Postville, IA – Rabbi Moses Weissmandel, the supervising rabbi at Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa, called this morning to categorically refute every allegation made this week by government investigators — except the illegal worker business. “That’s not my department,” Weissmandel said.
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What is his department is the rabbinical staff, some 40 rabbis responsible for the actual slaughter of meat and for supervising the plant to make sure everything’s kosher. He claimed his rabbis provide round-the-clock supervision, and that none of the allegations – among them that workers were producing drugs on site, and that rabbis abused the workers with meat hooks – are true.
“I categorically say it’s false, it’s not true, it’s a lie,” Weissmandel said. “I have my rabbis supervising 24/7. We supervise every inch of that place in order to be sure that the place is totally kosher.”
I asked if there might be an area of the plant where workers eat or get changed that is not supervised as scrupulously as the places where the meat is produced. Weissmandel acknowledged that there is such a place, but that it didn’t escape the hawk-eyed scrutiny of his rabbis.
“There is a lunch room over there where the workers eat, and changing room,” Weissmandel said. “My rabbis, the supervising rabbis, have instructions to go inside there every so often just to make sure everything is ok over there.”
The government document, a 60-page report on a six-month investigation that was used to get a search warrant for the plant, included allegations that rabbis at the plant had abused workers — taping their eyes shut, hitting them with meat hooks. Weissmandel said that was impossible, and even though he is only on site a few days a month, he said that he knows about everything that happens there.
“If it only happens that one of the rabbis gets in the smallest confrontation with a worker, has a problem, exchange of words, in the hour I know about it,” the rabbi said. “It’s reported to me right away, even the smallest confrontation. I can tell you that I’m 100 percent confident that such abuse never took place. No one ever taped a worker’s eyes with duct tape, it’s such a nonsense it’s impossible.”
Weissmandel further reported that the plant was close to approaching its further production capacity. Some 20 yeshiva students have been recruited from New York to come to Postville, and other workers have been hired through an employment agency.
does he even know what a chicken really is?
Chicken?says
You are realy stupid
Stupid comment
Thank you for giving clear facts.
time will tell . let the evidence come forward
20 Yeshiva boys? What are they going to do in a meat plant?
Its all about the hidden cameras, go B&H!
No one ever taped a worker’s eyes with duct tape,
What does this mean in plain English,please?
it’s such a nonsense it’s impossible.”
Weissmandel further reported that the plant was close to approaching its further production capacity.
And what does the next statement have to do with it?
Some 20 yeshiva students have been recruited from New York to come to Postville, and other workers have been hired through an employment agency
To do what,may I know?
and even though he is only on site a few days a month, he said that he knows about everything that happens there.
How does he REALLY know everything that happens if he’s there so infrequetly? HOW DOES HE REALLY KNOW FOR SURE ABOUT THE STANDARD OF THE SHECHITAH AND THE REST OF THE THINGS THAT COULD GO WRONG WITH KASHRUS when he’s not there?
“If it only happens that one of the rabbis gets in the smallest confrontation with a worker, has a problem, exchange of words, in the hour I know about it,” the rabbi said. “It’s reported to me right away, even the smallest confrontation.
Even if something is reported to him,how does he know that perhaps something is not reported falsely to him?
Does his ‘group of rabbis’always tell him everything that is problematic with the kashrus of every animal?
If it is not his department about non-kashrus concerns,how can he comment on the veracity of the conditions of the workers and their treatment by supervisors who work for the plant?
Please explain why I should trust the kashrus if the workers aren’t treated decently?
tzaddik (in peltz)
Please explain why I should trust the kashrus if the workers aren’t treated decently?
1) Mishna- Avos: al tadin es chavercha od she’tagiya l’mikomo.
2) Numerous shaylos and tshuvos minimizing the ne’emanus of a goy. specifically when he stands to benefit.
3) Dina d’malchusa. Everyone accused is assumed innocent until he is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
4) You no absolutely nothing about agri. R’ Polachek has cameras in every corner of rockland kosher. He can look any where he can go back to the tapes. Do you know for a fact that R’ Weissmandel does not?
5) Logic- Any idiot that duct tapes anybody’s eyes shut in any half sane establishment would shown the out the door same day.
6) Halacha- Exactly which Halacha in Yoreh Dayah do you suggest posuls shechita based on the mistreatment of employees?
7) The “Rabbis” that you question are also talmidei chachomim and yorei shamayim, who are in no hurry to be machel treifus l’yisroel.
If you have a problem trusting Rabbis I suggest you become a vegatarian. But remember: don’t eat any Israeli fruits or vegatables because you must rely on rabonim that it was ma’asered, it’s not from shmittah, etc.