An impressive group of Jewish community leaders participated in a 45 minute phone conference briefing last night on developments at Agriprocessors following the federal raid on its Postville plant on May 12th. Menachem Lubinsky, President of LUBICOM Marketing Consulting, whose firm represents Agriprocessors, reported that the plant’s production was approaching pre-raid levels and that shortages have eased significantly. He detailed the ongoing onslaught in the secular Jewish media by Conservatives, Reform and other liberal Jewish groups. “The daily barrage of stories, including faulting Agriprocessors for giving homeless people an opportunity to work were unprecedented,” he said. “In 35 years of practice, I have never seen such a methodical systematic lynch mob in certain Jewish media,” he added.
Jim Martin, a former US Attorney and the new compliant officer at Agriprocessors reported on the many dramatic improvements that were being made in compliance with government regulations. He stressed that he would have “zero tolerance” for anything less than full compliance. He detailed the reputable firms that were hired to retain workers, his hiring of a former OSHA official to deal with plant safety issues, and announced the launch of a new anonymous hotline for workers. Martin said that he would go beyond “fixing any violations” but was absolutely determined to make the plant a showcase of compliance and safety.
Prominent Washington attorney Nathan Lewin briefly discussed some of the legal implications of the raid and also criticized the secular Jewish media for incitement. He urged the Orthodox Jewish community to voice its strong opposition to the disinformation being spread by many secular groups. Many of the participants joined in this call to action. Aaron Goldsmith, a resident of Postville, described the witch-hunt by journalists in his town.
(Lubicom Press Release)
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11 Responses
So? are we ignoreing the fact that this is a chabab shchita? can we eaty from the schita of “Mishichistim” Has anybody asked Rav Aaron Feldman this question? I for one will not eat any products from this establishment.
“his hiring of a former OSHA official to deal with plant safety issues,”
This makes no sense at all.
The State of Iowa OSHA educational divisison will conduct a complete safety audit of the plant and provide a written report of what items need to be corrected – free of charge!
All Rubashkin has to do is invite OSHA to conduct the audit and agree to correct problems found within one year.
This is a press release of Lubicom, run by Menachem Lubinsky who, as the release noted, works for Agriprocessors. In short this is the spin that Agriprocessors wants out there about their event.
The encouraging statement is the one attributed by Jim Martin, though it is still unclear what the extent of his authority is.
“Giving homeless people a place to work?” Puh-leeeze. I’ll agree that there is plenty of blame to go around – those whose criticism is too sharp, and those who try too mightily to defend their actions.
No different than getting caught speeding on the Thruway up to the country – everyone does it, but it doesn’t justify your doing it. You get caught by a trooper? Accept the ticket, pay the fine, and move on.
To the extent Rubie’s was tendering tzedakah by giving homeless a place to work, I’ll consider part of my butcher bill as ma’aser.
Just for the record, In the largest raid of it’s kind, Iowa ICE agents arrested almost 1300 THIRTEEN HUNDRED illegals on Dec 13, 2006 at Swift beef and Pork processing plants. This is straight of the ICE.GOV website. It took Swift 5 months to recover to full production.
Kudos to all the Anti Rubashkin people. You have a real friend in the Anti Torah establishment. For some reason the Daas Torah type of people seem to be gravitating towards defending the company and its hundreds of yiddishe employees. (as Daas Torah still believes in innocent until proven guilty.)
“An impressive group” of Jewish Community leaders… is the same line used by Lubicom, the advertising and marketing company, used in describing the EJF’s recent opportunistic grab for the monopoly on geirus, “An impressive group of gedolim”…
One should realize that Lubicom does the EJF conventions, so after all, marketing is marketing, whether it be for meat or geirus….
#8, bacci40
The answer is Yes.
These Modern Orthodox Rabbis are acting very secular.
In fact they do not deserve the title Rabbi.
If you have any ides what is the mindset of Chovevei Torah you would definitly agree. [Providing you are not one of them]
As far as I understand, the arrests are of illegal immigrants who falsified papers to be able to work “legally.” I’m not aware of any scandalous behavior on the part of Rubashkin itself here.
And even if Rubashkin knew they were illegal, I don’t see why any of you should complain. Why should it be different if Rubashkin hires illegals toi help process the meat than when the grocery store you buy his meat from also hires illegals to carry it in from the truck? Are you also going to complain when the grocery store sends an illegal Mexican to deliver your grocery order? And haven’t you noticed that every contractor you hire to do work in your house sends Mexicans to do the work – do you think they are all legal? I find it highly unlikely. And how many of you have illegal immigrants cleaning your homes while you sit and type criticism against Rubashkin?
If anyone’s aware of a more serious complaint against Rubashkin, please let me know.
to: yisroellazear
chabad shechita is a plus, by-the-way yisroellazear, a vast amount of hashgochas rely on chabad shlichim found thruout the world. So if you want to continue enjoying your…., while these chabad shlichim are sacrificing for yiddishkeit, i whould suggest that you not use any hashgocha without checking out this ‘important’ aspect.
#6, 9
Do you both work for Agriprocessors? It was part of their initial marketing plan to make an attack on the company the same as an attack on Judaism.
If its wrong to attribute blame until they are brought to trail (or not) then similarly it is certainly wrong to gird them in the mantle of Torah before then either.
I especially like how #9 makes it that if you defend a differing view from his you are not Orthodox. Very nice. For the record, I have a friend at YCT and another who is a graduate and they are both Orthodox. But since according to you, since I think that I am no longer Orthodox so it doesn’t matter.