At some point one has to wonder how rabbis who openly lie retain their positions. Rabbi…
…Pinchos Lipschutz, the editor and publisher of Yated Ne'eman, the voice of the haredi yeshiva world, is a prime example of a truth-challenged rabbi who still keeps his job.
Lipschutz, who participated in Agriprocessors staged rabbis tour, has a post on YeshivaWorld.com that is so full of lies that it is difficult to know where to start. I'll focus on one small section here, because it so blatant.
Commenting on last Friday's NY Times article on the new PETA video showing inhumane slaughter at Agriprocessors , Lipschutz writes:
…This week, charges were brought against the company for allegedly hiring under-age workers. Let us not be hasty to rush to judgment. Wait until the accused have a chance to defend themselves in a court of law. All the other charges bandied about in the media are mere allegations based on hearsay and don’t deserve to be treated as fact.
That hasn’t stopped the leading media in this country from forming a figurative lynch mob and going after Agriprocessors with the obvious intent of destroying the company. They slam it with all kinds of false allegations, as if it were a cattle- and man-killing jungle of the early 1900s.
Blatant lies are passed around as truths often enough that even many of our own people believe them. Amaleik perceives that he can’t destroy us, so he slanders us instead, telling the world that we don’t know how to treat animals or people. He says that we are mean, vicious and heartless, and he gets all the papers to print this rubbish.
He plants perverse ideas in the minds of hate-driven people who then peddle their wild allegations to mainstream media outlets which, in turn, publish them in their papers as authenticated facts.
Last week, the nation’s “newspaper of record” ran a story headlined, “Kosher Plant Accused of Inhumane Slaughter.” Who accused them? Read on and find out that it was none other than PETA, the group of misfits who parade around the world ludicrously arguing that man is no different than animal and, therefore, both species are entitled to the same rights.
It is only when you get to the fifth paragraph that you find out that the accusation is bogus. The plant, in fact, was found by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to be “in full compliance with humane slaughter regulations.”
The sensational headline was intended not to inform, but to aid and abet the smear campaign against kosher slaughter. …
Here are the first five paragraphs from that NY Times story:
Kosher Plant Is Accused of Inhumane Slaughter
By JULIA PRESTON
An animal rights organization secretly recorded a video last month in the slaughterhouse of a kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa and presented it to the Department of Agriculture, claiming it showed inhumane practices in the killing of cattle.
The brief video, about four minutes long, was recorded on Aug. 13 without the knowledge of managers in the Postville, Iowa, plant of Agriprocessors, the nation’s largest kosher meatpacker, by a representative of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, according to Hannah Schein, investigations specialist for the group, known as PETA.
She said the video showed three instances in which Agriprocessors workers made unauthorized hacking cuts in the necks of still-conscious animals.
Department of Agriculture officials confirmed Thursday that they had examined the PETA video and said inspectors from the department’s Food Safety Inspection Service based at the plant had subsequently witnessed at least one similar violation.
But the inspectors determined the violations were “not egregious,” said the inspection service spokeswoman, Amanda Eamich. She said the plant was currently in full compliance with humane slaughter regulations. …
So, Rabbi Lipschutz lied. The USDA admits its inspectors saw at least one similar violation. And Lipschutz intentionally misquotes the USDA, which says Agriprocessors is "currently" in full compliance. It was not always in full compliance and was not in full compliance when the PETA video was shot or when USDA inspectors watched the slaughter process.
The idea that the 9000-plus charges of child labor violations are the only non-hearsay allegations made against the Rubashkin family and Agriprocessors is also plainly false. There are previous documented violations of Humane Slaughter law, of environmental law, of US labor law, dozens of OSHA violations, and more, not to mention that 75% of Agriprocessors' workforce was illegal on the day of the ICE raid and four Agriprocessors supervisors have been charged, and two of them have already pleaded guilty. Another, fifth supervisor has fled the country.
And then, we have this:
…Some have questioned why I have taken such a strong stand on behalf of the Rubashkins. I believe that the proper course of action is to defend ehrliche Yidden who have been wrongfully accused and maligned. But more than that, it is my perception that the Amaleikim hounding them are targeting not only the Rubashkins. They are targeting you and me and our ability to eat kosher meat in this country.
Equal opportunity destroyers, they fear they are running out of material with which to bash the Lubavitcher Rubashkins, and are therefore taking aim at the Satmar Alle Packing Company.…
Alle mistreats its workers and the Forward documented that. The Forward also documented glatt kosher meatpackers who do not mistreat their employees, like Aurora Packing near Chicago.
Unlike Lipschitz and Yated Ne'eman, the Forward actually tries to report the truth and to report it in context.
These examples are but a few out of many in an article where Lipschutz despicably calls his enemies Amalek, the biblical arch-enemy of the Jews – an enemy Jews are commanded to wipe out.
This is haredism.
New PETA Video.
What the USDA allows and why. (scroll down.)
Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz, In Every Generation.pdf
[Hat Tip: a reader.]