Rubashkin Housing In Pictures

We've already seen the housing new Agriprocessors workers are dumped in. Holes in ceilings, leaking pipes, rotting floors, a laundry closet converted to a bedroom, and astronomical rents.

But what kind of houses do the Rubashkins live in? Let's take a look…

Please click images to enlarge.

Rabbi Sholom M. Rubashkin and his wife Leah live in this 8300 square foot palace, one of the largest (if not the largest) homes in Postville. It has 20 rooms, 9 of them bedrooms:

Sholom's little brother Heshy lives in this nice piece of real estate pictured below. Smaller than Sholom's, it has only 3750 finished square feet. That's 11 rooms total, 4 of them bedrooms:

Sholom and Heshy's sister Chaya is married to Rabbi Yosef Gourarie. Gourarie works for Agriprocessors. As you can see below, the Gourarie home is stately. It has 5800 finished square feet. That's 16 rooms, 6 of them bedrooms:

What follows are some pictures I previous posted from inside one of the homes new Agriprocessors workers are placed in. Each pays $100 per week for a mattress on the floor. Some of these homes have 10 to 12 workers sleeping in them. Many are unfurnished:

This last picture is a mattress and box spring (no bed frame) in a laundry closet. The open pipe on the right is a dryer vent. On the left are the hookups for the washer and dryer.

Workers complain of being assigned a mattress on the floor of moldy basements and of having 3 and sometimes 4 workers per room, 10 to 12 per house.

Each worker pays $100 per week, usually deducted from their paychecks.

The Rubashkins deserve to live in nice homes – but not at the expense of their workers. The Rubashkins live like robber barons.

Of course, there is one major difference: Robber barons did not produce product carrying the OU seal of approval.

Comments

[critical_minyan]

what a shandeh for the OU and the whole Jewish people.
No longer can people get away with trying to be outwardly pure and inwardly evil.
let this be a lesson. You will get exposed.

Also, even though shalom rubashkin has a 9 bedroom house, it probably only costs a fraction of what such a house will cost in NY.
How much more would it cost to provide decent housing for your workers Shalom? Another $200/month, maybe. Why not spring for doing the right thing? As they are finding out now, in the long run it would have been far cheaper to be a decent person and an ethical boss.

[Paul Freedman]

Let's say the Rubashkins met Hebrew National wage norms and paid, say 10.25 an hour to start. That would net their workers about 850 a paycheck and they might afford a very modest apartment. There would still be a very big difference between their living standrd and the Rubashkins--if better working conditions and a better less exploitive model and greater investment permitted expansion into a more favorable marketplace the Rubashkin living standard might even rise comparatively--they could add even more bedrooms. Granted the workers are no longer in shared decrepit hostels but modest apartments.

Is that difference OK? Or is more egalitarianism required once exploitive differences are solved?

[Norm]

I received a complaint from a member of the Gambino family who objected to my post comparing his family to the Rabushkins. He said that the Gambinos always treated their workers with respect and didn't deserved to be lumped into the same catagory with the Rabushkins.

Point well taken.

[why_think_that]

hey, put it in perspective - the homes new Agriprocessors workers are placed in have the same standards of Lubab yeshivas!

[shmuel]

I think the Rubes should house all their workers in their extra bedrooms.

[Archie Bunker]

Now that all the illegal Mexicans have skipped town, who is doing the landscaping / gardening for the Rubashkin clan?

[steve]

Soon you can take pictures of their jail cells.

[emes]

stop this on chodesh elul "lo saamod al dam raecho"

[Jason]

Leon Wieseltier has great line in an essay on Sarah Palin in the most recent New Republic that fits the Rubashkins, OU and some of the posters on this board perfectly. It is what he calls: "the teleological suspension of the ethical." It is used by religion (all religions) to justify almost anything.

It is the recognition that, whereas there is morality in religion, religion is not the same as morality, and may justify an exemption from morality.

[Anon]

Shmarya, if you would try to work for a living you might be able to afford a house of your own as well.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Shmarya, if you would try to work for a living you might be able to afford a house of your own as well.

Posted by: Anon | September 09, 2008 at 11:00 AM

Not if he worked for Rubashkin.

[formely frum]

It is the recognition that, whereas there is morality in religion, religion is not the same as morality, and may justify an exemption from morality.

Posted by: Jason | September 09, 2008 at 10:47 AM

correct one needs to look throughout history including Jewish history that many atrocious acts, murder, complete distruction of cultures and their people have been done in the of (Jewish) religion and god

Second, Shmarya I think the pictures of rubaskins family houses is a low blow, lets stick to the facts about the abuses and lies the Rubashkins does.
I think people will use this to say you have a personal vendetta against the family instead of revulsion of their businesses practices.

My two cwents

[R]

will i be seeing the rubashkins and their houses in MTV's Cribs? I want to see the interior and all their cool cars (most of them people carriers).

Rabbi Avrohom Osdoba is now in a NIDOY by Beis Din Of America ! ! !

The Nidoy was Issued against Rabbi Avrohom Osdoba on Friday, Erev Shabbos Parshas SHOFTIM, by Rabbi Osdobas', very own, hand picked Beis Din, where Rabbi Osdoba HIMSELF, was himself the PLAINTIFF in this Beis Din and where Rabbi Osdoba himself had chosen, this very Beis Din, himself! ! !

The Prestigious Beis Din of America states in their Siruv and Nideoy against Rabbi Osdoba that Rabbi Osdoba is now completely disqualified in any capacity as a Rav.

[Shmarya]

It is NOT the Beis Din of America.

It is the same fake Beis Din of America that was involved in the Singer case. The one where rabbis appear to have taken bribes.

It means nothing.

[Sarah Palin does not speak for me]

The Gambinos DID treat their workers very well, without exception. My uncle worked for Carlos family

[WoolSilkCotton]

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/richard_dawkins/2007/10/for_good_people_to_go_evil_thi.html

“With or without [religion] you’d have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, it takes religion.” Nobel prize winning physicist Steven Weinberg

[Paul Freedman]

The Gambinos treated their workers and associates well up to the point they whacked them but yes they avoided letting the skim destroy a bizness they had ownership points in. I know most here belief in the arrogance and evil of management here but there is something like attention disorder deficit in the ensemble here.

[Yochanan Lavie]

I disagree with the Weinberg quote. Sometimes people can overcome their selfishness through religion, and be prevented from acting on their worst impulses because of religion. That's the case for me. If it doesn't work for you, gei gezunte heit.

[WoolSIlkCotton]

Yochanan Lavie, that is a beautiful sentiment. If only more people were like you. (No, I am not being sarcastic.)

[Yochanan Lavie]

WSC: Thank you. I try my best, a-hole that I am. BTW I enjoy your posts.

[Shmarya is Wrong]

Shmarya, you are dead wrong and you have no idea what you are talking about.

The Rabbinical court which EXCOMMUNICATED one of the two Chief Rabbi's of Lubavitch, is a Different Beis Din.

The name of the Beis Din is a little similar sounding but it's a completely different Beis Din with Different Names of Rabbi's.

"Beis Din Tzedek of America - Ein Moshe" has nothing to do with the Shmarya Rosenberg "Singer Case".

There is absolutely nothing in common with that other case - different Rabbi's and different group.

Shmaraya Rosenberg is mixing up apples with oranges.

--------------------------
Shmarya Rosenberg had said:

"It is NOT the Beis Din of America."

"It is the same fake Beis Din of America that was involved in the Singer case. The one where rabbis appear to have taken bribes."

"It means nothing."

Posted by: Shmarya Rosenberg | September 09, 2008 at 11:40 AM

[Shmarya]

Really?

http://jlaw.com/Recent/singer.html

Sieger v. Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States & Canada
New York Supreme Court refuses to dismiss claims against Rabbis participating in a Rabbinical Court

The text of the decision follows -

IA PART 28

Justice Schoenfeld SIEGER v. UNION OF ORTHODOX RABBIS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA, INC. - In this action plaintiff Helen Chayie Sieger asserts fourteen causes of action against defendants the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada, Inc. a/k/a Agudas Horabonim ("UOR"); Hersh Meir Ginsberg a/k/a Zvi Meir ("Ginsberg "); Aryeh Ralbag ("Ralbag"); Haim Kraus ("Kraus"); Elimelech Zalman Lebowitz ("Lebowitz"); Solomon B. Herbst ("Herbst"); and Beth Din Zedek of America - Ein Moshe ("Beth Din").…

Looks like Shmarya is right after all.

[Shmarya is Wrong AGAIN !]

No Shamrya, your are WRONG AGAIN!

Shmarya, your claim is WRONG, when you said that it was "the same Beis Din that accepted bribes".

It's not the same Beis Din.

The one that allegedly accepted bribes goes by the name of the "UOR"

The UOR are the ones who allegedly accepted the bribe of $50,000 - that is a DIFFERENT Beis Din.

Here is the quote form the link you provided about the bribe:

"Chaim Sieger then paid the UOR defendants a $50,000 bribe"

The UOR is the:
Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada, Inc. a/k/a Agudas Horabonim ("UOR")

[Shmarya]

Your Crown Heights education is catching up with you.

Go back, read it all again slowly, and try to process.

[Shmarya]

Maybe this will help you. a/k/a = also known as. That means Agudas Harabonim is also known as Beis Din Tzedek of America – Ein Moshe.

[ziku]

help them

[Nochum]

The principal of Mesivta Oholei Torah in crown heights – runs a Real-estate business out of his office in the yeshiva!
In middle of yeshiva – he leaves to show people apartments for rent!
His head is busy in the business world – how could this man be in the Yeshiva world?

[michel]

Zushe Wilhelm the principal of Mesivta Oholei Torah in Crown Heights – his uncle Yossel Rosenfeld is the Director, so what do you want?

[nacman boyaner]

Zushe Wilhelm the principal of Mesivta Oholei Torah, sold property to goyim who built a CHURCH in Crown Heights!
This is on Empire blvd between Ney York Ave and Nostrand Ave.

[chaim itchik]

The Students Mesivta Oholei Torah stand next to the office of their Principal Zushe Wilhelm, and they hear on the answering machine all the real estate deals he makes.

[chendele]

The Students Mesivta Oholei Torah stand next to the office of their Principal Zushe Wilhelm, and they hear on the answering machine all the real estate deals he makes.

[Yossel Hoizen]

I was in mesivta Oholei Torah – me and some friends were selling movies on DVD's, when Rabbi Yossel Rosenfeld found out he informed the principal Rabbi Zushe Wilhelm that on a certain day he would show up and Check the Locker's.
You will not believe this, but Reb Zushe Wilhelm,
- Who was afraid of the bad name this would give him and his department –
So the principal himself notified me that the dean is going to Raid the Locker room!
Rabbi Zushe Wilhelm always wanted to be the good guy!
He did not care that he was helping me continue my DVD business.