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Lewin: Herzfeld assertions are fallacious

By Ben Harris · August 11, 2008

Nat Lewin, the Washington attorney representing Agriprocessors, just sent us a response to Shmuel Herfzeld’s New York Times op-ed last week.

Read the response after the jump.

REPLY TO RABBI SHMUEL HERZFELD

by Nathan Lewin

In a front-page article asserting that minors had been hired to work in an Iowa kosher meat-packing plant and in an editorial calling the plant the modern equivalent of Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle,” the New York Times joined the media frenzy that has, over the past two months, with very little basis in fact, pilloried AgriProcessors, the country’s leading kosher slaughterer and packer of beef, and driven federal and local law-enforcement personnel to threaten dire consequences to its owner and employees. Insult was heaped on injury when an Orthodox rabbi in Washington, D.C., joined the vigilantes and published an Op-Ed piece in the Times of August 6, claiming that the news accounts “call into question whether the food processed in the plant qualifies as kosher.”

This nationally published challenge to the kashruth of the AgriProcessor product contradicts the unanimous opinion of highly respected and universally recognized kashruth-certifying agencies that have repeatedly endorsed – even while the media attack was ongoing – the ritual acceptability of AgriProcessors’ product. Nonetheless, Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld of Ohev Sholom Synagogue in Washington (where the author of this response has been a member for the past 40 years) – a young rabbi who has achieved great success in reviving, for Jewish residents, a neighborhood that had been abandoned by its Jewish population and has electrified the entire Washington Jewish community with innovative programs – raised “questions” about AgriProcessors’ kashruth in this widely read forum.

Rabbi Herzfeld’s column cites the following three grounds for questioning the religious suitability of AgriProcessors’ meat: First, he says that “there is precedent for declaring something nonkosher on the basis of how employees are treated.” The precedent he cites is that Rabbi Yisroel Salanter, the highly respected 19th century founder of the “Mussar” movement, is, according to Rabbi Herzfeld, “famously believed to have refused to certify a matzo factory as kosher on the grounds that the workers were being treated unfairly.” Rabbi Yisroel Salanter is as gold-plated an authority as one can imagine. If he actually said that unfair treatment of workers renders a product non-kosher, one would have to give that ruling great weight.

Second, Rabbi Herzfeld cites allegations in an affidavit filed by the immigration authorities who raided the AgriProcessor plant in Iowa on May 12 to arrest illegal aliens employed there. He says that the affidavit alleges “that an employee was physically abused by a rabbi on the floor of the plant.” Rabbi Herzfeld says that “this calls into question the reliability and judgment of the rabbi in charge of making sure the food was kosher.” If, in fact, the “rabbi in charge of making sure the food was kosher” did assault an AgriProcessors employee, I would share Rabbi Herzfeld’s doubts regarding that rabbi’s “reliability and judgment” on issues relating to kashruth.

Third, Rabbi Herzfeld points to the arrest of “two workers who oversaw the poultry and beef division” for “helping illegal immigrants falsify documents.” He says that if these supervisors “were willing to break immigration laws, one could reasonably ask whether they would be likely to show the same lack of concern for Jewish dietary laws.” This is a reasonable question if, as one might assume from Rabbi Herzfeld’s description of the arrests, the arrested supervisors had any responsibility whatever for AgriProcessors’ compliance with “Jewish dietary laws.”

But it takes a little digging beneath the surface of Rabbi Herzfeld’s assertions to demonstrate how fallacious they are.

First, the Reb Yisroel Salanter story that he describes as “famous” does not appear in any biography of Rabbi Salanter that I have been able to find. Rabbi Hillel Goldberg’s marvelous history of the Mussar Movement titled “The Fire Within,” which has a comprehensive section on Rabbi Salanter, tells only of his having advised his students that, when they were preparing matzos for Passover, they should not overwork or make excessive demands of the female workers who were kneading the dough and otherwise preparing for the matzo baking. That same account appears in a Hebrew volume titled “Bikkurei Shai,” written by the Chief Rabbi of Givatayim, Israel.

I e-mailed Rabbi Hillel Goldberg to ask him whether he had ever heard that Rabbi Salanter had refused to certify the kashruth of a matzo factory because it was unfair to its workers. He replied that the only story on this subject that he knew of was the one that had appeared in his book. He added that it was not likely that Rabbi Salanter would ever have given a certification ("hashgacha") on matzo because he “famously” avoided acting as a community rabbi. And I myself wonder whether it is not an anachronism for Rabbi Herzfeld to ascribe to the mid-19th century the community practices of today. At a time when all matzos were being hand-baked (and the rabbinic controversy over the kashruth of machine-made matzos was still several decades in the future), what “matzo factory” was seeking the “certification” of Rabbi Salanter?

Second, a closer look is warranted at Rabbi Herzfeld’s assertion regarding the case of the abusive “rabbi.” Nowhere in the government’s affidavit is any accusation reported against any rabbi whose job was “making sure the food was kosher.” The term “rabbi” is used interchangeably throughout the affidavit with the term “Hasidic Jew.” Obviously, any employee on the floor of the AgriProcessors plant who had a beard and wore a yarmulke was described by the government’s Guatemalan informant as a “rabbi” or “Hasidic Jew.” If one such Jewish employee – with no responsibility for kashruth – abused an employee, it does not “call into question the reliability and judgment of the rabbi in charge of making sure the food was kosher.”

Third is Rabbi Herzfeld’s reliance on the arrest of two supervisors. Would the arrested supervisors – who, one assumes from Rabbi Herzfeld’s question, are either certifying rabbis or, at least, Hasidic Jews responsible in some manner for kashruth –show the same disdain for Jewish dietary laws as for American immigration law? Rabbi Herzfeld does not tell us that the two arrested supervisors were named Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza and Martin De La Rosa-Loera – supervisors at AgriProcessors whose concern or lack of concern for Jewish dietary laws is as irrelevant as one can imagine.
At a time of the year when we recall that vicious reports to authorities led to the destruction of the Temple, Rabbi Herzfeld might take a more careful look at the grounds for his public allegations.

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This Week in Postville: New documents emerge, child labor investigations and more

By Ben Harris · August 11, 2008

Lots of new developments out of Postville over the weekend, most notably the release by the American Civil Liberties Union of a script used by judges and attorneys in the “fast-tracked” legal proceedings that followed the May 12 raid at Agriprocessors.

I saw these scripts in use at the Waterloo fairgrounds and they didn’t seem particularly sinister at the time. But now it seems the scripts amounted to an entire blueprint for how the prosecutions should unfold and suggest to some experts that they were prepared in overly close cooperation between federal judges and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors say the scripts were not binding and were meant to help swamped defense counsel. But some legal experts say the documents suggest the court had endorsed the plea agreements in advance, before a single immigrant had appeared in court, prompting at least one defense attorney presented with the script to walk out “in disgust.”

The script is likely to provide ammunition to skeptics in Congress investigating the possible denial of constitutional protections to the illegal immigrants arrested in Postville.

You can download the documents here. The New York Times report on the documents is here.

The Des Moines Register continues its probing coverage of the raid with a story on the child labor allegations investigated by the Iowa Labor Commissioner’s Office. The report covers a lot of familiar territory – many interviews have been published with accounts by former child laborers, including one interview by yours truly – but none get at the essential question of the company’s culpability.

Agri says the kids provided fake IDs and that they terminated employees who were found to have lied about their ages. The kids say their ages were never questioned, which isn’t surprising considering that the documentation they provided – fake or not – includes date of birth. If the company didn’t challenge the legality of the documents themselves, even though a large majority of its workers were apparently illegal immigrants, why would they have specifically checked ages? This is what the state attorney general will have to sort out.

In other news, the Orthodox Union’s Menachem Genack was interviewed on NPR alongside Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, who wrote an Op-Ed last week in The New York Times calling for a serious rabbinic investigation of Agriprocessors. Genack repeats the OU’s longstanding position on Agri – that it’s up to the government to determine if workers are being treated properly – and takes credit for forcing out Sholom Rubashkin as plant manager and getting a compliance officer hired. Not a lot that’s new here, but still an interesting exchange. Listen here.

Finally, my colleague, Fundermentalist Jacob Berkman, reports from the CAJE conference in Burlington, Vt., that Agri meat was ordered off the menu. We’ll have more on that shortly.

UPDATE: The Fundermentalist reports: Using meat from a plant that may not be up to ethical par “was just not in the spirit of CAJE,” the organization’s executive director, Jeffrey Lasday told me Sunday afternoon. He said he made the decision not to use Agri shortly after the plant was raided in a large-scale immigration bust in May.

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More on Agriprocessors: Child labor allegations and company response

By Ben Harris · August 6, 2008

It seemed for a while things might have quieted on the Postville front, but the past few days have brought a flood of new information. Let’s briefly recap:

• Yesterday the Iowa labor commissioner referred 57 allegations of child labor violations to the state attorney general, calling the violations “egregious” and recommending they be prosecuted “to the fullest extent of the law.”
• This news follows by one day the declaration by a group of 25 Orthodox rabbis that the plant was clean and modern and entirely different from the “jungle” described by New York Times editorialists.
• Shmuel Herzfeld, an Orthodox rabbi in Washington, penned an op-ed in today’s Times saying the responses of the Orthodox Union and the Rabbinical Council of America have “fallen far short.”

Agriprocessors spokesman Menachem Lubinsky also provided JTA with a number of documents last night that provide an interesting window into the way the labor commissioner’s investigation unfolded.

Included in the documents is a substantial amount of communication between lawyers for the company and the labor commissioner’s attorney that appear to show Agriprocessors cooperating with requests for information.

On April 28, barely two weeks before the raid, Agri’s attorney wrote this to Gail Sheridan-Lucht, the labor commissioner attorney:

Second, although we have told you and provided documents demonstrating that Agriprocessors does not have any reason to believe it is presently employing any employee under the age of 18, you stated last week that you believe there are employees who may be under the age of 18. We all agreed that neither the State of Iowa, nor Agriprocessors, wants minors working in Agriprocessors’s facility. We asked you for the names of those employees you believe to be under the age of 18, so Agriprocessors could take appropriate action to terminate their employment. You stated that you did not want to provide those names until you had the chance to review Agriprocessors’s records to ensure the individuals in question previously worked or are presently working at Agriprocessors. Without those names, Agriprocessors is concerned that it may be inadvertently continuing to employ underage workers, a situation Agriprocessors would want to stop now. We would respectfully ask that you reconsider your position of not revealing the names until after your May 20-21 on-site review so Agriprocessors can address whatever additional information you have at this time, and terminate employment now of any underage worker if that is happening.

Dave Neil, the Iowa labor commissioner, told JTA that at the time that request was made, the state had no names, only reports. According to the Times report, Agri believes the government’s failure to make those names available resulted in the arrest of some of those underage workers in the May 12 immigration raid.

Lubinsky also included termination documentation for four workers who were fired for being underage. One of the workers was apparently found out when her photo appeared in the local newspaper, which identified her as being in the eighth grade. Agri’s HR manager, Elizabeth Billmeyer, reports that she then called the employee to her office, who was working at Agri under a different name, and asked her to provide a birth certificate. The employee became belligerent and was fired.

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Video from Agriprocessors

By Ben Harris · August 5, 2008

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.

STATEMENT BY AGRIPROCESSORS

Postville, Iowa 5:00 p.m. August 5, 2008…Agriprocessors is at a loss to understand the Iowa Labor Commissioner’s referral and press release of today on the issue of alleged child labor at Agriprocessors.  As the government knows, it is Agriprocessors’ policy not to hire underage workers, and to terminate any employees who are determined to be under 18 years of age.  In fact, in 2007, Agriprocessors terminated four employees whom it determined were underage and had provided false documents in order to obtain employment.

The Company has cooperated with the government throughout its investigation, providing documents and opening its plant and its records to government inspection.  In early 2008, government inspectors came to the Postville plant, looked for underage workers, identified two youthful looking employees for further investigation, investigated their background and ultimately allowed the employees to return to work.  At no time did the government identify to the company any violations.

When the government told Agriprocessors in April 2008 that it knew that underage employees were working at the Postville plant, Agriprocessors repeatedly requested that the government identify those workers so that the company could terminate them.  The Iowa Labor Commissioner’s Office refused.  As a result of the government’s decision, apparently those children may have continued to work at the plant and presumably at least some were arrested in the May 12 ICE enforcement action.

The government now has seen fit to issue a press release alleging child labor law violations.  The government’s press release does not state that the company knowingly hired underage workers.  The company asks the public to keep an open mind and wait for the evidence before making any judgments about these, or any other, allegations.

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N.Y. Times: Agriprocessors’ reputation is “ugly”

By Ben Harris · August 1, 2008

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.

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Agriprocessors: We’re immigrants too!

By Ben Harris · July 29, 2008

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”.

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Head of HIAS speaks at rally in Postville

By Ami Eden · July 28, 2008

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.

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NCYI heading to Postville

By Ben Harris · July 28, 2008

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.

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Last week in Postville

By Ben Harris · July 14, 2008

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.

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No, that wasn’t really Rabbi Allen on our site…

By Ami Eden · July 11, 2008

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.

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