A Modest Agriprocessors Proposal
Not that this hasn’t been beaten, bludgeoned, and shechted to death, but: Rubashkin’s is in even more trouble. Yesterday’s front-page New York Times article says that more than 20 underage workers were found, as young as 13, and working night shifts; meanwhile, Jewschool covers the protests in Postville, where over 1500 people rallied for…jeez, illegal immigrants? cows? Take your pick.
Look. The fact is, a lot of bad stuff went down at that plant. And the fact is, while Agriprocessors upper management doubtlessly knew about some of this, exaggerations are abounding all over. My cousin Rabbi Yossi said that the best thing Aaron Rubashkin can do is take out a full-page ad in the New York Times with his phone number and say, “I did a bad thing, and I’m sorry. But this is getting out of hand. I’m here for your questions and concerns, and you should feel free to give me a call.” If there’s one thing Jews know about, it’s bad publicity, from the Golden Calf down to blood libel. And we’re still not good at PR. What, people of the world, is the deal?
But, even in the worst of times, the Times still has its sense of irony.
“Some of these boys don’t even shave,” the lawyer for some Agriprocessors workers is quoted as saying. “They’re goofy. They’re teenagers.” I think she’s talking about her clients (uh, yikes)…but seriously, couldn’t she be talking about the rabbis at the plant as well?
Note: All comments on MyJewishLearning.com are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed.
Frummies Play Victim/Race Card — The Kvetcher
[...] Except…Matthue Roth is actually…Orthodox. A baal teshuvah. And he isn’t really all that progressive, as EV discovered. Unless you would deem Agriprocessors “exaggerated” misdeeds as a “mistake” whose infraction a public apology should suffice. [...]
Not Kosher « Jewish Book Council Blog
[...] Last fall the president of the Reform Movement, Eric Yoffie, suggested a way that it might be. “This is not about kashrut… We need to think about how the food we eat advances the values we hold as Reform Jews.†In the aftermath of the nightmare revelations of the Postville slaughter house, one realizes that kosher does not always equal ethical. Yoffie’s—and the URJ’s—Green Table/Just Table initiative requires us to bring back a sense of wonder to thinking about how our food gets to our table. Is factory farmed beef worthy of a bracha? Or is the local pasture raised lamb, slaughtered without a shochet, something more laudable? At least for now, my table remains ritually impure. Maybe it’s not kosher, but I think it’s still Jewish. [...]