New York – A YouTube clip asking the public to perform the mitzvah of Pidyon Shevuyim before Yom Kippur by signing a White House petition supporting Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin, hopes to make the Rubashkin petition the most popular petition in the Obama administration’s newly created We The People program. The petition, asking the White House to investigate prosecutorial and judicial misconduct in the Rubashkin case, has over 26,000 signatures and is currently ranked third on the White House site.
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The clip, produced by Danny Finkelman and featuring Lipa Schmeltzer and several of the Rubashkin children, shows Lipa racing to the Rubashkin house on Erev Yom Kippur to sign the petition and telling the congregants at his Airmont Shul that in the merit of having added their names to the petition they will be sealed for a year of life.
“When I got a call from the askanim telling me they needed me immediately for this mitzvah of pidyon shevuyim, I cancelled all my appointments and said ‘let’s do this right now,’” Schmeltzer told VIN News. “ Not only am I hoping that this will bring justice for Sholom Mordechai but it was a wonderful experience for the Rubashkin children during this busy yom tov time when everyone needs a father.”
Finkelman, who also produced the Unity video featuring numerous Jewish music stars to raise money for the Rubashkin cause, came up with the idea for the video just yesterday and the video was shot in a matter of hours so that it could be ready before Yom Kippur. He hopes to surpass the most popular petition which has over 50,000 signatures, by getting more awareness.
“This could be the silver lining factor in getting the Department of Justice to investigate this case which has been mishandled from the start,” Finkelman told VIN News. “The Rambam says that Pidyon Shevuyim is the greatest of all mitzvos and we hope that by showing the White House how strongly the public feels about this miscarriage of justice, perhaps justice will finally prevail. With Yom Kippur almost upon us, as people look to do good deeds, everyone should please take it upon themselves to do this great mitzvah of Pidyon Shevuyim by signing the petition right now to help Sholom Mordechai.”
To sign the petition, go to http://wh.gov/gWM.
Beautiful Lipa, keep up the good work.
Its simple takes 2 minutes and please have your wife / husband / children /… Also sign up lets make this the top petition
Come on…. This is the ultimate form of propaganda! Using to celebrity to sway public opinion for a cause.
As much as I would love to see Rubashkin not sit for 27 years, it’s highly unlikely that the White House could have any real effect on his current predicament. His future has been dictated by the decisions of the judiciary, so under the Constitutional “separation of powers” doctrine the Executive branch can’t do much with it.
Why doesn’t our leadership use the opportunity to teach lessons from this situation rather than just yelling and screaming about the “injustice.”
Wow, this was fast! I saw them filming Lipa yesterday at the corner of Rt 59 and College Road at 5PM! Excellent and moving video.
Hate to be negative, but this looks like a waist of time, we shouldn’t put too much hope in this.
Not only am I hoping that this will bring justice for Sholom Mordechai but it was a wonderful experience for the Rubashkin children during this busy yom tov time when everyone needs a father.
what bout justice for the people who SMTR hurt
Same silly publicity stunts that have never helped and will not help. Falling for an election year stunt. Not sure how many on this blog took civics in school but they have this little thing called separation of powers and a DOJ investigation is not going to yield a 5 minute reduction in sentence. Such an investigation misses the point – it relies on blaming the system, the Feds, ICE and the judge for Rubashkin’s crimes and not Rubashkin for doing anything wrong. And how signing an internet petition fulfills pidyon shvuyim is altogether silly but that’s what publicity stunts are. Lipa what’s next, a swin in the Hudson for a refuah shleimah for the victim’s of yesterday’s helicopter crash?
Okay, here we go again with all the smr haters.
Just shut up already.
How many times do you have to be told that no one is claiming he didn’t play around with the law? All we are saying is that he didn’t get a fair trial, get it?
27 years isn’t what he deserves. That should be pretty simple to understand.
Please sign the petition to legalize (medical) marijuana while you are there. Many people suffer in pain every day through no fault of their own. Please help!
Yoish – What would we do without Lipa?!
Yes if you look into Rubashkin case and read the court document and etc. He came up against a very harsh judge, under normal circumstances he would have got a slap on the wrist the judge in this case was in cahoots with the prosecution (against the law) So it is in fact injust and if this petition will make even a tiny difference than 2 minutes of your time is worth it. If it was your father or Brother you would do anything you possibly can. Kudos to Lipa for helping out I’m sure we all would too.
We don’t care if it accomplishes nothing, the point is to keep this issue alive and not rest until justice is served…
Why not have a petition for the release of Gild Shalt?. Where there is real Pidyon Shevuyim !
he doesn’t deserve 27 years locked up simple as that whatever we can do to try to help. This is a grave injustice no one is saying that he isn’t guilty of a crime but definitely what he is guilty of does not warrant 27 years. Whoever can not understand that fact has serious issues. At this point there is not much we can do but voice our disgust at the handling of this case. Right now the only way we can do that is by signing the petition and writing to our politicians. The president can extend a pardon as we have been requesting also for Jonathan Pollard who also is guilty just that for the crime that he was convicted does not warrant so many years in jail. That is all! As for Lipa he is doing his part stop the jealousy and start doing something for your brethren and stop criticizing those that are doing something to help and bring awareness to the community. Some people only see the negative the way you judge you shall be judged. Remember that now aserei yemei teshuvah your fate will be sealed soon enough. Gmar Chasima Tovah!
Our children should not get the message that it’s OK to lie, cheat, and defraud and yet be called a tzadik and a baal bitachon.
Hashem bless Lipa, the Rubashkin family and all yidden.
To all of you who say it accomplishes nothing, it is just 2 minutes of hishtadlus with good intentions in this world with no harm to anyone. You don’t know what it does up in shamayim.
Negative and judgemental comments surely do nothing but spread negativity.
I just signed the petition.
nobody is perfect, not SMR and not the US Judicial System, it could very well have loop holes where grave injustice could be inflicted on citizens, yes the 27 year, but doesn;t mean it is just, SADOM also had “laws”, doesn’t mean that the US Courts are unfair and unjust, its just not 100% perfect, we are all humans and so were the law makers, and this is where the presidential parodns or commutation of a sentences comes in, to correct the rare inperfection, of our justice system.
We are almost reaching 29.000 signtures. Please send a text to all your friends to sign its take 3 minutes & its will help out shulem mordche imy”h.
I’m not signing the petition because I hope that Obama is really going to do something about SMR. Rather, I signed because I’m supporting a cause. Do you know what kind of feeling a person gets when they see how many Jewish people are all uniting for one cause? It’s awesome if you think about it. Compare this to watching the Unity for Justice video. Did whoever created that video really think that Obama is gonna watch it on his phone and immediately pardon SMR? The video was beyond powerful and brought a tremendous feeling of achdus in Klal Yisroel. So basically, we are signing the petition for US. Not for the Obama Administration.
in the video you see reb moshe berkowitz shlita mashbak of rimnitzer rebbe zt”l standing with a talis in airmont shul listening to reb lipa schmeltzer appeal.
Not to say they are mutually exclusive (and this petition is probably part of the proper approach), but where are the initiatives to educate Jews on the foundation of Judaism, Emes?
thank god, i can perfectly manage to spend excatly one minute to sign a petition and in the same time help the poor, besides it is the white house who put up this petition site, not rubashkin, its fare to assume that the white house didn’t intent to just offer something to the ameican citizens for the fun, have people utilize what they offer then have a good laugh.