually were hired. No way could Agriprocessors pull all of its labor force from Postville. The locals didn’t want to do such backbreaking work for minimum wage and few, if any, benefits.

Q: But why was it “inevitable” to turn to undocumented workers?

A: Forty years ago, many slaughterhouses were located in or near cities like Chicago, Fort Worth, Omaha, where there was abundant labor. At about that time, someone made the observation that it made great economic sense to move slaughterhouses closer to the corn-fed, rich Midwestern beef – fewer unions, cheaper land, less transportation costs, less government oversight. The very essence of rural America is sparse population, so the decision completely changed the economics of meat slaughtering. There’s another issue, too, and that’s how the meat-slaughtering shifted from requiring high-paid, highly skilled butchers to what it’s become – a mechanized disassembly line that calls for unskilled workers.

The Hasidim, at first, hired a few locals. But the majority of people who took jobs were Eastern Europeans. This was in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union, so there were Russians and Ukrainians looking for opportunities. They were refugees. Some came to America legally; some came illegally.

But those who worked at the slaughterhouse didn’t work one day longer than they had to. That’s the American Dream: Coming and taking the lowest job on the economic ladder, and then working your way up.

It was only after the Eastern European labor market dried up that there was a shift to hiring Latinos. There was no shortage of Mexicans and Central Americans who would gladly work in the slaughterhouse.

Q: After having personally witnessed incidents of labor abuse and unsanitary conditions in the Postville plant, are you surprised that it took the government so long to respond?

A: Yes and no. Everyone knew what was happening in the plant. PETA had been in the slaughterhouse and produced a video documenting abuses. The U.S. Department of Labor had fined the company for repeated workplace safety issues. The EPA was involved because the company had discharged pollutants. The USDA mandated recalls because of unsanitary conditions.

We need to consider the owners’ possible viewpoint here – that perhaps hiring undocumented workers is simply the cost of doing business for slaughterhouses in rural America. It’s akin to driving 90 mph on the Interstate because you want to get somewhere fast. You could drive 90 mph for three weeks without any problem, and then one day a trooper stops you. For three weeks you’ve had the benefit of arriving where you needed to go much faster. Maybe the cost of the ticket was worth it.

Q: How are the labor and health issues complicated by the overt religious identity of the owners of the company?

A: Agriprocessors is a privately run company. In a matter of 10 years, it went from a start-up meat-packing plant to the largest kosher slaughterhouse in the world.

I think it’s a fallacy to believe that, because the slaughterhouse is being run by Hasidic Jews who view piety as a premiere ethic, the owners’ religious values somehow change their business practices. I think the owners likely compartmentalize their business decisions from their own personal and religious ethics.

Q: Do the events of this week make you want to write a sequel to “Postville”?

A: No. It was a painful process to report and write this book. When the book came out, I was assailed by many conservative and Orthodox Jews as a turncoat. The Hasidim publicly urged me to convert to Lutheranism.

They said I was a disgrace to Jews worldwide.

But the book has held up. The facts exposed were shocking then and they’re shocking today. So there’s a continuum – what began in 1995 extends to 2008.

Q: So the saga doesn’t stop?

A: I’ve been told that the slaughterhouse owners are almost doubling wages to anyone documented who will work at Agriprocessors today. But I think that is short-term. The nature of the problem isn’t going away. Few U.S. workers want to work in a slaughterhouse for even these moderately higher wages. It’s one of the most dangerous jobs in America.

One final point worth making: While the arrested Agriprocessors workers broke the law by buying Social Security cards and by entering the United States illegally, they came to the U.S. for all the right reasons. They took jobs that Americans wouldn’t take. They wouldn’t have come to Postville unless jobs were readily available. These workers made the slaughterhouse hum. Now they’re the ones suffering the most.

News Source: niemanwatchdog.org/

[uncle joe mccarthy]

steve,

the author notes

"While the arrested Agriprocessors workers broke the law by buying Social Security cards and by entering the United States illegally, they came to the U.S. for all the right reasons. They took jobs that Americans wouldn’t take."

yet he earlier notes that when these plants were located closer to metropolitan areas, they all had full legal employment. and he notes that locals didnt want the jobs because of the low wages and lack of benefits.

legal americans would take these jobs if they were higher paying and had benefits...would they stay forever? nope...but neither do the illegals.

the fact remains, in order to increase profits, rubashkin setup a system where the only people who would take these jobs are illegals...and it was not done to pass along savings to consumers.

doubling wages??? so instead of below minimum wage salaries of 5 dollars per hour, they are gonna pay 10 dollars per hour? trust me...offer 20 per hour with benefits and the line for jobs will be around the block

[meyer]

"There I have said it. Now you may call me a moser in addition to a self-hating jew, anti-semite, lapdog, verbissineh and so on. I do not care. I am doing this for the animals."

Let's have a poll what type of animal yidandahalf is. I say he's a hipo.

[Anon]

You got to admit that some of the allegation are pretty far out. The Rubashkins have been accused of being ruthless business people, but why in the world would they want to allow a meth lab on their premises or duct tape a workers eyes. Something doesn't make sense here.

[one of many]

this is typical of people who stand by sinners and abusers.
I have seen this many times. you confront the abuser "you did this to me" and they deny it.
typical, what do you expect. the guily that have been caught will always deny; i didnt do it. or, its a lie!!
look at OJ simpson, got away with murder under oath, in front of the whole world.
you expect anything less by these people who dont even deserve to be called Jews any less????
They are not repentant so they will pay the price!
Hashem takes care of these things, sooner or later, believe it or not, but he will one way or another.
thats what i believe.
there are witnesses and testamonies, yet to be given, because people have been silence out of fear.
the fear factor but it wont last long, somthings got to give!!
thanks C

[Anon 04:22]

Whatever, 04:22.

Rubashkin's operation reeks, and even if I wasn't a vegetarian I wouldn't buy their products.

It's about time they stop slipping through everyone's fingers and are finally held accountable.

I still can't imagine shopping at a place called H.E. Butt, though.

How could the place be "totally kosher" if 70% of their output is non-kosher?

Good point.

[uak]

http://projectusa.org/2008/05/18/biggest-immig-raid-ever-much-worse-than-you-think/

http://tinyurl.com/6lzlmg

Hmmm...

[Shmarya Feigele]

Scott Rosenberg is not a happy man. Scott Rosenberg is a gay man.

[Isa]

Regrding:
""""I still can't imagine shopping at a place called H.E. Butt, though.""""
In Texas the stores are known by H E B

[Archie Bunker]

The State documents also seem to indicate that after Rubashkin's safety director either quit or was fired in 2006, no one was hired to take his place. Imagine one of the largest slaughterhouses in the world with all kinds of dangerous equipment that leads to frequent injuries but no safety director.

H. E. Butt.... say it fast...

itchy butt...

lol

[Yochanan Lavie]

H.E.B. also spells Heb, a derogatory name for Jew. (See "Annie Hall:" "I didn't eat yet. Jew?").

H.E.B. also spells Heb, a derogatory name for Jew. (See "Annie Hall:" "I didn't eat yet. Jew?").

I thought there were two Es, like the magazine.

It would have been interesting, though, if H.E.'s surname was Brew.

[Carol Ann Varley]

It is ironic but the goyim subsidize kosher meat industries. In the United States all hindquarters of cattle are sold as non-kosher because it is too costly to remove the forbiddened fats and nerves. All animals slaughtered under kosher ritual are not deemed fit for kosher; an incorrect cut of the chalef (knife) or an internal defect renders the animal non-kosher or "trief". If trief meat was not sold to the goyim, the kosher industries could not "cut" their losses, so to speak.

[Carol Ann Varley]

It is ironic but the goyim subsidize kosher meat industries. In the United States all hindquarters of cattle are sold as non-kosher because it is too costly to remove the forbiddened fats and nerves. All animals slaughtered under kosher ritual are not deemed fit for kosher; an incorrect cut of the chalef (knife) or an internal defect renders the animal non-kosher or "trief". If trief meat was not sold to the goyim, the kosher industries could not "cut" their losses, so to speak.

[Carol Ann Varley]

Personal note to Meyer: if yiddenahalf is a "hipo" as you state then I suggest you are a hypocrite! Review the archives. He has made prophectic comments about Agriprocessors. He speaks the truth!

[Ariel Sokolovsky www.Moshiach.WS]

B"H
It is ironic but the goyim subsidize kosher meat industries. In the United States all hindquarters of cattle are sold as non-kosher because it is too costly to remove the forbiddened fats and nerves. All animals slaughtered under kosher ritual are not deemed fit for kosher; an incorrect cut of the chalef (knife) or an internal defect renders the animal non-kosher or "trief". If trief meat was not sold to the goyim, the kosher industries could not "cut" their losses, so to speak.

Posted by: Carol Ann Varley | May 19, 2008 at 12:43 PM

The "goyim" pay market prices for hindquarters and for meat slaughtered in a kosher way but found "treifa". While this indirectly benefits kosher consumers it also benefits the "goyim" and certainly doesn't cost extra money for you. So I don't know what is your beef all about (pardon the pun):-)

[Yochanan Lavie]

In Israel they do extract the chalev and the gid hanesha, or so I've heard.

Yid & 1/2 is not a hippo. He's a sharp-eyed eagle.

[one of many]

OH NO!!
they dont have the ritual cup in the bathrooms there too do they?
thats a great way to spread something to the meat!!

[yidandahalf]

Miss one of many: Not unless they have a mezuzah over the toilet door. Go learn.

Regarding my post about force fed pork to Reb Tal. Anyone that rips the throats out of live animals, dresses them by removing part of the organs and throwing them in rubbish bin while the animals are standing up fully conscious deserves all the pork in the world. I stand behind my post. I do not contribute to this blog for attention and entertainment.
If your purpose here is as altruistic as you have led us to think, Reb Tal's pork and rap music regimen would not concern you.

[Carol Ann Varley]

While I have no 'beef' with the observant purchasing their chosen meat, I do take exception to meat from animals slaughtered under religious ritual and sold to the general public without labeling. The USDA is promoting a religious practice which is a violation of the first amendment; or what I like to call a "church/steak" issue.

[shmuel]

A "church/steak" issue. I like that.