To UOJ:
I have been an avid follower of your blog for quite a while. I think that the issues you bring up and your opinions about them are right on target. However your type of blog attracts a large amount of professional haters and wackos. The kind that think or say "don't confuse with the facts, my mind is made up".
I'm not going to attempt to respond to their vile attacks on the Rebbi ZT"L and Chabad in general because it won't make an iota of difference to these haters, but I do find that most of the bashers had issues with Lubavitch way before the Rebbi's ptirah.
By the way your "friend" Kolko worked for me as a counselor when I was head counselor at camp Gan Yisroel many moons ago.He was a virulent hater of Chabad and was quite vocal about it at the time, and look what happened to the self righteous SOB.
My doubts with this whole Rubashkin story is that we have set ourselves up as policeman, judge, jury and executioners.The only thing we are sure of at this time, is the illegal alien issue. All the other issues are still in abeyance. This whole attack on Agri seems to be, at least to me, a lynch mob situation. If all these other accusations turn out to be false then we will all be guilty of shfichas dam mamosh. What I do know is that without Agri the price of kosher meat will be sky high and I am a firm believer in not biting the hand that feeds me. There are a lot of factors at play here. Peta,the Mafia run butchers union, the Conservitive so called hechser are behind most of these allegations.
Lets not make this a Lubavitch issue, Moshiach-Rebbe issue, or some other inane issue. If the allegations turn to be true, then I will be in the front lines together with you and everyone else to close them down.
What I'm saying is lets put this on hold until all the facts come out rather then lynch them outright.
Just in case you think that I am a Rubashkin as some loony blogger claims, I don't have the remotest familial relationship with them. I barely know them personally.
The closest contact I've had with them is eating in the Crown restaurant, which is owned by Rubaskin, on 13th Ave., many years ago as a bochur. My uncle Z"L was a lubavitcher chosid and a Rosh Hayishiva in Torah Vodaas.
Enough said.**************************
Dear Arthur,
Your conciliatory words and generous comments, provide a window to a caring and thoughtful person.
We, essentially, do not have opposing views on Rubashkin. You hesitate to go along with the lynch mob - I fault you not. Actually, I commend you for not buying into every piece of gossip that floats around the community - like shnorrers in Borough Park.
Here is were we differ.
You claim you have no information - yet --- that would condemn them - I claim I do!
Condemn for what you may ask.
Illegal immigrants en masse, working at their plants! So what...everybody does it. Wrong! The everybodys that do it are committing a crime. We are a country of laws - based on sound reasoning (mostly) - whether we like it or not.
Laws were meant to keep society and civilization alive - at least in the USA - until the Kennedys and their miserable ilk of left-wing Marxist whack jobs - gained entrance into the American psyche.
But there are dividing lines; and as Jews, we, under all circumstances, must never cross them. Any act - repeat - any act that dehumanizes creation; men, women, children - undue abuse of animals - distorts nature by creating "new fabricated laws of nature" - and is an abominable crime; - besides destroying the tenets of a viable society.
The water dripping effect on concrete comes to mind --- first it stains, then an indentation forms - then a hole; and over time, it cracks. Yes - water can crack concrete over time.
So, let's add up the Rubashkin "water dripping" effect on our society.
1 - No kosher slaughterhouse is permitted to have a non-kosher division under the same roof.
2 - A long and vile record of documented and recorded - intentional, undue animal abuse.
3-Recruiting and hiring illegals - a crime!
4-Selling chicken, knowingly - bacteria and feces laden.
5-Serious credible allegations of physical abuse of their employees.
6- Selling fake ID and Social Security cards on their premises.
7-Having created a network of people --- selling fraudulent documentation for serious money - permitting illegal entry in to the USA under false pretenses.
8-I tell you this with authority. The KAJ left Rubashkin because there was mass co-mingling of kosher and non-kosher meat - and sick animals - which rendered them dangerous to eat --- and non-kosher, were sold as kosher. Many continuous allegations from insiders, that the shochtim are unreliable - because of the quotas they have to fill - and incompetence abound.
9-Every Rubashkin truck driver had thousands of spare "glatt kosher" labels on their trucks. WHY?!
10- I happen to know that the Rubashkins are not closet Meshichisits! WHO CARES? I DO! They are posul eidus at chupas - and by their beliefs - kofer b'ikur!
I'm certain that there are some nice Rubashkins. I don't condemn the name - I condemn the vile acts. I condemn their belief system - trying to pass themselves off as a legitimate sect of Judaism.
I knew and revered your uncle and his Rebbetzin Necha. I took the rebbetzin shopping for Shabbos on Kingston Av - Minkowicz. I helped her pick out a hat for the Rosh Yeshiva at the hat store on Kingston, Mr. Mike - and bought seforim with her for the Rosh Yeshiva at Drimmers. I sat around their kitchen table as the rebbetzin and my saintly rebbe traded verbal jabs lovingly.
I completed a good part of the Shulchan Aruch Harav ( the Chaya Adam, the Mishna Berurah, the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (one chelek), and the Ben Ish Chai are derivative works) --- with your uncle at his residence, on Eastern Parkway and Brooklyn Av., over an almost five year span.
I attended many a "fabrengen" at the behest of my father and your uncle. I had "yechidus" with the Rebbe four times, prior to becoming a member of the Chai Club for nine years. (that allowed me another nine private meetings)
I learned Tanya as a teenager - as was taught by the tzaddik Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz ztvk"l (zchuso yagen aleinu), in Yeshivah Torah Vodaath.
AND THEN LUBAVITCH COLLAPSED --- as a Jewish sect.
The incubation period was over (Freud), and it became --- "Moshiach was the Rebbe" psychotic movement ---- and I said NO THANKS - I'M OUTTA HERE! I believe with my whole heart, that dementia, neurosis and delusional behavior overtook the genius and gaon - Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson - as it did with all the previous charismatic Moshiach psychotics. While the legacy of his chessed lives on - the destruction of his sect as "Torah Jews" is his legacy. He permitted this delusion and mass psychosis to fester and inebriate the mindset of thousands of Jews - creating Jew-style Jews.
Yes, Lubavitch has the most soup kitchens for anybody that appears Jewish. No mean feat! Judaism - NO! A cult with many good and kind people - Yes! TRUST THEM WITH KASHRUTH - NO!
....And only a minuscule portion of the story has been told!
B'yididus,
UOJ
