The following amazing story has been circulating on social media all day. YWN has heard from an eyewitness who says he was standing just feet from R’ Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin, and this story is 100% authentic.
As reported, thousands crowded the streets in Boro Park at midnight Thursday to greet Rubashkin upon arrival at his parents home on 15th Ave and 55th Street. Hundreds also packed into the house in an attempt to reach R’ Shalom Mordechai.
Amidst the commotion, a woman was seen approaching Sholom Mordechai and told him that she is an Agunah for the last seven years and would like him to give her a bracha.
He immediately asked for her husband’s number, which she gave him.
On the spot, Rubashkin called him [PICTURED] and is reported to have said, “I’ve been released from prison and I’m standing with your wife. When can we meet. I want to talk to you.”
A meeting was reported to be taking place today!
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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19 Responses
I personally know the woman in this story and can verify this actually took place.Small correction ,she’s actually waiting for close to nine years! And unfortunately the husband did not show up to the attempted meeting though RSM definitely deserves points for trying…Hopefully with klal yisroel continued tefillas she will merit her own redemption just as R’Shalom did- Yeshuas Hashem keheref ayin!!
Hopefully she’ll be able to soon say Baruch Matir Assurim as well.
Thanks for sharing!
I am not surprised he would do that. This is the real Sholom Rubashkin – putting others before himself. May this lady soon be out of HER jail very soon.
A bracha from a convicted felon? Both ordeals could have been avoided if the men involved had better respect for the law.
Chaim Eliezer be careful about judging other people. It’s really sick to see other Jews who revel in out Jews misfortune. People like you are the reason we’re still in Golus. Everybody involved knows they had it out for him because he’s a Jew. The sentencing was completely out of proportion. But what do you care. A Jew went to jail and apparently that makes you happy.
Doesn’t Satmar know how to help such women?
Yesodyosef613, please remember that this man is a convicted felon. His sentence was commuted, but his conviction was not vacated. He hurt hundreds of people with his tax fraud and mistreatment, not to mention the tremendous chillul Hashem that he caused. He should be embarrassed to be seen in public, and he certainly is not at the level to be giving brachot to people.
Lacking Yesodyosef613’s inside info on what causes golus, I’m forced to rely on the Neviim and Chazal. They too seem lacking in sympathy for financial criminals.
Rather than a brocha from a convicted felon, the agunah should get the same level of support some are now affording Rubashkin. We should make public the seruv, the husband’s name and his photograph.
The “Rubashkin tour” shouldn’t be a celebration of his heroism and martyrdom. Rather he should tour yeshivos and tell young men not to make the same mistakes which got him in prison.
chaim luzer…your name is actually….jersey girl,gadalhador,lakewood guy, lesschumre etcs..you know, the usuall soine bnei torah
I tend to agree with chaim Eliezer. It is great he is out. And he seems to be a wonderful man. But the facts are the facts. There was a conviction. There was fraud. People were hurt.
I’m still yet to here a coherent explanation for the heros welcome. And now handing out Brochas? Really?
I would have thought we would acknowledge the nes of his early release. Take some time for collective self- reflection, ensure we have learnt our lessons, quietly counted our blessings and moved on. But to parade around in scenes reminiscent of Nelson Mandelas release? I dont get it. Have we consisered how this might look to the outside world?
chaim elozor
the big maven of the cause of goules.
“Chaim Eliezer”, yes, a brocho from a “convicted felon”. There is nothing wrong with being a “convicted felon”, and it doesn’t detract even one iota from his tzidkus. One thing is certain: he is a far better yid than you, and than 90% of us, and when he comes lema’alah nobody will care whether he committed felonies or he didn’t. They’ll ask about mitzvos bein odom lamokim, and the malochim he created will come to testify for him. They’ll ask about mitzvos bein odom lachaveiro, and all the yidden he personally exerted himself to help will come to testify for him. They will not ask about the so-called “mitzvos bein odom lamdinoh”, which do not exist except in the imaginations of the Jewish Protestants we call “modern orthodox”. They will not care. They will only ask, is there anybody he hurt who can come and testify against him, and nobody will dare to answer.
takahmamash: “He hurt hundreds of people with his tax fraud and mistreatment, not to mention the tremendous chillul Hashem that he caused.”
Really? Can you name one person he hurt? He did nothing to anybody. He didn’t even hurt the bank; he never missed a payment on the “fraudulent” loan, and the bank wouldn’t have lost a cent if the government hadn’t deliberately destroyed the business. The entire loss resulted directly from the government’s rish’us. The Rubashkins, as we all know, since they live among us, are living personifications of midas hachesed, incapable of mistreating anybody. Like Avrohom Ovinu, who was also a convicted felon.
His trial and conviction was not a chilul haShem, it was a disgrace to the US government. Nothing that was exposed was anything to be ashamed of. And his behavior in prison the last eight years, the bitochon and shtoltzkeit he displayed, ושלום מרדכי לא יכרע ולא ישתחוה, have been the greatest possible kidush haShem.
LommaZoggen Facts are indeed the facts. There was a conviction. So what? Many of our heroes were convicted of crimes. Many even committed them. Committing a crime has never been a character defect in our community.
Technically, yes, there was a fraud. But again, so what? He did nothing that everyone doesn’t do, there’s no harm in it, and certainly no aveira. It’s what one does to keep a business alive. The bank managers knew and didn’t care. They knew he was good for the loan, so they let him file the necessary paperwork whether it was accurate or not. Would it have been right for him to let the business fail, and have hundreds of people hurt, just to comply with the law?! A law that nobody else bothers complying with?!
But the main part is that nobody was hurt. On the contrary, he kept people from being hurt, until the government came and destroyed millions of dollars of value. I’m still not convinced they were motivated by antisemitism. They might have done the same had he not been Jewish. But they were definitely motivated by rish’us. Bloodlust and cruelty and envy and inhumanity.
As for this “agunah”, we don’t know her story, and we certainly don’t know her husband’s story. Maybe he should give her a get, but maybe not. We should not express opinions on such cases without knowing the facts.
It’s amazing how this story brings out all the self hating Jews from the woodwork.
Back to the so called Aguna story, I really think that only someone like R’ SM Rubashkin that has no interest to either side can solve this issue, as of now it’s sad to say that only people with personal interest are trying to help and are spoiling the soup everyday more and more.
When R’ SM called the husband on Wednesday after congratulating him for his release the husband asked him if he saw his kids while he was in jail on which he answered that they came to visit me frequently, the husband said that he hasn’t seen his daughter for the past 8 years and maybe R’ SM can help him, so he excused himself that he didn’t know this and he can try to help but nothing has moved as of now, and I really wish that R’ shulem Mordche will be the right shaliach to help resolve this parsha and get the husband and the wife to both have a end to their suffering with piece.
To Milhouse-Really- Abraham Avinu ,a convicted felon??!!!I never saw that in my Chumash or in my Medrash.If anything ,he was taken by his father to Nimrod for breaking idols, but what does that have to do with being a convicted felon???In another Rashi,,it says Abraham Avinu went back to the same place he stayed in to pay up all his bills,and the reason Abraham Avinu did that is because that is what a Jew does- he follows the letter of the law, and does not cut corners, because everyone else does it.
And yes Rubashkin hurt people. He hurt himsef and his family by being missing for the past eight years, and he made a lot of Jewish activists spend an enormous time to try to get him out of jail, and time is money.
You also have a different explanation for Chilliul Hashem that it only relates to if someone gets hurt. But sorry there, but Chillul Hahem refers to a Jew that acts so improperly, that the Goyim are going to declare everywhere, so this is how a Jew acts like-a criminal!Maybe the Jews are not a special people after all. Like it or not, we were chosen by Hashem to show the Goyim ,how people should act. And by Rubashkin just acting like anyone else would, does not make it right if he violated the rules, which he did,and it made the Goyim see that a Jew is just like them, and that is a Chillul Hashem.