FailedMessiah.com

Chabad Postville Landlord: I Did It For The Workers

In a new Iowa Independent report, GAL Investments owner Gabay Menachem says he rented his substandard housing by "unit," not by person:

Haredi Landlords Leave Bag Of Dead Cats In Bid To Oust Rent Stabilized Tenants

So these haredi landlords may have lured the cats into a sack, tied it shut, and left them to die in the hopes…

GAL Investments Letter To Agriprocessors Workers, Lease Agreement

Here is a copy of the letter GAL posted at all…

Israeli Poverty Reaches Epic Proportions, Government Slow To Respond – Haredim Major Drain On Economy

The situation is truly dire. The dollar's devaluation coupled with economic instability in the US and worldwide has crippled Israel's nonprofits, which rely almost exclusively on donations from the US.

Soup kitchens have cut back portions. New clients are not being taken. People are going hungry.

Israel's government – which, up till now has…

Agriprocessors New "Independent" CEO: No Abuse Happened, Rubashkins Innocent Of All Charges

As you read these quotes, remember the OU's Rabbi Menachem Genack praised Bernard S. Feldman's hire and claimed it fulfilled…

GAL Investments and Jacobson Staffing End Agriprocessors Workers Rental Housing Arrangement

I heard rumors about this all last week. GAL Investments, owned by Rubashkin crony Gabay Menachem, and Jacobson Staffing – the company that has taken over much of Agriprocessors'post-raid hiring – will no longer be doing business together.

What does this mean?

Messianic Jews Missionize In Ethiopia, Urge Aliya – Messianic Leader: 70,000 "Messianic Jews" Waiting For Aliya

It boils down to this: The Israeli government, in its rush to keep out as many Ethiopian Jews as possible, has through its lies and inaction perhaps opened the door of aliya to 70,000 practicing Messianic Christians.

Here's how…

The RCA's Toothless Version Of Hechsher Tzedek, Part 2

Here it is, out of the mouth of the (Orthodox) Rabbinical Council of America's EVP…

Head Of Reform Movement Speaks Out On Agriprocessors

Why is the best rabbi-authored article on Agriprocessors written by a…

Will You Be Eating Meat This Rosh Hashana?

We asked some of the leading voices of the New Jewish food movement to answer the question: “If I choose to eat meat over the high holidays, what is the number one thing I should consider?”

Time Magazine on Agriprocessors

…Samir Jaylani, 21, gathered with other Somali refugees newly arrived from the Minneapolis area to take jobs at the plant, which is trying to rebuild its workforce after losing about half of its staff in the immigration raid. But Agriprocessors is having a hard time keeping new arrivals on the job. Jaylani quit after…

BREAKING! Agriprocessors New CEO: No Substantial Complaints Of Worker Abuse Before Raid, Complaints Coming From People "In Custody"

Agriprocessors new "independent" CEO, Bernard S. Feldman said last week that the Rubashkin family was being treated "unfairly." Later in the week, he told the Des Moines Register Agriprocessors had treated its workers fairly.

Now, the Rubashkins' attorney Bernie…

Agudath Israel of America 'Clarifies' Position On Mandatory Background Checks For Teachers In Haredi Schools

It really isn't much of a clarification – especially after the Kolko scandal. And, as much as Rabbi David Zwiebel's tries to spin it, one thing remains true:

Hechsher Tzedek Responds To RCA

Yesterday, the RCA launched a toothless version of Hechsher Tzedek. Today, Hechsher Tzedek responds:

What Really Killed Rabbi Yossie Raichik? Haredim And Organ Donation, Part 5

My Jewcy column, just up, argues Jewish law killed Yossie Raichik.

Before you get your knickers in a bunch over my heresy, read the latest report from Israeli on Raichick's death, published after my column was finished and turned in. It…

RCA Starts Toothless Hechsher Tzedek

Nothing says it better than this sentence from the RCA's press release:

BREAKING! 12 Jewish Members Of US Congress Criticize Agriprocessors

The 12 sent a letter to Aaron Rubashkin, Agriprocessors' owner, as…

Haredi Newspapers Refuse to Print Picture or Full Name of Israel's Foreign Minister – Tzipi Livni Asked To Form Next Government

…`Syria calls her the "Mossad beauty." But ultra-orthodox Jewish newspapers in Israel won't print Tzipi Livni's picture or her name, for reasons…

More on Rubashkin Housing

How many exploited Agriprocessors' workers can be crammed in one rundown house or apartment? And who actually owns those substandard, overcrowded housing units?

American Religious Leader Praises Ahmadinejad: Iran's President A "Deeply Religious Man" Who Seeks Peace

Who said this?

"It has been our honor and privilege to meet with President Ahmadinejad ... we have found the Iranian President to be a deeply religious man, dedicated to a peaceful world, based on mutual respect, fairness and dialogue.

"Out of great respect to the Iranian Nation and their leadership we proudly welcome the Honorable President Ahmadinejad to New York, WELCOME!"

Haredim and Organ Donation, part 4: Policy On Organ Donation Kills Leading Chabad Rabbi

Sunday I saw a news release announcing the death of…

Please Support This Blog

Sticky Post For The Week Of 9-22 to 9-29.

It's time for my second fundraising drive in the history of this blog. The issue is…

Is This Legal? CEO Of OHEL Tells Parents Not To Go To Police When Child Sexual Abuse Takes Place

David Mandel, the CEO of OHEL Children's Home and Family Services, the Brooklyn-based haredi social services organization. Speaking in…

BREAKING! AGRIPROCESSORS' NEW CEO: OUR WORKERS HAVE BEEN TREATED FAIRLY – Des Moines Register, AP Report New Cases Of Worker Abuse

Bernard S. Feldman, the Rubashkin attorney who is now Agriprocessors' new, Orthodox Union-promised "independent" CEO, told…

Book Review: Jews And American Comics

In a bizarre sidebar to the current Agriprocessors' scandals, Agriprocessors' chief rabbi Menachem Meir Weissmandl condemned "boys and girls flying together" in superhero genre comic books as immodest and un-Jewish.

Of course, Jews – many of them very committed Jews – played a major role in creating the comic book industry and art form.

Eli Valley has…

An Open Letter To Agriprocessors New CEO

State of Postville 2 writes:

Agriprocessors New CEO: Rubashkins Treated Unfairly

Bernard S. Feldman, the Agriprocessors attorney named today as the company's new "independent" CEO, thinks…

OU: We Don't Care That Agriprocessors New CEO IS A Rubashkin Crony

We broke the story earlier today. Agriprocessors hired Bernard S. Feldman, one of its attorneys to be its new CEO.

Feldman represented Agriprocessors during the Allou Healthcare fraud investigation and therefore has preexisting attorney-client privilege, which could easily become an issue due to…

Burning Crosses Ultra-Orthodox Style

The Heretic exposes haredi racism on Jewcy.com.

Rabbi Marc Gafni Reinvents Himself Again: "Dr.," Not Rabbi – Describes Exposure Of His Alleged Clergy Sexual Abuse "An Immense Personal Tragedy" – Teaching At New Age Christian Church

The evolution of Rabbi Marc Gafni…

AGRIPROCESSORS NAMES CRONY NEW CEO – Bernard S. Feldman Attorney, Represents Agriprocessors and Rubashkin Family Members

UPDATED 3:45 PM

Is this new CEO "independent" as the OU promised he would be?

Dov Hikind: The "Best Community" To Be A Child Molester Is "Borough Park, Flatbush, Lakewood or Monroe.…People Don’t Press Charges”

This is exactly the argument made by critics and by victims' advocates, and the same argument Agudath Israel of America and other haredi leaders have attacked as antisemitic.

And now uber-Jew and NY State Assemblyman Dov Hikind is saying exactly the same thing, as…

Des Moines Register: Shorted Paychecks Common Complaint Of Agriprocessors' Workers

The Register also digs deeper into a story we first reported yesterday, Long Prairie Packing's Postville job fair. A rep for the LPP told the Register that, under normal conditions, meatpackers don't recruit in each other's territory.

This is an exception and is happening because…

More Haredi Rabbi-On-Boy Child Sexual Abuse Surfaces – Parents Tell Dov Hikind They Are Afraid To Go To The Police

Why won't this family go to police?

OU: New Agriprocessors CEO Would Not "Exclude" Rubashkins, "They Own The Company"

Yated Ne'eman has a very disturbing interview with Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO of OU Kosher. Genack has parsed his call for Agriprocessors to hire a new CEO so finely and so often it is now difficult to determine…

Agriprocessors Execs Plead Not Guilty

None of them showed up in court, either, as…

DovBear Wrote A Book!

Buy it here.

Competing Meatpacker Offers Postville Residents Higher Wages, Large Bonuses, Relocation Assistance

This ad is running in Postville-area newspapers:

EXCLUSIVE: Agriprocessors Worker Says Rabbis Sleep On Job – USDA Sanitary Regulations Ignored, Workplace Still Unsafe

Full audio interview posted below.

Here is a list of charges made by Michael Harding, who in late July came from Indiana to work at Agriprocessors in Postville. The charges include very serious allegations that directly impact the kosher status of Agriprocessors' beef:

OpenSourceHalacha.com – Jewish Law For All Of Us

There is a new and hopefully groundbreaking project being launched today. Consider it the Wikipedia of…

They Wrapped Themselves In Cords Of Steel

…In the covered area of the Western Wall, an untidily clad Jew is standing and reading liturgical poems with a cracked voice; one moment he is racing along and then he slows down, and then stops, moans, cries, and then sings with flourishes. Behind him stand some 200 worshippers, who constitute one of the largest minyans at the Wall during the nights of the month of Elul.…

Roots Of Chabad Messianism

Professor Menachem Friedman wrote…

BREAKING! Agriprocessors Housing Rip Off: 9 People, 1 Decrepit House, Rent $225 Per Month Per Person

$2025 per month for a broken down house in Postville, Iowa – a house without hot water, with a broken bathroom, and with no furniture, rented to students from Kyrgyzstan in the Former Soviet Union who came to work at Agriprocessors.

One of them, Kaliman Bayalieva, read yesterday's post (and the comments to it) dealing with their mistreatment and wrote us a note to clarify her position:

Hasidim, Ex-Hasidim And Hard Drugs: From Manischewitz To Mescaline

…During my trip to the Catskills, a sheet of LSD was acquired and then greedily consumed in a matter of minutes. Magic Jews were frothing at the mouth with psychedelic lust. Hershel took my arm and said he would like to speak with me alone.…

OU President: Agriprocessors Has "Lost A Lot Of Credibility"

OU President Steve Savitsky was speaking in Omaha, Nebraska this weekend. Agriprocessors – which was not on his agenda – came up anyway.

Here is what Savitsky…

Agriprocessors Housing Rips Off College Students From Former Soviet Union

They came from Kyrgyzstan --- a former Soviet state on China's west border – to study in American universities and thought Agriprocessors would be a good summer job.

But they were…

Haredim and the Holocaust, cont.

Esther Farbstein is a 'courageous' Holocaust researcher. Why? Because…

Prosecuting Agriprocessors: How Difficult?

Some legal experts say prosecuting Agriprocessors for more than 9000 counts of child labor law violations will be…

Haredi Rules For Playing 'Kosher' Music

The haredi modesty squad leader who led the successful campaign to ban…

Rabbi Leib Pinter Pleads Guilty

He has a criminal record stretching back to the late 1970s. He bribed a Congressman, ran a corrupt poverty program and a lunch program that fed children rotting, stale food. He sent salami and cheese sandwiches to children requesting kosher meals.

And then he went big time.