Rabbis Appeal For Rubashkin In Washington
Rabbi Gershon Tannenbaum • Jewish PressOn Tuesday, January 26, 2010, a group of prominent rabbis conducted a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The rabbis came to ask United States Attorney General, Eric H. Holder, to intercede, on compassionate grounds, for the release on bail of Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin.
The National Press Club
The National Press Club, "where news happens," was founded in 1908, and has been a part of Washington life for more than 100 years. Every United States President since Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), 26th president (1901-1909), has come through its doors, as well as kings and queens, monarchs, prime ministers, premiers, senators, congress members, cabinet officials, ambassadors, religious leaders, scholars, entertainers, and business leaders.
The last time a rabbi spoke at the National Press Club was on Wednesday, July 14, 2004, when Rabbi Joseph Gerlitzky of the Rabbinical Congress for Peace, based in Tel Aviv, spoke at a National Press Club "Newsmaker" News Conference where he voiced opposition to the then proposed Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza strip. On November 3, 1986, Rabbi Meir Kahane,Hy"d (1932-1990), spoke at the National Press Club to confirm the biblical granting of the Land of Israel to the Jewish People.
The National Press Club calendar for Tuesday, January 26, had the event listed as a News Conference titled: "Rabbis Support Rubashkin." The rabbis came by plane, train, and automobile. The group included Executive Vice President of Agudath Israel, Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zweibel; Executive Vice President of the National Council of Young Israel (NCYI) Rabbi Pesach Lerner; representing the National Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education (NCFJE) Rabbi Aaron Raskin; Executive Director of the Aleph Institute, Rabbi Aaron Lipskar; President Emeritus of the Rabbinical Association of Queens, Greater New York, Rabbi Aryeh Sokoloff; Director and Counsel of the Agudath Israel's Washington, DC Office, Rabbi Abba Cohen; and Director of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, Rabbi Gershon Tannenbaum (this writer). The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations (OU) also expressed its support.
The Rubashkin Prosecution
Agriprocessors, Inc., then the largest producer of kosher meat, was the site of a May 2008 immigration raid that led to the arrest of 389 immigrant workers. Almost 270 of those arrested were tried, incarcerated, and deported. In December 2006 six Swift & Company meat production facilities, in Colorado, Texas, Nebraska, Utah, Iowa, and Minnesota, were raided by the US Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
ICE reported that an estimated 1,282 Swift employees had been detained on immigration violations. A grand jury later met, but indictments never came, and Federal authorities never revealed what they had suspected.
In the case of Sholom Rubashkin and Agriprocessors, Federal authorities aggressively pursued what appears as selective prosecution. He was tried on 91 counts and found guilty on 86 counts by a jury in a Federal Court in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Originally charged with 163 counts, Rubashkin was acquitted of five counts at trial, and the government later dismissed the remaining 72 counts. Rubashkin is presently being held without bail in a jail in Grand Rapids, Iowa.
Grant Schulte of the Des Moines Register reported that, according to legal scholars, some of the charges against Rubashkin are unusual for a Federal criminal case. Prosecutors also have revised their charges against Rubashkin seven times, which defense lawyers and legal experts say is unprecedented. Prosecutors allege that Rubashkin violated a 2002 order by the US Secretary of Agriculture to pay cattle providers within 24 hours of a sale. The charge stems from a 1921 law, the US Packers and Stockyards Act. The law requires "prompt payment" to protect livestock producers. At trial, cattle producers indicated that they would gladly continue doing business with Rubashkin.
Two scholars, who studied the above-stated law, said they had never seen it invoked in a criminal case. "This is the first time in my life that I've heard of that," said Professor Christopher R. Kelley of the University of Arkansas Law School. A leading contemporary expert on agriculture law, Professor Kelly teaches government regulation of agriculture, agricultural environmental law, and international agricultural trade.
Eli Zirkind, representing "What, Where, When," a Baltimore Jewish publication, interviewed Nathan Lewin, renowned Constitutional law expert and respected lawyer. One of the most prominent attorneys in the United States, Lewin is quoted as saying, "As far as the current matter, regarding Agriprocessors having employed illegal aliens, it was a well-known fact that Agriprocessors employed illegal aliens - as does every other meat packing plant in the United States. It's a perfect job for illegal aliens, who don't know English and are willing to work in Iowa, in freezing temperatures, dragging around dead animals. Most Americans are not ready to do that. I will say definitively, from everything I saw, that Rubashkin treated his employees better than the employees are treated at all the major slaughterhouses in the United States. They were paid better and treated more humanely."
Nat Lewin is quoted elsewhere as saying, "But it is worth stepping back to evaluate whether - even taking the prosecution's proof as totally credible - Rubashkin deserves the condemnation he is receiving. Even the prosecutors did not claim that he intended, when arranging Agriprocessors' $35 million line of credit from a St. Louis bank, to steal the bank's money."
While Rubashkin Was Being Prosecuted
While the case against Rubashkin was fiercely pursued, Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE issued new guidelines on April 30, 2009, regarding prosecuting employment of illegal immigrants. The guidelines effectively strengthen the Obama administration's intent to eliminate immigration enforcement, especially when it comes to detaining and removing illegal aliens from the workplace.
At The Press Conference
Rabbi Pesach Lerner, coordinator of the event, in opening the press conference, outlined the issues and presented the rabbis to the assembled newspaper and media reporters. Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zweibel expressed dismay and concern over the premature imprisonment of Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin and, seeking compassion, urged the US Department of Justice to closely scrutinize the demands by Federal prosecutors in Iowa that Rubashkin be imprisoned before he is sentenced. The group, which involved rabbis from some of the nation's largest and most well-known Jewish organizations, also demonstratively walked to the Department of Justice to deliver the a letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder, requesting that he review the matter and meet with the rabbis. A response is being awaited.…
All I'll say is that Tannenbaum manages to avoid reams of evidence against Rubashkin while he misrepresents much of the little pro-Rubashkin evidence he's found. Not that surprising from coming from a man with a 30 year track record of scams and federal enforcement actions.