NYT video from Agri Worker Court Translator
On a prior post this week, commenter balabusta linked us to a video from the NYT that I’m sorry to say I had missed. The video is disheartening in that it reveals quite a bit that generally has been missing from the whole Agri commentary on the Jewish side of the question. It’s not only our outrage at the workers being treated unfairly by Agri at this point (not to mention being abused, as is clear from the variety of investigations) but the very fact that the racial component is being ignored, but even more clearly that the illegal immigrants are actually being railroaded into pleading guilty for crimes which are almost certainly Agri’s.
While everyone following this story along with us here at Jewschool from the beginning, now years ago, can see that we nearly qualify at apoplectic at the combination of injustice and chillul hashem that’s being done, listening to the words of this translator, who in all his years has not been moved to speak out -until now- makes me sad and angry all over again.
It’s too early for the boycott to be called off. The workers are being charged with social security fraud and aggravated identity theft, the court is using the greater charge to browbeat the workers into pleading guilty for the lesser charge. If they refuse to plead guilty, they are told, instead of five months in prison and then deportation (forever, with no chance to return legally) they will have 6-8months in prison, with the possibility of two years more if they lose. Most of them are the sole economic support for their families and thus are choosing to plead guilty, despite the fact that many of them - according to the translator- clearly have no idea what a social security number is or what it’s used for (and are apparently ashamed of looking ignorant about it, most cannot read or write, and when asked what the number is say they don’t know, the factory people put it there.
In other words, of the crimes of social security fraud and aggravatedidentity theft, it is Agri who should be on trial, not the workers. If Agri wants their boycott lifted, some signs of tshuvah are in order. Confession (to God and to the victim(s), Apology, Restitution and Failure to Repeat the offense when given another chance. In order for us to even think about taking them seriously, they need to admit publicly that it is they, Agri, who are behind these offenses and not allow people who are innocent of these crimes to be tried and deported for them. The workers may be guilty of illegally entering the country, but they are almost certainly not guilty of what they are being accused. There are no signs of tshuvah yet from Rubashkin. Thus we should not be revoking the boycott.
I can’t even begin to say how disgusted I remain with this whole episode, how much harm the American Jewish community’s consumption of excess amounts of meat has done to other people, and that Agri will allow their workers to take the fall for them… well, it’s despicable.
You linked to the wrong NYT video.
—Ahhhri · July 14th, 2008 at 7:17 am
It’s here:
http://video.on.nytimes.com/?f.....576135676e
See also this piece about St. Bridget’s, the church for which you helped raise tzedakah (kol ha-kavod, I have to say, reading this!)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07.....ref=slogin
—balabusta · July 14th, 2008 at 9:11 am
It’s so great to hear the rants of anonymous bloggers, hiding in the shadows, calling for boycotts that may not affect them in the least bit. Ra’ash Gadol, do you even observe kosher meat laws? Have you ever regularly purchased Agriprocessors products? If so, good for you. At least that eliminates some of your hypocrisy by appearing to be a “concerned consumer”.
If you’re not happy with the Agriprocessors situation then how about you 1) show some real concern and focus on the entire meat processing industry and 2) protest the government if you’re not happy with how they’re regulating that industry
Your rant that “we should not be revoking the boycott” is illogical. If a boycott would be punitively successful it would harm not only kosher consumers but even more so the local Postville townspeople and their economy by losing jobs, which they want and need. Who are you to tell local residents of Postville that having no job is better than working at Agriprocessors?
It’s so easy to passively complain and smugly scream “boycott” in an article but what are you doing that’s actively positive?
I’m no defender of Agriprocessors alleged conduct. It certainly is reasonable to be disturbed by all of the allegations against them, but it is also disturbing to hear a lot of public empty rhetorical ranting which may make a bad situation even worse.
http://openorthodoxy.blogspot......expos.html
—Mark Einhorn · July 14th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Contact:
Naomi K. Eisenberger
Executive Director
384 Wyoming Avenue
Millburn, New Jersey, 07041
Tel: 973-761-0580
July 11, 2008
For immediate release.
The Good People Fund Aids Postville Workers
The Good People Fund (GPF), in cooperation with Temple Israel-Ner Tamid in Mayfield Heights, OH and Gleaner’s Food Bank in Youngstown, OH, has provided enough food and grocery items to fill a 53′ semi-trailer for the food pantry in Postville, IA. Responding to the dire humanitarian needs of immigrant workers who were identified during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid at Agriprocessors, the Good People Fund delivered more than 24 pallets of food, drink and other items yesterday.
“The undocumented workers arrested during the raid included mothers and fathers who were later released on humanitarian grounds to care for small children,” said Naomi Eisenberger, Executive Director of the Good People Fund. “But these people cannot work and have no way to pay rent or put food on their tables.” “They are entirely dependent on donations to see them through this crisis.” ”Since Agriprocessors is the largest kosher slaughterhouse in the country, we felt it was particularly appropriate for the Jewish community to step in and help.”
Avram Lyon, a consultant to labor and Jewish organizations, who has written frequently on the scandal at Agriprocessors noted, “Many of the people released on humanitarian grounds, have court dates in October, November, and December. Parents currently in jail, will finish their five month sentences, take the children and be deported, while the spouse who was released on humanitarian grounds serves their five month jail sentence, followed by deportation.”
“Unfortunately,” Eisenberger said, “this is not a short term issue.” “We have months of work ahead of us.”
The Good People Fund is a 501c3 not-for-profit. For additional information about ways to help the Postville workers, the Gleaner’s Food Bank, or many others who may be in need, visit the GPF web site at http://www.goodpeoplefund.org.
—Meatloaf · July 14th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
do you even observe kosher meat laws
Why would you assume I didn’t?
But even if I didn’t (I do), it still affects me because it’s a chillul hashem to abuse workers. It’s a violation of Jewish law to abuse workers,. and finally, I focus on a kosher slaughterhouse because Jews are obligated by *Jewish* law to follow halacha, and that is precisely what they’re violating. I recommend a quick course of Bava metzia. To start with. We are responsible to rebuke d’oraita. According to the talmud, whomever we can rebuke and fail to do so, we are helpd responsible. That may or may not apply to non-Jews (I believe it does, and why we should also work to repair the meat industry - and a number of others as well. In fact most of them, currently) but it certainly applies to Jews. I am thus halakhically obligated to rebuke them, and this is something within our power as Jews to do. I take my halakhic obligations seriously - both ritual and ethical, because according to Judaism there’s no separation. By the way, there’s also a requirement to dan l’kaf zchut - which means not assuming that I don’t follow halakha -as a general rule- simply because you don’t like my conclusion. If you think I’m incorrect about the analysis of a particular halakha, that’s a different issue.
—Kol Ra'ash Gadol · July 15th, 2008 at 7:53 am
Mark,
Most of the folks calling for a boycott buy kosher meat. I’m one of them, and have been avoiding Agriprocessors products for years now–ever since the first PETA video came out showing shoychets ripping the larynxes out of still-living cows with their bare hands. Then there were the early reports of treating workers poorly, and finally the ICE raid and the flood of allegations that came along with it. This isn’t a sudden fad or a bunch of empty rhetoric.
I don’t pretend to be a halachic expert and I don’t even have personal knowledge as to which of the Agri allegations are true and which aren’t. But it’s been made very clear to me by a number of people who I trust that Agriprocessors respects neither the spirit of halacha nor the letter of secular law. Their hiring of a compliance officer is a positive step, but it’s still not enough for me.
As you point out, it’s also clear that the meatpacking industry as a whole has many problems. For that reason and many more I eat a lot less meat than I used to. But when I do buy meat, I try to make sure I’m not contributing to the ills of the world by doing so.
As for the prospect of a boycott hurting the town of Postville, yes, it’s an issue. That’s why I and many others (see the Good People Fund release above) have sent tzedakah to help the people who are affected, regardless of their religion, race or immigration status. Meanwhile, Uri L’Tzedek is working with Agri to try to help them turn things around. And once we start to hear of more positive steps like Uri L’Tzedek has already announced, people like me will begin to rethink our positions.
—themicah · July 15th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Kol Ra’ash Gadol,
It is strange that you quote my question asking you if you “observe kosher meat laws” and then immediately retort, “Why would you assume I didn’t [keep kosher]?”
I didn’t assume whether you observe kashrus or not. Jews have different levels of kashrus adherence, and that specific question was certainly valid to determine the context of your point of view. I might have been a little “strong”, but the question was legitimate. You obviously thought my question was valid, since you answered it.
As far as your points of rebuke, I believe we disagree at what point and how rebuke should be done.
Do you think it’s fair to take punitive (e.g. call for a boycott) action against someone and remain anonymous like you’re doing?
—Mark Einhorn · July 15th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Kol Hakavod KRG for your thorough post and your sharp comment in defense of your practice. I agree that it shouldn’t matter whether or not someone buys kosher meat in order to boycott Agri. Can I not objectively say that Agriprocessors is involved with immoral practices or do I have to keep kosher to say that?
I stopped eating Rubashkin’s as well when I originally heard about their violation of tzar ba’alei chaim (causing pain to animals) because it didn’t make sense to me that someone would break halacha in order to slaughter an animal halachically. Only observant Jews can do the slaughtering because we assume they hold higher standards (a secular person who knew the laws would still not be allowed to make the cut) so if they don’t hold higher standards how is this meat any different from immoral practices at unkosher slaughterhouses?
Yet, I think that KRG made an important point at the end that opens up a wider issue in the kosher meat world:
“I can’t even begin to say … how much harm the American Jewish community’s consumption of excess amounts of meat has done to other people.”
Before mass meat production, before industrialization, before the haskalah, when Jews were still living in small rural communities, kosher slaughter was enough. The animals lived on small farms and they were slaughtered for shabbat or for other happy occasions. The rest of the week they ate grains or vegetables because they couldn’t afford to eat meat every day. In fact, the idea of eating meat every day was something that they thought was disgusting and overly indulgant. One of the earliest hasids to visit America came back with a report that it was a G-dless country full of hedonism based on the fact that they ate meat every day.
But now that we are wealthy enough (or meat is cheap enough) to eat meat whenever we want, we forget that it was once alive. In the shtetls, a shochet would say the kavannot very seriously for every animal that he slaughtered, recognizing that he was only doing this to fulfill the mitzvah of celebrating on shabbat and other holidays, but at a factory farm like Agriprocessors where they slaughter 60,000 chickens and 500 cows a day, there is no way to have the right intention for that. When you have a production of that scale, it is impossible to care for every animal and it is inevitable that there will be plenty of mistreatment of the livestock.
So I will continue to promote a boycott against Agri until their labor practices shape up because that is something that can and should be remedied, but when it comes to proper, painless, compassionate, kosher animal slaughter in the largest kosher slaughterhouse in the world, I see it as an ongoing issue. Before we can truly have an impact on the way animals are being treated in these slaughterhouses, we, as American Jews, need to change our meat consumption habits, for the environment, for our health and wellbeing, and for the lives of these animals.
—Jerusalen · July 15th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Dear Mark,
Phrased as you do in this later follow-up, I think your questions have more merit:
You obviously thought my question was valid, since you answered it.
I answered the question because I wanted to be clear about my irritation with those who assume that if one is upset about (any halakhic, ethics) problem one must not be following ritual halakhot. In my experience that’s simply not true. Nevertheless, even if it were, that’s not to the detriment of the point being made by any such person. In fact each mitzvah is weighed lishmah. They are all relevant, so if those halakhot being followed by (say) a Reform Jew are only the ethical ones, kol hakavod to them for following those halakhot, and they have every right to be steadfast and firm about them.
In time, if they study those, they may come to see that others which are (or seem - I’m not convinced that in reality there is really such a thing as a ritual mitzvah-) ritual in nature are also important to follow. I do not believe that the question was valid in the way you framed it originally and I hope that my answer demonstrated that (politely).
As far as your points of rebuke, I believe we disagree at what point and how rebuke should be done.
Entirely likely, although I have a feeling that it may be also contextual. Were you not rebuking me for my rebuke given the set of circumstances you understood to hold?
Do you think it’s fair to take punitive (e.g. call for a boycott) action against someone and remain anonymous like you’re doing?
Yes. As a point of fact, I do so as well in my daily life without anonymity. However, given my profession and circumstances, I can’t out myself every time I want to make a point in the blogosphere. Some of the positions I take are unpopular, and they would affect my livelihood. Indeed, some of them have anyway, when I took them publicly as well. In those cases, I felt it worth making the sacrifice. However, by blogging anonymously here and giving myself leave to be public on a case-by-case basis I save the archives of Jewschool from being littered with a million new aliases every time I have something else to say. But similarly to my comment about assuming that I don’t keep kosher: don’t assume I don’t take public positions. I just don’t take them here
—Kol Ra'ash Gadol · July 15th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Kol Ra’ash Gadol,
My question about whether you observed kashrus or not was to somewhat establish your credibility. People who are directly affected by an issue have more credibility concerning that issue than those that are indirectly affected or not at all. A kashrus observant Agriprocessors customer is more impacted by a boycott than someone who is not (except maybe for Agriprocessors employees). It appears that we have a difference of opinion whether or not kashrus non-observance diminishes credibility in this case.
Your statement, “don’t assume I don’t take public positions.” is significantly weaker when posed by someone with an anonymous alias. When one adopts an anonymous alias, the only thing other people have are assumptions about that persona. I’m not saying that you’re not being genuinue or dishonest, only that people who are not anonymous are more believable when presenting facts about themselves. There is an inherent assumption of believablity when someone is not anonymous and has an implicit fear of being exposed as a liar.
—Mark Einhorn · July 15th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
But what could I possibly be lying about in asserting that the boycott should continue? The revelation problem seems to me to be at most that … hmm, that I don’t eat as much meat as someone else? If I were taking your position that it matters whether I kept kosher or ate meat,that would be one thing, but I’m arguing that it doesn’t matter in this case. I suppose I could be revealed as not a Jew and thus having no stake in the matter, buthtat would just be weird.
—Kol Ra'ash Gadol · July 15th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
In any case, not all of Agriprocessors’ brands are kosher.
—BZ · July 15th, 2008 at 9:56 pm