…In the wake of Rubashkin’s conviction, University of Iowa professor Stephen Bloom, who authored a 2000 book about Postville, told The Iowa Independent that he knew “from the very beginning [that] almost all of Sholom Rubashkin’s actions reflected an mind-boggling sense of imperial disregard for just about everything that ethical, law-abiding people hold as plain and simple rules of civic and financial engagement.”
“Rubashkin always played very fast and very loose. He and his lieutenants seemed to be not just above the law, but above how employers and business people normally carry out their everyday tasks. There was an air of supreme arrogance swirling around Rubashkin and his men, particularly when it came to paying bills and accounting for those bills.”
Because the Rubashkin family came to Postville to begin a new community instead of joining with the existing one, Bloom said that a certain culture clash was simply inevitable.
“The larger issue to me wasn’t so much blending into the existing culture, it was a sense that Rubashkin and his men had come to town and really didn’t give a damn about anyone or anything — except making money their way. They were the new guys in Northeast Iowa, and what they said, went. If you didn’t like it, well, that was just too bad,” he said.
The sentiment of “you better get used to how we do business because we call the shots now” was one Bloom and others came to expect from Rubashkin and others within the Jewish community.
Bloom also predicted that the guilty verdict would spur “scores of Rubashkin loyalists to scream” anti-Semitism. Indeed, just hours after Rubashkin was taken into custody, a prominent Chabad Web site [Chabad.info] asserted that Rubashkin had been denied basic religious rights by federal authorities, and in the comments to that post as well as others on the site it has been suggested that “a frumer yid” doesn’t “deserve to be in jail together with goyishe criminals”:
now is certainly not the time to stand in judgement of sholom mordechai to decide whether or nor not he deserves to be in jail. He made some mistakes, I’mm sure he would not repeat, given what he is facing now. However, does a frumer yid deserve to be in a jail together with goyishe criminals? Absolutely NOT! EVERY SINGLE STOP needs to be pulled out to free him! INSTEAD of sending aroisgevorfener e-mails and faxes to stupid goyim – you should be banging down the doors of ALL “shluchim” who sat and ate like chazeirim at a “gala banquet” and who know and have contacts with key political top-dogs, that can have influence with senators, governors, congressmen/women, presidents, etc. THESE ARE THE ONES THAT YOU SHOULD MAKE THIER LIFE A LIVING H**L UNTIL they do something! that’s the only way anything can change for Sholom Mordechai. (al pi tevah) CALL, CALL, CALL, WRITE, FAX, FAX, FAX, 10-20-30 times a day until they poshut go nuts – and then they will do something! WHAT GOOD ARE THEY, AND WHAT GOOD ARE THIER CONNECTIONS IF NOT FOR THIS INYAN!? At least, if they are not doing the Rebbe’s shlichus, let them get a yid out of prison!