Aaron Rubashkin Audio

Ben Harris of the JTA has posted must hear audio from his interview with Agriprocessors' owner Aaron Rubashkin.

Rubashkin says, among other things, that his son Sholom was never Agriprocessors' CEO, calling him…

…Agriprocessors' "Vice President."

Ben Harris also posted audio excerpts of his interviews with haredim who are customers of Rubashkin's Borough Park butcher shop.

Listen to these Borough Park Jews say over and over again that, no matter what Rubashkin did or did not do to his workers, no matter how abusive, no matter what secular laws or Jewish laws were broken – they will continue to buy Rubashkin meat.

These haredim argue violations of halakha outside the area of kashrut do not effect the kashrut of meat. They see no moral or halakhic reason to avoid buying Rubashkin product, apparently ignorant of rulings from Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and other leading rabbis of previous generations that appear to contradict them.

One man even claimed he did not know that the Torah had any laws governing how workers are treated.

All in all, a sad commentary on the fallen state of today's Orthodox Judaism.

Listen here.

Comments

[Kishkeman]

When you are done with the audio check out http://postvillevoices.com/

[Ted]

Who is "postvillevoices.com?" According to whois.net, the domain name was registered on 6/1/08 through Bluehost.com. It seems highly likely some PR firm working for Agriprocessors is behind this, no?

[steve]

Another Rubashkin/Lubinsky PR stunt to "kosher" up their image. Notice how all the posters there are either Rubashkin contractors or employees that stand to lose the most when they're shut down. They're obviously going on an all out offensive with posts on VIN and other blogs. Their desperation is very visible. Pretty pathetic.

[steve]

WHAT A JOKE! THIS GUY CALLS HIMSELF A "RABBI"? COMES FROM THE SAME SCHOOL AS MONDROWITZ AND KOLKO. HEY RABBI, EVER HEAR OF YEHAREG V'AL YAAVOR? EVER HEAR OF SKILAH? EVER HEAR OF HAR EIVAL?

Homosexuality isn’t perversion

Our attitude to gays shouldn’t be any different than to people who don’t eat kosher

Rabbi Chaim Navon

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3551413,00.html

[Catherine]

THanks for the eye opener!

[Sam]

Oh please Shmarya, don't let a mere few ignorant hasidic Jews paint all of orthodox Judaism as such. Of course, there are many arrogant orthodox Jews, but don't let a few impress upon you so much so that you make a complete representation of orthodox Judaism in general.

[formely frum]

"Oh please Shmarya, don't let a mere few ignorant hasidic Jews paint all of orthodox Judaism as such. Of course, there are many arrogant orthodox Jews, but don't let a few impress upon you so much so that you make a complete representation of orthodox Judaism in general."

He does paint a very clear picture of Boro Park Jews I know I grew up there. Like I said before in my comments my parents house was robbed/broken into by local frum boys on shabbos. Amazingly, no matter how many people neighbors I spoke to their reaction was all the same "shabbos, how did they carry (this was before the erav) the stolen good out of your. what they turned on the light too, oh my god on shabbas"

Not one, and I mean not one, reacted and said, They stole, oh my god frum kids stealing, not one.

[Sam]

I'm sorry about your horrible experiences in Boro Park but, can i ask you something, did you press charges against those boys? And, if not, then how are you any different from those who don't/didn't press charges against a pedophile chosid?

[formely frum]

Funny you should ask,

When I went to the police they knew right away whom the boys where. The detective said they know that these boys rob Jewish houses since they know when people would no be home, lets say a wedding bris etc.

In addition he said what can he do,since no one is willing to press charges, and the boys know this. I said, I will press charges. He said ok how do you know it was them, we need some evidence to take then to court? I said my neighbors saw them entering the house and leaving the house just at the time we where robbed.

He said great go to your neighbors and see if they will testify or give him statement. He said sarcastically, good luck.
That is were the story ends. Not one would talk to the police, or give any type of statement or help me in any way to get these guys arrested, who where robbing Boro Park blind.

I did try on my own to catch them in the act of stealing I followed them a few times to try to catch them in the act. However, after a few weeks I was stopped in the street by another member of the stealing gang and said we know you are following us.

I tried, and lost and at fifteen I realized that my community had a very serious problem at hand when bochrem steal and break into houses and the only concern of the community was, that they carried on shobbas

[Yochanan Lavie]

Sam: Individuals should be judges as such. I have met many wonderful orthodox Jews, and many like Formerly describes. This blog is about problems in the Ortho community, so "if it bleeds, it leads." Nevertheless, w/o exposure these problems will fester, so FM performs a good service.

[formely frum]

Yochanan,

The people who refused to bear witness were more or less good people but misguided or brainwashed by the powers to be, it seems frumness is becoming a cult since people do not think for themselves anymore

The kids , yes they were bad.

[formely frum]

It seems there are people who have a stronger sense/tie of being a baseball fan, than frum people have to following abiding to moral and ethical values.

>
> Crane vic's fiance turns down aid from Mets player
>
> BY MATTHEW LYSIAK
> DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
>
> Wednesday, June 4th 2008, 10:42 PM
>
> The fiancee of a crane operator killed in last week's tragic collapse on Wednesday rejected an offer of help from Mets star Ryan Church because her future hubby was a Yankee fan.
>
> A day after burying Donald Leo, Janine Belcastro said she couldn't accept the offer from the right fielder and his wife.
>
> "Don was a die-hard Yankee fan," Belcastro said in a statement. "It would not respect his memory if he accepted this."
>
> The grieving Belcastro added that she "greatly appreciated" the offer.
>
> The money was to come from Church's participation in a Mets' fund-raiser for a variety of causes. A spokesman said Church will choose another charity.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Formerly: The idea that certain branches of Orthodoxy are becoming cult-like is unfortunately true. That is one reason I question rabbinic authority, and don't use the O label for myself. (I identify as "traditional" even though my shul is MO). However, there are some people who still are not automotons. What will happen to their kids is another story.

[ex-employee]

Postville voices videos are all recorded within the agri facility. Maybe the federal D.O.T. should have a look at Best Value, agri's trucking company. But surprize them, as records "dissapear" quite quickly. Agri has a locked turn stile at the entrance of the building, for better warning of whos coming???

[ex-postville resident]

To ted and steve: I happen to know exactly who owns and runs postvillevoices.com, it has absolutely nothing to do with any PR firm, it is strictly run by current and former employees of the plant, who were sick of just sitting back and having garbage dumped on them by the media. I think it's a great thing that people that are actually involved with the plant on a day-to-day basis are able to make themselves heard...

To "ex-employee": that turnstile was always locked! maybe at shift changes when many people where going through they unlocked it, but otherwise you would need to speak to the security personnel to get in....