A reader asks why I haven’t seen fit to address ethical concerns raised by news reports about a kosher slaughterhouse/meatpacking concern in Postville, Iowa that was the subject of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid in May, during which hundreds of illegal immigrant workers were arrested.
He is right to chide me, especially since one ethical concern – perhaps the most important one – has been all but ignored by press and pundits.
The company, Agriprocessors, has been in the news before. In 2005, an animal rights group secretly recorded scenes of unusual post-slaughter procedures that appeared inconsistent with animal welfare and asked the local District Attorney to open an investigation. He declined to do so. Nonetheless, Agriprocessors immediately changed its methods. Subsequently, renowned animal expert Dr. Temple Grandin declared her satisfaction with the changes, and the plant received excellent grades in five independent audits.
Then there were other charges over several years by local authorities of violations of environmental and safety laws. Fines were levied and the plant made the necessary changes.
What has seized the public’s attention, however, was the recent raid on the facility, said to be the largest such ICE action ever. Some of the illegal immigrants arrested, moreover, subsequently accused their erstwhile employer and supervisors of a host of crimes, including exploitation, abuse and illegal drug production.
Jewish reaction came fast and furious. The Conservative movement urged kosher consumers to consider forgoing meat produced by Agriprocessors; a Reform leader called for investigations of all kosher slaughterhouses; a liberal Orthodox group circulated a boycott petition aimed at the concern; well-known activists like Ruth Messinger, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin and Rabbi Avi Weiss signed it; and Jewish newspapers and blogs buzzed with outrage at Agriprocessors and its owners.
The ethical offense I see here is a different one. It violates something not only rooted in the Torah but part and parcel of American jurisprudence and respectable journalism as well. It is called the presumption of innocence.
I don’t know if the violations of regulatory laws on Agriprocessors’ record are unusual for plants of its type and size. But whether they are or are not, the firm corrected whatever needed correcting.
Which brings us to the recent raid, about which we know three things: 1) Illegal aliens presented forged documents to obtain employment at Agriprocessors, 2) Some of those workers subsequently leveled complaints against the company and 3) The company has stated that it had no reason to doubt the workers’ documentation and has vehemently denied all the workers’ charges.
Yet, the petition-circulating Orthodox group has judged Agriprocessors guilty of “knowingly exploiting undocumented workers,” and deemed the situation a “desecration of G-d’s name.” A self-described “leading progressive Zionist movement” has called on Jewish organizations to “avoid serving Agriprocessors products at their kosher functions’ and expressed shock at how “a company devoted to selling… kosher meat can be so inhumane to the people working for it.” A well-read Jewish blog has demanded that the company “make legal all those people whom they’ve brought in illegally, since they deliberately sought out illegal workers so that they could be treated with less care.” A Conservative cantor sermonized about how wrong it would be to “dismiss the events in Postville.” A Reform rabbi demanded to know “what it mean[s] to label something as ‘fit and proper’ that hurts people, exploits people or was produced cruelly.”
Neither I nor Agudath Israel of America has any connection to Agriprocessors. And for all we know, it may yet be shown that the firm indeed knowingly hired illegal aliens. Or that it mistreated them, or that it was a front for a drug operation, a neo-Nazi group or a baby-cannibalizing cult. All under the eyes of the federal inspectors present at the plant at all times.
But unless and until some wrongdoing is actually proven, not merely suspected or charged, no human being – certainly no Jew, bound as we are by the Torah’s clear admonition in such matters – has any right to assume guilt, much less voice condemnation or seek to levy punishment.
To be sure, a Jewish business operating in bad faith, violating the law of the land or mistreating its employees deserves tochacha, at least such as is halachically appropriate. Its actions violate the Torah and carry great potential for chilul Hashem. But, as the Rabbinical Council of America rightly noted in a statement about Agriprocessors, “in the absence of hard facts,” no one may “rush to premature judgments… or impute guilt…”
It’s not at all clear why so many Jewish groups, clergy, papers and pundits are so energetically railing against Agriprocessors in the wake of the recent government raid. The righteous indignation has the smell of adolescent excitement at the discovery of a new “noble” cause. Whatever the motivation, though, until the facts are actually in, the armchair ethicists would do well to give some thought to the Jewish ethic they somehow managed to miss.
© 2008 AM ECHAD RESOURCES
[Rabbi Shafran is director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America.]
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15 Responses
Wow!
Very well written!
Will this article be published in the above mentioned blog’s?
I think not.
Shame!
Rabbi Shafran: Perfect!
R. Shafran blithely ignores the mountain of evidence of wrongdoing at Agriprocessors and turns the tables on a self described “Zionist Movement” which decries such violations. Even the suspicion of wrongdoing in such a public manner by such a prominent Orthodox Company is a Chillul Hashem and to be avoided at all costs.
Would he have also claimed innocence until proven guilty if the suspected violations had been in the realm of Kashrut? I can’t say for certain, but I am pretty sure if there had been even a shadow of a doubt, there would have been an avalanche of Kol Korehs telling people not to eat their products and to Kasher their kitchens, and Shafran would no doubt have supported it.
Are violations of Bein Adam L’Chaveiro such as mistreating illegal and poor workers with no one to turn to for help, and cheating the Government of social security revenues any less important than Kashrut? When will people get the point that Hashem care as much about how we treat others as how we treat our relationship with Him?
Does the presumption of innocence also apply to Olmert, Katzav and non-frum accused?
Also the presumption of innocence is not an ethical concept but a legal one involving the burden of proof. Not every legal system recognizes it.
charvona — The presumption of innocence is a TORAH concept. Ethical shmecal, legal shpiegal. It is from the TORAH.
Flatbusher, that’s a perfect example of what Rabbi Shafran is talking about.
You are making a judgment but you clearly have no idea how easy and inexpensive it is to buy high-quality forged documentation that shows you are a citizen or you can work legally in this country. There are neighborhoods in Los Angeles and San Diego where you can find a document-making house on every block. (I don’t know about New York but I’d bet it’s the same.) And what the forgers produce could easily fool a trained eye. So don’t assume these people don’t have documentation and that it wasn’t checked.
Also, plenty of legal immigrants don’t speak very good English. I’ve known quite a few. Maybe you haven’t, but it’s not like a green card comes with an instant command of the English language. That’s why so many places offer goverment documents (driver’s tests, voting ballots, WIC applications and more) in foreign languages such as Spanish, Tagalog, etc.
frummerthanthou..
Please enroll or continue your studies at Yeshiva Chovevei Torah.
How hypocritical and duplicitous of you.
Shame on you.
“charvona” z”l- Have you ever heard of Dan L’kaf Zchus? The halacha is clear, and it doesn’t apply to reshaim. Katzav is a frum Yid, as far as I recall, so you have to be dan lekaf zechus. This halacha means that even when the facts appear obvious and unmitigatable, you must try to stretch your imagination to think of a positive explanation, and when you fail to do so, still realize that you must assume innocence and purity.
illini -I agree. Give them all the benefit of the doubt and be dan lkav zchus.
(His comment played down the applicability of the benefit of the doubt.)
Samuelbilner – clearly you don’t apply lkaf zcus to me since you have already applied the death penalty to me.
My points were: be consistent when you want to apply the presumption of innocence – to frum and non-frum.
Second, there is a difference between the meaning of the concepts legal and ethical.
After the raid on May 12, Agriprocessors hired a company called Labor Ready to supply them with about 150 workers to cope with the labor shortage. But after 10 days, these workers stopped working because of alleged safety issues. Agriprocessors also brought in people from their Nebraska plant. But they also left because of the conditions in Postville. Now they are importing homeless people from Texas to do the work.
People ask how Agriprocessors should have known their workers were illegal. Well aside from their opposing unionization earlier on the grounds that a good chunk of their workers were illegal, perhaps they should have known because most people don’t want to work there.
Concerning the PETA video, Agriprocessors initially insisted there was nothing wrong. They said it was an antisemitic attempt to stop kosher meat production in the US. It was only over a month later, under much pressure from the OU, that the changes referenced by Avi Shafran were implemented.
Concerning the burden of proof, I find it odd, given how strict we generally are on matters of kashrut that we suddenly are told we should trust the company management. If we were supposed to trust management then perhaps Avi Shafran can explain why we need to have **external** rabbinic supervision in the first place. Where money is concerned we can assume people will do what makes them the most of it; that’s the lesson that led to the creation of kashrut supervision in the first place. Before that (long before Agriprocessors) horse was sold as kosher beef.
Finally, why focus on Agriprocessors when much kosher meat comes from South America, where we don’t even know whats going on. Now that is a fair question. But that merely means the solution to the Agriprocessors situation is one that should be imposed on all kosher meat that is sent into the US. Not that Agriprocessors should not be making serious changes.
All the anti-rubashkin protesters have no halachaic leg to stand on so they try coming up with whatever scraps they can. which isn’t much.
munch away!
To several above comments I would have to note that suspicion in no way indicates wrong doing. The fact that people make allegations also does not make them noble heroes, as they may very well be lying, exaggerating, or assuming something that is entirely false.
I think that we must give Agriprocessors the benefit of the doubt. The article speaks of all of the good things that they have done following the allegations, of their willingness to take responsibility for improving any conditions including by removing an in-family CEO for the sake of the company and its patrons. As far as the evidence shows, they have not hired illegal immigrants knowingly- the illegals all had false documents. There was nothing unsanitary or unkosher about their practices that we know about.
For all we know, this is just a media frenzy that started from someone who wanted to give the Rubashkins a bad name. PETA had earlier been linked to this kind of movement, and others can, likewise, desire to tarnish a person’s reputation. I think that we should stop taking everything that we read in the media so seriously and, instead, get the facts straight.
Kelltorr
“by removing an in-family CEO for the sake of the company and its patrons.” As you note this was a move done for business considerations, i.e. to save the business. It does not show good will but common sense.
As to your other statements; did they know whether any given person was illegal: perhaps not. Did they know a very large percentage of their workforce was illegal: most certainly. It is common in the industry (that is part of their PR defense now in fact) and they did not ask questions. Indeed, I’ve been informed they used the fact that a large portion of their workforce was illegal in labor courts as an argument against unionization. As Aaron Rubashkin, the owner of Agriprocessors, has been quoted as saying “I pay taxes and the government [is] supposed to control the stuff.” Well they did on May 12.
“For all we know, this is just a media frenzy that started from someone who wanted to give the Rubashkins a bad name.” Oh most certainly. There has been a unionization effort at Agriprocessors for years that management has so far successfully blocked. And the unions have been only to happy to trumpet the allegations (and perhaps more). That fact has indeed been seized on by certain persons within the OU to avoid making any changes as a result of this.
That does not make Agriprocessors smell like a rose. PETA documented via videotape legitimate concerns about Agriprocessors that the company was able to avoid because of PETA’s generally extremist agenda and reputation. But instead of confronting the issue, Agriprocessors denied any problem stating the charges were caused by antisemitism and had to be forced to make changes by the OU. Indeed, Menachem Lubinsky, a consultant to Agriprocessors, plays this game again now in comparing the left-wing Orthodox boycott to the Nuremberg Laws. Please.
The simple fact is that in smaller concerns that have had this many public troubles, kashrut agencies have forced the company to sell itself or its assets to restore credibility for the kosher consumer. Personally, I believe that had what to do with the change of management at Rubashkin. But regardless, its interesting that a sale has not come up in regard to Agriprocessors (perhaps on account of its size, with the RCA stated was a legitimate consideration in regard to withholding of kashrut certification). Instead we see the hiring of PR officials by Agriprocessors for a new public relations campaign.
At the end of the day, do I think the meat is kosher: yes. Do I trust Agriprocessors beyond that: only to act on their self-interest or, when that’s not involved, to the degree (if even) someone else certifies them on that topic.
to number 12, it seems you missed the idea- Charvona Z”L = CHarvona Zachur Latov!!
To you and other posters with your question re dan lekaf zechus, this is the halacha as I recall from the Chafetz Chaim, correct me if I’m wrong.
If someone is a Tzaddik, meaning Shomer Torah Umitzvos, you have a chiyuv to be dan lekaf zechus. This is referring to the status of the person before you take into account the incriminating event or events, about which you may not jump to seemingly clear and forced conclusions!!
If someone is a rasha, you have a chiyuv to be dan lekaf chov. If someone is a benoni, you may be dan lekaf zechus, but not chiyuv.