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Rabbis Urge AG Holder To Grant Rubashkin Pre-Sentence Release

By Howard M. Friedman

Six prominent Orthodox rabbis held a news conference in Washington, D.C. yesterday and then walked to the Department of Justice to deliver a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder protesting the pre-sentencing detention of Sholom Rubashkin, former manager of the Postville, Iowa Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant. Yeshiva World News carries the full text of the letter aruging that Rubashkin, who was convicted last November of bank fraud relating to a loan to Agriprocessors and of failing to pay livestock providers in a timely manner, does not present a flight risk. After these convictions, the government dropped immigration-related charges that had been filed against for employing illegal immigrants. The letter to Holder reads in part:

Mr. Rubashkin has been an observant Orthodox Jew since birth. His dietary observances prevent him from eating food that is not certified as kosher or that is heated in a non-kosher appliance. He, therefore, has eaten only cold food while in prison....

He and his wife have ten children, six of whom live at home with their parents. They have an autistic 16-year-old son who has always been heavily dependent on his father. Mr. Rubashkin?s absence from his home at this time ? when he is most needed to prepare his children in case he is sentenced to a lengthy prison term ? is devastating....

Moreover, his friends and his religious community have offered to pay for a 24-hour private armed security guard that will, in effect, imprison him in his home until his sentencing. A total of approximately 8 million dollars in the equity of 43 homes has been offered as security for his appearance. And to demonstrate the intensity of their conviction that he will not flee, rabbis have offered Torah scrolls ? that may not be assigned except for the most extreme and exigent needs ? as security for his presence.

The Forward yesterday also reported on the rabbi's news conference.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on January 27, 2010 (boomark / email).