Agriprocessors Rabbis Shorted Back Pay
Rabbi Weissmandl of Supreme Kosher said to have kept court-approved rabbis' payments for himself.
Remember when the court authorized paying back pay to certain Agriprocessors employees and to the rabbis and kosher supervisors working for Rabbi Weissmandl?
It seems many of those rabbis and mashgichim did not get the back pay the were promised.
Why?
Because Rabbi Weissmandl allegedly would not pay them.
Weissmandl allegedly took the money released by the court but kept about half for himself, rabbis said at the time. Weissmandl allegedly told mashgichim and rabbis that Agriprocessors is like a new company now and all former deals – and all money owed – are off.
And then Rabbi Weissmandl is said to have reminded the rabbis about the confidentiality agreement they each had signed and the very real ramifications of breaking it. Included in those ramifications (even if not stated openly) would be the difficulty finding another job in kosher ritual slaughter.
Two months later, these rabbis are apparently still owed back pay.
Joseph Sarachek, the court appointed trustee for Agriprocessors, is said to have been aware of this problem as it happened two months ago. It does not appear this problem has been reported to the court.
A question for you lawyers out there: If Rabbi Weissmandl withheld rabbis' court-approved back pay (or part of this back pay), and if Joseph Sarachek knew this and id not tell the court, have either violated the law?
If so, what would the potential penalties be for this violation?
Who died and made HIM (Rabbi Weissmandl)king? Or is he the 3rd cousin of SMR? The money probably went into the SMR defense fund.
Posted by: hometown postville | February 24, 2009 at 06:45 AM
The way Weissmandl ran that "supervision" is a disgrace. He was more of a salesman than a rav hamachshir. He and the OU are responsible for a large part of the chillul hashem and that treife that was fed to unwitting kosher consumers.
Posted by: steve | February 24, 2009 at 06:05 PM
I suspect the real Rubashkin story is yet to come in terms of Kashruth. Some day soon one of these unpaid disgruntled shochetim and mashgichim will start talking about what went on in Postville. Should be really interesting.I will not be shocked if one of the Lubavitchers themselves breaks the silence.
Posted by: Zalman Alpert | February 25, 2009 at 10:59 AM
shame shame shame. this is disgusting. maybe This rabbi weismandl is the Iowa n-zi? This is so sick I can not believe it. How can any one say they are frum and act like this.
Rancid corruption by rabbis AGAINST RABBIS.
what happened to torah and ethics.
Posted by: concern jew2 | February 26, 2009 at 12:33 AM
It is hard to believe that the son of such a great man like R. Michael Dov Weissmandl could be such a minuvel. If this is what they do to their shochtim one can only wonder what they do to their non-Jewish employeess. Maybe the shochtim could go to work for the conservative hechsher tzedek folks to work on ethical issues in the treatment of workers. Certainly Rabbi junior here is not qualified.
Posted by: Mosheh Abdadd | October 07, 2009 at 03:50 AM