Agriprocessors has put up a new website to counter charges of worker abuse. The site touts Nathan Lewin (Rubashkin's attorney), Rabbi Asher Zeilingold (a kosher supervisor at Agriprocessors and a close Rubashkin friend), the Jewish Press editorial board, Carlos Carbonera, a close friend and regular driver for Rabbi Zeilingold, and Rabbi Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin himself, as "Independent Experts."
The website also contains this fanciful piece of text:
The values expressed in the kosher rituals and requirements are a part of the values shared by our employees, regardless of their religious beliefs. They include a commitment to:
• Cleanliness and health
• The safety and welfare of our employees, colleagues and neighbors
• Stewardship of the environment
• The humane treatment of our animals
Right. For this, you need an "investigation"? Here you have it in black and white – lies and misrepresentation right from the mouth of Rubashkin himself. If the OU, RCA and RAA cannot act against a company that portrays its own employees as "independent experts," and which has been the subject of multiple enforcement actions from the EPA, the State of Iowa, OSHA, and the USDA, no "investigation" run by rabbis not trained to investigate will prompt action, either.
Judaism, once a moral shining light, has been reduced to darkness by years of amoral rabbinic leadership. Judaism is broken, and it is the rabbis who have done the breaking.