Rubashkins: not winning any prizes anytime soonSince the raid on the Agriprocessors plant on May 12th, bashing the kosher meat giant has become something of a sport. Everyone from the New York Times to failed messiah to yours truly has taken a few shots (some cheap, some well-deserved) at the Rubashkin family and the business they run out of Postville, Iowa.

I’ve never been a big fan of the Rubashkin family. In fact, I called for a boycott of their meat in January, months before Uri L’Tzedek was on the case. But I’m getting a little frustrated with the way the scandal is being dealt with by liberal-minded people like me.

First of all, the boycott was a joke. It was called off too early, but even if it was still going on it wouldn’t be having any effect on the company itself. Many, if not most, of the people involved in the boycott are not regular purchasers of kosher meat to begin with. Either they’re vegetarians, or they buy non-kosher meat. So while it’s admirable that they want to be on the record against the practices at the AgriProcessors plant, they’re not creating much of a business loss for the company. Case in point: A good friend of mine manages a kosher restaurant in Chicago, and said he received an irate phone call from a Reform rabbi who demanded that the restaurant stop buying Rubashkin meat. But the rabbi in question had never eaten at the restaurant before. My friend just hung up on him. AgriProcessors is having business trouble these days, but it has to do with a lack of workers, not a lack of demand. If their workers weren’t mostly incarcerated, they would likely be producing as much as ever.

Like many lefty issues, the decision to buy other brands of kosher meat, if they’re even available, and especially to push kosher organic meat, is only viable for the people who can afford the significant price tag that comes with most AgriProcessors alternatives. An ultra-Orthodox mother of 10 in Borough Park might care deeply about labor practices and animal treatment, but if she can’t afford organic kosher meat, she’ll end up with Rubashkins.

I’d love to say that vegetarianism is the answer to this crisis. As a milchigatarian I’ve observed the Rubashkin uproar with an admittedly smug smile. But while I think vegetarianism would be great for the Jewish community, I think the sell would be about as effective as the abstinence pitch for teenagers. It might work on a select few, but for most, the allure of a hamburger is just too great.

If we want to change the way AgriProcessors does business we have to recognize how important their product is to our community and be respectful and cognizant of what they need to stay a profitable business. We should also not forget ways in which the Rubashkins have been generous in the past. This includes donating kosher meat to various Jewish institutions, and exporting members of their small community to even smaller communities that otherwise wouldn’t have had a minyan for the High Holidays.

As far as I can tell, the most effective way of dealing with the Rubashkin family would be within a halachic framework. It is clear that they don’t feel any obligation to the American legal system, but they have to pay at least lip service to halacha, so an appropriate conversation with them would focus on the halachic violations in their plant (of which there were many) and how they could change their behavior to be compliant with halacha and maintain whatever profit margin they require. Obviously this conversation needs to be initiated by someone within the frum community, preferably someone within Chabad. A liberal activist, even one with smicha, is unlikely to be taken seriously by Rubashkin.

I have some pretty serious doubts as to whether AgriProcessors is likely to ever change its ways significantly enough that it would pass inspection by the liberal Jews I identify with. But if there’s any chance it will ever happen I think we need to be realistic about what would be the most effective way of negotiating with a company that doesn’t take us seriously.

(Cross-posted on The Jew and the Carrot)

Undocumented workers, always one phone call away from deportation and a moment away from being summarily fired, are afraid to object to abusive working conditions. This makes them ripe for exploitation, as has been amply documented, and is one reason why US labor law does not allow employers to prevent illegal workers from unionizing. The May 12 immigration raid at Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa, the world’s largest kosher slaughterhouse, exposed the dark underbelly of illegal immigration. In response to this exploitation, the Jewish community has split in two.

One side, overwhelmingly non-Orthodox in affiliation, views the conduct of the Rubashkin family, Agriprocessors’ hasidic owners, as beyond the pale. It looks at the history of Agriprocessors and its owners and sees a clear, long term pattern of disregard for US law and halakha, Jewish law. It has demanded change, urged boycott, and rallied for justice.

The other side, overwhelmingly Orthodox, sees little wrong with Agriprocessors. It argues Agriprocessors is being mistreated; that liberal Jews, unions, and unnamed competitors are behind the raid and its media coverage; and that Jewish law governing treatment of workers should at any rate be divorced from Jewish law governing the preparation of kosher food. To these people, the many well documented sins of Agriprocessors and its owners, sins that stretch back many years in an unbroken chain, are irrelevant.

Absent from the first is much concern over the availability of kosher meat.

Absent from the second is much concern for the poor, often illiterate men and women (and children) who produce our food.

There is no biblical command to eat meat, and many of the Rubashkins’ fellow hasidim went years without eating meat because of the difficulty of getting kosher meat in the Soviet Union.

There are, however, several biblical commands that apply to Agriprocessors workforce. The most striking comes from Deuteronomy 24:14-15:

You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer, whether a fellow countryman or a stranger in one of the communities in your land. You must give him his wages on the very same day [he works], before the sun sets, because he is needy and he urgently depends on it – otherwise he will cry out to God against you and you will be guilty.

A good example of Orthodoxy's apparent disconnect on the issue is the plight of many new workers who are brought to Postville by staffing companies working under contact to Agriprocessors.

Recruited from large cities and shipped into Postville, these poor, often destitute people are charged a transportation fee of $75 dollars, despite the fact that the staffing companies are paid for every hired worker. Employees are told they have a couple of main options for living arrangements.

They can find apartments or beds on their own, or they can rent a bed from the staffing company for $100 per week in what is euphemistically called “campus-style” housing.

That is $100 per week for what is often a mattress on the floor of a room shared with one or two strangers, in a house filled with more strangers, each clinging to his or her own mattress in a room filled with strangers. (And this is in Postville, Iowa where housing prices are ridiculously low compared to New York or even St. Paul, where a furnished room – not a bed – in a nice part of town rents for $300 per month.)

Rent is automatically deducted from workers’ weekly paychecks.The “advantage” to this arrangement is that workers do not need to make a security deposit. And, a Rubashkin family member has been quick to tell me, they get extras: their lawn is cut for them, their utilities are included in the rent, and the house may have cable TV. Sometimes, a staffing company employee even drives a van load of workers to a nearby WalMart.

Staffing companies do offer cash advances – $100 per week. But in at least one case, those advances are tied to ATMs that charge $5 per transaction. Lacking local bank accounts or a safe place to keep their money, workers tend to make more frequent, smaller withdrawals rather than one or two large ones. 20% or more of their cash advances can be easily eaten up by fees.

A worker who nets $80 on his cash advance still pays back $100, and that $100 is automatically deducted from his next paycheck.

Another arrangement has workers renting “campus style” directly from the same landlord the staffing company rents from – GAL Investments, owned by another Chabad hasidic Jew, Gabey Menahem.

The $400 per month fee for a bed drops to just under $230 per month with this plan. But workers need to make a security deposit equivalent to one month’s rent and pay their first month’s rent up front, as well. GAL is said to be a bit flexible on this, allowing workers to pay their security deposits and first month’s rent with their first or second weekly paycheck.

Why the largesse?

Perhaps because rent and security deposits are automatically deducted from workers’ pay by Agriprocessors – in other words, workers’ paychecks are their security.

These and other arrangements offered to new workers often leave these workers with empty paychecks – paychecks that, after taxes, “fees,” and rent leave workers with no money.

How do they eat?

A significant number of them rely on the community food shelf administered by members of the local Catholic church.

Some Agriprocessors supporters have actually claimed that Agriprocessors keeps the food shelf stocked – a claim that was vociferously denied by Paul Real, the man who runs it, and by Father Paul Ouderkirk and Sister Mary McCauley, the clergy who are most involved in the food shelf’s daily operation.

Use of the food shelf has grown exponentially since the raid, first by illegal workers awaiting trial or hiding out from Immigration police, and then from destitute new workers recruited by Agriprocessors who arrive holding pay stubs that show many hours worked but no net pay.

And, through it all, Agriprocessors and its supporters see nothing wrong.

A delegation of 20 hand-picked Orthodox rabbis friendly to the company, and five hand-picked Orthodox journalists who write for similarly supportive publications, recently took a trip to Postville (all expenses paid by Agriprocessors) to “inspect” company operations.

Their initial itinerary did not include meetings with Ouderkirk, Real and MacCauley or with former workers. No provision was made to meet current workers off-site where they might feel a bit freer to speak, and no provision was made to preserve workers’ anonymity. The rabbis also refused to meet with union representatives.

In the end, only four of the rabbis met Real and a church representative. Two – Pesach Lerner, the EVP of Young Israel, and David Eliezrie, a sometime spokesman for Chabad who has been acting as a media advisor for Agriprocessors – are open supporters of Agriprocessors, and were the co-organizers of the trip. Another, Daniel Moscowitz, heads Chabad in Illinois and is close to the Rubashkin family.

Yet the clear conflicts of interest and this lack of balance did not stop these Orthodox rabbis from issuing statements ‘clearing’ Agriprocessors. Predictably, the Orthodox journalists followed suit.

We have two Jewish communities, really two Jewish peoples. The fault line dividing them is Orthodox observance. One views exploitation of workers – much like other Agriprocessors-related crimes – with horror. The Orthodox other couldn’t seem to care less.

“Everybody does it,” a Chabad hasid told me. “Why should Rubashkin be different?”

“The Torah,” I replied.

The hasid did not understand my response.

Orthodox outreach groups are fond of asking potential recruits a question: Will your grandchildren be Jewish? The idea being that if the non-Orthodox person doesn’t take proactive steps now, his children or grandchildren will marry non-Jews.

Those proactive steps?

Adopting Orthodoxy, of course.

The thing is, they're asking the wrong question. Their question focuses on genetic group identity rather than behavior. The question should be, "Will your children and grandchildren be kind, moral, and ethical people?"

Asked that way, the answer is clear.

Orthodoxy as currently practiced is no guarantee of ethical behavior – in fact, it’s probably contraindicated.

Agriprocessors has proved that.

Be Kind to Your Hoof-footed Friends: for a cow could be somebody's mother We Jews just love to beat ourselves up. We can't even get depressed without feeling guilty about it. This weekend is Tisha b'Av, the one time of year when Jews get to have a good old-fashioned bitching session. We weep and wail and curse at the miserable treatment of Jewish people throughout history: the destruction of both Temples, the expulsion from Spain, the Nazis.

Historians--at least, those historians who sport peyes and streimels and use the Chumash as a source text--say that all of these Jewish catastrophes happened on the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av. That's today, for those keeping track. The rub, though, is that Judaism is pretty clear on why these things happened: because Jews screwed up.

The first temple was destroyed because Jews worshipped idols, slept around, and killed people. The second temple was destroyed because Jews were feeling too much hate toward their neighbors. The Holocaust happened because...well, whatever we did wrong there, it must have been pretty bad. I guess it takes a Chief Rabbi of Israel to explain such a thing.

Pretty rough, this idea of Jewish karma. "Shit happens. But when it happens to you, you must have sinned."

So how might we avoid sin and the catastrophe it brings? Surely the wisdom of our "elders" can help us out here, right? Not necessarily. Jewish scripture is clear: God will punish us for repeating the sins of our elders.

Which brings me to the Agriprocessers scandal, in which the Orthodox Union certified a splendidly profitable but ethically abominable slaughterhouse run by Orthodox Jews.

Anyone who opposes the pointless torture of animals will agree that Orthodox Jews ought not use meat hooks to rip out the throat of cattle before leaving the animals to slowly bleed to death. Anyone who cares about this country's problem with illegal immigration will agree that Orthodox Jews ought not forge immigration documents in order to ruthlessly exploit undocumented Mexican workers, including children (one federal official called the mistreatment of workers at this Orthodox-certified facility "medieval.")

You don't have to be a Jew to recognize that the whole affair is a hillul hashem--a pitiful public disgrace in which Judaism and Jewish values are humiliated before all Americans, Jews and non-Jews alike. Orthodox Union President Stephen Savitsky might as well have purchased a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl, and broadcast himself shitting atop a copy of Pirkei Avot, the Talmud's foremost work of Jewish ethics.

For non-Orthodox Jews, the coincidence of this year's Tisha b'Av and the Agriprocessors scandal should serve as a wake-up call. Judaism tells us that a good, safe, and honorable future for the Jewish people is ours to make. To create that future, we must honor the principles of the Jewish tradition; in so doing, we must not defer to the false authority of those who claim to be our "elders," but whose behavior desecrates the same Jewish tradition they claim to uphold.

Let's start with this: After this year's Tisha b'Av, boycott kosher meat certified by the Orthodox Union. Just stop buying it altogether. Instead, buy the humane, eco-kosher meat recommended by the Shalom Center. It'll be better for you, and it may be better for the future of the Jewish people.

Tisha B’Av begins tomorrow night, and Jews all over the world will be fasting, reading the book of Lamentations, and thinking about the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem that took place almost two thousand years ago.First be nice: then kill me

But Tisha B’Av shouldn’t just be a commemoration of events that happened hundreds of years ago. Contemporary Jews have experienced plenty of major traumas, events that rocked the Jewish community, and changed the way we practice Judaism. Most recently, the raid on the AgriProcessors plant in Iowa, though certainly not as spiritually damaging as the destructions of the Temple, has had serious reverberations around the Jewish world. It has affected what we buy and serve and eat, and how we think about our treatment of our colleagues and those who work around us. It has changed our relationships with the world, both humiliating us -- as the poor behavior of our brethren is exposed to the world -- and forcing us to shape up and raise the standards we have for ourselves and those we support.

Ancient Jews brought sacrifices to the Temple: animals killed in the name of God. But the sacrifices were not enough. Prophets warned us that our behavior was as important as the sacrifices, and when we didn’t learn, the opportunity to bring sacrifices was taken away. Here we are, more than a thousand years on, and somehow we’ve fixated on kosher meat, and not on our own behavior. Maybe this experience, as difficult and upsetting as it is, will serve to remind us about what’s really important, and will reconfigure our priorities.

Most of the time, as a society we walk in darkness, wounded by walking blindly into an economic barbed-wire fence here, an environmental open manhole there. Once a generation--if we are lucky, once a decade--there is a flash of lightning in the dark that lights up the truth of our country's politics.

For some of us, Katrina was such a flash of lightning. And now, for some of us, an allegedly kosher meatpacking plant oddly located, far from Jews, in Postville, Iowa.

Even in the dark, there is usually some prophetic voice warning of oncoming damage. In this case, prophetic calls to apply "eco-kosher" and "ethical kosher" standards not only to food but also to such consumables as coal, oil, plastics went back to the work of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi in the mid-'70s and my own book Down-to-Earth Judaism: Food, Money, Sex and the Rest of Life in the mid-'90s. Calls for Jewish support for unionization and workers' rights went back to 1911 and the 1930s, and the continuing work of the Jewish Labor Committee. Calls for a compassionate Jewish approach to immigration law went back to the work of HIAS, the Jewish Funds for Justice, the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (in Chicago) in two different Jewish coalitions on immigration policy (one moderately liberal, one more progressive) in the mid-'00s.

All these warnings called out the necessity of action; few of the Jewish public got the point.

And then came Postville - not just one lightning flash but a thunderstorm, flash after flash lighting up broader and broader aspects of oppression.

First, PETA filmed the torturous killing of animals who were supposed to be ritually slaughtered in a virtually painless way. Indeed, that was exactly what made their meat kosher for observant Jews (and some other folks who hoped to be getting purer food). For some, under-cover films made of the torture suddenly lit up the whole structure of kosher certification in America, putting it deeply in doubt. Were the Orthodox certification bodies paying no attention? Were the fees they were paid by producers dulling their responses to violations of Jewish law and simple humane decency?

Then--stirred by the kosher factor to look more closely at this plant--a Jewish newspaper, the Forward, and the Jewish Labor Committee began to report rank illegal oppression of the Postville workers - many of them undocumented Guatemalan migrants who were afraid to protest for fear of deportation. That lightning flash revealed not only Postville but a little of what was true about the broader world of immigrant workers.

Whereupon, ironically tipped off by the Forward story, the Federal Migra raided the plant. They charged hundreds of the workers with criminal offenses, sent them to prison, and deported hundreds more. The raid decimated Postville's community, and when an official broke the customary silence, flashed a searing light on how Federal agents behave toward powerless "illegals": no time or lawyers allowed to shape a defense, families shattered.

But--they brought no charges against the rich and powerful owners despite visible evidence of crimes they had committed far worse than those charged to the penniless immigrants. After all, the owners made massive political contributions.

Now larger parts of the Jewish community responded: calls for boycotts; a march of support and collections of money for the workers and their families; some renewed concern about the paralyzed campaign for a comprehensive and compassionate immigration law; (less, but some) renewed interest in stronger pro-labor legislation; a somewhat beefed-up effort by the Conservative denomination to establish "hekhsher tzedek,"its own version of an eco-kosher standard.

But there are three areas in which The Shalom Center seeks a broader vision beyond the lightning flashes:

1. Repairing an unjust "justice system" in which the wealthy are not required to obey the law, while the poor, the powerless, and the desperate are sent to prison for minor offenses, without the opportunity to defend themselves. All Jewish wisdom and all Jewish history teaches: Do not shrug off a system of injustice!

2. Facing the truth that immigration is not a narrowly "domestic" issue. So long as poverty, powerlessness, and environmental destruction in Mexico and Central America drive people to despair, there will be greater numbers of immigrants to the USA than our laws, our economy, and our culture can compassionately sustain. The pressure is a set-up for driving unemployed white and Black Americans into hostility against Hispanic Americans, while the rich and powerful chortle. We must use trade agreements and all other negotiating frameworks to insist on high wages, health and safety standards, and environmental protections for ALL OF US in Anglo and Latino-America, and we must support transnational pressure to those ends by unions, environmentalists, religious communities, and others.

3. Achieving ecological respect and sanity through three factors; how animals are killed; how they live their lives (so eco-kashrut must forbid factory farming, etc); and yet it cannot stop there. It is all too clear that the obsession of many people with eating a great deal of meat is a twin to our addiction to oil and coal as a way to poison the planet. Huge farms of cows and pigs pour methane - an even more dangerous global-scorching agent than CO2 - into the atmosphere. To heal our earth as well as our own bodies, we must return to our forebears' healthier diet of eating meat no more than once or twice a week.

We must go beyond the lightning flashes over Postville -- to a steady, open, sacred light of clarity about the dangers and the damages the lightning has revealed. The light of systemic change is what the Torah calls for.

Continue reading...

The strict definition of "kosher" prescribes a way to slaughter animals and lays out rules for eating. But the word has long held a broader, deeper meaning for the Jewish community. If an idea, an action isn't "kosher," it just isn't right - because at the basis of the Jewish legal system is a demand for ethical behavior. No justice, no kashrut.

At Agriprocessors, Inc., the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse, someone forgot that, and while exploitative working conditions and aggressive anti-union tactics are not uncommon in the meatpacking industry, it turns out that the Jewish community's very own Agriprocessors is, according to Esther Lopez of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), "a poster child for bad employers exploiting immigrant workers." And that's not kosher.

The situation came to a head in May when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) staged the biggest immigration raid in history at the Agriprocessors plant. Nine hundred ICE agents descended on the tiny town of Postville, Iowa, detaining some 390 employees.

Prior to the raid, though, Agriprocessors had been under growing pressure by segments of the Jewish community and organized labor to address accusations that go far beyond immigration: unsafe working conditions, child labor, sexual harassment, failure to pay wages, abuse of animals, and more.

The Forward has been singular in its unvarnished reporting, and the Conservative Movement and Jewish Labor Committee (JLC) spearheaded investigative visits to the plant. The movement's Hekhsher Tzedek project developed a new seal for Kosher food reflecting benchmarks of Jewish ethical standards, and the JLC worked with the UFCW in a union drive. In response to footage shot by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the Shalom Center protested Agriprocessors' treatment of animals and since the raid, other Jewish organizations have begun to grapple with the scandal. The Orthodox social justice organization, Uri L'Tzedek, initiated an (unfortunately short-lived) boycott, and was joined by others including BBYO, Habonim Dror, and Young Judea.

On July 27, the Jewish Council of Urban Affairs of Chicago, Jewish Community Action of St. Paul, and St. Bridget's Church of Postville organized a march and rally. I was among the more than 1000 protestors, standing with affected workers, supportive locals, and a large Jewish contingent calling for comprehensive immigration reform and an end to raids.

The leadership made three demands of Agriprocessors: a $100,000 donation to assist affected families, back pay for former employees, and transparency in addressing working conditions. I was proud to be there, and the Jewish community is right to try to clean up its own backyard. We must support those who pursue correction of the specific problems at Agriprocessors.

But we cannot pretend in so doing, we'll resolve the issues that allowed the Agriprocessors situation to fester: government neglect and a failing economic system. Neither can we allow this story to become a classic anti-Semitic narrative in which Jews become scapegoats for a crisis whose dimensions are much broader.

Agriprocessors' abuses didn't appear out of nowhere. Complaints had been lodged for some time, and state and federal regulatory agencies had repeatedly found the plant to be noncompliant. But in a political environment that places a low priority on enforcing workplace-related laws, the plant owners could easily look at paying fines as a mere "cost of doing business."

Moreover, just two weeks before the raid, the UFCW informed ICE that Agriprocessors was involved in an ongoing labor dispute. According to internal ICE regulations, this dispute meant that the plant shouldn't have been raided - raising questions about intentional sidetracking of the investigation.

Indeed, the way the raid was conducted, and the behavior of ICE in the meantime raises additional questions. The huge numbers grabbed in Postville will help justify its five billion dollar budget, and ICE unveiled new tactics in the raid: charging workers with false papers as felony criminal offenders (rather than civil violators of immigration laws), and instituting group processing of cases. The former means that hundreds of Postville's "criminals" are now serving a five-month jail sentence prior to deportation, and the latter created an assembly-line style of justice that hampered lawyers' ability to explore legal remedies for the detainees (significantly, no criminal charges have been filed to date against the company that hired them). Finally, since Postville, ICE has continued on an accelerated program of workplace raids on factories, meatpacking plants, and construction sites, places where it can readily detain large numbers of undocumented workers.

Many organizations within the Jewish community have taken eloquent positions on the need for comprehensive immigration reform; a living wage; the right to unionize; humane treatment of animals. We have developed programs that include immigration freedom Passover Seders and Labor on the Bimah; we have worked in coalition for immigration reform and worker justice. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society was particularly poignant in tying the raid at Agriprocessors to the "current de facto illegal immigration system" that "results in chaos and death on the borders, exploitation and insecurity in communities throughout the country." As Jews, we have much to be proud of in our work on behalf of social justice.

But as the economic crisis deepens, the temptation will grow to put demands for labor and immigration changes on the backburner. Undocumented immigrant workers with no option to legalize their status under current law will continue to be a captive audience for unscrupulous employers, who in turn sell their wares at bargain rates to consumers who themselves feel crunched. ICE will continue to tear apart families, creating havoc among immigrants under the pretense of making the country safer and improving the economy.

But our history, traditions, and ethical standards compel us to pursue justice, for others as much as for ourselves. The American Jewish community has a moral imperative to mobilize our community's grassroots base, to remain focused on the long-term goals of legislative changes in immigration and labor law and administrative changes in its application. The march in Postville on July 27^th was significant not only because it brought together a multi-ethnic coalition with a strong Jewish presence to address the immediate problems at Agriprocessors - but also because it sent a message of clear and uncompromising support by the Jewish community for labor and immigration reform. We need to expand on the momentum generated by this significant effort and stay united as one voice within coalitions across the nation. Without this, substantive transformation will not be possible.

To reform our immigration system and institute genuinely fair labor laws is no easy task, as the situation at one meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa has demonstrated. But we must stand firm. If we truly seek the justice that lies at the core of our heritage, we'll have to seek it together.

Photo: Demonstrators at a rally in Postville, Iowa, on July 27, 2008 show their support for undocumented Agriprocessors workers arrested in a May raid on the kosher meat plant. Photo by Denny Eilers. Courtesy of The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle

The Kosher/Legal Thing Is A Good Point: but I don't think Chabadniks care much what Jesus would doLast we heard, Agriprocessor’s PR firm had been caught trying to smear the reputation of Rabbi Morris Allen and Uri L’Tzedek, but there have been several developments since then.

• Failed Messiah broke the news that the May 12th raid also uncovered more than 100 fake and fraudulent identity documents from the AgriProcessors Human Services department. It also seems that workers knew they could come to the Human Services department to get fake documents. So you can add forging official documents to the list of AgriProcessor’s evils.

• The New York Times has an in depth look at labor violations in the AgriProcessors plant, including child labor violations. There were kids as young as 13 working there, despite regulations that prohibit anyone under 18 from working on the floor of the meatpacking plant because of the danger involved. One of the kids who worked there tells the Times he felt like he was a slave.

• Harsh!: but not uncalled forCBS reports that many workers have been docked pay that they earned before the raid.

• The Jew and the Carrot has an interview with Uri L’Tzedek co-director Ari Hart about whether the AgriProcessors boycott was called off too quickly.

• Jewschool has an amazing post about the recent rally in Postville to support the workers. The pictures are especially fantastic.

• Want to get familiar with the crooks and creeps of Agriprocessors? Check out our Most Wanted.
  

On May 12, 2008, 900 federal and state law enforcement personnel raided Agriprocessors, the country’s largest kosher slaughterhouse. They arrested almost 400 illegal alien workers and had outstanding warrants for hundreds more. On the day of the raid, more than two thirds of Agriprocessors’ workforce was illegal.

Reports of horrific worker abuse by Agriprocessors quickly surfaced, and a federal official present during the raid called conditions at Agriprocessors “medieval.”

It was the largest single-site immigration raid in US history, but the raid was not the first time Agriprocessors or its owners, the Rubashkin family of Chabad hasidim, have been in trouble with the law.

These are your kosher butchers:

Name: Abraham Aaron Rubashkin Age: Early 80s Last Seen: Denying guilt

Aaron Rubashkin, a Russian-born Brooklyn butcher and Chabad-Lubavitch hasid with widespread business interests, founded Agriprocessors in 1987 after buying an abandoned slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa. In order to keep the plant open while paying what many regard as the industry’s lowest wages, Aaron Rubashkin turned to illegal, undocumented workers, first relying on Eastern Europeans funneled to Postville from Rubashkin’s Brooklyn butcher shop, as Stephen G. Bloom documented in his 2000 book Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America. When securing enough Eastern European illegal workers became difficult, Rubashkin turned to illegal workers from Mexico and Central America, reportedly paying them below the minimum wage and forcing them to work 14 to 17-hour shifts with unpaid overtime. Agriprocessors allegedly supplied illegals with forged identity papers and other documents. Over the years, Rubashkin bought up much of Postville’s available real estate, renting homes and apartments to illegals at what many consider to be inflated rates. Among the charges hurled at Rubashkin after the ICE raid was his alleged tying of property rental to employment, with illegals told that they should rent from Rubashkin in order to secure a job at Agriprocessors. Those workers then were trapped in an allegedly exploitative rental agreement that saw their rents raised monthly. Renting elsewhere meant loss of employment, transfer to an undesirable job within the plant or to an undesirable shift. Rubashkin was cited by the National Labor Relations Board for collecting union dues from workers at another business he owned, Cherry Hill Textiles (this with son Moshe – see below) but keeping the collected dues for his family. The National Labor Relations Board found the Rubashkins had a “proclivity” for violating the National Labor Relations Act and mandated repayment of all money collected, with interest. He was also implicated in the Allou Healthcare bankruptcy scandal. Although not charged, Rubashkin was found to have accepted $3.2 million dollars in payments from Allou, for which the government could find nothing Allou received in return. Speaking for Agriprocessors, Rubashkin’s son Sholom M. Rubashkin (see below) at first claimed nothing was given to Allou. Later, he amended his statement to claim Allou – in the healthcare equipment and pharmaceutical business – purchased $3.2 million dollars worth of kosher meat. No trace of that meat has ever been found and Rubashkin claimed the Agriprocessors executive responsible for the Allou transactions died at his desk in 2004, taking all details of the “sale” to his grave. Rubashkin was forced to pay $1.4 million dollars to help replay Allou’s creditors. Allou’s owners, Satmar hasidim, are now serving jail terms for fraud.

Name: Rabbi Sholom M. Rubashkin, Agriprocessors VP and CEO Age: Late 40s Last Seen: Dodging Immigration Agents

Ordained by Chabad, Sholom M. Rubashkin pursued a career as a Chabad House rabbi. In 1987, he was compelled by his father to leave the rabbinate and take over the on-site operations of Agriprocessors in Postville. Agriprocessors’ battles with the town of Postville, the EPA, the USDA, PETA, and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union have all been led by Sholom M. Rubashkin. Under his watch, slaughterers used meat hooks to rip out the throats of still conscious animals and kicked blood in the eyes of dying animals. Agriprocessors so polluted the environment that the the company was sued by the EPA. The Rubashkins eventually settled with the EPA, paying a $600,000 fine. Additionally, turkeys produced by Agriprocessors were found to have sodium levels far in excess of stated amounts. Along with his sister’s husband, Rabbi Milton Yehoshua Balkany (see below) Sholom M. Rubashkin is a frequent and generous donor to Republican political campaigns, giving tens of thousands of dollars to favored candidates including Catherine Harris, Iowa Senator Charles Grassley, Iowa Congressman Tom Lathum, and Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter. The family’s contributions to Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Patty Judge’s campaign for governor at a time she was responsible for regulating Agriprocessors also raised ethical issues. The family’s bundled contributions given to Grassley, Specter, and Harris – $20,000 each – along with lesser contributions to Lathum drew PETA’s ire in 2005, when PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich noted: “A federal legislator should not be taking money from a company that is being sued by one federal agency [the EPA – Rubashkin settled] and that is under investigation by another [the USDA – Rubashkin was found to have violated Humane Slaughter Law but the Bush Department of Justice declined to prosecute]—that just screams conflict of interest.”

Name: Rabbi Milton Yehoshua Balkany Age: 62 Last Seen: Playing Tony Soprano

The husband of Abraham Aaron Rubashkin’s daughter Sarah, Balkany is notorious for his practice of bundling campaign contributions to skirt federal campaign finance law, handing envelopes full of checks from various Balkany-Rubashkin family members to politicians. Balkany’s largess largely benefits Republican candidates, and his bundled contributions give him – and his father-in-law – aggregated influence. In 2003, Balkany was detained on charges he misused $700,000 in HUD grant money intended for handicapped toddlers. Most of the money had been transferred by Balkany into bank accounts controlled by his children, including at least one in Israel. Balkany also used this grant money to pay his personal credit card bills and to pad his personal bank accounts. In a deal with the US Attorney’s office, Balkany – who claimed his actions were sloppy accounting practices, not theft – agreed to make restitution and to refrain from seeking any more federal grants. He was never prosecuted. Balkany has been implicated in other scandals involving government funds and is now barred from lobbying Bureau of Prisons officials after allegations of bribe-taking surfaced. Balkany also tried to have a Jewish aide to then-US Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan excommunicated after the aide wrote memos detailing Balkany’s strong-arm attempts to force the Israeli government to use US aid money for Balkany’s pet projects in Israel. In an attempt to end Orthodox justice group Uri L’Tzedek’s boycott of Agriprocessors, while officially representing Agriprocessors and his father-in-law at a meeting in mid-June, Balkany reportedly threatened the Orthodox justice group’s leadership in a manner eerily reminiscent of Tony Soprano.

Name: Moshe Rubashkin Age: 50 Last Seen: Pleading guilty

The elder son of Abraham Aaron Rubashkin has a criminal record stretching back twenty-five years. He was arrested in 1983 for felony assault and rioting (he later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges). As noted above, in 1995 he and his father were caught collecting union dues from their Cherry Hill Textiles employees but keeping the money for themselves. The National Labor relations Board forced the Rubashkins to repay the money taken with interest, and banned their attorney from practicing before the NLRB for six months. In 2002, Moshe Rubashkin was arrested for bank fraud. He pleaded guilty and served almost two years in Fort Dix Federal Prison. Just months after his release, Moshe Rubashkin was elected president of the Chabad-Lubavitch-controlled Crown Heights Jewish Community Council, which annually receives and administers millions of dollars in government funds. Late last year, Moshe and his son Sholom (the nephew of Agriprocessors’ CEO/VP Sholom M. Rubashkin) were indicted on federal charges related to the family’s abandoned textile mill in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which burned in a series of suspicious fires. Although the family engaged in a convoluted cover up meant to hide ownership of the property and defraud the EPA and the city of Allentown, Moshe Rubashkin was only charged with illegal storage of hazardous waste. His son was charged with knowingly making a false statement to federal authorities. Both charges are felonies. Originally due to be sentenced on July 16, the government agreed to postpone sentencing until November 3 to allow Moshe Rubashkin and his son more time to repay the $450,000 they owe the EPA. The rub? The money for this repayment appears to be coming from other Rubashkin family members who themselves draw their income from Agriprocessors and related companies, not from Moshe Rubashkin himself. When pressed, an official close to the case could not explain the need to allow Moshe Rubashkin and son to remain free to facilitate this repayment.

Name: Nathan Lewin Age: About 70 Last Seen: Defending Agriprocessors

The noted constitutional attorney has long served as legal counsel for Agriprocessors, and Lewin is also closely connected to Agudath Israel of America, the ultra-Orthodox advocacy organization. As I first reported in late 2004, on October 23, 2003, Agudath Israel officials, and, I’m told, Lewin, along with rabbis from various kosher supervisions, met with senior USDA staff in Washington. My sources tell me that Lewin did not disclose his connection to Agriprocessors. The subject of that meeting was a USDA directive that outlawed “sawing” during religious slaughter. Agudath Israel claimed the directive’s current language could easily be misinterpreted by USDA inspectors and would, they feared, be used incorrectly to stop kosher slaughter. The USDA agreed to change the language and relied heavily on Agudath Israel – and, it seems, Nathan Lewin – to write a new directive. What made its way into that new directive? Approval of a second cut to “facilitate bleeding” – the basis for Agriprocessors’ meat hook throat-ripping exposed by PETA. During the furor surrounding exposure of that throat-ripping, Lewin played the Holocaust card, comparing PETA to Nazis and alleging PETA’s true aim was to end shechita. In the days immediately preceding the release of PETA’s undercover video, Lewin told a sympathetic reporter for the New York Sun that he, as Agriprocessors counsel, had offered to discuss with PETA and, if necessary, resolve any problems at Agriprocessors. PETA, Lewin claimed, never responded to him. The actual letter Lewin sent to PETA – now posted on PETA’s website – shows that Lewin misrepresented the tone of his letter and that Lewin and Agriprocessors did not offer to meet PETA. At the close of Agudath Israel’s national convention in November 2004, on the eve of the release of PETA’s exposé, Agudath Israel leader Rabbi Chaim David Zwiebel asked the convention for a unanimous vote condemning PETA and supporting Agriprocessors. He got that vote – even though no one voting except for Lewin had seen PETA’s evidence. The USDA, in response to PETA’s video and other documentation, conducted its own investigation and found that Agriprocessors violated the Humane Slaughter Act. It also found its inspectors took illegal gifts from Agriprocessors and often slept or played computer games on the job. The USDA kept that decision secret for almost one year, while the US Attorney for Northern Iowa declined to prosecute. PETA forced release of the damning USDA findings by filing and actively pursuing Freedom of Information Act requests against the agency.

Name: Menachem Lubinsky Age: Unknown Last Seen: Spinning

Head of Lubicom, a kosher industry marketing and PR firm, Lubinsky is a former Agudath Israel of America VP and a current member of its board of trustees, as well as a longtime paid consultant and flack for Agriprocessors. Yet, in his role as editor of the industry trade journal Kosher Today, and as a sought after expert for media reports on kosher food, Lubinsky commented on various Agriprocessors scandals without identifying himself as a paid consultant of Agriprocessors. Like Lewin, Lubinsky played the Holocaust card, comparing PETA to Nazis and alleging PETA’s true aim was to end shechita.

Name: 5W Public Relations Age: 5 Last Seen: Impersonating Competent PR professionals

America’s “fastest growing” PR firm counts Agriprocessors, Paris Hilton, "Girls Gone Wild" producer Joe Francis, a handful of Israeli politicians, Pastor John Hagee, and various hip hop artists among its clients. Headed by CEO (and former Betar-USA head) Ronn Torossian and SVP Juda Engelmayer (owner of the Lower East Side icon Kossor’s Bialys), 5W was caught impersonating critics of Agriprocessors online. 5WPR at first denied the impersonations, and then blamed them on an unnamed “intern.” The problems for 5WPR multiplied when it became clear the “intern did it” excuse was not credible. In the wake of the massive immigration raid that crippled it, Agriprocessors promised to comply with the law and to begin a new era of ethical business. Despite those promises, Agriprocessors continues to retain 5WPR.

Philip Schein: undercover in uruguayPhilip and Hannah Schein are the Rina Lazarus and Peter Decker of American vegans. This husband and wife team – Philip is forty-three; Hannah, ten years younger – are undercover investigators for the animal rights group PETA. Over the past six years, the duo has taken on almost twenty high profile investigations, including one that shook the Jewish community to its core: Agriprocessors, Inc. in Postville, Iowa, the world’s largest kosher slaughterhouse.

Agriprocessors (the producer of Aaron’s Best, Supreme, Shor HaBor, Rubashkin’s and David’s meats, and owned by Chabad hasidim) is currently in the news for the massive immigration raid that saw close to half of its workforce arrested, and for related allegations of child labor violations, extortion of illegal workers, company-organized identity theft, forced unpaid overtime, and a brutality toward workers reminiscent of the Jim Crow South.

In 2004 the Schein’s went undercover at the plant and found different horrors – including the plant’s practice of ripping out the trachea and esophagus of live cattle with a meat hook. (The Schein’s would uncover a similar practice at the company’s smaller Gordon, Nebraska slaughterhouse in 2007.)

The Schiens are former Jewish community professionals.

What Jewish involvement did you have as a child? Did your family attend synagogue regularly?

Hannah Schein: I was raised in a Conservative family, and my parents were very involved in the synagogue. My mother was the synagogue president at one time. I did not attend every Shabbat, but I wasn't a "High Holiday" Jew either.

Philip Schein: I grew up in a more assimilated household (we later became involved in a Reconstructionist synagogue). Early on, we only celebrated the major holidays: Pesach, etc. I just found documentation that my oldest recorded relatives in the 1700s were actually father-and-son shochtim. So I am sort of carrying on the tradition of being on slaughter floors.

Did you attend Hebrew school or a Jewish day school?

HS: I attended day school for three years, from pre-K through first grade, and then attended public school from second to 12th grade. While attending public school, I participated in my synagogue's Hebrew school. After my bat mitzvah, I attended the Bergen County High School of Jewish Studies (on Sundays).

PS: I didn't become seriously involved until I worked for a Jewish camp for people with disabilities for the Reena Foundation in Toronto. I also attended the Ivy League Torah Study Program, which is run, ironically, by the National Committee for Furtherance of Jewish Education (NCFJE). I say "ironically" because now this organization is the focus of a multi-year PETA investigation into abuses during kapporos. Rabbi Shea Hecht of NCFJE has been completely resistant to making humane changes.

Rubashkin's Glatt Kosher Products: also glatt illegalDid you grow up keeping kosher?

HS: Yes, in a Conservative way. I have never knowingly eaten pork, shellfish, etc., or mixed meat and dairy. Our home was kosher, but we did eat in non-kosher restaurants.

PS: No, but I went vegan as a teenager, which sort of made me kosher "by default" at the time.

What's your favorite childhood memory?

HS: I have so many—I had a very fulfilling and fun childhood! My parents are the kind of people who were truly prepared to have children and nurture them—they were both teachers and ran Jewish camps in the summers. Some of my best memories relate to when my mom would teach me to love and respect nature—for example, crossing paths with a box turtle while picking raspberries on the edge of a meadow.

PS: Unfortunately, as a child, I used to enjoy going to horse races before I knew about all the abuses in the industry. PETA's anti-horse racing campaign is particularly important to me because of my personal history.

Where did you go to college? What type of Jewish affiliations did you have as a college student?

HS: Princeton University. I was active in the Hillel and was very lucky in that the Center for Jewish Life (CJL) opened during my freshman year. I ate at the CJL's kosher dining hall every day for several years, participated in the Conservative minyan, and was a CJL board member (house manager) one year.

PS: Hannah always laughs when I say that I am an "Ivy League" graduate (Ivy League Torah Study Program) because she actually is one. I did my undergraduate work in Canada and became very involved in Holocaust studies. I traveled to Poland to make a film for the Toronto Holocaust archives about a man I was working with in Toronto who sustained a brain injury at the hands of the Nazis and then survived hidden by a Polish family for 22 months in an underground bunker. After college, I worked extensively with people with developmental and psychiatric disabilities in the frum community in Toronto. I later did graduate work in York University in Toronto and then at Syracuse University.

How did you two meet?

HS: I had been hired as the CJL/Princeton Hillel program director and traveled to Washington, D.C., for Hillel's orientation for new professionals in August 1998. At one point, a fellow attendee brought Philip over. He wanted to meet me because he heard I used to work for the Yankees. When the annual Hillel national conference rolled around in December, we got engaged.

PS: Shortly after we met, Hannah made me a wager about the 1994 World Cup (soccer), at which she had volunteered. She went to the nearest computer to look up the info and announced that she would have to "eat crow." I suggested she eat "crowfu" instead.

You both worked for Hillel. Where? In what capacities?

HS: Princeton University, program director.

PS: Syracuse University, program director (3 years)

What is your impression of Jewish campus life? How many Jews are Jewishly involved? Do you see mistakes made by Jewish campus organizations that limit or reduce this number?

HS: I haven't worked at Hillel since the 1998-99 school year, but I think we did a pretty good job of making options available to students seeking any type of Jewish activity. The CJL is centrally located on campus, and its opening made it exponentially easier to facilitate student involvement. At Princeton, the percentage of Jews was probably a little more than 10 percent of the student body (and the school is on the small side), so we didn't have the kinds of numbers you see at some campuses, but we had excellent rates of involvement. We had a very successful Jewish advisor program that reached out to incoming students and let them know what kinds of programs and resources the CJL offered.

PS: At Syracuse, we had to work with the student culture rather than impose some generic brand of Hillel community. So we organized events like multi-university Jewish basketball tournaments to get some of the more unlikely students involved with Hillel and the Jewish community; things like that and Birthright Israel built up a base of students across the spectrum. It was very successful in that sense. However, I found it to be somewhat of an immature Jewish community regarding social action. For example, students had a project to collect 6 million buttons for Holocaust commemoration—I think their energies could have been better used actually doing something concrete and useful that would address current injustices.

Why did you leave the Hillel system to work for PETA?

HS: I left Hillel to move to Syracuse and marry Philip. He stayed on as program director for SU for two more years, while I earned a masters degree in criminal justice. I wanted to work preventing crimes against animals, so I looked into jobs in the animal protection field. PETA is at the vanguard of the animal rights movement, so I was very gratified to get a job where I could make a real difference. On my first day, they had me review new footage from an undercover laboratory investigation, and I was hooked.

PS: Hillel functioned for me more like a graduate assistantship while I was in grad school, and it was never my intended career track. I had worked for more than 10 years with people with disabilities, and during my graduate work in disability studies at Syracuse, it became clearer that all the "-isms" (e.g., racism, speciesism, sexism) are profoundly connected. For example, women, people classified with mental disabilities, and certain races and classes were all historically presumed to not be able to think abstractly, not be individuals, not have complex emotions, etc., and were depicted as being synonymous with nature. The same misunderstandings are continually applied to other species. So I look at the work I'm doing now as the culmination of all the work I did working with marginalized, vulnerable "others"—those who are full beings but falsely characterized as being deficient.

I decided to apply to PETA a few months after watching a TV debate with a PETA vice president. Her arguments and explanations were so reasonable. I had preconceptions of PETA as having extremist views, but the more research I did, the more I found it to be the opposite—advocating for the prevention of unnecessary suffering should just be common sense. The counter-arguments are truly extremist and absurd, such as when the Chief Rabbinate of Israel said, in the words of The Jerusalem Post, that "gratuitous cruelty to animals during the slaughter process does not disqualify the meat." I soon became convinced that this was the most important and urgent work. Hannah started working at PETA first, in the Investigations Department, while I was working on my dissertation, and I saw how everything she was doing was making such a difference for the animals. I felt compelled to apply to PETA and devote all my energies to this cause.

What was the worst thing you saw at Agriprocessors? What shocked you the most?

PS: I was absolutely shocked that workers were ripping the tracheas out of animals while they were still completely conscious. It was such a cruel and brazen violation, and this was standard operating procedure. We knew immediately that AgriProcessors was in enormous trouble.

HS: I think seeing the steer actually struggle to his feet and walk out of the room was most shocking to me. It's shameful that these inhumane slaughter procedures were allowed by all the parties involved.

Hannah's Favorite Vegan: friend of jewcy, alicia silverstoneWhat about on your other investigations? What was the worst you saw? The most shocking?

HS: The worst thing I've seen in person was the "shackle and hoist" kosher slaughter of cattle in a slaughterhouse in Uruguay. Workers took minutes hooking and roping each steer's feet in order to trip him onto his side and chain his legs, then they stood with all their body weight on his legs and pinned his head to the floor with a sadistic trident-type tool so that the shochet could cut his throat. The workers then hoisted each steer quickly by one foot, while the steer struggled to breathe and his lifeblood poured on the floor. The worst investigative footage I've seen, period, is the video showing animals being killed for their fur in China: You actually see people peel the pelts off live animals, and you see them suffering horribly, writhing on the ground with no skin. We have footage of one animal who had her fur peeled off—all but her eyelashes—and she raises her head slowly and blinks. Animal behaviorists say that blinking is a sign of consciousness—she was, very likely, still feeling the pain of being skinned alive.

PS: Perhaps the most disturbing single incident I witnessed was during a bear-hunting investigation I conducted last September, when a hunter attempted to shoot a black bear at a bait stand and missed, seriously injuring the bear. They tried to track the trail of blood but were unsuccessful, so the bear most likely suffered for days and died from the injury. One of the most viscerally shocking things I experienced was the stench in the first poultry slaughterhouse Hannah and I investigated.

Has your view of Judaism changed since the Rubashkin scandal of 2004 and the various rabbinic reactions to it? (Especially rabbinic reaction to using a meat hook to excise the trachea and esophagus of a fully conscious animal.)

PS: I used to buy into the image that kosher meat was cleaner and more humanely produced because of the multiple levels of supervision and added scrutiny. However, the kosher meat industry is complicit in all the abuses of the conventional factory-farming and slaughter industries, and we have documented how some of the worst violations—the most inhumane practices—in recent industry history have been perpetrated in the kosher meat industry as standard operating procedure. In many ways, the additional oversight has served only as a buffer, concealing some of the most abusive practices.

HS: It's been very disappointing that the first reaction by the Jewish community to our kosher investigations has been to circle the wagons and scream, "Anti-Semitism!" It is heartening that the Conservative movement has started to take a stand against the cruel practices that we've uncovered, and I have great hopes for Hekhsher Tzedek.

Why do you think Jewish organizations and denominations are for the most part silent on issues of animal welfare? To me, it's as if Jewish soul food – chicken soup, chopped liver, brisket, etc. – has replaced Jewish values. You'd think any rabbi seeing PETA's Agriprocessors footage would say, "Not in my shul." But it rarely happens that way. Why do you think this rabbinic reaction happens so infrequently? What's missing from the equation?

HS: I think there is still shock and disbelief in the Jewish community that the kosher industry could be responsible for such cruelty. There is also confusion about how there could be such a disconnect between Jewish principles about treatment of animals and the reality as it is practiced in the kosher meat industry. But remember, it has been less than four years since the first AgriProcessors investigation was conducted, and there has been a tremendous amount of awareness and action generated since that time.

Also, I think some rabbis are reluctant to be too "preachy" when it comes to telling people what to consume and how to live—in many cases, it's a struggle just to get people in the door. However, I do think the rabbi's role should include guiding people toward deeper consideration of social justice issues, including animal welfare.

PS: Even some who may publicly defend the technical kosher status of the meat produced by AgriProcessors or defend the kosher status of the meat produced through the "shackle and hoist" method in South America may in more private situations condemn these immoral practices. For example, Menachem Genack of the OU—in a lecture at the "Ask OU" conference in August 2006—admitted that PETA was correct that animals were demonstrating prolonged consciousness at AgriProcressors:

"The initial claim from our community was that [the animals] were not conscious, but that's probably not true because that type of complex motor activity means that there is a certain level of consciousness." (Rabbi Genack in a lecture at the AskOU8 conference titled "The PETA Controversy," August 2006)

Rabbi Genack, in that lecture, also said explicitly that AgriProcessors never should have been doing trachea dismemberment on conscious animals:

"It's a procedure that shouldn't have been done, frankly; when the OU found out about it they stopped it right away."

And even before our South American investigation footage was released, Rabbi Genack stated that "shackle and hoist" was "extremely stressful and probably painful" (Rabbi Genack in a lecture at the AskOU8 conference titled "The PETA Controversy," August 2006). Why then can't the OU just suspend its hechsher from these companies in light of these horrible abuses? There is still a paranoid mentality that we should never speak out publicly against our own community. Damage control is the priority. Discrediting the messenger seems to be the tactic of choice. Fortunately, initiatives like Hekhsher Tzedek recognize that the only way to preserve the long-term credibility of the industry is to confront, admit, and resolve the most egregious issues in order to avoid the embarrassment of the magnitude that just occurred with AgriProcessors.

Philip's Favorite Vegan: jewcy friend, isa chandra moskowitzA bad but still necessary existential question: In front of you is a lake. In it, equidistant from you and from each other are a man and a dog. Both are drowning. The man is a total stranger. The dog belongs to your neighbor and is a kind, loving creature you really like. You're alone. You can only save one. You must act now. Which one do you save?

PS: This is not a useful exercise. In all real-life cases, doing something to reduce the suffering of animals is not at the expense of some human interest. For example, banning the cutting out of ear tags on conscious animals (this cruel procedure was done at the Rubashkins' Local Pride slaughterhouse in Nebraska) would not result in the ear mutilations of humans. Except in some fantasy/hypothetical situation, it is never the choice of one at the expense of the other. In real life, it is often the opposite. It is no coincidence that the Rubashkins, whose slaughterhouses are so abusive to animals, also extended this lack of compassion to exploit humans.

Carry the thought to medical research. Obviously, some medical research can be done using computer models and the like. But some cannot be done that way. The only way to do the research is to test on animals. In one hypothetical case, a particular drug that reverses Alzheimer's Disease needs to be tested before going into human trials. The only way to test this new drug is on animals – there really is no other way. If animal testing is not done, the drug will not be used to help humans, to alleviate human suffering and to save human lives. But if animal testing is done, the animals will suffer. Researchers will do everything possible to curtail that suffering. Still animals will suffer. What should be done?

HS: Experimenting on animals is not an effective way of advancing human health. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration reported in 2004 that 92 percent of drugs tested that were found to be safe and effective in animals were unsafe or ineffective in humans. Drug trials on animals are not predictive of efficacy in humans. Reactions to drugs vary enormously from species to species. Penicillin kills guinea pigs despite being inactive in rabbits; aspirin kills cats and causes birth defects in rats, mice, guinea pigs, dogs, and monkeys; and morphine, a depressant in humans, stimulates goats, cats, and horses. Sir Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin, remarked, "How fortunate we didn't have these animal tests in the 1940s, for penicillin would probably have never been granted a license, and probably the whole field of antibiotics might never have been realized."

If you could tell every Jew only one thing about why you spend your lives working to reduce animal suffering, what would it be?

PS & HS: Unthinkable things are happening to animals all over the world, right now, because people are paying for them to happen. Our work helps open a window so that people can view these uncomfortable scenes and hopefully reconsider the necessity of their turkey bacon or fur-trimmed coat.

Besides each other, who is your favorite Jewish vegan? Why?

HS: Alicia Silverstone. She walks the walk and has been a super-strong advocate for animals.

PS: Vegan chef and cookbook author Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I tend to improvise in the kitchen, but we love her books Vegan With a Vengeance and Veganomicon.

Animal Testing: glatt kosher, or glatt retarded?Again, aside from each other, who is your hero? Why?

HS: I learned long ago not to idolize people. I aspire to embody characteristics of people I admire, like PETA vice president Bruce Friedrich's generosity, cruelty caseworker Peter Wood's persistence, casework manager Martin Mersereau's unflagging dedication, and PETA president Ingrid Newkirk's integrity.

PS: I actually am a nervous public speaker and would much rather be working undercover than in front of cameras, so I absolutely admire people such as PETA Vice President Lisa Lange who welcome the toughest media interviews and are so cool under fire.

Hannah – what did you do for the Yankees? Philip – be absolutely honest. If you could work for the Yankees or the Blue Jays, be at the park every day – every boy's dream – would you do it? Would you take an extended leave from PETA and play ball? Hannah, would you go with him?

HS: I was an editorial assistant for Yankees Magazine, which produced the monthly magazine and game-day programs. In addition to more mundane chores, I was able to write content for the magazine and got to interview players, coaches, and visiting celebrities. Unfortunately, I left for another job right after I was granted a clubhouse (locker room) pass. Of course, I also heard plenty of predictable George Costanza (Seinfeld) references from friends.

PS: I was at the Blue Jays' first loss ever and celebrated on the street when they finally won their first World Series, so it will always be in my blood. But I don't romanticize it anymore. Every industry has its sordid underbelly, and after hearing Hannah's stories about interning/working with World Cup '94, Major League Soccer, the Yankees, the NHL, and ESPN Magazine, I wouldn't even dream about leaving a fulfilling career helping animals to work in sports.

Sadly, the same type of steroids that scoundrels like Roger Clemens inject are rampantly being given to horses to make them run beyond their physical limits. So stopping this cruel behavior in an industry where the participants have no choice is obviously much more important.

Since federal agents conducted an immigration raid on the Postville, IA, AgriProcessors meatpacking plant on May 12th, the Jewish community has been in a furor over everything from worker’s rights, to accusations of sexual harassment, to the possibility of a kosher meat shortage if AgriProcessors is forced to close.AgriProcessors: disconnected and unprofessional? In the last week there have been a fair number of developments:

• The Jew & The Carrot has an interview with Zalman Rothschild, a former mashkiach (kosher supervisor) at AgriProcessors. Rothschild says there was a nice rapport between the rabbis and the Mexicans who worked at the plant (except with the women, ahem) when he was there, but calls AgriProcessors “unprofessional” and “disconnected” from the day-to-day operations.

• Ben Harris at JTA went to Postville and spoke with Sholom Rubashkin, now former CEO of AgriProcessors. Though Rubashkin insisted he was “clean as a baby” and offered to give Harris a tour of the plant, the offer was eventually reneged, and Harris was referred to the company spokesperson, who refused to discuss the allegations the workers are making about hiring minors, forcing workers to take 14 and 15 hour shifts, and an environment of sexual harassment. Harris also went to Brooklyn to speak with Aaron Rubashkin, who started his business in 1953, the same year he emigrated from Russia. The elder Rubashkin was more forthcoming than his son, and flat out denies every allegation made. He comes across as scattered and affable, but uninformed. Included in the article is a lengthy audio clip of the interview.

• The Chicago Tribune reports that the State of Iowa is easing up on many of the fines that it initially imposed on AgriProcessors. After AgriProcessors “promised to improve safety for its workers” the fines were reduced from $182,000 to $42,750. Iowa Congressman Bruce Braley is concerned about the reduction in fines, and has spoken to the AP, explaining that he understands the reasoning behind the shrinking fines, and hopes AgriProcessors can live up to their promise to improve conditions for workers.

Aaron Rubashkin and his son Moshe: a tad evasive

• AgriProcessors frequently shipped meat to smaller communities, where other kosher meat and poultry options weren’t available. These communities are now feeling the pinch as AgriProcessors struggles to fill orders, and many are left without any kosher meat, reports the New York Jewish Week.

• The Forwardreports that demand for AgriProcessors meat (which sells under the brand names Aaron’s Best, Rubashkin’s, Shor Habor, Iowa’s Best Beef and Supreme Kosher) has not slowed since the immigration raid on May 12th, and if anything they’re struggling to fill orders with the reduced output from Postville.