New York – When I was chosen this year to serve alongside Queen Rania of Jordan, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Richard Branson as one of the judges for CNN’s Heroes, I met and befriended an incredible woman named Carolyn Lecroy who runs the Messages Project, which videotapes prison inmates reading bedtime stories and communicating with their children. As I watched Carolyn’s work with my own children on the DVD CNN sent me, tears streamed down all of our eyes. We immediately identified with the millions of children who have done no wrong but whose parents’ incarceration brings them unending suffering.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
In this spirit, consider the case of Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin, the former chief executive of Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa, who has been denied bail and is being detained pending trial in the Dubuque County jail where his wife can visit him once a week for 25 minutes and communicate only through video conferencing. She is charged with looking after their 10 children on her own, including their 15-year-old autistic son Moishe.
WHAT COULD this rabbi have done that would cause the justice system to be so harsh? To be sure the charges against him are serious, including child labor violations and knowingly employing hundreds of illegal immigrants. But Bernie Madoff allegedly ripped off $50 billion and took scores of Jewish charities to the cleaners, including the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. Yet he’s sitting under house arrest at his $10 million East Side apartment! Rubashkin and his wife Leah long ago surrendered their passports to federal authorities, not to mention the fact that he was previously fitted with a GPS ankle bracelet. So why did the judge deny a multimillion dollar bail package offered for his release, with 32 people offering mortgages on their homes to back the bond?
In his November 20 decision, federal magistrate Jon Stuart Scoles offered the astonishing and disquieting rationale that Rubashkin is a flight risk because “under Israel’s Law of Return, any Jew and members of his family who have expressed their desire to settle in Israel will be granted citizenship.” Huh? A federal judge designates 5.5 million American Jews as potential flight risks due to Israel’s Law of Return, and the Jewish community responds with silence?
It is possible that there are uncharitable motives behind the absence of any Jewish outrage to a ruling with potentially devastating consequences to our community’s basic rights. Until he imploded, Bernie Madoff was in a business Jews consider sophisticated and noble, finance. He was a secular Jew who made good on Wall Street and even brought the community pride by becoming chairman of Nasdaq. Rubashkin, by contrast, was essentially a glorified shochet and butcher, the country’s largest producer of kosher meat. Rubashkin’s beard and black hat were enough to unnerve many Jews. But that his missteps at Agriprocessors highlighted what others consider the unsavory sight of Jewish ritual slaughter all but guaranteed Rubashkin’s total abandonment at the hands of American Jewry.
THIS EXPLAINS why, in sharp contrast to what is developing in the kosher meat industry, there has been no move afoot to establish something akin to “Hechsher Tzedek,” a rabbinic certificate of ethical excellence, for financial institutions. After all, how is it that when so many of the people going to jail on Wall Street turn out to be Jewish, the Modern Orthodox and Conservative movements have not immediately launched a campaign, as they are doing with kosher meat, to evaluate firms that invest Jewish money to ensure that they conform to the highest ethical norms in terms of treatment of employees and overcompensation of dead-beat executives?
Why is it that only kosher meat is being singled out as being in need of ethical reform? I suggest it is because the Jewish community has an obvious sense of discomfort with ritual observances that the non-Jewish world finds confusing or distasteful rather than the Jewish money machine which, when it works soundly, everyone rather enjoys.
To be sure, Judaism commands the highest ethical treatment of animals, including the commandment to feed one’s livestock and pets before oneself. Indeed, the whole purpose of shechita is the severing of an animals’ carotid arteries leading to death by asphyxiation so that an animal dies without suffering. I for one applaud many of PETA’s goals of ensuring humane treatment of animals, even as I decry some of its more radical means, like their comparison of the slaughter of animals to the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust.
BUT LET’S be honest, the hatred that Jewry feels for Rubashkin cannot be completely divorced from his profession as a giant kosher butcher no more than secular Israelis natural scorn for the bearded settlers can be completely divorced from their view of them as religious fanatics who are obstacles to peace. Consider the fact that Israelis have expressed no strong outrage against former Knesset speaker Avrum Burg who recently published a book, highlighted in The New York Times recently, suggesting that “Israeli Arabs are like German Jews during the Second Reich and that the entire society felt eerily like Germany just before the rise of Hitler.” Burg adds that “the Israeli government would probably soon pass the equivalent of the Nuremberg laws, with provisions like a prohibition on marriage between Jews and Arabs.”
Now who is more of a fanatic? The settlers, or Burg who equates Israel with Hitler but is largely given a pass because of his essentially secular bearing (diminutive yarmulke notwithstanding).
WHEN I was a teenager at Chabad yeshiva in Los Angeles, my friend Dovid Goldman’s sister Leah married a young rabbinical student from a Lubavitch family distinguished for its pedigree and vast philanthropy, including a decades-old soup kitchen in Brooklyn that fed thousands. His name was Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin and there was great chatter in our yeshiva because his wife Leah was a ba’al teshuva (returnee to Judaism). I had never met him but respected him for rejecting some of the sillier ideas inherent in Orthodox courtship, including the fact that those from religious backgrounds do not marry those who are new to Jewish observance.
Those who read my columns know that I can be a sharp critic of this kind of Orthodox excess. Still, I have always been extremely proud of my faith, just as I have encouraged my Christian and Islamic brothers and sisters to be proud of theirs. If Rubashkin is guilty, he will pay a terrible price. But our rejection of him as some kind of fiend before he even goes to trial says more about us than it does about him.
Your right
very well said
the sinas am haaretz l’talmid chochem can not be more depictable than this
You hit it on the head. Thanks Rabbi Boteach.
The Rubashkin debacle developed over several years. For the most part, the Conservative and MO were silent until just the last year or so. The Madoff genivah is still very current. So comparing a response to Rubashkin’s alleged child labor violations, failure to pay wages and overtime, and health violations to the responses to Madoff (thus far) is specious at best.
this just happened a few days ago- give it time. re MO- not sure why he shtupped MO into this- YU lost over $110 million in this scandal. Maddoff was kicked off board (and so was somoene associated with Merkin). Has Agudah done anything? And you think you can do a better job than the SEC?
Your love for yiddishkeit and for Jews was very apparent on friday night at the Jacobsons! May you continue to fight for your beliefs and continue to inspire klal yisroel and our goyish co-inhabitants of the world
It’s possible that when one belongs to a certain group they tend to look favorably on what someone from that group does even if they disagree with that. Therefore someone who is modern orthodox might be more lenient on one of there own then a charedi or the reverse. It’s a love one has for their own more then others. Maybe now is time to respect all for who they are and bring justice to all who do wrong
Just another attack on the Modern Orthodox. YU lost a lot of money to this thief. The Modern Orthodox community has said things against him. Yet, people will choose to attack the Modern Orthodox simply because they don’t agree with them. Boteach, as a Chabadnik, should be familiar with this kind of sinas chinam. Shame on him.
1. Rubashkin did business under a hechsher. Madoff did not need a hechsher. This makes Rubashkin’s crimes more of a chilul Hashem.
2. Rubashkin was warned a number of times over the course of a few months, and he chose to ignore the government. The Madoff scandal is very new, so it’s premature too compare the responses.
3. Modern Orthodox institutions, such as YU and SAR, have condemned Madoff. Compare that to the response of many Haredim, especially Lubavitch, who defended Rubashkin, no matter what.
I have to say, this is a remarkably unconvincing piece.
Rubashkin was released on bail, and proceeded to make preparations that appear to be a prelude to flight. That is why bail was denied on the subsequent charges.
I am sure that if Madoff were found to have a bag with passports, birth certificates, and large sums of cash in his apartment, he would be sitting in Jail as well.
I think “Hechsher Tzedek” is a great idea for investments and financial institutions. The Muslims have “sharia banking” and the Catholics have the “Ave Maria Fund.” I don’t normally agree with Shmuely on many things, but this time he has hit the nail on the head. Why the big rush for “Hechsher Tzedek” to get into the food business and not other businesses which also require ethical supervision? The answer is obvious: they are jealous of the success enjoy by the Orthodox, and too insecure to “put their money where their mouth is” so to speak.
“The Madoff scandal is very new”
Nope! BTG’s swindle has been an ongoing institution for over 30 years. He operated in a largely unregulated area of financial markets, unmolested by SEC protocols. Hence, it is entirely plausible that he had been operating an inherently criminal enterprise for virtually all of that time. And there was no way for anyone to know.
BTW, which scandal is yielding more anti-semetic rhetoric on the internet? The answer is the indicator of whose Chillul HaShem is the greater.
Im sorry you were not on Madoff’s Chanukah gift distribution list, but that is no reason to lash out at the fortunate ones that were. In due time they will condem Madoff (although they wont return his donations) as opposed to our politicians who are now disgorging his politcal contributions
Stop with the Sinas chinom, if we all need the last word, it will never end.
Two wrongs don’t make a right. YU has come out very strongly against what Madoff did, however Madoff is not Modern Orthodox, he is conservative. Both men are criminals and the only wrong here is that Madoff is NOT in prison, not that Rubashkin is. There has been more coverage on Madoff on the so called “charedi blogs” that I cannot think of any other story that has ever generated so many posts. YU and the other Modern Orthodox institutions were hurt by Madoff but not involved in what he did. We try to teach our children business ethics, there are classes in them in YU, which is more than can be said for the charedi Yeshivos where work is a dirty word.
Madoff helped out those very instutes that he hurt- he was chairman of Sy Syms School of Business (YU) board for many years, and yet we came out against him. Rubashkin did help out people tremendously, but although he hurt chabbad’s name, they still aren’t comming out against him.
And again- is he even frum? Why is he under the MO label? And can we stop w/ the labels once and for all?
Shmuly
You usually write well, now you are being shrill and making no sense a throwback to the old Chabad days, maybe?
What about “hechsher tzedek” don’t you get??Don’t you realize that you can technically have kosher meat which is not kosher ethically.Money does not carry that distinction.If it’s stolen it’s not kosher!!
I feel terrible for Rubashkin but you realize that it’s a different judge in Iowa, don’t you?As an aside the Rubashkins ran the most disastrous p.r campaign in America and last but not least can there be anything dumber than keeping passports and a large ammount of cash together????
Very well said. We are one people one nation and we need to LOVE and care for ALL yiden and we have NO right to say ANYTHING negative about ANY jews EVER. This is NOT a Chabad or modern orthodox issue:it is a Jewish issue. For all those that make ANY negative comment at anytime against another Yid it is the same to speak against G-d Himself. There are ways to reprimend and we have systems in place in our Torah on how to deal with EVERY issue. NOWHERE does it say that we are allowed to judge ,condem or put down another Yid. It is sad enough we have problems , are brothers and sisters don’t need to be put down by our people. The WHOLE world does an amazing job at that!!! So let’s all help and stick together in this difficult times and ONLY see the good in each other so that G-d may have compassion on US ALL and take us out of this over extended GALUS. Have a freilechen Chanukah and let’s all daven for a ness for all Yiden to be home, safe with our families NOW!!
Lubavitch and Rubashkin were warned by people in the know that the Goverment would start taking a very close look.Instead of making a deal they chose to show how smart they were.
This is a tragedy a father sitting in jail when he would have very easily made bail.If.If the stooges that run Lubavitch inc had not chosen to “prove” how smart and capable they were.
Very well written, akthough I don’t agree on everything, but its very obvious how the modern orthodox people are serving their own agenda, lets see how they will respond to this article, shame on them
Thank you for your articulate,accurate comments.
You have to remember that Madoff was turned in by his family closest thing to addmission. Rubashkin never admitted guilt. Also the Gemara teaches that the person that is in charge of tzedaka has to do it with a partner so that he won’t steal. There should have been someone double checking madoffs investments PERIOD. Howcome when the rabbis went down to the plant all the workers said how nice they weer being treated. There are no recordings of anyone saying that they were abused by Rubashkin.
Shmulie, you are in denial– sorry to tell you.
Rubashkin denies all wrong-doings. Does Maddoff??
And how do you know there won’t be a conference on better business ethics??? The Maddoff scandal just happened…. Rubashkin is old news……. give people time to organize a conference…..
#17 I totally agree with you… “Baal Geneiva” sounds like a better term, than “baal Tzedakah”…..
Boteach is highlighting the inherent hypocrisy of the Modern Orthodox and the Conservative types.
They are the first to throw stones and pass judgement on another Jew in the name of ethics.
The fact, is Mr. Rubashkin has been thrown to the wolves by these people. He has never inflicted hurt on anyone, he has worked hard for his money; lived a very simple lifestyle and has given all his money away to tzedaka.
And what was his crime? It all boils down to a violation of some labor laws.
The aftermath of the collective judgment against Mr. Rubashkin is that now, his business, in which he worked 14 hour days, day in day out, year in year out, has been utterly destroyed.
His reputation has been been dragged in the mud by MO rabbis who didn’t even have the facts and repeated unsubstantiated charges to their communities over and over again.
I, for one, feel sorry for the MO community – for the shame and the loss that they have suffered. But I am angry at them for not following the basic JEWISH ETHICS of AL TODIN ES CHAVERCHA, of DON LECHAF SCHUZ, of LASHAN HARAH , of RECHILUT, of MOTZE SHEM RA when it came to Rubashkin.
And for these JEWISH ETHICS, which seem long forgotten to this community, they will have to answer to the RIBONO SHEL OLAM after 120.
Maybe this scandal is a wake-up call for this judgmental community.
Judge Jon Stuart Scoles is denying bail based on the law of return, which doesn’t make sense because of extradition. Even if there was evidence of a possible escape attempt, because that was such flimsy reason to deny bail, the Judge blamed his decision on that which is common to all Jews. I hope that there is a judge that can override Judge Scoles. I think that the reason that Agri did not take the warnings seriously was probably because many companies hire illegals and the government looks the other way. Many people anyway want to give illegals amnesty.
Rubashkin founded a beautiful frum community where Jews of all types worked together, learned together, and davened together. It gave frum families the possibility of living somewhere other than the crowded ghetto known as Brooklyn. It gave rise to the possibility of frum families uprooting from Brooklyn and starting new communities in rural areas and small towns. Rubashkin was a true community leader who looked after his flock. I didn’t know that Leah Rubashkin (who once gave me some good advice) was a baalas tshuva. I am glad that Shmuelly Boteach mentioned that because it really shows the type of non-judgemental character that Sholom Rubashkin has. While I would not tell anyone to break the law, there is a lot of good that can be learned from Sholom Rubashkin.
So even accepting your analysis (which may be flawed as a number of commenters have pointed out ) your point is that we should be unconcerned in both cases?
Might I suggest you please see bava batra 15b (the part about the beam between your eyes) and then try megilla 28a – the part about being maavir on one’s middot and then suggest an appropriate candle lighting for those who follow your derech .
KT
Rebbi Boteashs’ point is that when the Rubashkin ordeal surfaced Hechsher Tzedek was quick to demand. but with madoff they seem to be quiet
Shmuly!!!!!
Finally! Its about time you took advantage of your fame…
The power you have to change opinions is enormous.
Do you that in I had a non jew employee from some hicktown in middle of CT who was making his $7 an hour. He told me that his marriage is being held together by Shalom in the Home. Use your audience to Klal Yisroel’s benefit. Write the NY times…let this be heard
100% shkoyech
I am unaware of any Modern Orthodox Jew who has defended Madoff. Or Avraham Burg’s recent writings.
I am not a Rubashkin basher but Agriprocessors did publicly admit — to the government — and BEFORE the raid — to hiring illegal immigrants. You don’t do that and expect not to attract some kind of attention. Yet many commenters to this very blog still insist that Agriprocessors’ own actions play no role in what has happened.
1, I know two Ortodox men, one charedei and one right wing modern Orthodox who are under Federal criminal indictment whp are out on I million dollars each.There passports have been confiscated.
2.Modorff admitted what he did to his sons and they turned him in.
3.Althogh Mordoff did steal money he has admitted it and hsi was not a cash buissness.
4. Rubashkins had a huge cash buissness. There is agentleman named Kazliving on the west coast that once had 3 food markets in Florida over the years he estimated he did approximaly 3 million dollars in buissness, in cash with Rubashkin.
5/Boteach’s article was well written but boy does it have a lot of areas which are on week spindly legs.
6. How much money does Boteach get from the Rubashkins over the years?
7. How come no Charedei organization ever goes after the criminals in their own house?
8. Orthodox Jews ar ebeing indicted all the time and do get out on bail.
9. why hasn’t the chassidiche world come out against a rebbe who got hit with money laundering charges?
To # 31. You are a self hating dispicable excuse for a human being. If I knew who you were I would do to you what the macabees did to the yevonim.
Let me answer this as simple as I can. MADOFF IS NOT MODERN ORTHODOX.
“When I was chosen this year to serve alongside Queen Rania of Jordan, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Richard Branson as one of the judges for CNN’s Heroes …”
One need read no farther than the first sentence to see the mind of an egomaniac at work.
What pride he shows that CNN (biased news media giant) has grouped him with the Queen of Jordan (oh boy!) and Archbishop Desmond Tutu (a sonei yisroel mammash).
It’s all about Shumely — always is. He’ll often say good things and often stupid things. This is of the latter. The points have been made by other commenting.
There is TREMENDOUS outrage in the MO world. Madeoff could not even get 2 people to guarantee his bond! He has no friends.
Nor is the man himself even a Shomer Shabbos.
The Rubashkens? The Agudah and (even more so) Chabad have circled the wagons, painting this as anti-Semetic.
And yes, Shumley, certainly you do know there are 2 different judges involved.
Perhaps you were just rattling off a column to meet a deadline.
We expect better from you.
It is simply hornbook law that no two cases are comparable, and yet Boteach seems to be denouncing Rubshkin’s incarceration while Madoff is out on bail as severe a crime as that which Rubashkin is charged. Sorry for the pun, but that’s baloney.
Nor does Boteach anyone mention what ties he has to Rubashkin as they are both members of the same chassidic sect.
In the Agri case, you have one defendant who has already fled to Israel. So its not so much that millions of Jews are flight risks, its that in this case, clearly, they have lost a defendant to flight. Additionally, Rubashkin business trip to Canada didn’t pan out the way he described, and the now infamous bag ‘o cash didn’t help either.
In Madoff’s case, Madoff himself came forward through his family. Otherwise this guy would still be an unknown to many who read this blog.
It would be wonderful to have Rubashkin out on bail, but the reality is one case has nothing to do with the other.
Personally, I was outraged with the Rubashkin fiasco. But, his ‘sins’ should have been punished with fines and probation. He made bad choices. I’m not defending him because I don’t defend those who break the law. But at least he provided parnasa to Jews and non Jews. Plus, I think the unions may have trumped up charges that they turned over to the Feds.
But Madoff got away with this because no one looks the other way when money is pouring into your institution or you think you’re part of something the mere mortal plebes have no access to on their own.
I loved Rush Limbaugh’s analysis of this today. Rush lives in Palm Beach – in the same neighborhood as the Madoff victims. Anyway, on his program Rush dared to ask if all these charities wiped out in the Madoff scandal ever really had the money. Charities are run by rich liberals, not so they can help the needy, but so they can get their names in the society pages.
I’m not saying YU and SAR are run by rich white liberals, but some people are always looking for fame. Rubashkin, according to my understanding, wasn’t looking for his picture plastered all over society’s well read publications. Again, I’m not saying he’s innocent. But I care more about reduced access to kosher meat and poultry than rich people who were stupid.
This article is moronic. How in the world are rabbis supposed to investigate investment houses to determine if the operation is kosher? If the SEC couldn’t do it, a bunch of rabbis certainly won’t be able to make such a determination. What a stupid article.
The modern orthodox and conservative are jealous of the chareidi community because in a few years the modern orthodox and conservative sects will be history. We need to start twisting arms of politicians who want the charedi vote and support to stop being silent while our people are being mistreated. We need a guy like a jewish al sharpton who can put pressure on political powers.
Read the Judge’s ruling.
The decision to dent bail had little to do with the law of return and much to do with Rubashkin’s actions after his first arrest. He is accused of having tampered with evidence while out on bail, a violation of the terms of his release. On this issue alone the Judge would be correct in denying bail. The fact that a travel bag full of money was found together with passports, and birth certificates, was strike two. Then there is the conflict in statements made for a trip to Canada alledgely for business but them listed as a non-business related travel: strike three.
I feel sorry for the family, but Shalom seems to have a habit of shooting himself in the foot.
Also, expect more charges to come down next month.
You cannot ignore and insult the law. Sooner or later they will catch up to you. This is not Russia.
Shmuli, I’m not sure what you want. Bernie in jail or Rubashkin in 770.
I know what I want. Both sitting so that lemaan yishmeu veyirau, all will see and learn.
Besides, nobody in this forum has given a one sentence description as to what constitutes one MO or a chasid or plain orthodox.
One thing I do know. Rav Solovetchick (who was not MO, not one of his talmidim who learned Torah by him are only the “academitions and thinkers”) and the Lubavitcher Rebbe would not be proud of any of them. Period.
What makes one a chosid of a Rebbe? Because I follow a specific person and then sin,is the leader I choose is responsible?!
May the light of Chanukah shine on us all.
This entie ethics things is sucj garbage, it is just goyish “culture” creeping into what is supposed to be yiddishkeit
After the deaths al kiddush Hashem of the Mumbai victims,we do not need more disunity among the Jewish people. The Rubashkins are a fine family and Hashem should help them with all their troubles please and free us from galus now.
May this Yom Tov of miracles, bring forth a miracle for Mr. Rubashkin. This is a family of chessed. Mr. Boteach brings up some good points. Personally the lesson I learnt from the Made-Off fiasco, is all those charities that lost millions of dollars were “investing” the money, or “hoarding” it, not distributing it. Is that where you think your charitable donations go?
I find it interesting that the people who defend Rubashkin and cry “innocent until proven guilty,” are the same people who cry out against Madoff and automatically label him a “ganef.” It’s as if they believe it’s okay to treat people like garbage or commit fraud as long as only goyim are harmed, but if you steal from Jews, all of a sudden you’re the world’s biggest rasha! I get the feeling the only reason anyone cares about Madoff is because he stole from Jews. If all those shuls and yeshivas were not among his victims, most of these people wouldn’t care what he did. On the other hand, since Rubashkin wasn’t overworking and underpaying yeshiva bochurim or bringing in illegal Israelis, many people have no problem with what he did. Rubashkin and Madoff are both wrong, they both have committed tremendous chilul hashem and should both be thrown in jail.
I AGREE WITH SHMULY. Thank you so much for writing this, you wrote what I have been thinking and telling my friends. You have guts, and you are 100% right.
There has been a campaign against Rubashkin for a few years now. This is not as much a federal case, as much as it is a Jew-on-Jew lynch. This man has been lynched by the likes of the Forward and a host of other self serving organs.
People accuse Rubashkin of “Chilul Hashem” – but the TRUE Chilul Hashem are those who lynched their fellow Jew without trial. The true chilul hashem is when the Y.U. allows a conference to take place whose sole purpose is to promote the self-serving “Uri L’tzedek” on the blood of a fellow Jew. The true chilul hashem is when one of your brothers is sitting in prison, denied bail, with a prosecution who is prosecuting an extremely overzealous case (seeking over 100 years in prison? for what? this is not the only company who has hired illegals, show me ONE other one who even has anything remotely similar happening) – and his fellow brothers are not only not lifting a finger to help (you help Pollard, right?), they are participating in a media lynching of him.
Yesh Din Vyesh Dayan.
Thank you Shmuely. I agree with you completely. Thanks for standing up for what is right and just, even (especially) when it is unpopular.
Please continue to write on this case. A grave wrong has been done here.
This piece once again demonstrates the flimsiness of Boteach’s arguments and his disregard for other Jews. In the name of defending Rubashkin, who was never roundly criticized in Modern Orthodox circles, Shmuly merely ends up showing his discomfort with MO and his typical ahavas chinnom for everyone except people who keep שבת and think differently than him. R Genack, who gave Rubashkin their Hechsher for many years and who gave them many chances to improve their own situation was not a Musmakh of Oholei Torah, Torah VeYirah or Lakewood. He is a Musmakh of YU. I challenge Shmuly to find me one MO restaurateur or caterer who switched away from Rubashkin for ethical reasons. Aside from the three YCT students of Uri Letzedek the silence on these issues from MO was deafening, the silence from mainstream MO institutions was total. Boteach ignores all these facts and instead chooses to castigate MO after they have lost hundreds of millions of dollars. We did not clap and sing when Leviev curtailed his bankrolling of Messianist summer camps in the USSR and I do not crack jokes about lazy fat Haredim when I recieve the Kupat Hair circular but Boteach can insult YU for taking a financial hit and being swindled. Did we MO people bring out our Hashkafic differences with Chabad when the Mumbai Chabad was tragically attacked? No. We said תהלים and spoke about it sadly from the pulpit on שבת. We did not point to the moshiach flags or ask why the Holtzbergs were so lauded for running an inn for religious businessmen in Mumbai. It seems to me like MO has been a lot more tolerant of other ideologies than they have of us, and that we have shown a lot more of a sense of a כלל than Boteach does. In any case I would ask Shmuly to invite some Modern Orthodox Jews, even YCT rabbis, to his Shabbos Tisch and to please treat people who learn Torah, keep shabbos, kosher and taharas hamishpacha at least as respectfully as conservative talk show hosts, credulous Jewishly nostalgic baby boomers and Cory Booker.
The fact is that over the years the Jewish Week and Forward have bashed religous Jews every time there is criminal activity. These treif eating Rabbis want to state what “hechsher tzedek” should be used. The fact is that all the geneivas Shick, shareshevsky, etc etc over the last ten years didn’t total more than a little over $1 billion dollars (shicks recovery was approx 35%)… This secular, conservative geneiva
is in tens of billions and broke the back of liberal and Modern Orthodox charities and individuals. The fact that Rubashkin has not been tried does not preclude him from release on bail. His alleged crime is not so severe as the thousands affected by Madoff and Merkin. to preclude him bail as the Judge was biased in his comments about Israel.
How absurd! While I am disgusted by both… come to think of it all three (Shmully the Chillul HaShem too), the comparison is ridicules. Firstly, Rubashkin presents himself as a frum person and ben Torah, Madoff does not. Rubashkin is in the business of providing Kosher meat a vocation that demands highest degree of integrity in Hilchos Kashrus one would expect at least the same degree of integrity for how he runs that business again the same can not be said for Madoff.
I was actually amazed by the bloggers outpouring of support for Rubashkin and not for Madoff… Isn’t it interesting that there was never a headline “Rubashkin the Ganif” (actually the word is Ganov, but I digress). It make you wonder…