With black helicopters buzzing overhead, scores of U.S. Federal agents on May 12 conducted the largest immigration raid in American history, at a meatpacking plant in the small town of Postville, Iowa. Affidavits and search warrants alleged that the slaughterhouse had hired hundreds of undocumented Guatemalan immigrants, abused and threatened them, and paid them sub-minimum wages. The episode shocked many Americans and revealed major flaws in our immigration system and domestic labor practices. Even worse, from the Jewish point of view, was that this story unfolded at Agriprocessors, the largest supplier of kosher meat in America.
The Jewish community in general and the observant community in particular are obliged by countless directives, rooted in the Torah, to protect and support the workers who produce the goods and services that sustain us. Even if our skin colors and faiths are different and we are hundreds of miles apart, our lives are deeply intertwined by virtue of the sacred social relationships between consumer, worker and employer. The charges raised by the government made it eminently clear that those relationships had been violated: Its affidavit outlined many health and safety violations, including dangerous working conditions, at the Agriprocessors plant. There were also many horrific stories in the media about physical and sexual abuse of workers and severe mistreatment of animals.
Uri L'Tzedek, the first Orthodox social justice organization in the United States, responded. Our initial action was to raise funds to help the families that, as a result of the raid, were left destitute without income. We also petitioned the company's owner, Aaron Rubashkin, protesting the abuse of workers, who included many immigrants, vulnerable populations that the Torah repeatedly demands the Jewish people protect.
Signers of the petition demanded that Agriprocessors agree to pay its workers at least minimum wage, $7.25 in Iowa, and recommit to abiding by all U.S. laws relating to worker safety and rights. Approximately 60 percent of kosher beef and 40 percent of kosher chicken in America and much in Israel come from Agri, but these signers committed to buy from and patronize only those institutions that purchase the alternatives. While the Orthodox Union, the country's largest kashrut certifier, decided not to challenge Agri on these allegations, nearly 2,000 Jewish leaders and kosher consumers, from the U.S. and Israel, did sign on to our demands. Many synagogues, schools and camps have also vowed to cease buying Agri products until the injustices are rectified. We believe this in itself was a victory confirming that the Orthodox and broader kosher communities care about the oppressed, the stranger and the worker.
Members of Uri L'Tzedek also met with members of the Rubashkin family and company management in early June. The atmosphere was tense, but the company did commit to complying with our demands. At the same time, it hired Jim Martin, a reputable former U.S. Attorney, to serve as the company's chief compliance officer, a new position created in response to these major problems. Martin has already instituted a number of reforms, intended to bring Agriprocessors into compliance with U.S. laws governing worker protection. Our negotiations and dialogue with the company and with Mr. Martin have continued, and the boycott was suspended in response to these initial signs of reform.
This was an important victory for the kosher consumers who signed on and for the workers who remain at the plant. The arrested undocumented employees and their families, however, have lost out: Hundreds have been imprisoned and await deportation. And new allegations of withheld pay and exploitation of workers continue to arise.
More generally, a failed immigration system remains in place in America, by which many industries rely on the labor of easily exploited poor undocumented immigrants to provide cheap services. When the government does take action, it is often against the workers, rather than seeing them as the abused party.
The Uri L'Tzedek team intends to visit Postville on August 12 to assist and meet with workers past and present, and their families. A number of leaders of Jewish youth groups also plan to join the delegation: They are the next generation of kosher activists. Addressing these larger issues is integral to Uri L'Tzedek's work as Orthodox Jewish activists. In addition to mobilizing members of the Orthodox and broader Jewish community to raise funds for the families that have been hurt by the raids, we have attempted to raise awareness about workers' rights and immigration through educational campaigns in the Orthodox community, and have lobbied U.S. House and Senate staff to express our concerns about the human suffering that results from these kinds of enforcement tactics.
As Orthodox Jews, we feel that we must go beyond addressing our own parochial needs and wield the unprecedented influence we now have for the values the Torah holds dear: justice, love and compassion. As American Jews, we have been deeply inspired by the path blazed by B'maaglei Tzedek in Israel, placing social justice at the forefront of religious priorities. It does this in part via its tav hevrati (social seal), which certifies restaurants as not only kosher but also as meeting ethical standards. We value the effort to carry out the ethical mitzvot as stringently as we observe the ritual ones.
We believe this campaign signals a new level of communal expectation of all our Jewish businesses to conduct themselves with the highest standards of ethics and justice, as demanded by our holy tradition. We work and we yearn for the time when "justice shall roll down like waters and righteousness like an everflowing stream" - may it come speedily in our days. Amen.
Ari Hart and Shmuly Yanklowitz are Orthodox rabbinical students at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, and co-directors of Uri L'Tzedek (http://uriltzedek.webnode.com).
