Postville, IA – A federal grand jury has brought fresh immigration charges against five former supervisors at Agriprocessors, the controversial Postville meatpacking plant.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Defendants in the case unveiled Friday afternoon include three people who already faced charges: Former top executive Sholom Rubashkin, former poultry-line supervisor Hosam Amara and former human-resources official Karina Pilar Freund. The indictment also names two new defendants: former operations manager Brent Beebe and former poultry manager Zeev Levi.
The indictment says that the defendants knowingly hired illegal immigrants to work at the plant, and that they encouraged and assisted such immigrants to obtain false papers.
Rubashkin, son of the bankrupt plant’s owner, has been in jail since last Friday, when he was arrested on a bank-fraud charge.
Authorities have said Amara disappeared after a May immigration raid at the plant, in which nearly 400 illegal immigrants were arrested. Prosecutors said they believe he fled to Israel.
they won’t be satisfied till postville is Yudenrain, and with the help of all the self hating Jew amongst us, they will probably succeed. and then they come to get the rest of us in the north east.
i think we can put half of the country in jail who are knowingly hiring illegal people to work from senators to conservative and reform rabbis to small local store and restaurants
i know many people who got court and there was a small fine and had to pay the taxes for the people but no jail
this is the union and the left rabbi behind that
it is amazing that no major frum organiztion came out and help them
where is pidjon shwuim and the connection to the politicians
after what agri did for the comunity
and after what the community will suffer from closing agri
we are feeling this already big time
and it will only get harder not better after this
They won’t be satisfied until Rubashkin’s picture is in every Post office-and it says “Public Enemy #1 ”
Every time a frum goniff gets caught, the chorus of anti-semite starts up. Soon you’ll look like the boy who cried wolf, and if there is ever a true danger to Jews, nobody will believe you.
To all the yidden who insist on blaming everyone else for this matzav except those who are accused of braking the law -.
Please stop, as you are making the rest of us law abiding Jews look like apologists and fools. I am tired of reading all the comments here claiming this is a government setup, that “they” are anti Semites, etc. etc.
Fact of the matter is, they are accused of braking the law in an egregious fashion. They aren’t accused of just hiring 1 maid (a comparison many of you like to use), they are accused of hiring hundreds of illegal aliens, and according to evidence, they also provided them with fake documentation. To top it off, charges of bank fraud are now being brought against him.
Please, before you make us all look like even bigger fools come to terms with the fact that Rubashkins are one of the greatest baale tzedakahs of this generation, and they also happen to be accused of being one of the largest violators of American law which they are halachically bound to abide by.
Also, many of you like to claim that they are being treated unfairly, can any of you please give me an example of unfair treatment? Can any of you please find another instance of where someone who has hundreds of federal indictments pending and a long list of foreign ties and sympathizers has been released on his own recognizance?
Many of you also like to claim that it is not like he hurt anyone, no one died or was injured. This a very “heimish” mentality and you need to remember that – HE BROKE THE LAW (accused)- REPEATEDLY.
Please please, yidden, stop trying to be apologists, stop looking for the conspiracy theories, stop making matters worse. Accept the fact that a great yid may have broken the law and now is in jail and may be for a long time. Lesson learned.
Also on a side note, please all of you download Firefox web browser from http://www.mozilla.com. It is free and comes with a built in spell checker.
Thank you.
I believe that you represent some interest other than the interest or concern of most of the readers. Not one person mentioned anti semitism and your guns are already drawn. Ine person mentioned self jhating jews. Would you like to say who you represent. To you (for whatever reason) it does not seem to bother that a whole town of yidden and goyim are unemployed.
In any small co (the size of Agri there will be something you can find. And that happens when some well tied politician, organization, or union creeps up with an agenda. And he is being accused validly or invalidly. But hearing terms of rinning to Israel when his family put up very personal expensive possesions, and the judge thinks that he will run. Makes one wonder.
“also happen to be accused of being one of the largest violators of American law which they are halachically bound to abide by.”
Again with this. WHERE IS THIS HALACHA? Show me any hint in Shulchan Aruch that when someone comes to you for a job to support his family you must refuse him, and turn him out on the street, just because he was born on the wrong side of an arbitrary line, and a bunch of goyim decided that because of this you must not employ him. We just read the parsha of Sdom. Would you call Lot also a rasha, for breaking the laws of his city?
“Many of you also like to claim that it is not like he hurt anyone, no one died or was injured. This a very “heimish” mentality and you need to remember that – HE BROKE THE LAW (accused)- REPEATEDLY.”
And I say, so what? So long as he didn’t harm anybody, then why should we care how many laws he may have broken? Yes, it is a heimishe mentality, and I’m proud to have it. I have only disgust for those who have rejected this mentality and enslaved themselves to the goyishe law, as if every jot and tittle of it were one of the 13 ikrim or the 10 dibros.
Doing something illegal and wrong is never the good thing to do,no matter how many good deeds you also do. Breaking the law is not right! Getting caught is not an act of anti-semitism. When a Jew is arrested on false or no charges and has done nothing wrong,that is anti-semitism. Whe n a company regularly goes against the law,it hurts everyone,Jew and non-Jew alike. People must play and live by the rules. Are frum Jews exempt from being honest?
Reply to 3:
Fact of the matter is, they are accused of braking the law in an egregious fashion. They aren’t accused of just hiring 1 maid (a comparison many of you like to use), they are accused of hiring hundreds of illegal aliens,
Those hiring 1 maid are hiring 100% of their workers. Agri is bigger abd proportionately hires more.
Jewish (and perhaps non-Jewish) meatpacking plants should band together and not let the Unions in and throw them out if the shop is unionized in solidarity and protest for what they did
“Please stop, as you are making the rest of us . . . “
If you can write such a sentence, you evidently have no understanding of our Torah or of the great test our people Yisrael are faced with at this moment.
The correct answer is not as you seemingly believe . . . “Every Yid for himself!”
Im sick and tired of hearing “he broke the law..he broke the law…blal blah bala….let him hang. All you people need to look into yourselves, I am sure that at one point you broke some laws too. Al todin es chavercho ad shetagia limkomo! You were never in his shoes, so you cant say that you might not have done the “huge avairo” of hiring illegal mexicans. Is your cleaning lady legal? do you pay his by check and withhold taxes,unemployment,ss,etc?? or do you pay cash that you maybe didnt report yourself? When your shopping for a contractor to build/remodel/do work in your house do you maybe think the worker is not a “legal” and thats why you are paying the rates that you are paying?? All other things (kashrus,etc.) being equal if you were given the choice of paying 20% more from meat that had “legal” workers in the factory or getting a 20% discount from a “illegal worker” factory, which would you buy??
MOST OF YOU CANT ANSWER HONESTLY, SO SHUT UP ALREADY !!!
So now your egoing to start with the bank fraud issue. I sincerely hope that no one is ever R’L in a position of losing their job, business and house; but C’V if someone is, and his only option to keeping himself and his family off the streets and out of a shelter is to “short sell” his house to a relative, I for one will not judge that person even though it might be labeled “bank fraud”.
ONCE AGAIN: AL TODIN ES CHAVERCHO AND NO ONE SHOULD EVER HAVE TO MAKE THOSE DECISIONS.
i think that every body should stop talking about the next person were here to help our fellow jew cause u never know why u will need help back for what ever reason!#2they are people that helped tons from our community and it doesnt mean that they got caught they are bad if u reall want to look out almost every person in this world could get caught for a different reason.people have to stop masoring the next and jeolosy has to stop!!!!!!! YES
#3 #4 #6 #13 #24 You are all correct.
I spend a good part of Shabbos saying Tehillim for Sholom Mordechai, and I daven for him, as well as for his family. It is a tragedy every time ANY Yid is in Jail or Prison.
But, to call this anti-semitism, or to put the judge down, or to cry “unfair” is uncalled for.
He is being held on many serious charges, and he truly is a apparent flight risk. Sure, you can say he would not flee. But there is enough credible evidence to FORCE the judge to make the decision he made.
The comments regarding this item are very enlightening. Not enlightening about what Agri and the Rubashkins did or didn’t do.
Very enlightening about us.
With all due respects, these posts are so dumb.
They are a rehash, and another rehash.
There is one simple point: A man who has never hurt a fly, is being held as if he is a murderer or a rapist.
Why?
His offences are not that grievous that he should be treated this way.
And to all you ‘Dina Dmalchusa Jew boys’ out there, Rubashkin has enough prosecutors. And from the looks of it, they don’t seem to need your help.
If you are worried about ethics, behave ethically yourself.
When it comes to another Jew, have mercy and compassion and give him the benefit of the doubt.
We all sin. On Yom Kippur, we beg G-d to forgive us.
We cry to him: HAS KATEGOR – Shut up the voice of the prosecutor.
My simple point is this: Whether you agree or disagree with what went down, stop playing the prosecutor. Just SHUT UP!
When Yom Kippur comes around, and you beg G-d for mercy and cry –
HAS KATEGOR VKACH SANEGOR – you’ll be able to say it with a clean heart.
If not, don’t ask G-d to do for you, what you won’t do for others.
A Gutte Voch
It seems that everyone is missing the point. We are not judge or jury in a Federal Court, and we are certainly not the Bein Dis shel Ma’alah. Our roles, as fellow Jews, is to have compassion for a family in a dire situtation. We all to be have rachmanus, daven and hope that Hashem, Who is Go’el all shvuyim, should redeem Shalom Rubashkin and other in terrible tzaros. Baruch Hashem, there is an Aibeshter with limitless compassion, Without Him, where would any of us be? Remember, Hashem judges middah k’negged middah. To all those that are so comfortable throwing Rubashkin to the dogs, the Ribono Shel Olam might pay back in kind, chas v’shalom. No one here should be on a pedestal pontificating on legalities. Where is your feeling for a YId in a horrendous situation?
I don’t care what anyone says, Anti-semitism ahin aher, this is turning into a witch hunt. If you don’t see it, u r a self hating, wannabe liberal jew.
Please Daven for Sholom Mordecahi Halevi ben Rivkah.
Halodosh BH should have a lot of rachamim on all those stating how criminals should be penalized. There is a family and a community who don’t have food to put on their tables. That is painful.
To shed some light on the how this whole case is out of line:
1. by saying that he is a flight risk due to israel’s law of return is saying that simply because he is Jewish he will run to Israel.
2. The money found is his bedroom was never counted by the officers who searched his home, they flipped through and took a guess. In turned out in the end that there was $12,000, far from enough to run anywhere with a bunch of kids.
3. The “silver coins” they found, were the coins used for machtzis hashekel in Postville.
4. His wife is only allowed to see him once a week, and even then only via video! Let’s remember he is in prison only to prevent him from fleeing, why this harsh treatment, he was never convicted of crime!
To shed some light on the how this whole case is out of line:
1. by saying that he is a flight risk due to israel’s law of return is saying that simply because he is Jewish he will run to Israel.
2. The money found is his bedroom was never counted by the officers who searched his home, they flipped through and took a guess. In turned out in the end that there was $12,000, far from enough to run anywhere with a bunch of kids.
3. The “silver coins” they found, were the coins used for machtzis hashekel in Postville.
4. His wife is only allowed to see him once a week, and even then only via video! Let’s remember he is in prison only to prevent him from fleeing, why this harsh treatment, he was never convicted of crime!
If a person eats treif the max he can transgress is two aveiros , however what comes out of his mouth can result in up to 40 aveiros. The ultimate Kiddush Hashem would be to stop blogging about topics which can make a person attached to a group called “baalei Loshon Hora” Imagine the Z’chus if all of Klal Yisroel would take the next 24 hours and not discuss,write,blog etc. About topics that have no “toeles”. The Vilna Goan quotes a Medrash which states the following ” Kol Rega U’rega S’hadom Chosom Piv Zoche L’or Haganuz Shey’n kol Malach U’berya yochol L’shayer” Every single moment that a person displays silence, he will merit a divine light which is unfathomable to angels or even any creature. Even if you have spoken about such topics in the past , Please for the merit of the masses at large just refrain for one day posting comments about them. A Guten Vuch.
This finally made dailykos, that left wing political site:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/11/22/11857/390/756/663347
Overall, the comments are relatively sympathetic toward Rubashkin given the serious criminal charges he faces. There are objections to anti-Semitic comments on Iowa newspaper web sites, objections to Shalom Rubashkin having to appear in court in prison garb and handcuffs, a comment about Iowa’s insular culture that didn’t mix with a bunch of frum Jews from New York, concern about the way that ICE is treating the undocumented workers, and worries that this may lead to increased anti-Semitism in the US. There was also a push for the “hechsher tzedek” and I responded with a comment with some reasons why such is problematic. I was impressed by the comments; it shows that Americans do not rush to judge and can be trusted to be fair. We can give thanks that we live in Medinah shel Chesed.
yidden remember the koach of tehilim, let us all pour our harts out to Hashem to
help our brother!!!!!!
There are over 11 million illegal immigrants in the US-most of these are probably working.
(I wrote #3)
In response to all of the posters who did not bother to understand anything that I wrote and want to blame everyone else in the world except the ones accused of the actual crimes.
I never said once that Rubashkin was guilty, I never once said that he should goto jail for an extended period of time. I stated fact, not emotion, not loshon hora heard in shul on Shabbos.
The facts are very simple, he is accused of some very serious (yes – “serious” even if no one was injured as many of you like to proclaim) crimes and to be honest is a perfect candidate for a flight risk.
Please wake up and face reality; no one – at least most of the commentators here – wants him to sit in jail, we just request that his supporters support him in a rational way that doesn’t make the rest of us look like Jews fresh out of the shtetle with no understanding of how the American Legal System law works.
He is accused of breaking many laws many times; this is not the same thing as running through a red light, or not hiring a maid once, please keep this in mind. The government would treat most other accused individuals in his position the exact same way. Please do some research before commenting, as you are once again making us frum yidden look like morons when you make statements like “everyone is an Anti-Semite”. Granted there may be some Anti-Semites in the legal system, but I don’t think so in this instance; they obviously have evidence and he has been charged with hundreds of federal offenses.
Once again, it seems like I need to reiterate many points repeatedly since many of you don’t seem to want to read what was actually written and take the time to comprehend.
1. No one – myself and most commentators who you all call self hating Jews included – wants him to sit in jail for even a minute.
2. RUBASHKIN IS ACCUSED OF BREAKING MANY SERIOUS LAWS. Yes it is horrible to hear it, but it is the one fact in the that no one can deny, he is accused. Just because no one died or got injured doesn’t mean that in the eyes of the United States federal government that the charges are any less serious.
3. Face it, Rubashkin is a flight risk. I don’t care if they confiscated his passport, I don’t care if they found $20,000, or $12,000 or what ever the number is. Even if they found nothing and you and I both know he would never flee, fact of the matter is he a flight risk. Anyone with serious foreign ties is also considered a flight risk. The judge mentioning Israel’s “Law of Return” (is this even fact, has anyone verified that the judge said this? Or is this all a rumor heard in shul?) is not Antisemitism, but a fact. Is a judge a racist if he says that a Pakistani with ties to Pakistan, family in Pakistan, business relations in Pakistan, and ease of getting to Pakistan needs to be held without bail? No he is not, it is an arbitrary decision that the judge has the right to make based on evidence presented before him. The beauty that is the American Legal System is that Rubashkin can and will appeal the order and hopefully he will win.
4. Please stop calling those of us living in reality “self-hating Jews” it doesn’t do our cause – yes OUR cause – any good. Read the posts and try to understand the comments in a logical manner. Using emotion and not stating facts is a very immature way to argue and only makes the rest of us look like fools. Can you imagine if the judge came and visited this website and read the comments? The website is available to anyone with an internet connection, so please keep that in mind before you start calling other yidden self-hating. Am I self hating because I am looking at this from a rudimentary understanding of the American Legal System? Unlike earlier, please try to make sense before replying, read the comment/s, compose an intelligent reply using fact and logic, not more fear and hate mongering.
Thank you.
I think the issue is NOT hiring illegals, everyone does that. OBTAINING THEM FALSE DOCUMENTS MAY BE THE ISSUE.
#49 Well said!
I could not have expressed it any better. But notice if you or I make a typo, we are jumped on. As it is, we are “Self-hating Jews” whatever that means.
What in the world is a self-hating Jew? Is it any Jew who wants to do the right thing, and will not blindly side with another Jew who is wrong?
Could someone explain this to me?
“I dont give a damn what Rubashkin did. Our first loyalty is to our fellow yidden. “
Our first loyalty is to the Torah. U’biarta Ha’ra mi’kir’becha. Burn out the evil from your midst.
You can quote as many psukin as you please. Start with the definition of chillul Hashem. Continue with navi sheker.
Is there anyone that posted on this blog that wants to see Rubashkin, or his father, or his brothers or children in jail?? NO.
Do we want them to obey the laws of the land? YES
Is that so hard to understand?
According to Millhouse and I quote
“And I say, so what? So long as he didn’t harm anybody, then why should we care how many laws he may have broken? Yes, it is a heimishe mentality, and I’m proud to have it. I have only disgust for those who have rejected this mentality and enslaved themselves to the goyishe law, as if every jot and tittle of it were one of the 13 ikrim or the 10 dibros.”
A self hating Jew, therefore, cares that many laws are broken
By the way – check out #11 of the 13 ‘ikrim’, as you call them. GOMEL TOV LE”SHOMREI MITZVOSAV conveys good to the people that follow his commandments, U’ME’ANESH L’OVEREI MITVOSAV and punishes those that pass over, or disregard his commandments.
‘To all you ‘Dina Dmalchusa Jew boys’ out there, Rubashkin has enough prosecutors. And from the looks of it, they don’t seem to need your help.
If you are worried about ethics, behave ethically yourself.
When it comes to another Jew, have mercy and compassion and give him the benefit of the doubt.
We all sin. On Yom Kippur, we beg G-d to forgive us.
We cry to him: HAS KATEGOR – Shut up the voice of the prosecutor.
My simple point is this: Whether you agree or disagree with what went down, stop playing the prosecutor. Just SHUT UP!
When Yom Kippur comes around, and you beg G-d for mercy and cry –
HAS KATEGOR VKACH SANEGOR – you’ll be able to say it with a clean heart.
If not, don’t ask G-d to do for you, what you won’t do for others.
BS”D
Rubashkin did not damage me. I, too, am a businessman from the same Chassidus as the family came from, but whatever he did or did not do only tars me with the same brush in the eyes of self-haters and anti-Semites whose opinions mean nothing to me. For them, yours and my very existence is a slap in the face no matter what we do. If you start thinking the way they do, which is that all frum Jews are being lumped together because of the mistakes, and that is what they are, of a good family that was a bit behind the times and not quite up to speed for such a large enterprise, could not handle dealing in a highly regulated and politicized industry, then you are bowing to self-hatred and anti-Semitism.
Instead, we should be proud of the fact that we do not abandon our own people even when the rest of the world is busy attacking them.
That is because in their blind eyes, we are all Sholom Rubashkin. And if that is the way they see us, and indeed it is, then I am proud to say that I am the same as Sholom Rubashkin, and if some lowlife mistakes my picture for his (not hard if your vision is distorted by anti-Semitism and all you see is a man with a full beard), I’d take it as a compliment.
92 Today at 01:59 AM
Rachmonus Says: Reply to #85
Anonymous Says:
“ I see my ‘brother’ doing wrong. I tell him that he is doing wrong. He decides not to listen. He gets into trouble. His friends are now doing the same thing that he did.
Question – what do I do next?
a) do nothing
b) love him and do nothing
c) tell the friends that they are doing wrong
d) help the victems of the friend
e) …..fill in the blank ”
You apparently are choosing to be the neighborhood cop. I haven’t noticed any critique on your part of the “rabbi” that is using someone else’s problems as a tool for his own aggrandizement.
Nor have you criticized the press for blow by blow coverage of the Agri story and that they have neglected to keep us up to date on the ICE raids conducted in a follow-up (clearly done to give an impression that they are not picking on the Rubashkins at the behest of the union).
Finally, the rebuke of your fellow to help to get to encourage them to proper behavior is supposed to be a private matter. You did! How wonderful! So you brought it to the public so that others should follow in your great example. How thoughtful.
*******************************************************************************
All I saw was a question and ‘Rachmanos’ attaching the questioner.
Then ‘Rachmanos does to the person posting what he does not want to do to Rubashkin.
Rachmanos – Why not anwer the question? You do not want to discuss the alternatives, you just want to drop your poision bomb and run away into the night
Just answer the question without making personal attacks. Is that so difficult? .