JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Sholom and me

By Ben Harris · May 28, 2008

Late last week, Agriprocessors' owner Aaron Rubashkin announced that he would be replacing his son Sholom as company CEO. This was not totally unexpected. A source close to the family told me he had recommended turning the plant over to professional management and that Aaron had seemed open to the idea. But during my five days in Postville last week, Sholom was still very much in charge and the one person I was eager to interview above all others.

I made a request with his spokesperson, and dropped by the plant asking to see him, but to no avail. So on Tuesday afternoon, I drove out to the Rubashkin homestead. Sholom's house is perched quite literally at the edge of town. The family backyard looks out on – what else? – a cornfield. In any American suburb, it would be considered a modest abode, but it's nearly luxurious by Postville standards. A Hasidic boy who looked to be about 18 answered the door and over his shoulder, in the foyer, was an enormous portrait of the Lubavitcher rebbe. "Ahh a reporter," he said when I identified myself, his lips curled into the barest smirk.

He asked for a business card, and as I fussed in my pockets for one, Sholom's wife appeared, holding a telephone to her ear. She was talking to Sholom who was – where else? – at the plant. "He looks like a very nice boy," she told him as she gave me the once over. "He even put on a yarmulke."

I was instructed to drive over to the plant, where Sholom would meet me. Agriprocessors is situated at Postville's western edge, its silver water tower stenciled with the company name in black looming over a collage of ramshackle buildings and gravel drives. It was after six, and the plant was unusually quiet. Slaughter normally runs around the clock – six days a week except for Shabbat – but since the raid manpower has been short, and as a golden Iowa sunset illuminated the silver metal of the water tower, the plant was eerily quiet.

Sholom greeted me in a small hallway at the plant's entrance. He was sporting a scraggly black beard flecked with grey, filthy black pants, black shoes and a blue Iowa's Best Beef fleece jacket.

"What can I do for you?" he asked smiling.

I wanted to ask him about the allegations concerning working conditions at the plant, I told him. Sholom smiled and told me he had a spokesperson. He had only come out to meet me as a courtesy, because I had come out to the house. Had I put on teffilin, the phylacteries Jews wear during morning prayers, he asked me. Yes, I lied, hoping to convince him of my piety, and thus my trustworthiness.

"Then my work is done," he said.

D'oh!

We jousted some more – me asking questions, Sholom mentioning his spokesperson, all the time smiling, enjoying the game. After a while, he began edging back towards the security gate and I realized our time was up. I turned and headed back towards the parking lot when I heard a Brooklyn accent calling my name.

"Give me your business card," Sholom told me as he trotted out to me.

I pulled one from my pocket and handed it to him. He asked if I had spoken to Menachem Lubinsky, who runs a kosher foods Web site and consults for the company. I had, I told him, and I had spoken with his Kansas City representative, but neither of the men were addressing the claims that Agriprocessors workers themselves were making against their former employer – that they had been made to work 12 and 14 hour shifts, that the company had employed 15 year-olds, that it had tolerated an atmosphere of sexual harassment and that it had shorted workers on their paychecks. I gestured to my notebook, telling him it was full of claims against him. I wanted to hear his side, I said.

No you don't, Sholom countered. You just want to say you spoke to Sholom Rubashkin so you can write what you're going write, "just like that guy from the Forward."

I sensed an opening. "Well I'm not that guy from the Forward," I began. "I came here to hear from you. It's your name on the package. It's your reputation that is being damaged. This is your opportunity to speak to the Jewish community."

Sholom took a step back and stared intently at my card, holding it in both his hands, considering the point. "I'm not a talker," he protested, and for a moment he seemed like a young Moses begging God to pick someone else. "I'm not good with words." He didn't know what my agenda is, he said. Better to talk to Lubinsky and if I didn't get what I needed from him, I should call him back.

He turned back towards the plant. "Come on Sholom," I called out to him. "Lets get a beer, talk this over. You must be pretty stressed."

On the contrary, Sholom said smiling, "I'm having a great time."

Again I turned to go back to my car. I pulled out my laptop to jot some notes while they were fresh in my mind when I felt my cell phone vibrating against my leg.

"Do you want to take a tour of the plant?" Sholom asked me. Of course, I told him. He promised I would see a clean, modern, state of the art facility. Just call in the morning, he told me, and he'd set it up. Oh, and everything he had told me (which was basically nothing), was off the record. "I'm trusting you," he said. Not that I have anything to hide, he added, "I'm as clean as a baby."

Reporters are in no way bound by an after-the-fact request to keep things off the record. Still, I figured, it was worth keeping quiet if silence would get me a tour of the plant and a potentially more insightful interview later on.

But the next day, Sholom apparently had a change of heart. I called him twice in the morning. Again in the afternoon. And twice more in the evening. Nothing. Having broken his promise to show me around, I feel a bit better about sharing the story of our fleeting moment together in Postville.

11 Comments | Share This | Agriprocessors, Kashrut, Religion |

Iran’s dispute with U.A.E.

By Uriel Heilman · May 28, 2008

The National has a helpful backgrounder on the dispute between Iran and the United Arab Emirates over three islands in the Persian Gulf. If Iran and the United States were to go to war, the islands could be key to attacking U.S. naval forces in the Gulf, the UAE newspaper notes. This week, Iran refused Russian mediation to resolve the dispute.

Meanwhile, in an editoral, The National expresses alarm over the latest IAEA report on Iran's nuclear program.

Tehran's refusal to clarify its nuclear intentions is particularly dismaying and shows a disregard for the welfare of the people who would be immediately affected by a nuclear catastrophe: the citizens of Iran and the residents of the Gulf.

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The other face of Syria

By Uriel Heilman · May 28, 2008

Even as Syria moves forward with peace talks with Israel, it is strengthening its ties with Iran. On Tuesday, Syrian Defense Minister Hassan Turkmani ended a three-day visit to Tehran by signing a new defense pact with the Islamic Republic. Read the Tehran Times report here.

Also on Tuesday, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, met with Khaled Meshaal, the Hamas terror chief who lives in Damascus, to urge him to keep up his fight against Israel even if Syria goes the other way.

Syrian President Bashar Assad quickly reassured Tehran, telling a group of visiting British parliamentarians that Damascus would not accede to Israeli demands that Syria cut ties with Iran. "He said if Israel could question Syria's relations with Iran, then Syria could question Israel's ties with other countries, particularly the United States," a source told Reuters.

0 Comments | Share This | Arab-Israeli Conflict, Iran |

Mapping out J Street

By Ami Eden · May 28, 2008

James Kirchick of the New Republic takes aim at J Street, the new outfit that has been described in some circles as a fledgling AIPAC alternative aimed at securing a more aggressive U.S. role in pushing the peace process:

A perusal of J Street's list of supporters further undermines its pretensions to mainstream credibility. One of the most prominent Israelis involved with the group is Avrum Burg, former speaker of the Knesset. A member of a distinguished Israeli political family, he set off a political scandal last year when, in an interview with Ha'aretz, he claimed that "to define the State of Israel as a Jewish state is the key to its end"; he has also compared contemporary Israel to pre-Nazi Germany. Naomi Chazan is a former Knesset member from the left-wing Meretz Party, which has just five seats (out of 120) in the Knesset. Henry Siegman, a former Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, has compared Israel to apartheid South Africa, accused Israeli leaders of having the U.S. government "in their pockets," and claimed (absurdly) that the 2000 intifada "was not planned by Arafat, but a spontaneous eruption of Palestinian anger."

Moreover, J Street's depiction of the pro-Israel establishment–read, AIPAC– as wildly hawkish is more than a bit of a stretch.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, the founding executive director of J Street, responds in an interview with Shmuel Rosner of Ha'aretz:

Determining where J Street sits relative to the 'mainstream' of the American Jewish community depends on how you define the term. I don't claim that the entire community agrees with J Street's view of the world, the Middle East or Israel. Neither should Kirchik claim the community is with the New Republic.

A large number of American Jews do hold right-of-center views. But a large number don't. Many of us believe in a smart, tough foreign policy for America that both defends its vital interests and provides a path to peace and security for Israel. This may put us squarely in opposition with Marty Peretz and Mort Klein, but it also puts us squarely within the range of views held by large numbers of American Jews.

In the "ooops" department... Yesterday we supplied the wrong link to Rosner's interview with Pastor John Hagee's Jewish adviser. Click here to read the full exchange (we hope).

0 Comments | Share This | Politics |

How do you spell wrong? L-e-f-t-w-i-n-g or r-i-g-h-t-w-i-n-g?

By Ami Eden · May 27, 2008

In the Jerusalem Post: M.J. Rosenberg makes the case for diplomacy and Caroline Glick takes aim at "Utopian peace junkies."

Rosenberg:

There are those (and they have been quite vocal lately) who say that engaging in negotiations is a gift to the other side and that negotiating is a form of surrender. What hogwash!

In 1971, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt told the Israelis that if Israel would pull back two miles from the Suez Canal, Egypt would open negotiations on a full peace treaty. President Richard Nixon told Prime Minister Golda Meir to explore the offer and that if she didn't, Egypt would probably go to war. Meir said "no," Israel was strong and didn't fear Egypt. So Sadat prepared for war.

Two years later Egypt attacked. Israel lost 3,000 soldiers and almost the state itself. Only then did it agree to negotiations that ultimately led to the Camp David agreement, which has saved countless Israeli and Egyptian lives over three decades. It also led Israel to a situation where it relinquished not a few miles of Sinai but every last inch.

In other words, it is not diplomacy that rewards aggressors and would be aggressors. It is the absence of diplomacy or inept diplomacy.

Glick:

All along and still today, standing against these voices of sane reality were voices preaching utopian peace. Men and women like Yossi Beilin, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, Shulamit Aloni, Tzipi Livni, Yuli Tamir, Sheli Yachimovich, Amnon Shahak, Uri Saguy, Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert and their chorus of "peace" operatives in the media castigated all proponents of reality-based policymaking as nothing more than fear-mongering fanatics and enemies of peace almost indistinguishable from the likes of Hizbullah, Hamas and all the rest.

And of course the voices of reason were correct every time and never thanked for their wisdom. Indeed, they continue to this day to be condemned as fear-mongering fanatics.

0 Comments | Share This | Arab-Israeli Conflict, Israel |

Neighborhood Bully: The video

By Ami Eden · May 27, 2008

This video of Bob Dylan's pro-Israel song "Neighborhood Bully" is making the rounds on the Internet:

1 Comment | Share This | Israel, music, video |

News Shticker

By Daniel Sieradski · May 27, 2008

• The Comics Journal has a super-lengthy interview with Will Elder, the recently deceased Mad Magazine illustrator who helped introduce Yiddish humor into the mainstream American cultural landscape.
• Fresh Jive, the urban street wear company, has drawn the ire of pro-Israel activists over a series of t-shirts in its current line that feature images of Yassir Arafat and armed Palestinian children. Owner Rick Klotz responds on the company's website here.
• A Brazilian anti-smoking campaign designed by Saatchi & Saatchi features illustrations of Adolf Hitler and Osama Bin Laden drawn with tens of thousands of cigarettes along with the slogan "Smoking kills more."
• A southern California Ford dealer ran a radio advertisement insisting that non-Christian Americans speaking out on political issues should "sit down and shut up."
• A spokesperson for Amy Winehouse denied allegations that the drug-addled singer planned to check herself into an Israeli rehab.
• Passaic, NJ shut down a local Hatzolah squad for failing to meet city regulations. The squad claims that they're being unjustly harassed.
• New York magazine asks, are Crown Height's Jewish security volunteers vigilantes?
• Israel's national currency, the shekel, is now trading on the global market.
• The Orthodox Union offers several reasons why Jews should say a mishaberach (healing prayer) for ailing Senator Ted Kennedy.
• And finally, courtesy of JTA staff reporter Sue Fishkoff: Healthy, clean restaurants in Baltimore will soon get a decal from the city's health dept to display outside their front door: a crab. Really nice touch for local kosher restaurants, as one owner explained.

1 Comment | Share This | Shticker |

What do Abe Foxman, Benjamin Cardozo, Eleanor Roosevelt, Abba Eban have in common?

By Ami Eden · May 27, 2008

Abe gives the speech at this year's Y.U. graduation...

Commencement Address of Abraham H. Foxman, National Director, Anti-Defamation League

Yeshiva University

New York City, May 22, 2008

First, let me say how honored I am to receive this degree from so distinguished an American Jewish institution. Yeshiva University stands alone in the United States as an academic center whose undergraduate and graduate programs richly integrate Jewish ethical values with research and scholarship of the highest order.

Now, if I were truly modest, I would resist the impulse to say that I am also frankly moved to be an honorary degree recipient who joins an amazing roster of previous such recipients. Justice Benjamin Cardozo. Eleanor Roosevelt. Abba Eben, to name just three. As you see, I have not resisted.

Dear Yeshiva graduates of the class of 2008, we live – you live – in interesting times. And you will live through ever more challenging moments as the 21st century progresses.

Of course, like many commencement speakers at graduation ceremonies around the country, I could use this occasion to speak to you about current issues that confront America. More specifically, for this great institution with its distinctly Jewish character, I could speak to you about issues of the moment important to us as American and as Jews: terrorism, Iran, the separation of Church and State, hate on the Internet, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, race and religion in politics, Islamic extremism, American anti-Semitism, global anti-Semitism.

But I would rather speak to you personally today about my own life journey and how the lessons I take from it might apply to your own upcoming adventure, for you stand on the brink of a future that is characterized by great promise, but also great perils.

I was born in the wrong time at the wrong place for a Jewish kid. Nazi-occupied Poland in 1940 was not the best place to be born, yet I managed, by the intercession of one special person's kindness and decency, to survive.

As I grew older, I tried to understand what it meant that I had survived. The first set of questions was very serious, existential questions of "why?" Why did the Shoah happen to the Jewish people? Why did over a million and a half Jewish children perish? Why was the world silent? Why didn't the Almighty intervene? To those universal questions of "why?" were added very personal questions. Why me? Why me and not the other little boys and girls, the Chaims and Chanas. Why not them? Why me?

My parents, who also survived, struggled every day and every night with "why?" Why did they survive and not their brothers, their sisters, their nieces or nephews, their aunts and uncles?

There are no answers. As I grew older, I realized that there are no answers, only questions.

But two facts in that struggle to understand became very, very clear. One is that the world knew. There was no CNN, there was no Fox News, there were no satellite feeds from far off places – alas, there was no Internet – yet the world knew.

Those in positions of power to make decisions to stop what was happening knew. They knew everyday how many Jews were killed, in Lodz, in Baranowicz, in Minsk, in Bialystok. They knew. And for years previous they knew what was happening to the Jews. "Kristallnacht" made the news. And they didn't do very much about it, nor about the worst that was to follow.

So the first lesson for us is to know. To know about bigotry; to know about hatred; to know who it is who threatens us, our democracy, and our freedoms. It is extremely important that we know. But knowing is not enough!

The second thing that became clear to me is that wherever and whenever and however good people said no – whenever good people stood up and said no to hate – Jews lived, others lived.

There was Oskar Schindler who saved 1200 Jews. There was Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat, who saved 50,000, maybe 100,000 Jews.

There were Albania and Bulgaria. It was in the Balkans that a magnificent chapter of humanity was written – not in the capital cities that always provided us with philosophy, with music, with opera, and with art, but in the Balkans!

Bulgarian Jews were saved because from the king to the patriarch, to the peasants, to the parliamentarians – they all said no. Albania saved all its Jews and those from elsewhere who could make it to their country.

I stand here tonight because there was a lady who could barely read and write, who really didn't sit down to weigh and measure the risks, and yet risked her life every single day for four years to protect the life of another human being. I had the good fortune to be sheltered from the Nazis by Bronislawa Kurpi, a brave and decent woman who was my Polish Catholic nanny. She baptized me and raised me as a Catholic. But for her, I would not be alive today to bear witness. I know first hand how essential it is to have the help of just one person who, at a moment of moral collapse, does not forget the essential principal of leading a moral life: do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

And so I stopped asking the questions of why and began to ask questions on the order of "what if?"

What if, instead of one Raoul Wallenberg, there had been 100,000 Raoul Wallenbergs? What if, instead of one Oskar Schindler and one Bronislawa Kurpi, there had been 10,000 such men and women?

What if this wonderful country of ours had permitted the passenger ship the St. Louis to dock at these shores and unload its cargo of refugees? What if we had bombed Auschwitz? What if our neighbor to the north, Canada, had found room for 5,000 Jewish orphans? What if? What if we had traded trucks for Jews? What if? What if?

For me, the Anti-Defamation League is an institution that does everything so that our children and grandchildren will never have to ask "what if?" in the future.

What if their parents and grandparents stood up every single day to say no – no to hatred, no to bigotry, no to prejudice, no to racism, no to anti-Semitism?

You can see all kinds of films, you can read all kinds of testimonials, but that's what ADL is all about. In the rich mosaic of diversity that is the United States, where Jews and Judaism flourish, we have to find ways to live together and grow together and learn together how to choose our words carefully and to understand the power and danger of words, and to take responsibility for the words we utter and their consequences.

The gas chambers did not begin with bricks – they began with words. Ugly, hateful words that demonized, degraded, and debased Jews. And those words became ugly, hateful deeds.

The September 11 attacks did not begin with planes transformed into missiles – it began with words – ugly, hateful words that demonized, dehumanized, debased Americans and everything that we stand for. Those words became ugly, hateful deeds.

We need, in every way, to denounce those who traffic in fear and frustration. We need to cleanse our communities of prejudice. We need to speak up and speak out and protest when anyone is maligned or treated with contempt, no matter who the victim or the perpetrator. It isn't easy, it takes courage. It runs the risk of peer disdain or disapproval. Every time we laugh at an ethnic joke or a racial slur or religious stereotype, or let an expression of contempt pass in silence, we tacitly contribute to the atmosphere of prejudice.

In the Jewish tradition, we believe that life and death is in the power of the tongue. Three times a day, we ask the Lord to "keep my mouth from speaking evil." On Yom Kippur, we confess and seek atonement for the sins we have committed "with utterance of the lips."

At the Anti-Defamation League, we deal constantly with words. We believe in the power of words, in power of good people to stand up and say no.

Unfortunately, among the perils you will face in this still new century are reversions to the tribalism, xenophobia, and nihilism that so blackened the previous one. In our era of rapid change and globalization, when traditions are under threat amid social, economic, and political instability, there is the strong temptation to "circle the wagons" and seek safety only among one's own kind. This inwardness, pushed to extremes, will inevitably result in fear of the Other – living in the desperate conviction that other people, other groups, other races and creeds, are somehow responsible for the problems within one's own community or one's country. This then justifies the use of crude names that single out those who are different, and after the name calling comes the assigning of blame.

And we know all too well that when fingers get pointed, the oldest and most persistent hatred, anti-Semitism, will rear its ugly head as it has in the wake of 9/11. I'm talking of the 9/11 conspiracy theories, the Big Lie believed by millions – that the Jews and the Mossad were behind the attacks on the World Trade Center. I'm talking of Holocaust denial which is gaining strength in the Islamic world, led by Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and used by him to deflect attention from domestic problems and discontent. I'm talking of the conspiracy theories of Jewish power and disloyalty which are being disseminated not only in the Islamic world but in the U.S. as well.

So among the challenges you will certainly face – as Jews, as Americans, and as citizens of the world – is how you will respond when those first ugly words are spoken, those words that will belittle and demonize first one person, and then a whole group or community.

"Never Again!" is an 11th commandment etched in the aftermath of Auschwitz. It was etched by the Jewish people based on a Jewish experience. But "Never Again" – that pledge, that imperative – has a universal message and mandate. For all of us here today must honor the commandment which instructs us all to never again be silent whenever anyone lives in fear, in danger, isolated or singled out because of the color of their skin, their ethnic origin, their religion, their sexual orientation, or anything that makes them different from the rest.

Do that – respond with words backed by reasonable action, and both words and action impressed with the full weight of the ethical values imparted to you by Jewish tradition. Do that and you will answer the question "What if?" by being one of many who will give hateful words and hateful deeds no quarter. You will do tikkun olam. You will help repair the breaks and schisms of our world.

0 Comments | Share This | community, Hate, Shoah |

CUFI united for Hagee

By Ami Eden · May 27, 2008

David Brog, the executive director of Christians United for Israel, has sent out a mass e-mail to followers urging support for Pastor John Hagee and the organization. The money line: "Make no mistake about it, many who attack Pastor Hagee seek not only to hurt him, but to silence all Christian friends of Israel. We need to give a bold and unified response!"

He also did a Q & A with Shmuel Rosner of Ha'aretz. [UPDATE: Sorry, I had the wrong link up for a while.]

Here's Brog's full e-mail:

As a supporter of Christians United for Israel, I want to provide you with an opportunity to show your support for our founder and chairman, Pastor John Hagee.

As I'm sure you've seen, Pastor Hagee has come under an angry attack by many in the media. They have ignored his fifty years of ministry. They have overlooked his lifetime of loving-kindness and charity. And they have horribly twisted his decades of zealous support for Israel and the Jewish people.

And make no mistake about it, many who attack Pastor Hagee seek not only to hurt him, but to silence all Christian friends of Israel.

We need to give a bold and unified response!

Now is the time when all of us who appreciate Pastor Hagee's leadership and heart should step forward to help set the record straight.

First, I recommend that you read the attached statements from Pastor Hagee and Rabbi Scheinberg explaining Pastor Hagee's views on the latest controversy. I encourage you to forward these statements to your friends, families, and colleagues so they too can know the truth.

Secondly, we ask that you keep Pastor Hagee and his family in your prayers during this difficult time. If you are moved to share your prayers and thoughts with Pastor Hagee please email them to info@cufi.org.

Finally, the best way we can respond to these attacks is to turn out in record numbers for our Washington, DC summit this July 21-23. If you have not already registered, please do so today. IT'S IMPORTANT! If you have already registered, please ask a relative or friend to join you. You can click here for more information.

When we are together in July, we can give this good man and his wife the warm welcome and display of respect that they so richly deserve. More importantly, we can stand together in support of Israel and the Jewish people as never before.

Let's demonstrate to all the critics that their attacks will only strengthen our determination to do what is right.

David Brog Executive Director Christians United for Israel

1 Comment | Share This | Christianity, Politics, Religion, Zionism |

Jewish Labor Committee: Boycott Agriprocessors

By Ami Eden · May 23, 2008

The Jewish Labor Committee is calling for a boycott of Agriprocessors, and says the recent federal raid "buttresses the conviction shared by many undocumented workers that our government is not only indifferent to worker abuse, but works in collusion with management to penalize workers who challenge it."

Here's the JLC's full statement:

Jewish Labor Committee Policy Statement: Agriprocessors

New York: May 23, 2008 As an organization committed to the defense of human rights, the Jewish Labor Committee has long condemned the abuse of workers by any employer for any reason. For this reason, the JLC has vigorously opposed the employment practices of Agriprocessors, Inc. since we first learned of them two years ago.

In reviewing the complaints of Agriprocessors' employees, the JLC learned that there is a clear pattern of employer negligence and even lawlessness. Among the most troubling practices by Agriprocessors are:

· abuse of child labor laws; · failure to pay workers the full amount of wages they have earned; · unnecessary exposure of workers to dangerous – even life-threatening – working conditions; · sexual harassment.

The JLC has also learned that Agriprocessors is actively waging a campaign of intimidation and harassment against workers who have expressed an interest in exercising their legal right to union representation.

In this atmosphere, it is clear that the recent ICE raid at Agriprocessors, though apparently legal, only buttresses the conviction shared by many undocumented workers that our government is not only indifferent to worker abuse, but works in collusion with management to penalize workers who challenge it.

While there are many differing perspectives regarding immigration reform, the American Jewish community shares a common conviction that all workers – regardless of their immigration status – must be free to exercise their rights and challenge employer abuses. Our belief is grounded in the collective memory of American Jewry of the gross exploitation of Jewish immigrants by employers who, like Agriprocessors, abused and robbed them of their right to dignity in the workplace. Judaism is clear on the topic of treating workers with dignity and respect. We understand that we must treat our workers decently and justly, ethically and legally.

For this reason we call on Agriprocessors to live up to the responsibilities of corporate citizenship, end its campaign of worker abuse, and respect the rights of its employees including their legal right to union representation. Until Agriprocessors establishes its commitment to these responsibilities, we urge consumers of kosher meat products to seek alternatives to the Rubashkin labels.

0 Comments | Share This | Agriprocessors, Kashrut |