Supporters Decry 'Horrifying' 27-Year Sentence For Slaughterhouse Chief

By Nicole Neroulias
Religion News Service

(RNS) Orthodox Jewish leaders say the 27-year prison sentence announced Monday (June 21) against former kosher slaughterhouse chief Sholom Rubashkin far outweighs his white-collar crime.

Rubashkin, 51, was convicted last November on 86 counts of fraud stemming from a $26.8 million loss to lenders after an immigration raid found nearly 400 undocumented workers at his Agriprocessors slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa.

Prosecutors opted not to pursue the immigration charges after the decisive fraud conviction; a state trial recently acquitted him of knowingly employing underage workers.

Defense attorneys had asked for a six-year prison term, citing Rubashkin's 10 children, faith-based philanthropy and other contributing factors for leniency. Prosecutors also scaled back their original request for life imprisonment to 25 years. U.S. District Judge Linda Reade of Cedar Rapids has also ordered Rubashkin to pay back his lenders.

In a statement released after the sentence announcement, Agudath Israel, an ultra-Orthodox organization, called it "a dark day" for both American justice and American Jewry.

"While none of us condones any wrongdoing by Mr. Rubashkin, the extraordinary severity of the sentence imposed upon one of our Jewish brothers sends chills of shock and apprehension down our collective spine," the statement reads. "This is a horrifying development."

Rubashkin's defense team plans to appeal the verdict and sentence.

Comments

[Trollstein]

07:20 PM on 08/20/2010

Jews and judges, not perfect together.

[GCHRV]

01:19 PM on 07/16/2010

Sholom Rubashkin, Political Prisoner

See this interesting perspective.

http://bit.ly/cZbDLR

[GCHRV]

11:20 AM on 07/13/2010

This whole Rubashkin is very troubling to me. It seems that if the government has something against you, they can tear you down totally and completely.

Leading up to the raid on Agriprocessors the government painted the company as one of the worst drug producing and sexual abuse hubs in the country, lead by a drug king Sholom Rubashkin. But in the end it all boiled down to inflating invoices… yes it’s a crime but does it deserve to destroy a huge company? Destroy thousands of jobs? Put a father of 10 – with a long history of community service – in jail for LIFE?

Did he scheme to defraud and steal money for the bank? Did he have any intention NOT to repay every last penny of the loan? That is until the government directly caused it to go bankrupt?

And after they filed for bankruptcy protection, when attempting to sell the company to minimize the loss to the debtors, the US GOVERNMENT threatened serious potential buyers with Forfeiture if they employ ANY member of the Rubashkin family – even those not charged with anything!!! – Basically turning away all serious investors. Rubashkin’s were the ONLY ones with intricate knowledge of the national kosher meat industry, and without their input, it would be very difficult to succeed.

Then, after causing serious buyers, willing to pay in the vicinity of 25 million dollars for the company to turn away, they charge Rubashkin for causing a $27,000,000 loss to the bank

[AbeMartin]

08:15 AM on 07/08/2010

The Rubashkin's (father and son) not only exploited illegal aliens, forcing them to work long hours in dangerous conditions. They also permitted the slaughter of livestock in ways that is completely in violation of Orthodox tradition, which, at least in the past, was believed to be relatively pain free.
These slaughters were secretly videotaped and led to their Postville, IA operations being shunned by many people who had routinely bought Aaron's, Rubashkin's and other products of their plants at Trader Joe's and other markets. A great many more non-Jews than Jews buy Kosher certified products in the belief that they are prepared with greater care and attention to cleanliness. The Rubashkin's caused many to doubt the validity of the Orthodox Union certification of Kosher.

There was a very good op-ed by Sue Fishkoff in the New York Times last week describing this phenomenon (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/opinion/04fishkoff.html).

The moral: Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

[DinkSinger]

07:05 PM on 06/27/2010

Federal sentences are determined according the strict guidelines that give judges very little discretion. In this case, Judge Reade pointed out in her sentencing statement that she did not depart upward, as the guidelines allow, to take into account the 74 counts that involved employing illegal immigrants. Under our current Republican-written laws which are much too harsh, Rubashkin got off easy.

I wonder if the immigration counts had gone to trial, Rubashkin's counsel would have argued that the Torah prohibits Jews from discriminating against immigrants. "The stranger who sojourns with you shall be as a native from among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord, your God." Leviticus 19:34 I have always been amused that those who consider Leviticus the unchanging word of God on homosexuality can still totally ignore God's immigration law.

[kingoftheberry]

06:10 PM on 06/27/2010

Not to be too cynical, but the question does come to mind of how he would have been treated if he had been Methodist and giving to Christian Charities as opposed to Jewish groups. What do others think?

[rocketman69]

04:52 AM on 06/27/2010

I know of a would-be child rapist that got less time (a week).

[Voting citizen]

10:12 PM on 06/26/2010

I suppose they will soon change their tune to calling the sentence anti-Semitism. Wouldn't surprise me at all.

[Vlady]

08:43 PM on 06/26/2010

There are thousands of businesses that do the same employing illegal emigrants. Rubashkin was chosen as guinea pig to intimidate the rest of the crowd.

[Bob Kellerman]

03:23 AM on 06/27/2010

HE CHOSE HIMSELF
With his repeated violations, unrepentant attitude and TAX FRAUDS, as well as the violations for underage workers. He made himself the poster boy for "I am above the law"

It is pitiful to portray him as the "poor, put-upon Jew who was singled out" --- that attitude spits in the face of all honest people, especially honest Jews.

[rocketman69]

04:51 AM on 06/27/2010

Like Geitner?

[Vlady]

08:27 PM on 06/27/2010

Nobody condone him, but 27 years is overkill

[DinkSinger]

05:24 PM on 06/27/2010

He was not tried on the charges that he employed illegal emigrants. This was a bank fraud case. It involved hundreds of forged commercial documents.

[Tequilatarian]

07:16 PM on 06/26/2010

I just visited the Facebook group that supports this guy
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Friends-of-Sholom-Rubashkin/202353846323

The comments there act like he didn't do anything, and is just a generous honest family man.

Total cognitive dissonance. "Someone is on my group, therefore I feel he is being railroaded when he gets convicted"

I doubt they would feel the same way if someone from another group was given the same sentence.

[Rafi Simcha]

11:11 PM on 06/27/2010

Ahem. Their "group" is the Jewish tribe, with 3,500 year-old, tightly knit roots and a recent memory of being refugees themselves. No doubt Rubashkin's parents were refugees from Europe, where starving people did anything possible to get a crust of bread for their starving child. He probably feels he was helping poor Mexicans by providing them with work and a check to send home...

Still, he should've had more sense than a rooster to know not to be so reckless. Terrible loss to his family and community. On the other hand, after 27 years on ice he will have learned the whole Talmud, so maybe there's a silver lining.

[2garen]

08:14 PM on 06/25/2010

Jewish or not a rip off of other people at such a magnitude doesn't give him a break sorry.
I still think there should be bankers and wall streeters right next to him.

[Tulka2]

05:30 PM on 06/25/2010

This is not a good citizen and he deserves every year, but he won't serve it. Watch.

What is really disturbing is that his community finds it so "disturbing". Does that mean this is their normal business stance to people outside their own religious community? It's a rhetorical question.

[Beth Boyle]

01:25 PM on 06/25/2010

Sorry but he is not a nice guy. He made bad choices and what ever happens to him now is in God's hands. There are people who have gotten more time for just having pot in their pocket.

[jerryfromcalifornia]

08:59 AM on 06/25/2010

If this would be an example to employers not to hire illegals I would be all for it, But it doesn't seem like that it will do the job. Not the kind of example I was looking for. Bust them all or get some reform going. Is what was done here any different than what goes on with outsourcing?

[elan4444]

12:58 AM on 06/25/2010

Rubashkin moved to Iowa so he could circumvent other more costly locations to slaughter animals for kosher consumption. What about all the workers who worked under horrid conditions, spending long hours with no breaks in refrigerated rooms with no windows? Rubashkin was not prosecuted for violation of child labor laws, which he certainly violated. It is amazing how it has become acceptable to ignore human rights abuses perpetuated upon Mexican immigrants. Shameful! The Des Moines Register followed some of the workers back to their homes, revealing the incredible poverty from which they had come, and where they later returned. Rubashkin was tried on only a fraction of the charges which could have been brought against him. He made sure his children were living in comfort, while ignoring the people with families who were forced to live 16 or more to a room in Postville. And to think when he first came to Iowa the press was strenuously concerned with how Rubashkin and his Orthodox beliefs would be accepted! This man deserves every day of the sentence levied against him, and he should have been charged with child abuse.

[Rafi Simcha]

11:21 PM on 06/27/2010

I've been looking through the Des Moines Register's website and can't find the stuff you mentioned - I'd be very interested in seeing it - I really want to know the whole story - can you direct me to it?

Thanks!

[nk5otr]

08:47 PM on 06/30/2010

Rubashkin moved to Iowa because there was an abandoned meat slaughtering plant that his family business purchased.

Rubashkin was acquitted in state court of 83 counts of knowingly hiring underage workers.

I am against workers working in horrid conditions, but my understanding is that all the physical jobs in slaughterhouses are nasty hard work.