A Haredi View: What’s Really At Stake In The Rubashkin Trial?

In my opinion, the question in Rubashkin’s trial isn’t a question of whether he is guilty or innocent."

Op-Ed: What’s at Stake in the Rubashkin Trial
Avi Slolomon • Yeshiva World News

The views in this article are solely the views of Avi Solomon and don’t necessarily represent the views of the Yeshiva World.

About nine months ago the Jewish world was buzzing over the arrest of Sholom Rubashkin, which ultimately led to the bankruptcy of his agriprocessing plant. Postville, Iowa, a little-nothing town in  the middle of nowhere, became flooded with media reporters from almost every major news outlet. Eventually, the buzz died down and Rubashkin was no longer the center of Jewish conversation. However, the buzz is beginning to be heard again as Rubashkin will begin to stand trial in October.

In my opinion, the question in Rubashkin’s trial isn’t a question of whether he is guilty or innocent of the charges brought against him. The man faces over 100 charges ranging from an indictment of illegal immigrants to bank-fraud to money laundering. He would need a miracle to be acquitted of all the charges brought against him. Furthermore, the evidence seems awfully convincing that Mr. Rubashkin did violate immigration laws, if nothing else. Consequently, I believe the real question at hand is how long will Sholom Rubashkin have to sit in prison for. Nevertheless, you have people such as Rabbi Pinchas Lipschutz (Yated Ne’eman) and others in the Jewish media who are determined to defend the idea that Rubashkin is 100% innocent and is a victim of the media propaganda. It is admirable that Mr. Lipschutz is willing to use his resources to defend his good friend and former chavrusa. However, friendship is not the most important thing to be defending in Rubashkin’s case. The Orthodox Jewish belief for respect in the law of the land is what is most at stake in this trial.

The media hasn’t even begun to buzz in the trial of Rubashkin. If the Jewish voice expressed in this case is that a Jew is innocent even if he is guilty then we will be creating a tremendous chillul Hashem. We can ask the courts to show Rubashkin mercy in their judgment. We can point out the fact that it is a bit discriminatory to try a man on the charges of illegal immigration violations in the face of a country that is flooded with illegal immigrants working in spite of the law. However, to say Rubashkin is 100% innocent is telling the world that we believe a Jew is above the law of the land. It is my opinion that Rubashkin should be condemned for any laws that he broke and that we m’chazak ourselves in the halachos of dina d’malcus dina. This is what is truly at stake in the trial of Rubashkin.

Comments

[concerned citizen]

A little or nothing town in the middle of now where, PLEASE!!!!!!! We are trying here to recover from all of this distruction.

[David Jackson]

A large percentage of Jews were disturbed that such a large percentage of African Americans thought that OJ Simpson was innocent. This is a similiar situation except that this only applies to a small segemnt of the Orthodox Community. Just because Rubashkin is jewish does not make him above the law or that the media / prosecution is out to 'get him.'

[AGRI-vated Angel]

DJ ~

Interesting perspective. I tend to agree with it. :)

[AGRI-vated Angel]

[that we m’chazak ourselves in the halachos of dina d’malcus dina]

?

Please explain.

[itchiemayer]

He should not have belittled Postville, but as a whole, I think the author's views are solid.

[AGRI-vated Angel]

[Postville, Iowa, a little-nothing town. . .]

Perhaps, a better choice of words might have been 'a little-known town'

. . . and we would like to have kept it that way ! ! ! ! !

[FirstGenerationBavarianAmerican]

"The media hasn’t even begun to buzz in the trial of Rubashkin"

To me, the only buzz so far seems to be manufactured, and there is always a reference to the fund set up to help defray the defendent's legal expenses. Is the New York Times going to send a reporter to Iowa to cover the trial, even if they could afford it? Unlikely. I don't see the story of the trial being covered in the Northeast by anyone other than the ethnic media.

WRT the O. J. Simpson case, the evidence was not as strong. The murder weapon was not found and there were no witnesses. WRT to the case in Iowa, there was a lot of evidence. Culpability still has to be established.

[state of the Jews]

What is most interesting is that YWN printed this as an Op-Ed.

[Yossel]

It's interesting to note that most of the comments on YWN were extremely critical of him for this article. The obtuseness and defensiveness of that community is pretty scary.

[WoolSilkCotton]

It took a lot of courage for him, relatively speaking, to write this article. I'm sure he knew it would bring a hailstorm of insults from the usual paranoid lunatics, sociopaths and Rubashkin cheerleaders on YWN.

But maybe there's hope if there are such ultra-orthodox opinions out there, sitting in silence, but enough to get this article on the YWN site. Let the dogs bark at him for a while, but he may have cracked a certain barrier on that otherwise inane website.

[David]

David Jackson: "A large percentage of Jews were disturbed that such a large percentage of African Americans thought that OJ Simpson was innocent."

Where do you get this from, and, even if it's true, what does it have to do with this case?

[David Jackson]

David,

Try This for " large percentage of African Americans thought that OJ Simpson was innocent": http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0254/is_1_58/ai_54019303/

As for the jewish aspect, that is based on talking with Jews about the trail when it was back in 1996.

What does it have to do with Rubashkin?

There is a natural tendency to take sides with 'one of your own.' To think others are trying to get you. This is especially true for groups that have been persecuted (Jews and Blacks). I hope I am explaining it well.

[WoolSIlkCotton]

David Jackson, just because a lot of Jews that you know agree about something doesn't make it "a large percentage of Jews".

[Hometown Postville]

Very well written article! And to David Jackson- I understand where you were going with the OJ analogy. Sometimes people tend to jump on the bandwagon of an issue to defend their political party, race, culture, you name it, whether right or wrong.

[yiddishe mamma]

it is now October 15 and i am not sure this will ever get read as this article was written a month ago.
The article is well written but that is the only thing "well" about it.
The author derived his information from the media and has an opinion?! He did exactly what Obama did when asked what he thought should be done with Agri.
Any responsible lawyer, person and especially Jew should know not to judge without all the facts. Does the author of this article know any of the facts or just what he derived from the media?!
The media is more than happy to bury anyone otherwise what would be newsworthy?
Their bread and butter is based on anothers blood.
The author Avi has no clue about the true facts and has passed judgement.
The illegals that Rubashkin employed were the very same illegals that obtained drivers licenses, library cards etc. Why not take those agencies to task too?
They believed the same as Rubashkin believed. Whatever documentation produced by the workers seemed to be accepted by other government agencies as well as the Rubashkin plant.
So the question is who validated what?
Avi, why are you so willing to hang the man?
Why do you not argue in his defense?
As for the other allegations - the suitcase found in his home as a potential escape was the most outrageous of all. How was a man with ten children and a wife going to survive with that? Did Avi care to ask what that money was?
It was the pushka .. tzedaka monies they had around their homes that he wanted to secure.
Oye Avi I truly hope Hashem never ever puts you in a situation where you will learn the hard way.. I pray you understand without ch'v experiencing anything too serious and painful.
When a baby was left in a car in Lakewood I mentioned the horror story to a wonderful young relative who commented rather quickly saying "how can a parent do such a thing"
I quickly told them not to judge that it can happen to anyone. Several days later this very same relative took a trip with a group of children and unloaded at a park. When the group realized they left the bat in the car he went back to the parking lot to get the bat out of the trunk and guess what he heard as he approached the car????
you guessed it...he heard his own son hysterically crying!! He could not believe the lesson he was taught so soon after he judged another. He was totally besides himself and phoned me crying........thanking me for telling him not to judge and crediting me for Hashem's mercy towards him. He held his son for hours and had nightmares for months thereafter. He sat in his car for approximately the same amount of time he felt his son was locked in so that he could feel the heat and understand what he did.
Never Never Never ever sit in judgement. Unless you heard the whole story from all sides you must not have an opinion. Judging from what you wrote you know nothing of the Rubashkin side.
I truly hope Hashem will show Sholom Mordechai and the rest of the world that soif kol soif "sheker ein lo raglayim".

[Eliezer]

The orthodox community has never seemed, in my opinion, to believe in the law of the land דינא דמלכותא דינא. The Holocaust survivor generation did not have any respect for civil law (why should they after what they went through) but they never seemed to grasp that in America (at least so far) Jews are not second-class citizens.