Younger generation sees Rubashkin case in black and white

Issue of Nov. 28, 2008 / 1 Kislev 5769

Three days after Sholom Rubashkin, the former CEO of Agriprocessors, was denied bail by the federal court, and two months after Iowa’s attorney general charged the company’s slaughterhouse in Iowa with thousands of child labor law violations, Zehava Zelasko, 28, waxed philosophical about the case in the Young Israel of Woodmere.

“I totally think it was a chilul Hashem,” she said. “If it’s a kosher company, you can’t ignore such issues.”

“It’s disgraceful,” said a 29-year-old trader at Goldman Sachs as he left the White Shul. “It has been difficult trying to explain to people

at work that this in no way reflects Jewish law. On the contrary, it violated multiple ethical and legal directives established by Halacha.”

In the coffee room of Yeshiva Shor Yoshuv around Mincha time, Moshe Ament, 24, wondered about the incident.

“Frum Jews are a bit too sensitive,” he said. “If a company is doing something wrong, the government has to act like they’d act with any other company, like McDonald’s or Walmart.”

Another student admitted that he hadn’t heard much about the story, though he heard “the shechitah was pretty good” at Rubashkin.

In an empty Columbia Hillel, Eric Bressman, 21, spoke about his disdain while absentmindedly typing on his laptop.

"What took place is disgusting and a terrible chillul Hashem,” he commented. “While it is important for us to provide for the kosher community's needs, our responsibility to respond to this terrible injustice undoubtedly comes first."

Yigal Gross, 24, a Semicha candidate at Yeshiva University, and a second year student at Cornell Law, vented by e-mail.

“In terms of the Rubashkins and their personal guilt, I think it's important to follow American and Jewish principles of 'guilty until proven innocent,’” he said. “There is a difference between an indictment and a conviction. And, although the media have been quick to declare them guilty, I think that the legal jury is still out and, we should reserve our judgment as well."

These were some of the sentiments expressed to The Jewish Star on the Rubashkin scandal; most were castigating and disdainful of the official Orthodox response. Some were angry and others disappointed by the lack of action. While the elders of the Jewish community struggle for a unified response, a younger Jewish voice has already made up its mind.

At the forefront of the response has been Uri L’Tzedek. Founded 15 months ago by several Semicha students from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, Uri L’Tzedek is a grassroots organization aims to strengthen the Jewish ideals of social justice through education and action. The name of the organization translates to “Awaken to Justice.”

“Social justice is founded in Judaism,” said Rabbi Ari Weiss, the lead professional of Uri L’Tzedek, which is geared toward Modern Orthodoxy.

“We found that there was a space specifically inside the Modern Orthodox community,” Weiss explained. “There wasn’t one organization speaking a Modern Orthodox language, composed of Modern Orthodox individuals, who understood the cultural needs of the Modern Orthodox community.”

The organization reached national prominence when it began an online petition against Rubashkin on May 23, a week after the federal raid at Agriprocessors. According to Rabbi Weiss, Uri L’Tzedek had been examining Agri’s labor practices when newspapers broke the story. The petition called for a boycott against Rubashkin unless compliance officers were hired and some accountability measures were set up. The petition garnered some 2,000 signatures from around the world including some from prominent Jewish leaders.

The ban went into effect in the middle of June after a meeting with Agriprocessors that the co-founder of Uri L’Tzedek, Shmuly Yanklowitz, described to The Forward weekly newspaper as “acrimonious.”

“There definitely was a sense of an older generation of business people speaking with younger activists; there was definitely an attempt to quiet our voice,” Yanklowitz explained to The Jewish Star.

The ban was rescinded in August when Agriprocessors named compliance officer.

Some critics accused the organization of backing down before any other actual steps were taken but Rabbi Weiss defended the action. “There’s always this tension about asking the world and how we can actually affect society,” he said.

Yanklowitz sees this as a larger trend of young Jewish activism that ties into the mission of Uri L’Tzedek.

“I think that one of the things we see happening in the Orthodox community — the last generation really had to worry about survival: Do we have hechshers, do we have a strong day school system, will Israel survive, and, how are we funding our basic agencies? I think the younger generation has a very new Jewish mission. There’s a sense of going beyond our parochial needs and going beyond just survival and asking why we exist as Jews, what does it mean to be a Jew in America, and what is our moral responsibility in America.”

Others inside the Orthodox establishment, like Rabbi Avi Shafran, Director of Public Affairs of Agudath Israel, questioned the ban’s effectiveness.

“Any ban on any product will, to most knowledgeable kosher consumers, only have the gravity of those issuing the ban,” Shafran asserted via e-mail. “Thus, I don’t think most such consumers have considered it, or will consider it, a factor in their purchasing habits.”

Uri L’Tzedek’s next planned initiative is a hechsher for kosher restaurants, called the Tav Hayosher, certifying that restaurants observe fair labor practices.

Members of the old guard and the new are set to meet at Yeshiva University on Dec. 9 at a panel titled “The Kosher Quandary: Ethics and Kashrut.” The panel, the first of its kind, will feature representatives of the Orthodox Union, Agudath Israel, the Rabbinical Council of America, as well as Uri L’Tzedek.

Gilah Kletenik, a student at Stern College for Women and the co-organizer, explained the rationale for the panel: “We’re familiar with the scandal and see different responses in the Orthodox community. As students we don’t feel like we know enough and we don’t know what the Torah and Halacha have to say. As Orthodox Jews we turn to our leaders for guidance.”

Simcha Gross, another co-organizer from Lawrence, concurred, but also added that part of the panel was to get all parties talking: “We feel it’s important for Jews to debate face to face in front of everyone so they can be challenged and their opinions can be defined; it makes for a mature, smarter, more conscientious community.”

Whatever the results may be, the Rubashkin incident may have signaled a change of policy inside the Orthodox community, from top-down leadership to bottom-up, and if a true Jewish history is ever written about Rubashkin, it may be the story of a children’s crusade.