Shmuley Boteach on the Rubashkin case

For once AJN Watch agrees 100% with Shmuley Boteach.

Editorial By Shmuley Boteach:
Does a Kosher Butcher’s Fraud Mandate a Life Sentence?

New York - At middle age I have come to accept my limitations. Although I like to have an opinion on almost everything, I am conscious of the fact that I am not a legal scholar and do not understand all the complexities of the criminal case against Shalom Rubashkin, the former CEO of America’s largest kosher meat plant, Agriprocessors of Postville, Iowa.

But I am not a stupid man either. And I, and a heck of a lot of other fairly intelligent and educated people are scratching our heads as to why government prosecutors are requesting that Rubashkin, who has ten children, including an autistic son, and a reputation for enormous philanthropy, be given a life sentence in prison.

A life behind bars. The very words are ominous. Isn’t that reserved for society’s most heinous offenders? Life sentence has one conjuring images of rapists and murderers, international drug cartel kingpins and white-collar criminals guilty of gargantuan fraud, like Bernie Madoff.

What did Rubashkin do? After an INS raid on the plant that found hundreds of illegal immigrants, the company was pushed to the brink of bankruptcy and Rubashkin, who had already been arrested for employing illegals, was subsequently found guilty of defrauding a bank and producing false invoices in order to keep the business going. There is no insinuation that he did any of this for personal profit or gain. Unlike Madoff, he had no Hamptons estate, no fancy yacht, and no Manhattan penthouse. By all accounts he and his family lived in incredibly modest circumstances.

Obviously, the Rubashkin story has been an enormous embarrassment to the American Jewish community in general and orthodoxy in particular. The largest kosher meat plant in the country employing hundreds of illegal immigrants? Engaging in bank fraud in order to remain a going concern? Falsifying invoices and misleading lenders? These are serious charges that go against both terrestrial and celestial law and constitute actions that neither man nor G-d can condone. The expected flight of Jewish leaders and spokespeople from Rubashkin’s side ensued, whatever the injustice of his proposed sentence. We Jews are accustomed to run from scandal like the plague.

So let’s remove the smoke from this unsavory story and focus on truth.

Yes, we Jews unfortunately have our criminals. Yes, we orthodox Jews unfortunately have our felons. We’re human, too. We have people guilty of serious wrongdoing. And we too must confess our sins, repent of our actions, be punished for our crimes, and teach our children to always do better and never excuse our behavior. Our community need to know that no matter how important you believe it is for other Jews to eat kosher food, you cannot purchase that mitzvah at any price. You cannot be a good Jew if you are not an honest person. A religious obligation that comes through theft – even when your intention is to simply keep a business open so you can eventually pay off your loans – subverts all principles of religious morality.

Rubashkin is no hero. Whatever the nobility of his intentions, he is a poor example to religious youth. His behavior must and should be condemned. He has been found guilty of a crime and he must do the time.

But he is no monster either. Unlike Wall Street bankers, he did not bet the farm and other people’s deposits in order to buy himself a Ferrari. Unlike AIG executives, he did not cost the government billions in bailouts and then get a bonus. And while I, of course, understand that criminal conduct is infinitely more serious, so is prosecutorial overzealousness that borders on fanaticism.

The time that Rubashkin serves must be fair and just. This is America. Just as there is no room for toleration of criminal conduct, there is also no room for a lynch mob mentality. I realize I am not a lawyer. But I have enough sense to understand that a punishment of a few years in prison sets an unassailable example that criminal conduct is utterly inexcusable. Anything more than that for a crime of this nature gives the false impression that the American justice system is prejudicial and untrustworthy.

As for the outcry from the Hassidic community that Rubashkin is being treated unfairly and that his yarmulke and beard make for a prosecutorial bull’s-eye, I love America too much to believe any of it. This is the fairest, most decent country on earth. But I do believe it possible that when an overtly religious person perpetrates a crime – especially one that involves companies catering to religious needs – there is a feeling on the part of many that the hypocrisy mandates an even harsher sentence.

So let’s be clear.  This is not in any way analogous to other ugly religious stories dominating the news like pedophile priests. There is no suggestion that Rubashkin’s crimes be covered up. Less so is there any insinuation that Rubashkin be moved to another state where he can start up a new kosher meat plant. Rubashkin’s trustworthiness in the American Jewish community is finished.

But there is an insistence that he be treated like a human being. That it be taken into consideration that he has no prior offenses and that his company provided kosher meat to hundreds of thousands of people at affordable prices so that more Jews could observe their faith. That he and his family are legendary in the Hassidic community for their charitable giving, their hospitality, and their communal involvement. That Rubashkin himself devoted a substantial portion of his profits to funding a soup kitchen and supporting organizations like Collel Chabad that feed the hungry and the poor. To disregard all these considerations when it comes to sentencing is to disregard the universal belief that the good we do is not cancelled out by our horrendous mistakes.

I know my own limitations. Perhaps Rubashkin’s prosecutors ought to know theirs as well.

See the comments section on vosizneias.com for some pretty sharp views on this case. Eg,

Anonymous Says:
I’m surprised the prosecutors didn’t ask for the death penalty, we truly are living in a modern day Sodom…

Sad but uplifting story: Visiting Sholom Rubashkin in jail

Ex-Aussie Chabadnik gives Chizuk to a Chosid
(Remembering Reb Nochum Zalmen z'l and his son-in-law - one of Melbourne's best - Reb Hershel Klein z'l)

My visit to R' Sholom Rubashkin



By Rabbi Shalom Gurewicz Chabad.info

My job in Kashrus takes me to Cedar Rapids, Iowa every month. Knowing that Sholom Mordechai is sitting in prison there, I applied last month to visit him. I was approved and visited him yesterday. He was so happy to see me besides for the fact of just having a visitor, he had also been placed in solitary confinement the night before and nobody including his wife and attorney knew about it yet and he was not allowed to make calls •


My zeida, Nochum Zalman Gurewicz, once took my aunt Ida to see the Lubavitcher Rebbe. She told the Rebbe that her husband Hershel was not a Chossid but a ‘finer poshuter yid’- a simple Jew (in fact he was a Yid a Talmud Chochom). The Rebbe answered her ‘un vos is a Chossid? A finer poshuter Yid!’- ‘and what is a Chossid, a fine simple Jew!’



Sholom Mordechai is a Chossid. His actions in prison had me thinking if my ‘Chassidishkeit’ and behavior in freedom is the way it should be.

While in prison, Sholom Mordechai has requested to shower every morning. He does not do this for the same reason most people shower in the morning but this was his way of going to the Mikvah before Davening. He will not Daven unless he showers first.

His toilet is in the actual cell so in order not to Daven with a toilet in the room he has taken his sheets and made a Mechitzah around the toilet. At one point when his ‘cell mate’ complained of contraband they did a search on the cell and took down his mechitzah.

He told me that in the morning when he woke up in solitary confinement he started saying Tehilim (Sholom Mordechai is known for saying the whole Tehilim daily even before prison) and then he started to cry. Immediately he stopped himself and looked up to Hashem and said what am I crying for and began laughing away and then began to sing and dance in the cell five nigunim including Nepolian’s march, a known Lubavitcher song.


He would take some of the water that was given to him to drink and save it in a bag for neglevasser. He would not watch TV even with not much else to do there. He felt that once you compromise your spiritual values it is a slippery slope downhill. All the other prisoners had to do was watch TV, he had his seforim. He said that when they didn’t watch TV they would be yelling things at each other and there were also screams of ‘there is a Jew here, kill the ….Jews’. He would read a lot of Tanya which gave him Chizuk throughout the hardship to remain positive.


When he was put into solitary confinement, the small closet like room had a slab of concrete which was his bed. He looked worried how he would sleep on it without any mattress or something soft. During a small reprieve from the cell, a fellow African American from another of these solitary confinement cells screams out to him ‘hey Rabbi’! Turns out he was from Franklyn Avenue in Brooklyn which is right near Crown Heights. He told him that a small thin mattress is bought to the room from 10pm to 5am and he should not worry.


He told me the story I think of the Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe while he was in prison he said that at one point he felt like this was Mesechta Gehainom but it was Chelek Beis! Sholom Mordechai felt the same way now in solitary confinement.


On my way out of the prison I shared the elevator with a lawyer who looked at me and said ‘you are a Rabbi correct?’ then he said ‘that means you are Jewish.’ Then he said ‘Well I am a Christian who loves Jews’ to which I responded that we all need to love each other. I then proceeded to tell him about my visit and he was somewhat familiar with the Rubashkin story. He was shocked to hear about the way he was being treated which is horrific.


We learned a small bit of a Sicha from the Rebbe about the geula from Mitzrayim. Sholom Moredchai was pointing out and trying to understand how it could be that all the Yidden who were taken out of Mitzraim never even made it to Eretz Yisroel? It was bewildering to him.


Let us be inspired and let Hashem together with our Tefilos and all our good Hachlotos help this Chossid get out of prison and be able to continue his life as a Chossid together with his family and community in Postville who are waiting to see him again, and all of this with Moshiach Tzidkeinu NOW!!!


Rabbi Shalom Gurewicz
Chicago, IL