What Did The Rabbis Know And When Did They Know It?

In the wake of the largest immigration raid in the modern history of America, a question must be asked: What did the rabbis supervising Agriprocessors know and when did they know it?

The Des Moines Register notes Rubashkin's previous legal problems regarding illegal workers (which were reported here in detail more than four months ago):

The owners of the Postville meatpacking plant where 390 workers were arrested Monday admitted in court last year that many of the workers in its New York distribution center were in the United States illegally.

That admission is getting new attention in the wake of the raid this week that rounded up 40 percent of the Iowa plant's 968 workers. [Outstanding warrants still exist for another 30 percent of Rubashkin's Postville workforce. These workers fled just before the raid and are in hiding.]

Agriprocessors Inc. made the statement about its New York workers in an effort to block those workers from joining a union.

The company contended that many of the employees at the Brooklyn distribution center had improperly voted in favor of union representation and were not protected by the National Labor Relations Act because they were undocumented immigrants.

The company contended that the votes of those people should be thrown out in part because of the "recent policy changes and debate over the burden of illegal immigration in this country."

The company also contended that because undocumented immigrants have no legitimate expectation of continued future employment, their interests were different from that of the company's workers who are in the United States legally.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected those arguments and validated the union vote of the workers.

The court said in its ruling, "Their votes are just as valid as legal workers."…

As far back as 2000, Stephen G. Bloom reported in "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America" Aaron Rubashkin's recruitment of illegal workers in New York and the transport of those workers to Postville.

Reports of Rubashkin worker abuse have been public for years, including an award-winning piece in the Forward.

So rabbis knew. The OU knew. KAJ knew. Rabbis Wiessmandl, Zeilingold, Genack, Marlow, etc., knew. They all knew.

The OU now says if the government finds Agriprocessors culpable, the OU will act accordingly. Perhaps it will. Perhaps it will not.

To my knowledge, no other rabbis or kosher supervisors have issued statements regarding this.

But the point remains the OU and other kosher supervisors turned a blind eye to food safety and worker violations, worker abuse, animal abuse, and other crimes.

What does this say about the reliability of these rabbis and/or their kosher supervision?

Comments

[Michelle]

B"H

You don't mention what the immigration officers have stated--that some of the RABBIS are also illegal immigrants and were included in the raid.

See: http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/article/2008051320080513agriprocessorsraid.html

Does anyone know if any of the rabbis were arrested, how many, and what is being done?

Are they being treated differently than the other employees of the plant?

M

[schneur zalman]

Don't hold your breath for the OU to act. The public policy side of the OU may wish to act, but the rabbis will not .
The thought crossed my mind on Mon that some of the shochetim etc from Israel were also here in a less than legal manner.
Finally besides the OU none of the otehr rabbis involved really recognize Civil law.

[one of many]

This is a terrible Kiddush Hashem!! indeed the opposit!!
Bringing shame upon G_Ds holy name!!!
This makes me cry!
How now can any Jew trust the leaders that claim to feed them spiritually?
Where can they go now?
This is all terrible terrible news, and it is dissheartening, to say the least that people can claim they love G-d represent a nation that came out of EGYPT out of slavery to this??!!
thank G-d for the few faithful Rabbis we have left on this planet!
And i know exactly who these wonderful Rabbis are!! and these are the ones we should look for and find and cling to, not these ones you hear about on the news who cannot be trusted who advocate what is bad, and who are a part of these sinfull ways...

because in light of this information we have today in this point of view,

they are part of the problem not the solution, of how We can make this world a better place and how we should strive to be the best possible person of G_d we can be....

and we should not be a part of that scene!!

every choice that we make, we are in fact saying to Hashem
what we personally believe and
put up with, so the choices that we make...
the leader who choose to believe and follow.. speak for itself!!
that is our person mark we make with Hashem it is our personal "vote"
and we do it every day!

thank you C

[one of many]

sorry a correction i meant to say!

every choice that we make, we are in fact saying to Hashem
what we personally believe and
put up with, so the choices that we make...
the leaders in whom we choose to believe and follow.. speak for itself!!

that is our personal mark we make with Hashem it is our personal "vote"
and we do it every day!

[mike kane]

the illegals need to be deported -- wage and hour violations need to be fixed and paid - any other violations need to proceed --and force all witnesses to testify or jail them--and of course rubaskin needs to be accountable for all--jail time of course

[state of the Jews]

Ten minutes after this is all said and done, Rubashkin will be back to his old tricks and no one will be around to look out for the poor workers! They need to look out for themselves. They need a union with professional representation - people who can go toe-to-toe with Rubashkin!

[Sarah]

This is from a Chabad e-mail today. Perhaps they need to send it to more of their own people. And also remind them about the obligation to provide a fair days pay for a days work and also obeying the laws of the land we live in.
"Those who are more pious allow G-d into their personal lives as well. But fewer indeed are those who welcome Him into their businesses and pocketbooks. "I'll pray to G-d, I'll study Torah and do His mitzvot, but business is business…" The Biblical law requiring ten percent of earnings to be given to charity and the prohibitions against lending with interest, cheating, deception, and working on Shabbat and holy days are swept under the rug in the interest of making ends meet."

[Sarah]

These poor workers get screwed over by their (Jewish) employers and can't be sure they can rely on a union because we have so many corrupt unions where the union bosses secretly work with management and live grand lifestyles. Union officials are indicted all the time. One in Flushing, Queens was also a member of the NYS legislature and was just exposed for stealing money from everywhere including the local little league.

[one of many]

so does this mean that this family will be ex'ed out of Judiasm after all this?
Just wundering?

[Jake]

Illegal schochtim? ( ritual slaughters)

I think it is clear that their slaughtering shold not be accepted as kosher for they are violating the laws of the land by being here illegaly and also by working here illegaly. Non resident alines can visit but are not permitted to work.

How can we trust a person who so blantantly violates American law?

[yidandahalf]

Somewhat off topic but I wonder when those clowns at USDA will get tired of Agri's passing the buck as in a post from Yudel's illuminates.Of course we have seen this shtoos before but it seems particulary glaring today: Excerpt from Agri / Rubashkin's site!

We have always maintained an “open door” policy and encourage our customers to ask any questions that they may have about our products. We rely on our quality control systems and personnel, USDA oversight and independent auditing to assure the products safety and wholesomeness of our products. Rabbis and customers are welcome to tour our plants at any time to see our commitment at work first-hand.

Wed May 14, 08:37:00 AM 2008

[Sarah]

Anyone know how to update or add to Wikipedia? I'm not too good at this sort of thing but it should be made more accurate. Please see the last sentence, but warning: you may puke.

Moshe Rubashkin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Moshe Rubashkin (born 1958 ) the head of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council . He was elected to a three-year term in 2005 to serve as the head of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council , a public organisation that among other activities receives $2 million per annum in state funding. ' Moshe Rubashkin'' is known as a person with a bigger heart than his wallet.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshe_Rubashkin
· Cached page

[PITA]

You guys left out all the good stuff, like the Rubashkins practice ritual murder and drink the blood of their victims, fly on brooms and have secret sadistic sexual torture chambers under the alter of every Masonic lodge, infect little children with AIDS, rob the graves of virgins and eat their hearts, use black magic to blow up old Ford Pintos, and are plotting with the ZOG to take over downtown Toledo and can only be stopped by shaving their horns with the tail-bone of Barney or Dino, sharpened on the Balarney stone.

Oh, and they are ugly and their mothers dress them funny.

[one of many]

yes the picture you paint of these people seems to be what they portray now, to me my thougths were more like, these people remind me of more like Hitler that is what comes to mind.
they dont care about anyone but themselves.
and they have no love AHVAH for Israel
no remorse no repentance, they still carry on just like nothing happen and
like its another day for buisiness
Thats what they portray to be like to me
God is great and he will se to it that Justice is pursued because he cares and obviously we here on this post, most of us,here care.]
If we care, God cares
He says, pursue peace, justice and love among each other.
and love your nieghbour,
do we do that?
So he will hear our prayers.
Pray and Wait, wait...WAIT..

BH
C

[Shlomo]

Is it the mashgiach's job to ensure that the food is kosher, or to ensure that all the workers have valid work visas?

I would guess that the latter is the government's job. And should be, since police and other government workers have been trained to deal with such situations (where the motive for corruption is much greater than with kashrut issues), while mashgichim have not.

And as we can see, the government has been doing its job.

So no need to blame the OU. Blame Mr. Rubashkin instead, for hiring the illegal workers in the first place.

[Amused]

Shlomo! How dare you speak with logic and reason???!!! Didn't you read the Shmarya's revised version of Animal Farm? Abused Animal Farm?

Repeat after me: Shmarya good, Rubashkin bad, Shmarya good, Rubashkin bad......

[Shmarya]

Funny. The rabbis and their helpers are right there on the floor with those abused $5 per hour workers. But the rabbis see nothing, hear nothing and do nothing?

I suggest stop trying to cover for the OU, et al. These orgs have heard horror stories about Rubashkin for years, from their own mashgichim.

The OU, et al, made conscious decisions to ignore these reports.

[Amused - Not]

When was the last time you were at the Agri plant?