On May 23rd of this year, Uri L’Tzedek wrote an open letter to Aaron Rubashkin, expressing how deeply upset we were by evidence of worker mistreatment in his company, Agriprocessors, and calling on the community of kosher consumers to join us in demanding change. Since the outset of our campaign, Uri L’Tzedek has sought protection and fair treatment for workers at Agriprocessors’ Postville plant. Our effort has been guided by the spirit of Rabbi Yosef Breuer of blessed memory and his 1949 essay “Glatt Kosher – Glatt Yosher,” where he describes strict standards of kashrut and strict standards of ethics. As Rabbi Breuer wrote: “God’s Torah not only demands the observance of kashrut and the sanctification of our physical enjoyment; it also insists on the sanctification of our social relationships.”
The Jewish community in general and the observant community in particular are bound to the people who provide our food through the sacred social relationships of worker, employer, and consumer. Through this campaign, we have given voice to thousands of observant Jews who believe that the standards of kashrut of our food be matched by the kashrut of our ethics, and their voice has been heard loudly and clearly.
After the events of the May 11 federal raid at the Agriprocessors plant, and the release of government reports, affidavits, and media surrounding working conditions at the plant, thousands of observant Jews felt those sacred social relationships had been damaged. Uri L’Tzedek responded to those events with a letter that asked Agriprocessors to pay its workers a minimum wage and recommit to abiding by all U.S. law relating to worker safety and rights. In order to ensure that the company meets these modest requests, we asked that the company establish a department and staff to deal exclusively with these concerns.
In recent weeks, Agriprocessors retained James Martin, former Senior Federal U.S. Attorney to serve as Chief Compliance Officer for the company. Mr. Martin has instituted a number of important reforms including: the creation of an anonymous tip line for employees to report safety and rights violations without fear of retribution; establishment of a safety department within the company that is staffed by an officer and assistant (with plans for two additional employees); and development of new safety training initiatives. Mr. Martin has also assured us that his term is expected to last at least one year. His role, according to communications between Uri L’Tzedek and Agriprocessors, is to set in place the procedures and personnel to ensure that the compliance effort is “continual, robust, and permanent.” Mr. Martin, a reputable and skilled attorney with years of experience prosecuting corporate crime, has now accepted on himself and his firm, the Prevene Group, the professional responsibility to ensure the company treats its workers with the respect, dignity, and rights that are demanded by U.S. law.
We believe that through hiring Mr. Martin, Agriprocessors is beginning to take significant steps towards directly addressing the concerns of the Jewish leaders and consumers who signed our May 23rd letter. In light of these early signs of reform, Uri L’Tzedek is no longer calling for the community to abstain from purchasing Agriprocessors’ products. Time will show what kind of results these reforms will yield for the workers at Agriprocessors, but the social justice philosophy of Uri L’Tzedek is one deeply committed to challenging what is broken in our world but partnering to support efforts towards fixing it.
We are inspired by all the people throughout North America and the world who have raised their voice on this critical issue. Their participation in this effort has been the critical foundation of our work, and it has generated crucial moral awareness and has yielded impressive results. We are similarly thankful to the Agriprocessors corporation and the Rubashkin family, who by and large have engaged in a respectful dialogue.
If Agriprocessors does not implement Mr. Martin’s recommendations or demonstrates that it is not committed to full compliance with all laws regarding worker safety, pay, and rights, then we will once again raise our concerns with Agriprocessors and with the community of kosher consumers.
There are still matters of great concern in Postville: shattered families left without wage earners, mothers unable to find jobs to pay for basic necessities, children thousands of miles from home living in fear of another raid, a broken Postville economy, and deeply flawed federal immigration policy. Addressing these larger issues is integral to our work as activists. Uri L’Tzedek leadership has helped raise significant funds for the families deeply hurt by the raids and has met with U.S. House and Senate staff, and has had a conversation with Senator Joseph Lieberman, Head of the Department of Homeland Security to express our concerns about the human suffering that results from these kinds of enforcement tactics.
These events strengthen our conviction that Klal Yisrael and the Orthodox community are committed to leading the way in creating a just society and sanctifying the Name of God. We believe that this campaign signals a new level of communal expectation of all our businesses to conduct themselves with the highest standards of yashrut and tzedek, ethics and justice.
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24 Responses
Just who is Uri L’Tzedek? Who are their members, their sponsors? How did they become the “voice” of American Jewry? This really is an appalling situation that some left-wing association is going to foist its conception and definition of “justice” and “yashrus.”
I would also like to know the average age of the membership.
Are these really the people we want speaking on behalf of us? You decide…..
I hope that this is not an agri press release. Cowering to these blithering Uri L’tzedokim idiots is insane and dangerous.
Uri L’Tzedek from what I understand is a Conservative organization. If that’s the case their opinion on Kashruth means to me as much as the opinion of a Presbyterian minister
fyi, uriltzedek are students/alumnae of “Yeshivat Chovavei Torah”. Please refer to the archives for information on this place- with all their reform/conservative/non-jewish professors. They are based in the notoriously anti-Jewish Columbia University. Anything they say should not be regarded. check out, (or don’t) their site http:/uriltzedek.webnode.com for mor information.
#1
you can google them.
there are some pictures of who they are.
although you cant say for sure from pictures, i get the impression they are an idealistic group of young modern orthodox liberals, looking for fun and purpose in their lives.
It’s not only the families in Postville that were shattered. What about all the shochtim & mashgichim from NY, CT, CA, IL etc. etc. who suddenly find themselves without work??? We’ve been dropped like hotcakes with no alternative jobs. It’s a nisayon that’s definitely taking it’s toll.
Having spoke to the only orthodox person involved-(who was arrested) A wonderful young shochet from Israel who has a young family–He has papers and was improperly arrested. It was simply a clerical error- Yet it cost him much time and money to clear up and he spent days in Jail with the dregs of society- Agriprocessors is not being treatly fairly by “Uri L’Tzedek or anyone else. Did you ever hear of ‘Don L’kaf Zchus?”
Everyone is quick to accuse and convict without knowing the true story
This is Rabbi Avi Weiss’ yeshiva.
I think we all need to boycott Uri L’Tzedek whoever they are.
# 10.
Where has #6 “insulted” the Yeshiva?
Please explain.
well from first hand info the workers are not being treated badly
and secondly, if illegal mexican immigrants want to start their life here and they agree to the amounts their being paid what’s it anyones business!! they dont want it let them go find work elsewhere. i guess it wasnt any better for them in mexico!!
First of all on Agri.The jury is still out and they must demand they be ethical and mindful of dina de malchusa dina and kavod shamayim as they for better or worse are identified as Orthodox Jews.As for “Uri L Tzedk”this is another fron of Avi Weiss who openly legitimizes connservatism and reform as legitimate expressions of Judaism.He was just in Miami guiding a “yom Iyun”for the conservative and reform clergy.one of the “Rebbis”in his so called yeshiva is a cleric by the name of terry Bookman “rabbi”of a well known reform temple in miami.Avi Weiss is at the fore front of trying to reform Orthodx judaism into accepting the feminist agenda of the other movements.Probably the most dangerous dangerous cleric around as he attempts from the inside to reform Orthodox judaism by intelegently not calling himself conservative.Notice the statement says “observant” not Orthodx as they consider amny non orthodox as observant.We must also monitor the conversasions performed by him or his “Talmidim”
Rubashkin is giving us a feeling like they are something and they have to watch out from them. But in reality who care’s what they say, who gave hem permission to be our watch dog
#10:
touro college is called just that, not Yeshivat Touro. YES- Touro DOES have a Yeshiva B.M., BUT (caps emphasized)it is separate from the college (secular) division, not under the banner “yeshiva”. Just remember the motto “Where open orthodoxy begins”, in essence a Pandora’s Box to what the future holds. As a well known speaker (who even speaks in Washington Heights- For those who want to hear the emes- direct quote)said ,”modern orthodox is a paradox”. Touro doesn’t have non-Jews teaching Jewish ideals. That is one difference between YESHIVAT C.T. and Touro COLLEGE.
I’m impressed with these people. It’s not easy to take on what they did.
I don’t think they are saying that they are a watchdog – they had something specific they were trying to do and it sounds like they accomplished it. kol hakavod!
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/article.php?p=5269
Feif Un, go to the link above and read all about it. the real question should be “why isn’t everybody putting down this place of blantant kefira”
read the article which originally appeared in the Yated and was reprinted in YW. then come back and tell us if you are with Torah True Judaism or with them.
I read these comments and understand why we are now called Jews or Yidden or whatever but never Bnei Yisrael!
Uri L’tzedek is a judgmental self-aggrandizing group from a dogmatic yeshiva movement who is enjoying the sensational thrill of becoming activists. Their punitive public campaign/boycott against a fellow Jew is the real chillul hashem. Tick-tock, your 15 minutes is over.
10. Feif Un,
“yes, they have non-Jewish professors, but for what? They have psychology teachers there so that the students going for semichah there can learn about counseling – a must for a Rabbi, which, unfortunately, many frum Rabbis know nothing about.”
Your comment speaks volumes about your hashkafa, or rather lack of it. Having “embraced the secular world” ,i.e., putting a higher value on goyish cultural values than Torah, you assume that a Goyish psychology teacher will give a rabbi better tools to deal with problems than the Torah does. Ain chadosh tachas hashemesh. Rabbanim have dealt with these problems for millenia without Freud and Goyish psychology books. They actually had a better success rate then todays Psychiatrists. What has changed is the value system. In your neighborhood men have girlfriends from the time their 12 but don’t get married until their 35. They go to movies theatres, shows, and and dances, and place a high value on getting a “secular” i,e, goyish education because they don’t belive Hashem has the power to be mashpia parnassah unless you have that piece of paper hanging on the wall (Those are Reb Moshe’s words, not mine, in a tshuva against going to college.) Having long ago lost their bearings, as the Munkatcher writes to Reb Shraga Feivel in two tshuuvas from 1934-5: we have already seen the “RA-Banim” (two words) that have gone out of YU. and in a second one he writes ” and that (limudei chol) which you mention about Yeshivas Rabbainu Yitzchok Elchonan, that I pity the poor gaon who they named it after him.”
(from the sefer “igros shapirin”)
These people have forgotton what Torah is have adapted liberal goyish social agendas, because they are embarassed to take up a real Torah position. These are the people that supported Tendler’s attack on a 3000 year old minhag Yisroel. Because they think their smarter than an Amoira because they have a piece of paper on the wall. the final report on metzitzah will soon be out. It details line by line every lie published by Drs. Lorry Rubin, Phillip Lanzkowsky, Benny Gesundheit, Benzion Garty, and Moshe Dovid Tendler, etc. Aside from Their attack on metzitzah, none of these Drs ever wrote a paper on neonatal herpes. A delegation of chareidim went to the University of Alabama to meet with the two foremost researchers in the country on neonatal herpes. (Drs. Whitley & Kimberlin) They were unconcerned with the procedure and unimpressed with Tendler’s manipulation of information. Just one example, the article says: The Chasam Sofer, who died in 1939, being impressed Ignacz Semmelweis’ May 1847 discovery of disease transmission, (In an obstetrics ward, not because a baby got tuberculosis from a mohel like the article says) was matir instrumental suction. Even though the tube did not exist until 1887. This just one example. The entire article is like this. It’s on line: Pediatrics- Aug 2005
Further to my comments:
I came from a conservative movement.rabbi Weiss has become the grand Rabbi of a select handful of Conservative Rabbis that claim that they are Orthodox.I know personally many conversions that they have done where the person is not a full shomer Mitzvos and there is no real expection of thta happening.They arae mamish bringing goyim into judaism and creating more mixed marriages.I also know him publically and his agenda is to pardon the pun reform Orthodoxy by quietly having hi s”rabbis”become pulpit rabbis and educators.
Beware of the fraud and go their web site and you will see that they are suceeding when you search for their alumni.This is neo conservative post modern Orthodox movement. Acceptance or tolerance and out reach to Toeiva is next as was told to me personally .
Uri L’Tzedek is emes
#6.
Why do you refer to Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in brackets? One might think you are trying to cast doubt on their being a yeshiva. Your reference, by association, to them as anti-Jewish also is of poor taste and without merit.
#11.
From their website. R’ Avi Weiss founded it and is its President. R’ Dov Linzer is the Rosh HaYeshiva and Dean.
#15
I have a strong basis for believing that YCT does not believe Conservative and Reform Judaism are legitimate expression of Judaism; they are however of the view that dialogue with them can be beneficial for all.
#23.
Rabbis of any stripe understand the need for professionals with knowledge beyond learning Torah. The modern rabbi has a pastoral element and is not simply a posek. No more need be said about your comments.