The National Council of Young Israel organized a company-sponsored visit for 25 Orthodox rabbis to Postville, Iowa, last week. Here is video shot by the Five Towns Jewish Times inside the plant.

WARNING to vegetarians and those of weak stomach (myself included): Video includes graphic footage from the kill floor.

UPDATE: Also today, the Iowa Labor Commissioner announced it had completed a months-long child labor investigation and is turning the results over to the attorney general for prosecution, citing “egregious” violations of state labor law.

Agriprocessors responded by saying it was “at a loss” to understand the commissioner’s action, claiming the government refused its request to identify child laborers so they could be fired.

The labor commissioner’s press release is here. The full Agriprocessors statement is after the jump.

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The New York Times weighed in with its latest editorial on the fallout from the May 12 immigration raid at Agriprocessors, the largest kosher meatpacking plant in the U.S. (See previous editorial here).

Most of the newspaper’s ire was reserved for the federal government, whose criminalization of the illegal workers it called “a disgrace,” “a fraudulent exercise,” and “cruel” — echoing many of the descriptors used last week in hearings on the subject in Washington.

But the paper also rehearsed the litany of complaints against the company itself, in part to account for its outrage at the government’s targeting of the workers rather than the employers who hired them:

A slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, develops an ugly reputation for abusing animals and workers. Reports of dirty, dangerous conditions at the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant accumulate for years, told by workers, union organizers, immigrant advocates and government investigators. A videotape by an animal-rights group shows workers pulling the windpipes out of living cows. A woman with a deformed hand tells a reporter of cutting meat for 12 hours a day, six days a week, for wages that labor experts call the lowest in the industry. This year, federal investigators amass evidence of rampant illegal hiring at the plant, which has been called “a kosher ‘Jungle.’ ”

The conditions at the Agriprocessors plant cry out for the cautious and deliberative application of justice.

Two days after immigrants and their advocates marched in Postville, Agriprocessors released this statement:

The founders of Agriprocessors, the Rubashkin family, are a Jewish refugee family that escaped the clutches of Communism decades ago. Aron and Rivka Rubashkin fled Soviet Russia after experiencing oppression in the anti religious regime. Mrs. Rubashkin’s uncles were imprisoned in Siberia due to their religious beliefs. Mr. Rubashkin noted: “As immigrants in America we found freedom and opportunity. We fully understand the pain and suffering which immigrants are going through in building better lives.”

Agriprocessors is dedicated to providing economic prosperity, quality jobs and a safe environment for all its employees. Chaim Abrahams, a company spokesman, explained: “We are committed to follow all federal, state and local regulations in our plant.” In reiterating the company policy, Mr. Rubashkin pointed to the hiring of Jim Martin, a former US Attorney in the state of Missouri, as the chief compliance officer of Agriprocessors. “ He is insuring that our company excels in the area of compliance to government regulation” noted Abrahams. Among other things, Mr. Martin established a 24-hour anonymous hotline for any complaints of workers.

Since the plant opened in 1988, it has created a new era of prosperity in the region. The plant has created jobs, and given a boost to the area. Our plant is modern, clean, and consistently focused on food safety and the safety of our workers.

Agriprocessors is deeply concerned about the plight of the immigrant families in Postville. The Rubashkin family feels that it can help others. Aron Rubashkin explained “As an immigrant family we want to provide our workers with the opportunity to share in the American dream. In recent weeks we have been helping the local families with their daily needs”.

Sue Fishkoff was in Postville, Iowa for yesterday’s rally there on behalf of the workers at Agriprocessors. Click here for her story.

Perhaps the biggest name from the Jewish organizational world to take part was Gideon Aronoff, president and CEO of HIAS. Here’s the text of his speech:

Statement of Gideon Aronoff
President and CEO, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS)
Postville Iowa, July 27, 2008

Why are we all here in Postville on this Sunday afternoon? The simple answer can be found in the lessons of the Hebrew Bible - in the book of Genesis - where we are taught that we are - in fact - “our brothers’ keepers.”

This core Jewish teaching goes far in explaining the fundamental Jewish commitment to vulnerable refugees and immigrants of all faiths and backgrounds. We at HIAS, the American Jewish community’s international migration agency, have sought for 127 years to put these values into action. As both Americans and as Jews, we have worked to ensure that our country’s immigration laws reflect the promise that the great American-Jewish poet and HIAS volunteer, Emma Lazarus, described in her poem The New Colossus – “Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free…”

We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. We are responsible. As Americans, we are responsible to see that our country addresses its problems directly, and does not simply dump them on the backs of the Mexican and Guatemalan immigrant workers at Agriprocessors, or on the community of Postville that they called home.

The raid at AgriProcessors should not have happened. Last year the President and Congress had a chance to fix our broken immigration system and create a new legal immigration system that honors core American values and serves essential American interests. They failed to live up to their responsibilities.

By now, millions of undocumented workers – including those arrested at AgriProcessors – who came to the United States simply to work and support their families – not to harm this country – should have been on the path to legal status and potentially citizenship. This would have been a long process, with appropriate penalties, but the immigrant workers would have been out of the shadows, able to fight exploitation, and as legal residents able to call on the government to protect them.

The AgriProcessors raid is part of the legacy of failed immigration reform. Instead of a national solution to a national problem, we now have a mishmash of state and local immigration proposals, scattershot raids, unworkable solutions like the border fence, and billions of dollars spent chasing after undocumented immigrant workers. Employers who need more immigrant workers than the tiny quota our law provides still have no legal avenues. Fundamentally, we must recognize that we cannot enforce our way out of this problem. The economic and social forces that drive immigration to the United States and around the world are simply far too strong.

The people of Postville are bearing the brunt of this federal non policy. For the undocumented workers, the punishment does not fit the crime. Criminal prosecution and months of jail time are not morally appropriate. There was no intent to harm anyone – they were simply playing by the rules of our defacto illegal immigration system. Now many of the workers sit in jail, families are separated and others live in fear that they may be next. And for the community of Postville – the schools, the businesses, the churches – the raid has meant massive dislocation and harm to a once thriving small town.

The raid at AgriProcessors typifies what our country faces in the wake of national failure on immigration reform. For many of those in the Jewish community who have yet to join in the mobilization for immigration reform, the raid is a wake up call. The kosher meat produced here sustains life for so many. We must pay attention to how this product is produced.

If, as alleged, AgriProcessors violated labor, health and safety laws then they should be prosecuted to protect their workers – legal and undocumented alike – and the entire community. If AgriProcessors, like countless employers across the country, relied on undocumented workers to fill vital labor needs then they should be penalized, not just the workers. But more importantly for the future of our country, a rational relationship must be created between our economic realities and our immigration laws.

We in the Jewish community are taught the preeminent importance of welcoming, protecting and loving the stranger. We remember the thousands of years of expulsion and dispersion of Jewish history where we were forced by anti-Semitism and poverty to migrate in search of security, freedom and opportunity.

These lessons – and our community’s interests in pluralism, economic vitality, social integration and security – compel us to insist on humane and just treatment of immigrants. We also must work to end to the chaos, violence, death and exploitation that come from the failure to fix our broken immigration system. The government must take responsibility and do its job. But we in the Jewish community – and all in the broader American community – must also heed the biblical injunction to be our brothers’ keepers.

Our values and our interests require that we care for the stranger – the immigrant – when he or she is in need. We also must and stand with Postville and other communities across the country that have been devastated by raids and failed immigration policy. These are the new frontlines of the immigration struggle. And that is why I, and we, are here today.

On the heels of Sunday’s interfaith rally in Postville, the National Council of Young Israel has announced it is planning a mission of its own to the beleaguered Iowa town on July 31. Here’s the purpose of the trip, which will involve “several dozen Jewish community and rabbinic leaders,” according to NCYI’s Pesach Lerner:

This mission is meant to provide Jewish leaders from across the United States with a factual perspective of the true situation at the Agriprocessors plant, untainted by the rumors and innuendos that have been circulating in many circles. As one of the major producers of kosher meat in the U.S., the success or failure of Agriprocessors is an issue that will directly impact Jewish communities that purchase kosher meat and poultry across the country.  The situation warrants that we approach this with an open mind and obtain a first-hand account of the situation so that we can draw our own conclusion for the betterment of the American Jewish community.

The trip is to include a tour of the Agriprocessors plant, meetings with slaughterhouse officials — including newly hired compliance officer Jim Martin — as well the Postville’s mayor, who will take the group on a tour. Lerner and his troop might take the opportunity to ask the mayor about reports that Agriprocessors’ new hires are raising the town’s crime rates.

I’ve heard of niche publishing, but a kosher Japanese cookbook aimed at people who don’t keep Shabbos?

Kinue Imai Weinstein, the author of Japanese Kosher Cooking – With Ingredients From Your Refrigerator - will talk how easy it is to cook Japanese food kosher at Kinokuniya Bookstore located at 1073 Avenue of the Americas (between 40th and 41st St.) New York, NY (Tel: 212-869-1700) at 3 pm on Saturday, July 19. She will also talk about Jews in Japan with slide presentation followed by a book signing session until 4 pm.

The first Jewish merchant arrived in Japan in 1861, two years after Japan opened the country. Despite Japan allied to Germany during WWII and many anti-Semitic works were translated into Japanese from German, the Japanese did not adopt the anti-Semitic attitude of the Nazis. Today, there are about 1,000 Jews living in Japan .

The cookbook, the first of its kind, was published in English by KTAV Publishing House last November. “Making Japanese food kosher is easier than you think. All you need is kosher soy sauce, which is readily available,” says Kinue. Among the 107 kosher Japanese recipes, 46 of them can be easily modified for vegetarians.

Another week of stunning revelations out of Postville. Let’s recap:

• The PR firm Agri hired to help revive its image, 5WPR, ran into some image problems of its own when evidence emerged connecting the publicity company to comments to various Web sites in the name of Rabbi Morris Allen, an advocate for ethical kashrut standards who has been one of Agri’s fiercest critics. So far Agri has been mum on the issue, but a blogger at PRBlogNews says the company is making publicists look bad and the executive responsible should be fired.
• The Des Moines Register ran a lengthy piece reviewing worker injury claims at Agriprocessors going back several years and found that state inspectors were routinely denied access to the plant to investigate complaints. Three amputations at the plant within five weeks of each other in 2005 resulted in state fines of $7,500. The Register followed with a scathing editorial calling such incidents “unconscionable.”
• The New York Times also had a good original story followed by an editorial. The story was about a Spanish language translator who worked on the judicial proceedings against the detained Postville workers who wrote an essay criticizing the process. In the editorial, the Times argues that Agri’s workers charged with identity theft weren’t looking to steal, only to get jobs, and shouldn’t be treated like criminals.
• Also in the Times, journalist Sam Freedman traveled to Postville to write about Father Paul Ouderkirk, a Catholic priest who came out of retirement to help parishioners coping with the aftermath of the federal raid.

Here’s the fake quote attributed to Rabbi Morris Allen that was posted to the JTA site:

There is a war going on here, the war between the kashrut standards of Orthodoxy and Conservatives. For so long, Orthodoxy has controlled the “industry” and we see what has happened.

Tzedek will set a standard set by a committee and it will be certain to protect workers from abuse. An added benefit it that it will protect the IRS from being defrauded, because Tzedek will entail honesty on taxes as well.

We will give a pass to small stores where illegals work, but not large companies - that is to much leeway. If an owner has a housekeeper or nanny, he or she better be legal.

Then again, if these illegals are paid well and treated well, maybe it won’t matter that they are illegal. This hasn’t been worked out yet.

Meanwhile, the Agriprocessors matter should continue until we get what we deserve. Tzedek on out terms, Tzedek for our beliefs, and a Tzedek that we can regulate.

5WPR’s founder and president, Ronn Torossian, just issued this statement about the controversy engulfing his company [UPDATE: This is the revised version that the company sent out a few minutes after the first one]:

While traveling earlier this week with my family out of the country, my IT department investigated accusations which we have now learned to be true. A senior staff member failed to be transparent in dealing with client matters. He has taken full responsibility.

We have been in business since January 2003 – and according to Odwyer’s 2007 rankings our revenues exceeded $11.5M, and we are the 21st largest independent PR firm in the United States.

Growing companies often have problems in their expansion, and we continue to strive for the highest performance. We have instituted internal measures to ensure this cannot happen again. We continue to strive for the highest ethical standards.

This battle is not about blogging, it is however about protecting the highest levels of Kashrut in the Jewish community. We as a firm feel personally and professionally passionate about these, and related issues.

Critics of traditional Judaism have chosen to smear the largest provider of the highest level kashrut meat in the world. We stand with protecting kashrut.

And treif meat, too.

Seriously, though, one of the most intriguing aspects of this entire story is that 5WPR has managed to carve out two seemingly contradictory niches, representing both traditionalist Jewish groups and celebrities associated with the raunchier side of American pop culture (for example, Girls Gone Wild — that’s Torossian on the left at the 28-second mark — and Lil’ Kim). The media equivalent would be Fox, which has an entertainment division that has arguably done more than any other company to create the debased standards of decency on television that the traditionalist/conservative folks over at the news division love to rail against.

UPDATE: The Forward’s Nathaniel Popper hit on this irony back a few years ago with this profile on Torossian.

FailedMessiah reports today that two comments attributed to Rabbi Morris Allen, the Minnesota rabbi behind the Conservative movement’s Hekhsher Tzedek project, originated in the office of 5WPR, the public relations firm hired to help kosher meat producer Agriprocessors cope with the fallout from the May 12 raid. We’re still seeking comment from 5W.

Shira Dicker, a publicist working with Allen, sends us this email:

Dear Reporters,

In a bizarre effort to discredit the efforts of Rabbi Morris Allen, the founder and spiritual force behind Hekhsher Tzedek — the new ethical certification of the Rabbinical Assembly and United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism — staffers from 5W Public Relations wrote phony comments in his name on the website www.failedmessiah.com.

Hekhsher Tzedek is pursuing legal action in this matter.