The Rubashkin Trial: It's All Antisemitism Says Haredi Leader

"We run an ad in the Yated every week for the Pidyon Shvuyim Fund… as an undertaking to defend our right to practice our religion responsibly without people casting stones at us and depicting us as frauds, as has been the pattern throughout our history in exile."

Yated [Ne'eman] Publisher Visits Postville, Iowa
Matzav.com

Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz, editor and publisher of Yated Ne’eman, spent this past Shabbos, Parshas Ki Savo, in Postville, Iowa, at the home of R’ Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin. R’ 

Shalom Mordechai, a former manager at Agriprocessors, has been targeted for destruction by PETA and the very unions which have destroyed manufacturing in the country and sent millions of jobs overseas. Facing trial next month, he will be fighting for his life.

While some people have ignored the case altogether, yet others who know little about it have, as recent as today, offered their ‘expertise’ and view without knowing or recognizing the true nature of what has taken place. Ignorance abounds; people with little knowledge of the allegations are quick to pass judgment.

One person who immediately identified the case against Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin as being unprecedented, and one waged against shechitah and frum Yidden in general, was Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz. Virtually a lone voice in this regard, Rabbi Lipschutz has brought to light the misrepresentations and aspersions that have been cast upon the former Agri manager.

In the following enlightening article, Rabbi Lipschutz shares his thoughts on his recent visit and the impending trial of Shalom Mordechai.

-Elisha Ferber, Matzav.com

• • • • •
What If?

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

The driver who took us from Postville back to the Minneapolis airport for the flight home summed it all up. As we were approaching our destination after a three-hour drive through the darkened cornfields in the wee hours of the morning, Jonathan Saphira turned around and said to me, “I must tell you something. Last year, when you came to visit after ‘the raid’ and I drove you from the Minneapolis airport to Postville, it was a life-altering experience for me.”

 

Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz (R) with his chavrusah and friend, R' Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin, as they meet for the first time last Friday in Postville, Iowa.

I was worried that I had done something wrong. I listened with rapt attention as our driver, a resident of Rochester, Minnesota, and a translator who worked for the Rubashkins, continued.

“You see, I don’t know if you remember, but you were in the car with another rabbi. I had thought that I knew everything about Agriprocessors and the Rubashkins and that I didn’t have to pay attention to the media reports. But then I heard how that rabbi was speaking and how you were arguing with him in vain, and I realized for the first time the power of the media and how their unsubstantiated allegations took root and gained acceptance. Even religious Jews and people like that rabbi fell for what they were writing and that added to the pressure. I am sure that if religious Jews had fought back, the government never would have been able to proceed based on the anonymous, unfounded allegations I knew were wrong, and we wouldn’t be where we are today.”

Jonathan couldn’t have expressed it better. So many of our problems are self-inflicted. We hear a good story, we jump to quick conclusions without bothering to ascertain the truth, and in the process we destroy people, families, careers, and much else.

It’s not a secret to Yated readers that we are haunted by what happened to Agriprocessors and to Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin. I have read the malicious book about the Postville experience and the reports of the disgusting manner in which the workers there were treated. I read the articles painting the company managers as modern-day shylocks trading in human misery and making their living off of the virtual enslavement of a servant class of workers. They were rolling in money like typical evil capitalists, the articles claimed, enjoying the fruits of the labor of the illiterate, the unskilled, and the proletariat, whom they ruled over.

The facts as I saw them with my own eyes on my visit to the plant last year were so obviously contrary to the media portrayals that I didn’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to sense that something deep and sinister was at work.

The plant was ultra-modern, ultra-clean, ultra-efficient, and so far removed from the jungles of Chicago and Upton Sinclair that it was inconceivable how any objective person could confuse the two. The workers, both home-grown Americans and those from Spanish-speaking countries to our south, smiled as they went about their work and, when we spoke to them, had only positive things to say about their jobs, their bosses, and their salaries.

But as the only media outlet to constantly take up the cause of reporting what was really transpiring in that plant and in the town of Postville, our efforts, regrettably, were not enough to turn the tide and convince the masses of the truth.

People who should have known better didn’t. People who are enjoined not to accept lashon hara and hotzo’as sheim rah did. People who should have given their brethren the benefit of the doubt didn’t. People who should have perceived that the real target was shechitah, and should have raised a hue and a cry, didn’t. Thus, the lynch mobs were able to vilify and destroy the reputation of a family renowned for its charity and care of the less-fortunate.

A dream of the highest standards of kashrus coupled with the highest quality of USDA inspected meat was allowed to turn into a nightmare, and few who could have made a difference can say, “Yodeinu lo shofchu es hadom hazeh.“

We didn’t care. It was just another news tidbit for us to talk about. It was fodder for conversation, and we didn’t fathom the human toll and cost it would take.

When I saw how wide the gap was between the facts and the reports, I adopted the cause. I had never met Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin. We became close over the year of his travails by speaking on the phone and through emails and text messages, and then he decided that it was time we met.

My wife and I spent this past Shabbos in Postville, Iowa. We took off to the Shabbos of Chizuk for Shalom Mordechai with great trepidation, not knowing what to expect, but it turned out that we had nothing to fear, and we learned quite a lot over the day and a half that we were there.

Imagine living in a place three hours from anywhere where you can buy a house on a decent piece of property for $25,000. Imagine living in a town where there is no crime and everyone keeps their doors unlocked day and night. There are no hills, the earth is as flat as can be, and when you look around, all you see are fields of green for miles around you. You are enveloped by a calming silence and fresh fragrant air wherever you go. Very rarely does a car come by, and when it does, it is moving at about 15 mph.

 The tiny sliver of a town has a shul, a yeshiva, a cheder, a mikvah, and a kosher, fully-stocked grocery store. Everybody davens in the same shul which, if you didn’t know better, could be confused for a chassidishe shteibel in Boro Park or Yerushalayim. As you walk out of davening, you hear the people speaking to each other in a dialect composed of Yiddish, English and Hebrew in a way that you can’t tell who is from here and who is from Israel. They all sound alike and get along so well with each other.

As strange as it sounds, some people live here and commute to their jobs in other states, coming home for Shabbos. One shochet I spoke to is a Klausenberger chossid from Yerushalayim. From his mother’s side, he hails from the Vilna Gaon. His great-great-great-grandmother arrived in Eretz Yisroel with the first organized aliyah shortly after the passing of the Gaon. He went to Postville to shecht for Agri and now commutes to the shechitah in Kansas. He loves it in Postville. What is there not to like? He says this is the best place to bring up children, so far from the vagaries of city life and incipit influences.

In addition to spending a Shabbos in the company of people we had just met but who felt like family, on Friday night there was a shalom zachor, and on Motzoei Shabbos there was a festive melava malka. We experienced real, living Yiddishkeit in the cornfields of Iowa. It was such a lovely experience to spend Shabbos with so many nice, normal, friendly people.

This week’s parsha opens with the posuk, “Atem nitzovim hayom kulchem - You are standing today, all of you…” The Medrash Tanchumah states that we can only be Nitzavim and merit the light of Hashem when we are united b’agudah achas. Additionally, the Medrash says, the Jewish people will not be redeemed until they are united together b’aguda achas.” If we want to merit the geulah; if we are to succeed in golus, we have to be all together. We have to see past the hype, past the headlines, past our own daled amos, and we have to give people with reputations as ehrliche Yidden the benefit of the doubt.

When an unholy alliance is comprised of conservative rabbis, the liberal media and unions who have contributed to the losses of millions of American jobs, we ought to know that they are up to no good and we should be prepared to engage them and defend our way of life before they destroy it.

When people who don’t believe in the divinity of the Torah, nor observe the laws of kashrus and Shabbos, discover new mitzvos, such as declaring that when employees are improperly treated the products they produce become unfit for Jewish consumption, alarm bells ought to go off. We should realize that not only is one factory and one family under attack, but all of us and our families have become fair game for those who have been battling our existence ever since the days of Mendelsohn, Graetz, Achad Ha’am, Solomon Schechter and all the rest.

They raise allegations and reinforce them with age-old stereotypes, neither proving nor substantiating their charges, and then they convict the religious Jew of living an antiquated way of life which leads to anti-social behavior.

We are vilified daily in the media and painted as extremist, backward weirdos who must be combated and put into our rightful places. We ignore it and let it fester. While a religious Jew used to be treated with a measure of respect, today we are barely tolerated and are looked at with contempt wherever we go. The lie gains traction if it isn’t batted down and has the potential of eventually becoming universally accepted as the truth.

Not only gentiles and secular Jews, but even we, the Torah observant community, begin viewing our co-religionists with added degrees of suspicion and cynicism. After all, the media has proven that frum Jews are dishonest schemers who can’t be trusted, we are repeatedly told. Not only that, but these Orthodox Jews are also dirty, unkempt, vile Neanderthals whom one should do his very best to avoid. They say we are anti-social, refer to cops as Nazis, walk around with hatchets with which to kill hapless Arabs we find in our midst, defend baby killers, and our rabbis moonlight as money-launderers. 

An acknowledged baal chesed, baal tzedaka, decent, honorable person is about to stand trial for his life. Who would have believed that the beautiful experiment in kosher production and establishment of an entire town around it, would end this way? Who could have dreamed that the person who devised the most modern system of kosher shechitah, processing and distribution would be preparing to stand trial, being accused of running a decrepit operation, without the money to defend himself?

We run an ad in the Yated every week for the Pidyon Shvuyim Fund, not just an effort to help one person. It is an undertaking to defend our right to practice our religion responsibly without people casting stones at us and depicting us as frauds, as has been the pattern throughout our history in exile.

We will keep this story alive until it reaches its conclusion and will continue to report the truth so that perhaps, one day, when people look back at this sorry episode and wonder what really happened, there will be a record for those who really care about the truth.

As we have done in the past, we will continue to try our very best to defend ehrliche Yidden, without respect to their affiliation, dress, or mother country. No frum Jew should ever again be considered fair game.

When religious Jews are selected for prosecution for engaging in standard industry practice, we must stand beside them and fight the biased racial and religious profiling. 

Just last week, American Apparel Company worked out a deal with the government and laid off 1,500 immigrant workers whom the government determined to be working illegally. The factory wasn’t subject to a raid and the workers and managers weren’t led away to jail in shackles. A gentlemanly, professional agreement was negotiated and everyone got on with their lives. Why was the Agri experience so different? Why weren’t they taken up on their offer to fire anyone who the government felt shouldn’t be working in the plant?

Also last week, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was indicted for robbing charities as well as the Israeli taxpayer. There was no hand-wringing from the same people who have castigated our education system and entire way of life because of some unproven allegations splashed around in the press. The news was reported and that was it. No one dared call the Zionist system into question. No one spoke of Olmert’s heritage as a prince of the Likud party and a scion of a storied Zionist party. No one called on the state to learn lessons and adopt a moral code for all to follow. The people who are quick to tar all religious Jews at the slightest hint of scandal were not heard from when the embarrassment of the indictment of the head of the Jewish state spread across the globe.

Just imagine what would have happened if Olmert had been loyal to his Jewish religion and been a yid with a beard and payos. Imagine the commotion. Imagine the demagoguery and oratory that would have been let loose on religious Jewry. We wouldn’t have had where to hide. But since this corrupt decrepit leader is a consumer of treif and walks around with a bare head, he and his ilk get a free pass.

Yet we accept that double standard and take it for granted. Many times, we don’t even realize it is taking place.

The shul in Postville is named Achdus Yisroel and that is exactly what it is. It is a place that draws all types of Jews, who speak a collection of languages and hail from various parts of the globe. They all get along. A spirit of calmness pervades the shul where everyone knows everyone else, each person feels at home, and all attendees get along magnificently.

I couldn’t help but think of the Chazal which states that when Jews are b’achdus and together, they can stand up to any enemy, except those who we ourselves empower. But the thought that this idyllic little town of Torah in the middle of nowhere in Postville, Iowa, may be headed for Ghostville hung over the place. Despite all the smiles and the cheerfulness, and the pervasive simcha and bitachon apparent there, nobody knows what the next year will bring. This is because it is not only our external, eternal enemies who have been empowered to destroy this place of transplanted kedushah by themselves, but the fact that they have been aided and abetted by wolves in sheep’s clothing disguised as do-gooders concerned with the ethical treatment of animals and the people who process them.

As we approach the Yom Hadin and seek zechuyos for ourselves, let us daven for the success of the good Yidden of Postville and all the others in economic distress across the country, and resolve to improve in the middah of kol Yisroel areivim zeh bazeh in every aspect of our communal and Jewish lives.

Ish lereyeihu ya’azoru ule’achiv yomar chazak. When what divides us is external and minor, we have to ignore those differences and be able to support each other and come together as one nation for our eternal benefit.

Let it not be said of us in the coming year that we remained apathetic and didn’t rise up when the occasion demanded it. Let it not be said that we didn’t fight for the truth and help it emerge from the dark clouds of golus and treachery.

Rabbi Lipschutz is editor and publisher of the American [edition of the haredi newspaper] Yated Neeman.

Comments

[steve]

It's All Antisemitism Says Haredi Leader

Leader? Please. More like opportunistic PR spinmeister. At least Matzav discloses his relationship to Rubashkin and that his views are biased, to say the least. Lipschitz is a pathetic human being who is a disgrace to journalism and to Judaism. His pitiful defense of Rubashkin and the Mea Shearim rioters and his attacks upon rabbis and journalist that don't agree with him, have cemented his induction in the Chareidi Hall of Shame.

[Good Jew]

No coment on Rubashkin but the yated is about one thing Money his relationship with Rubashkin is only about PR

[FirstGenerationBavarianAmerican]

Another rewrite of the same article. Its time for someone else to take their turn at providing the links to all the other versions of this article linked to here on FM.

About the questions that Lipschutz raised about the American Apparel case, he can find some of the answers in a newspaper he can buy locally at the posted local newsstand price:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03immig.html?pagewanted=all

[FirstGenerationBavarianAmerican]

Here is a recent LA Times account of the terminations at American Apparel in LA:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-american-apparel3-2009sep03,0,6877999.story

[FirstGenerationBavarianAmerican]

Why didn't the Feds raid American Apparel in LA? Anybody remember the riots in LA after the cops who beat Rodney King were acquited?

[State of Postville III]

PLEASE-Enough already. Postville WAS a lovely town. The cars go much faster than 15 mph. Of course his buddy lives up on a hill away from traffic. The neighbors are senior living condos. This guy is "far out."

[Bernice]

every large corporation in the USA uses illegal immigrants.THEY ARE PART AND PARCEL OF OUR ECONOMY.RUBASHKIN was a victim o antisemitism and all the vicious canards that tag along.It is time for a little self introspection all you safe hating jews.Chazak Vamatz RABBI RUBASHKIN

[steve]

Bernice,

Here we go again. I suppose every corporation in the USA provides phony social security numbers, hires underage workers to do dangerous labor (even President Obama commented about this) ,commits bank fraud, is cited for multiple EPA, FDA, and USDA violations related to health and safety code violations, launders millions of dollars, commits cruelty to animals, underpays its workers, violates its worker's rights, and willfully mislabels and misrepresents its products. Let the truth come out in the trial and enough trying to defend the indefensible. Lipshutz and the Rubashkin defenders are the ones in need of introspection for adding fuel to this fire of chillul hashem. The actions of this corrupt corporation over a twenty year period should not reflect upon the entire Jewish community. We do not have to make up ridiculous excuses to defend this type of criminal behavior. Enough already!

[FirstGenerationBavarianAmerican]

How about an even bigger on - Howard Industries?
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2635579820080827

[nachos]

Bernice:

I guess because everybody does something that makes it ok. Thus, we can ignore the laws of Torah? When Moses came down from the mountain the first time, was it a valid excuse that everyone is acting like poopheads, so it must be ok.

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

The facts as I saw them with my own eyes on my visit to the plant last year were so obviously contrary to the media portrayals that I didn’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to sense that something deep and sinister was at work.

Hey dumbass. What you saw was a Potemkin Village.

[FirstGenerationBavarianAmerican]

From this video, I don't think Billy Howard is Jewish:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw5MlXIJdz0

That bust was bigger than the one is Postville.

[itchiemayer]

Bernice clearly has low standards for Torah observant Jews such as Mr. Rubashkin. Well, Bernice, I don't. Your excuse for him was pathetic. I do my best to be a Torah observant Jew, and I have high standards for the behaviour I expect from our people. We should sanctify Hashem's name whenever and wherever possible. Mr. Rubashkin failed to do this. You clearly agree he was engaging in unlawful behaviour.
Perhaps you cheat on your taxes, because "everyone does it".

[Pablo Faird]

Nachos:
You are correct, two wrongs do not make a right, however in the Yated article there are some points to ponder. I`m sure there is a lot of information we currently are not aware of which will come out over the course of the trial. The odds are definately stacked against him.
And, to Steve, it would not surprise me if many large corporations have ghosts in the closet it`s just a question of how well and how long they can camouflage it.

[AGRI-vated Angel]

Having read the posted article, I am reminded of a remark . . .

'Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.'

[WoolSilkCotton]

Steve 2:46, excellent summary. Sounds like Dayenu!

Itchie 3:39, I salute you.

[Hometown Postville]

Where is this lovely dreamscape Lipschutz speaks of? Perhaps the Postville of a generation gone? Last I heard, everyone DOES lock their doors whereas 20 years ago no one did. I think many would agree with me that it would not have mattered if SMR's backgound was Baptist, Morman, German, Democrat, Republican,black or white; his treatment of underage workers, payroll shenanigans and fraudulent financial management led to him being branded a criminal, NOT his religion. It's easy to twist public response to appear anti-semitic when members of his own group appear to support the wrongs he did; a convenient crutch for the defense attorneys to draw on but too weak to support the entire case. For the most part, those who claim Postville as their life-long home are hard working, honest people. A handshake was all that was needed to assure you would be paid and the service you received was top quality. This is a benchmark of our midwestern upbringing whether Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist.... So if SMR'actions can't be attributed to being Jewish, what's the REAL story? Has the anti-semitism crutch been put in place to steer attention away from the family history of other illegal business activities? Rabbi Lipschutz speaks of Jews who get along with other Jews in Postville. But what is said of the many Postvillites who bent over backwards to become acquainted with cultures totally alien to the area, to open their hearts and meager pocketbooks to assist the many immigrants left homeless after the raid? Something as simple as a consistent acknowledgement of a friendly wave as you drove by would have gone a long ways toward better relationships. I'm guessing the natives were just as naive to inner city mistrust as the Jews were to what might have been perceived as overt friendliness. Rather than closely examining BOTH sides, Rabbi Lipschutz choses to generalize the social problems in Postville under the category of antisemitism, thereby perpetuating his own self-adorned stereotype, instead of examining the extreme cultural differences that also played a significant part in defining relationships as they are today. Since the credibility of his primary news source is questionable and very one-sided,one could say he is promoting just as unfair a view of non-Jews. I don't think either group(the Jews or Postville natives) fully understand each other's customs; why they do things the way they do. An objective piece of journalism focused on the customary
differences between inner city(actually metropolis) and midwestern rural could clear up some of these misconceptions and pave the way for better relationships in the future.

[AGRI-vated Angel]

Hometown Postville ~

Thank you.

[AGRI-vated Angel]

[What you saw was a Potemkin Village.]

Nigritude Ultramarine ~

This has been a problem with their state of wealth as well. They falsified, justified, created illusions & cried anti-Semitism beginning with the 'creation' of that hell-hole. It should also be noted, the failing Agriprocessors facility was struggling financially to maintain the facade prior to the day of the raid.

Some say 'owning' the town was Rubashkin passion, others refer to it as greed.

[steve]

Not once in the long winded diatribe does he mention that Rubashkin was his close friend and chavrusa. That picture with the caption is on Matzav.com, not the Yated where the article originates from. So much for full disclosure and unbiased journalism.

[FirstGenerationBavarianAmerican]

Earlier today, I wrote:
"Another rewrite of the same article. Its time for someone else to take their turn at providing the links to all the other versions of this article linked to here on FM."

What bugged me all day was the fact that the address to which they want you to send your checks to was not given in this article. Well, I finally linked to the original article, and see that just before the comments from readers, the address is given in red typeface. I maintain my position that this is nothing more than a fundraising solicitation.

[state of the Jews]

I wonder how much money Rabbi Lipshutz and his wife spent for their little jaunt out to Postville and where the money came from. If it came from the Pidyon Shvuyim Fund, did he disclose this to his donors?

[Concerned for the Postville Area]

Posted by: Hometown Postville | September 10, 2009 at 07:29 PM

excellent post!

[Eric Grosser]

My personal experience with Rabbi Rubashkin is that he's a true baal chesed the likes of whom I have not found anywhere. I was passing through South Dakota last week and I unexpectedly ended up in Sioux Fallas for Shabbos. Hashkafically, I very far from being a "Chabadnik". I was welcomed by the extended Rubashkin family with open arms and made to feel that I belonged. I'm a simple truck driver, a modern Orthodox (knit kippa) baal tshuva who just happened to have "dropped in" last Shabbos in Sioux Falls. I had no knowledge of the trial, and only a vague familiarity with the the Postville community.

My truck was broken, and the extended Rubashkin family and yeshiva bachurs from Postville spent 3 hours fixing my car. They sent me away with a 3-day supply of food. Instead of letting me walk 6 miles to my hotel, they insisted that I stay in an extra room that they had. Before making assumptions regarding Rabbi Moshe Rubashkin, I strongly recommend meeting him in person, spending a Shabbos with him. He's a true baal chesed!

[Mooser]

I must say, as a Jew long out of touch with many other Jews, I watched as some of my Gentile neighbors began to debase their religion, becoming obscurantist, rejecting modernity and embracing the most reactionary politics, along with an us-versus-them mentality which was simply an excuse for lapses in ethical and moral behavior.
But now, I am proud, I walk among them with my chest puffed out and draw myself up to my full shortness. "Feh on you Fundementalists", I say, "Us Jews have kept up with you in every way, and in certain ways even surpassed you!"
It's good to know that the affluence and education and freedom we were given in America is being put to good use!

[SHAINDY RIMMER]

AARON RUBASHKIN SHOULD BE VERY PROUD OF HIMSELF. HE RAISED A FAMILY OF CRIMINALS!!! ALMOST EVERYONE IN HIS FAMILY WAS ARRESTED!!! MOSHE RUBASHKIN, AARON IS IN TROUBLE, BALKANY. THE LIST GOES ON AND ON. CHILDREN LEARN FROM THEIR PARENTS. AS I SAID AARON RUBASHKIN DID A GREAT JOB IN TEACHING HIS CHILDREN FROM RIGHT AND WRONG. HE SHOULD BE VERY PROUD OF HIMSELF!!!!