Case of Rabbi Pinchas Lew
(AKA: Pinny Lew)
Postville, IA
Postville, IA
Morristown, NJ
Brooklyn, NY
Crown Heights, NY
Director of Chapel Hill Chabad House - Chapel Hill, NC
London, England
On May 16, 2001, Rabbi Pinchas Lew allegedly exposed and touched his genitals repeatedly in front of an unrelated woman in his home.
According to the woman, he locked all the doors to his house, then continued to move in front of her, causing her to fear imminent assault. The same day Rabbi Pinny Lew addressed his felonious past in front of about 100 people at a meeting called by the Durham-Chapel Hill Jewish Federation.
Pinchas Lew is the son of Rabbi Shmuel Lew, who is the Head of Education at Lubavitch Foundation in London, England.
Back in 2001 Pinchas Lew's $200,000 bond was paid by a Hasidic organization in Brooklyn. He had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony. He served one day of a 10-year prison sentence, before receiving five years of probation.
Lew's light sentence, handed down in March 1993, surprised even his accomplice's court-appointed attorney, who said he thought Lew had been given a "pass,".Rabbi Lew was quoted in saying "I don't feel I owe her the money because of what I did," he said. "I owe her the money because of the court of law. And I intend to pay it."
His victim hit back with the civil suit. On March 18, 1994, a jury returned a verdict that ordered Lew to pay her and her husband, $1.43 million plus 10 percent annual interest.
While on probation Lew, who is married Lew married, traveled to Israel and England, and was ordained a rabbi. After his probation was over, Rabbi Pinny Lew took a position as Director of Chapel Hill Chabad House (Chapel Hill, NC). In November, 2001 he resigned under pressure, and the allegations of sexual misconduct were dropped.
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Table of Contents:
1992
1992
- WINNESHIEK Accused robber seeks (01/18/1992)
- DECORAH Venue change sought One (01/18/1992)
- Prosecutor resists Lew venue change (01/23/1992)
- Robbery suspect pleads guilty (02/04/1992)
- 1 suspect in Decorah robbery pleads guilty (02/04/1992)
- DECORAH Venue hearing continued (02/12/1992)
- Lew trial stays in Winneshiek (02/26/1992)
- WINNESHIEK Venue change for Lew (02/26/1992)
- Winneshiek jail escapees caught (03/09/1992)
- WINNESHIEK Robber who shot clerk (03/12/1992)
- Apologetic Stillman gets 55 years (03/12/1992)
- DECORAH Lew trial (04/29/1992)
- The Lew trial postponed (04/29/1992)
- 2nd defendant pleads in shooting (07/21/1992)
- Suspect changes his plea Accomplice in shooting 'guilty' of lesser charge (07/21/1992)
- DECORAH. Lew sentenced to 10 (11/21/1992)
- In Rural Iowa, Residents Learn The Ways Of Their Orhtodox Jewish Neighbors (11/27/1992)
- Food not kosher, so prison term on hold (11/27/1992)
1993
- Felon gets unusual probation - in New Jersey - Hasidic Jew is put in 'monastic' environment (03/31/1993)
- Monastic' sentence replaces prison term (03/31/1993)
- Monastic conditions ordered for Postville man involved in clerk's shooting (03/31/1993)
- Accommodating religious needs of inmates extends beyond meals (05/23/1993)
1994
- Decorah woman wins lawsuit - Jury awards damages of $1.6 million for robbery shooting (03/23/1994)
1996
- Strangers In A Strange Land - A Jewish Sect Comes To Iowa To Kick-Start A Factor And Finds A New Home TRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND [Part 1 of 2] (01/28/1996)
2000
- White Bread and Bagels: A Jewish writer wonders where he fits in when locals and Hasids clash in an Iowa town (12/24/2000)
2001
- Rabbi Arrested (07/12/2001)
- Local Chassidic rabbi took part in an armed robbery (07/13/2001)
- Rabbi involved in robbery now accused of exposure (07/31/2001)
- Woman shot has yet to see a dime (05/18/2001)
- Rabbi's criminal record raises questions in community (05/18/2001)
- Questions remain about rabbi's run-in with law (05/20/2001)
- Chapel Hill rabbi confronts his past before community he serves (05/20/2001)
- Rabbi in more trouble (06/14/2001)
- Robber-turned-rabbi is in trouble again (06/16/2001)
- Onetime robber in trouble as rabbi - Felon unrepentant, says Decorah victim (06/16/2001)
- Judge drops assault charge (08/11/2001)
- Bloom books Describe Potsville (11/24/2001)
- Rabbi leaves position (11/24/2001)
2005
- Is there a story out there? (09/12/2005)
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Bloom Books Describes Postville
Raleigh News & Observer - Nov. 24, 2001
Rabbi Pinchas Lew, who moved to Chapel Hill three years ago to start a new life and ended up struggling to defend his past, has given up his ministry after a rabbinical council decided he could no longer be effective in his job. Lew's troubles began early this year after a book written by a University of Iowa journalism professor circulated in the Jewish community here. The book, "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America" by STEPHEN G. BLOOM, described the social collision between the mostly Lutheran residents of Postville, Iowa, and the Lubavitcher Jews who opened a kosher slaughterhouse on the outskirts of town. Two chapters in the book describe a crime involving Lew, known by his nickname, "Pinny," and a onetime friend, Phillip Stillman. The two men, who worked at the slaughterhouse, borrowed a car and robbed a convenience store. During the robbery, Stillman shot the clerk. Lew pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. A judge later reconsidered the sentence and placed him on five years' probation. The News & Observer is based in North Carolina.
Raleigh News & Observer - Nov. 24, 2001
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| Rabbi Shmuel Lew, father of Rabbi Pinchas Lew |
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White Bread and Bagels: A Jewish writer wonders where he fits in when locals and Hasids clash in an Iowa town
By Gerold Shapiro
San Francisco Chronical - December 24, 2000
A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America
By Stephen G. Bloom
Harcourt; 347 pages; $25
By Gerold Shapiro
San Francisco Chronical - December 24, 2000
Postville
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| Rabbi Aaron Rubashkin |
In 1987, Aaron Rubashkin, a Lubuvitcher Hasidic Jew from Brooklyn, bought
an abandoned slaughterhouse just outside the town limits of tiny Postville,
Iowa (population 1,478) and reopened it. Under the direction of his son Sholom,
the operation grew into one of the largest glatt kosher slaughterhouses and meat-packing businesses in the world, and, in the process, revived Postville's moribund economy. But in Stephen G. Bloom's "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America," a highly readable and compelling account of the confrontation between Postville's citizens and Rubashkin's band of Hasids, the town's economic good news can't ease the rancor or soothe the instinctive mistrust between these two groups.
Bloom, a secular, assimilated Jew who moved with his family from San Francisco to Iowa City in 1993 to take a teaching position at the University of Iowa, initially portrays himself as a neutral party. He's caught in no- man's land between the secretive, suspicious band of Lubuvitcher Hasidim and the longtime residents of Postville, most of them big, blond and Lutheran. "I knew in my heart that the conflict between the Postville locals and Hasidic Jews continued to be a metaphor for my own transplanted life in Iowa. I wanted to belong, I just didn't know to which group," he says.
Early in the book, Bloom's Iowa neighbors make an easy target for his derision. "I picked up a copy of the local 'alternative' newspaper, which rated the best restaurants in town," he says, then delivers the punch line: "In the seafood category, Red Lobster came in first, followed by Long John Silver's."
Bloom stares at his Midwestern surroundings with the wide-eyed gaze of a tourist, marveling, for example, at Iowans' serene driving habits: "On Iowa freeways, motorists gladly allowed merging cars into the stream of traffic with a smile and pleasant horizontal wave, as though they were patting the butt of a newborn."
And he can't get over the sheer size of everything: the 16-ounce Gunderburger, or the breaded fried pork patty bigger than the 10-inch plate it's served on -- or the people themselves, who are, he tells us, the biggest and whitest people he's ever seen outside Disney World. But when Bloom starts to talk about Postville's Hasidim, the gentle condescension he brings to his portrait of heartland culture stops cold.
Instead, he lingers on the Hasids' bad behavior, and there's a lot of it to examine. In business dealings with non-Jews, Sholom Rubashkin and his fellow Hasidim haggle ruthlessly, demanding to pay the lowest possible price for goods, then delay any payment at all until legal action is threatened. In social situations they snub Postville's gentile citizenry completely, refusing to return a simple hello on the street. During Hanukkah one of their group drives around town with a 10-foot-tall menorah strapped to the roof of his car,
blaring holiday tunes from a cranked-up boom box. They don't mow their lawns or register their cars or clean up their garbage.
What's worse, they're not even sorry about any of this. Bloom gets an inside look at how business is done at the slaughterhouse, and the picture isn't pretty. " 'I get bills and throw them away,' [Lazar Kamzoil] said merrily. 'The more bills I get, the faster I throw them away. If they want to get paid that badly, they'll send me another notice, and then another. When I'm ready to pay them, I pay them!' "
Worse yet is the story of two young men from Rubashkin's group of Hasidim, Phillip Stillman and Pinchas Lew. Together they committed a 1991 robbery and attempted murder in the Postville area, leaving Marion Bakken, a convenience- store clerk, critically injured, and eventually resulting in Stillman's imprisonment. In the aftermath of this tragedy, Bloom reports, the behavior of the Hasidic community was unforgivable:
"None of the Hasidim denounced the shooting of Marion Bakken. No one apologized to her. They didn't raise money for her. No one from the Jewish community donated anything to her as a token of their sorrow or shame. . . . They didn't even offer her free meat from the slaughterhouse."
Like so many assimilated American Jews who've found themselves far from the cultural comforts of New York City, Bloom is in search of something Jewish in his life, both spiritual fulfillment and a decent meal. As he contemplates the offer of a shabbos (Sabbath) dinner at the home of one of Postville's Hasidic families, it's the food that matters most:
"Since moving to Iowa, I had given up trying to find authentic Jewish first- cut lean corned beef or pastrami; hand-carved lox; doughy, fist-sized bagels; crispy, freshly-made potato latkes; filigree-wrapped blintzes. . . . Lazar's shabbos dinner promised more than spiritual nourishment. "
Bloom's sense of cultural connection rarely extends past his digestive system. In the long run, despite the gefilte fish with horseradish, the chicken soup with matzo balls and all the rest, he finally admits -- no surprise to his readers -- that in his heart he's closer to the good people of Iowa than to Rubashkin's bearded zealots:
"For more than a year, the Hasidic Jews' imperial attitude toward the Postville locals had stuck in my craw. As a Jew, I was embarrassed by their take-it-or-leave-it mentality. I cringed when I heard Sholom or Lazar regaling me with more boastful stories. . . . Stillman and Lew had provided me with a smoking gun, a clear rationale for my own distancing from Jews I once had so naively hoped I could embrace."
There are moments of startling evocative power in "Postville," especially when Bloom allows his talent as a journalist to take center stage. His vivid description of a slaughterhouse tour will send many readers hustling for the nearest salad bar. And there are moving passages during the closely observed scene of the author with his young son at Lazar Kamzoil's shabbos table, where Bloom's spiritual sense of Jewish identity pops to the surface briefly like a diver long submerged.
But the impending vote on annexation that would increase the slaughterhouse's tax burden and add money to Postville's coffers, a device Bloom tries to develop as a source of suspense through the book, never provides much tension. And Bloom's own "spiritual crisis," his search for identity, which might have significantly enriched "Postville" had he explored it more fully, ultimately seems little more profound than the choice between a Gunderburger and a corned beef sandwich.
Gerald Shapiro's latest collection of fiction, "Bad Jews and Other Stories" (Zoland Books), recently came out in paperback.
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Canadian Jewish News - July 12, 2001
NEW YORK - A chassidic rabbi in North Carolina has been arrested on charges of lewdness relating to a woman in his home, according to the Raleigh News & Observer. Rabbi Pinchas Lew conducts services for students attending the University of North Carolina. In 1991, Rabbi Lew was convicted of driving the getaway car in an Iowa armed robbery.
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Local Chassidic rabbi took part in an armed robbery
Jewish Telegraphic Agency - July 13, 2001
A North Carolina community, already reeling from the news that a local Chassidic rabbi took part in an armed robbery a decade ago, is now dealing with the rabbi's recent arrest for indecent exposure.
Rabbi Pinchas Lew, 31, of Chapel Hill, was arrested on misdemeanor assault charges on May 16 after a woman accused him of repeatedly touching his genitals in front of her. The woman, a housekeeper in Lew's home, reportedly said Lew had bolted all the doors and that she feared he planned to assault her. She managed to escape through a back door. The woman filed a complaint with police two days later and Lew was arrested four weeks after the incident. He was released on a $1,000 bond. Lew, married with five children, led religious study and frequently held services in his home for college students ... After the local community learned about the Postville incident [the Iowa town where Lew was involved in the robbery], more than 100 members of the local Jewish community attended a meeting to hear Lew talk about his criminal past. Coincidentally, that meeting occurred on the same day he allegedly assaulted the woman in his home.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency - July 13, 2001
A North Carolina community, already reeling from the news that a local Chassidic rabbi took part in an armed robbery a decade ago, is now dealing with the rabbi's recent arrest for indecent exposure.
Rabbi Pinchas Lew, 31, of Chapel Hill, was arrested on misdemeanor assault charges on May 16 after a woman accused him of repeatedly touching his genitals in front of her. The woman, a housekeeper in Lew's home, reportedly said Lew had bolted all the doors and that she feared he planned to assault her. She managed to escape through a back door. The woman filed a complaint with police two days later and Lew was arrested four weeks after the incident. He was released on a $1,000 bond. Lew, married with five children, led religious study and frequently held services in his home for college students ... After the local community learned about the Postville incident [the Iowa town where Lew was involved in the robbery], more than 100 members of the local Jewish community attended a meeting to hear Lew talk about his criminal past. Coincidentally, that meeting occurred on the same day he allegedly assaulted the woman in his home.
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Rabbi involved in robbery now accused of exposure
Jewish Bulletin of Northern California - July 31, 2001
NEW YORK (JTA) -- A North Carolina community, already reeling from the news that a local Chassidic rabbi took part in an armed robbery a decade ago, is now dealing with the rabbi's recent arrest for indecent exposure.
Rabbi Pinchas Lew, 31, of Chapel Hill, was arrested on misdemeanor assault charges on May 16 after a woman accused him of repeatedly touching his genitals in front of her.
The woman, a housekeeper in Lew's home, reportedly said Lew had bolted all the doors and that she feared he planned to assault her. She managed to escape through a back door.
The woman filed a complaint with police two days later and Lew was arrested four weeks after the incident. He was released on a $1,000 bond.
Lew, married with five children, led religious study and frequently held services in his home for college students.
Lew, who could not be reached for comment, has taken a leave of absence from his job. A court hearing is slated for July 9.
Community members had just learned of his conviction for his part in a 1991 Iowa armed robbery. Lew, who drove the getaway car, served 81 days in jail and was sentenced to five years' probation.
It was written about in Stephen Bloom's "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America," released last year.
Jewish Bulletin of Northern California - July 31, 2001
NEW YORK (JTA) -- A North Carolina community, already reeling from the news that a local Chassidic rabbi took part in an armed robbery a decade ago, is now dealing with the rabbi's recent arrest for indecent exposure.
Rabbi Pinchas Lew, 31, of Chapel Hill, was arrested on misdemeanor assault charges on May 16 after a woman accused him of repeatedly touching his genitals in front of her.
The woman, a housekeeper in Lew's home, reportedly said Lew had bolted all the doors and that she feared he planned to assault her. She managed to escape through a back door.
The woman filed a complaint with police two days later and Lew was arrested four weeks after the incident. He was released on a $1,000 bond.
Lew, married with five children, led religious study and frequently held services in his home for college students.
Lew, who could not be reached for comment, has taken a leave of absence from his job. A court hearing is slated for July 9.
Community members had just learned of his conviction for his part in a 1991 Iowa armed robbery. Lew, who drove the getaway car, served 81 days in jail and was sentenced to five years' probation.
It was written about in Stephen Bloom's "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America," released last year.
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WINNESHIEK Accused robber seeks
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - January 18, 1992
WINNESHIEK Accused robber seeks venue change One of the men accused in the robbery of a Decorah convenience store and the shooting of the store clerk is seeking a change of venue. Pinchas Lew, 22, of Postville, is charged in Winneshiek County District Court with attempted murder and two charges of first-degree robbery. Lew and Phillip Stillman, 22, also of Postville, allegedly robbed the Petro N Provisions store in Decorah Sept. 27. Clerk Marion Bakken of Decorah was shot during the robbery. She recovered from her injuries. The men also are accused of holding up a popcorn vendor in Ossian earlier that evening. A hearing on the change-of-venue motion has not been set. Lew is scheduled to go on trial April 29.
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - January 18, 1992
WINNESHIEK Accused robber seeks venue change One of the men accused in the robbery of a Decorah convenience store and the shooting of the store clerk is seeking a change of venue. Pinchas Lew, 22, of Postville, is charged in Winneshiek County District Court with attempted murder and two charges of first-degree robbery. Lew and Phillip Stillman, 22, also of Postville, allegedly robbed the Petro N Provisions store in Decorah Sept. 27. Clerk Marion Bakken of Decorah was shot during the robbery. She recovered from her injuries. The men also are accused of holding up a popcorn vendor in Ossian earlier that evening. A hearing on the change-of-venue motion has not been set. Lew is scheduled to go on trial April 29.
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Prosecutor resists Lew venue change
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) -January 23, 1992
Prosecutor resists Lew venue change DECORAH Winneshiek County Attorney Karl Knudson filed a resistance to a motion this week for a change of venue for a Postville man's trial. Pinchas Lew, 22, is one of two men accused in connection with the shooting of a Decorah woman at a convenience store and the robbery of an Ossian popcorn vendor. "Publicity attached to the defendant's motion reveals that, overall, the coverage regarding Lew was restrained, contained very few details regarding the incident and almost no information concerning Lew's role in the incident," Knudson said. "Much of the news printed concerning Lew was favorable to Lew, and there was nothing about the news coverage which could not be handled to ensure the defendant could obtain a fair jury and have a fair trial." A hearing on the motion has not been scheduled. Lew's trial is slated to begin April 29.
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) -January 23, 1992
Prosecutor resists Lew venue change DECORAH Winneshiek County Attorney Karl Knudson filed a resistance to a motion this week for a change of venue for a Postville man's trial. Pinchas Lew, 22, is one of two men accused in connection with the shooting of a Decorah woman at a convenience store and the robbery of an Ossian popcorn vendor. "Publicity attached to the defendant's motion reveals that, overall, the coverage regarding Lew was restrained, contained very few details regarding the incident and almost no information concerning Lew's role in the incident," Knudson said. "Much of the news printed concerning Lew was favorable to Lew, and there was nothing about the news coverage which could not be handled to ensure the defendant could obtain a fair jury and have a fair trial." A hearing on the motion has not been scheduled. Lew's trial is slated to begin April 29.
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Robbery suspect pleads guilty
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - February 4, 1992
WINNESHIEK One of two Postville men accused in the robbery and shooting of a Decorah convenience store clerk will be sentenced March 10 after pleading guilty to charges of attempted murder and first-degree robbery. Phillip Stillman, 22, entered the guilty pleas last week in Winneshiek County District Court. His trial was scheduled to begin Wednesday. Stillman and Pinchas Lew, also 22, were arrested in connection with the robbery of the Petro N Provisions store Sept. 27. During the robbery, clerk Marion Bakken was shot and wounded. She recovered from her injuries. The men are also charged with holding up a popcorn vendor in Ossian earlier that evening. Lew has pleaded innocent to attempted murder and first-degree robbery.
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - February 4, 1992
WINNESHIEK One of two Postville men accused in the robbery and shooting of a Decorah convenience store clerk will be sentenced March 10 after pleading guilty to charges of attempted murder and first-degree robbery. Phillip Stillman, 22, entered the guilty pleas last week in Winneshiek County District Court. His trial was scheduled to begin Wednesday. Stillman and Pinchas Lew, also 22, were arrested in connection with the robbery of the Petro N Provisions store Sept. 27. During the robbery, clerk Marion Bakken was shot and wounded. She recovered from her injuries. The men are also charged with holding up a popcorn vendor in Ossian earlier that evening. Lew has pleaded innocent to attempted murder and first-degree robbery.
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1 suspect in Decorah robbery pleads guilty
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - February 4, 1992
One of two Postville men accused in the robbery and shooting of a Decorah convenience store clerk will be sentenced March 10 after pleading guilty to charges of attempted murder and first-degree robbery. Phillip Stillman, 22, entered the guilty pleas last week in Winneshiek County District Court. His trial was scheduled to begin Wednesday. Stillman also pleaded guilty to escape from custody. He temporarily escaped from the Winneshiek County Jail Dec. 27. Stillman and Pinchas Lew, also 22, were arrested in connection with the robbery of the Petro N Provisions store Sept. 27. During the robbery, clerk Marion Bakken was shot and wounded. She recovered from her injuries. The men are also charged with holding up a popcorn vendor in Ossian earlier that evening. Lew has pleaded innocent to attempted murder and first-degree robbery. He has requested that his trial be moved out of Winneshiek County, and a hearing on that request is to be held Feb. 11. He is scheduled for trial March 18.
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - February 4, 1992
One of two Postville men accused in the robbery and shooting of a Decorah convenience store clerk will be sentenced March 10 after pleading guilty to charges of attempted murder and first-degree robbery. Phillip Stillman, 22, entered the guilty pleas last week in Winneshiek County District Court. His trial was scheduled to begin Wednesday. Stillman also pleaded guilty to escape from custody. He temporarily escaped from the Winneshiek County Jail Dec. 27. Stillman and Pinchas Lew, also 22, were arrested in connection with the robbery of the Petro N Provisions store Sept. 27. During the robbery, clerk Marion Bakken was shot and wounded. She recovered from her injuries. The men are also charged with holding up a popcorn vendor in Ossian earlier that evening. Lew has pleaded innocent to attempted murder and first-degree robbery. He has requested that his trial be moved out of Winneshiek County, and a hearing on that request is to be held Feb. 11. He is scheduled for trial March 18.
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DECORAH Venue hearing continued
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - February 12, 1992
A change of venue hearing for Pinchas Lew, 22, of Postville, was continued in Winneshiek County District Court on Tuesday. Lew is charged with attempted murder and two counts of first-degree robbery following the Sept. 27 shooting of a convenience store clerk in Decorah during a robbery and the earlier robbery of an Ossian popcorn vender. Judge Margaret Lingreen continued the hearing to 3 p.m. next Tuesday because an investigator failed to appear at Tuesday's hearing. Defense attorneys hired the investigator to poll local public opinion on the crimes. Lew's accomplice, Phillip Stillman, 22, pleaded guilty to the attempted murder and robbery charges last week, days before his trial was to begin.
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - February 12, 1992
A change of venue hearing for Pinchas Lew, 22, of Postville, was continued in Winneshiek County District Court on Tuesday. Lew is charged with attempted murder and two counts of first-degree robbery following the Sept. 27 shooting of a convenience store clerk in Decorah during a robbery and the earlier robbery of an Ossian popcorn vender. Judge Margaret Lingreen continued the hearing to 3 p.m. next Tuesday because an investigator failed to appear at Tuesday's hearing. Defense attorneys hired the investigator to poll local public opinion on the crimes. Lew's accomplice, Phillip Stillman, 22, pleaded guilty to the attempted murder and robbery charges last week, days before his trial was to begin.
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Lew trial stays in Winneshiek
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - February 26, 1992
Lew trial stays in Winneshiek Gazette Northeast Iowa Bureau DECORAH A Postville man charged with attempted murder and first-degree robbery will have his trial remain in Winneshiek County District Court. District Court Judge Margaret Lingreen ruled Tuesday that Pinchas Lew's trial should not be moved to another county. Lew's attorney asked for the move because of what he termed pretrial publicity. In refusing to move the trial, Lingreen said she found press coverage to be "largely factual" and could find no views expressed on Lew's guilt or innocence. Lew, 22, is charged in connection with the robbery of a Decorah convenience store on Sept. 27 in which a store clerk was shot and wounded. Lew's accomplice, Phillip Stillman, also 22 and of Postville, has pleaded guilty to the same charges. Lew's trial is scheduled for April 29 in Decorah.
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - February 26, 1992
Lew trial stays in Winneshiek Gazette Northeast Iowa Bureau DECORAH A Postville man charged with attempted murder and first-degree robbery will have his trial remain in Winneshiek County District Court. District Court Judge Margaret Lingreen ruled Tuesday that Pinchas Lew's trial should not be moved to another county. Lew's attorney asked for the move because of what he termed pretrial publicity. In refusing to move the trial, Lingreen said she found press coverage to be "largely factual" and could find no views expressed on Lew's guilt or innocence. Lew, 22, is charged in connection with the robbery of a Decorah convenience store on Sept. 27 in which a store clerk was shot and wounded. Lew's accomplice, Phillip Stillman, also 22 and of Postville, has pleaded guilty to the same charges. Lew's trial is scheduled for April 29 in Decorah.
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WINNESHIEK Venue change for Lew
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - February 26, 1992
WINNESHIEK Venue change for Lew denied A Postville man charged with attempted murder and first-degree robbery will have his trial remain in Winneshiek County District Court. District Court Judge Margaret Lingreen ruled Tuesday that Pinchas Lew's trial should not be moved to another county. Lew's attorney asked for the move because of what he termed pretrial publicity. In refusing to move the trial, Lingreen said she found press coverage to be "largely factual" and could find no views expressed on Lew's guilt or innocence. Lew, 22, is charged in connection with the robbery of a Decorah convenience store on Sept. 27 in which a store clerk was shot and wounded. Lew's trial is scheduled for April 29 in Decorah.
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - February 26, 1992
WINNESHIEK Venue change for Lew denied A Postville man charged with attempted murder and first-degree robbery will have his trial remain in Winneshiek County District Court. District Court Judge Margaret Lingreen ruled Tuesday that Pinchas Lew's trial should not be moved to another county. Lew's attorney asked for the move because of what he termed pretrial publicity. In refusing to move the trial, Lingreen said she found press coverage to be "largely factual" and could find no views expressed on Lew's guilt or innocence. Lew, 22, is charged in connection with the robbery of a Decorah convenience store on Sept. 27 in which a store clerk was shot and wounded. Lew's trial is scheduled for April 29 in Decorah.
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Winneshiek jail escapees caught
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - March 9, 1992
Winneshiek jail escapees caught within 5 minutes Five minutes of freedom were all two escaping prisoners had Saturday in Winneshiek County. Phillip Stillman, 22, of Postville, and Gary Fritz Jr., 22, of Decorah, escaped from the county jail at 3:45 p.m., only to be found by Decorah police officers five minutes later. The two were hiding in a man-sized culvert just east of the jail, according to the Decorah police dispatcher. The escape happened as Stillman and Fritz were coming in from the exercise yard. They slipped through the office and went down the stairway to the outside. The jailer knew immediately they were gone and alerted police, said Winneshiek County Sheriff Mel Lee. Stillman, originally of Brooklyn, N.Y., is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty last month to attempted murder and armed robbery charges. The charges are in connection with a Sept. 27 convenience store robbery in which Pinchas Lew of Postville also is charged. A clerk was shot and seriously wounded during the holdup. Fritz is awaiting trial on felony theft charges.
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - March 9, 1992
Winneshiek jail escapees caught within 5 minutes Five minutes of freedom were all two escaping prisoners had Saturday in Winneshiek County. Phillip Stillman, 22, of Postville, and Gary Fritz Jr., 22, of Decorah, escaped from the county jail at 3:45 p.m., only to be found by Decorah police officers five minutes later. The two were hiding in a man-sized culvert just east of the jail, according to the Decorah police dispatcher. The escape happened as Stillman and Fritz were coming in from the exercise yard. They slipped through the office and went down the stairway to the outside. The jailer knew immediately they were gone and alerted police, said Winneshiek County Sheriff Mel Lee. Stillman, originally of Brooklyn, N.Y., is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty last month to attempted murder and armed robbery charges. The charges are in connection with a Sept. 27 convenience store robbery in which Pinchas Lew of Postville also is charged. A clerk was shot and seriously wounded during the holdup. Fritz is awaiting trial on felony theft charges.
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WINNESHIEK Robber who shot clerk
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - March 12, 1992
WINNESHIEK Robber who shot clerk sent to prison Phillip J. Stillman, 22, of Postville, has been sentenced to 55 years in prison. When he appeared in Winneshiek County District Court Tuesday, Stillman apologized for shooting Marion Bakken during a September holdup at a Decorah convenience store. Bakken was present at the sentencing. Stillman also had been charged with robbing an Ossian popcorn vendor and escaping from the Winneshiek County Jail in December and again Saturday. Earlier this year Stillman pleaded guilty to escape, first-degree robbery and attempted murder. He was sentenced to five years on the first escape charge and 25 years each on the other two charges. The sentences are to be served consecutively. Stillman's accused accomplice in the September incidents, Pinchas Lew, 22, of Postville, is scheduled to go on trial beginning Wednesday.
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - March 12, 1992
WINNESHIEK Robber who shot clerk sent to prison Phillip J. Stillman, 22, of Postville, has been sentenced to 55 years in prison. When he appeared in Winneshiek County District Court Tuesday, Stillman apologized for shooting Marion Bakken during a September holdup at a Decorah convenience store. Bakken was present at the sentencing. Stillman also had been charged with robbing an Ossian popcorn vendor and escaping from the Winneshiek County Jail in December and again Saturday. Earlier this year Stillman pleaded guilty to escape, first-degree robbery and attempted murder. He was sentenced to five years on the first escape charge and 25 years each on the other two charges. The sentences are to be served consecutively. Stillman's accused accomplice in the September incidents, Pinchas Lew, 22, of Postville, is scheduled to go on trial beginning Wednesday.
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Apologetic Stillman gets 55 years
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) -March 12, 1992
Apologetic Stillman gets 55 years for shooting clerk DECORAH Phillip J. Stillman, 22, of Postville, has been sentenced to 55 years in prison. When he appeared in Winneshiek County District Court Tuesday, Stillman apologized for shooting Marion Bakken during a September holdup at a Decorah convenience store. Bakken was present at the sentencing. Stillman also had been charged with robbing an Ossian popcorn vendor and with escaping from the Winneshiek County Jail in December and again Saturday. Earlier this year Stillman entered guilty pleas to first-degree robbery and attempted murder. He was sentenced to five years on the first escape charge and 25 years each on the other two charges. The sentences are to be served consecutively. He has not yet been sentenced on the most recent escape charge. Stillman's accused accomplice in the September incidents, Pinchas Lew, 22, of Postville, is scheduled to got on trial beginning Wednesday.
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) -March 12, 1992
Apologetic Stillman gets 55 years for shooting clerk DECORAH Phillip J. Stillman, 22, of Postville, has been sentenced to 55 years in prison. When he appeared in Winneshiek County District Court Tuesday, Stillman apologized for shooting Marion Bakken during a September holdup at a Decorah convenience store. Bakken was present at the sentencing. Stillman also had been charged with robbing an Ossian popcorn vendor and with escaping from the Winneshiek County Jail in December and again Saturday. Earlier this year Stillman entered guilty pleas to first-degree robbery and attempted murder. He was sentenced to five years on the first escape charge and 25 years each on the other two charges. The sentences are to be served consecutively. He has not yet been sentenced on the most recent escape charge. Stillman's accused accomplice in the September incidents, Pinchas Lew, 22, of Postville, is scheduled to got on trial beginning Wednesday.
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DECORAH Lew trial
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - April 29, 1992
DECORAH Lew trial postponed The trial of Pinchas Lew, 22, of Postville, has been rescheduled from today to July 22.
Lew has been charged in Winneshiek County District Court with first-degree robbery and attempted murder for two incidents last September: the robbery of a Decorah convenience store in which the clerk was shot, and the robbery of a popcorn vendor in Ossian.
He is accused of being the accomplice of Phillip J. Stillman, 22, of Postville, who entered guilty pleas to the same charges and was sentenced last month to 55 years in prison.
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - April 29, 1992
DECORAH Lew trial postponed The trial of Pinchas Lew, 22, of Postville, has been rescheduled from today to July 22.
Lew has been charged in Winneshiek County District Court with first-degree robbery and attempted murder for two incidents last September: the robbery of a Decorah convenience store in which the clerk was shot, and the robbery of a popcorn vendor in Ossian.
He is accused of being the accomplice of Phillip J. Stillman, 22, of Postville, who entered guilty pleas to the same charges and was sentenced last month to 55 years in prison.
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The Lew trial postponed
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - April 29, 1992
Lew trial postponed The trial of Pinchas Lew, 22, of Postville, has been rescheduled from today to July 22. Lew has been charged in Winneshiek County District Court with first- degree robbery and attempted murder for the September robbery of a Decorah convenience store and the shooting of the store's clerk.
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - April 29, 1992
Lew trial postponed The trial of Pinchas Lew, 22, of Postville, has been rescheduled from today to July 22. Lew has been charged in Winneshiek County District Court with first- degree robbery and attempted murder for the September robbery of a Decorah convenience store and the shooting of the store's clerk.
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2nd defendant pleads in shooting
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - July 21, 1992
2nd defendant pleads in shooting of Decorah clerk
Gazette staff report DECORAH - The second of two defendants accused of robbing an Ossian popcorn vendor and a Decorah convenience store on Sept. 27 and shooting the store's clerk pleaded guilty to a lesser charge Monday as the jury was being selected.
Pinchas Lew, 22, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a forceable felony. The charge, stemming from the robbery of the popcorn vendor, carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.
He was originally charged with attempted murder and two counts of robbery. He faced maximum sentences totaling 75 years, said Winneshiek County Attorney Karl Knudson.
The plea agreement had the blessing of Assistant Iowa Attorney General James Kivi, the lead prosecutor.
Lew, a native of Israel, will be sentenced Oct. 5. He is free on $100,000 bond. His accomplice, Phillip Stillman, 22, pleaded guilty to attempted murder, robbery and escape for fleeing the Winneshiek County Jail. He was sentenced to 55 years in prison.
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - July 21, 1992
2nd defendant pleads in shooting of Decorah clerk
Gazette staff report DECORAH - The second of two defendants accused of robbing an Ossian popcorn vendor and a Decorah convenience store on Sept. 27 and shooting the store's clerk pleaded guilty to a lesser charge Monday as the jury was being selected.
Pinchas Lew, 22, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a forceable felony. The charge, stemming from the robbery of the popcorn vendor, carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.
He was originally charged with attempted murder and two counts of robbery. He faced maximum sentences totaling 75 years, said Winneshiek County Attorney Karl Knudson.
The plea agreement had the blessing of Assistant Iowa Attorney General James Kivi, the lead prosecutor.
Lew, a native of Israel, will be sentenced Oct. 5. He is free on $100,000 bond. His accomplice, Phillip Stillman, 22, pleaded guilty to attempted murder, robbery and escape for fleeing the Winneshiek County Jail. He was sentenced to 55 years in prison.
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Suspect changes his plea Accomplice in shooting 'guilty' of lesser charge
By Val Swinton
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - July 21, 1992
Gazette Northeast Iowa Bureau DECORAH - The second of two defendants accused of robbing an Ossian popcorn vendor and a Decorah convenience store on Sept. 27 and shooting the store's clerk pleaded guilty to a lesser charge Monday as the jury was being selected.
Pinchas Lew, 22, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a forceable felony. The charge, stemming from the robbery of the popcorn vendor, carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.
He was originally charged with attempted murder and two counts of robbery. He faced maximum sentences totaling 75 years, said Winneshiek County Attorney Karl Knudson.
"I personally would have preferred holding off for a more serious conviction," Knudson said. "But I was not unhappy with the result."
THE PLEA agreement had the blessing of Assistant Iowa Attorney General James Kivi, the lead prosecutor.
Lew, a native of Israel, will be sentenced on Oct. 5. He is free on $100,000 bond.
Lew will have the other charges against him dismissed if he appears for his sentencing and cooperates with corrections officials conducting a presentence investigation, Knudson said.
His accomplice, Phillip Stillman, 22, pleaded guilty to attempted murder, robbery and escape for fleeing the Winneshiek County Jail. He was sentenced in March to 55 years in prison. He is awaiting sentencing on a second escape charge.
Stillman is accused of wielding the handgun, robbing the popcorn vendor and attempting to rob the convenience store while Lew drove the getaway car in both crimes, according to court records.
When clerk Marian Bakken refused to cooperate, Stillman shot her and fled without any money.
None of the witnesses in either crime was able to positively identify Lew as the driver, which necessitated a plea agreement, Knudson said.
"THE DECORAH Police Department was wanting a plea agreement in this case because of its circumstantial nature," he said. "They were concerned. They wanted to have a conviction."
Stillman also was prepared to testify that Lew didn't know Stillman planned to conduct the two robberies, further weakening the case, Knudson said.
There was some circumstantial evidence, though.
Lew, a rabbinical student working at Agriprocessors in Postville, wore a baseball cap over his Jewish skull cap, apparently to conceal his identity.
Agriprocessors produces ko- Please turn to page 3B: Plea Plea 1B sher and non-kosher meats. Production of kosher meats is supervised by a staff of rabbis and students.
Lew was driving a getaway car registered to the rabbinical staff, Knudson said. He removed the license plate and kept the screws in his pocket.
The two men were arrested shortly after the attempted convenience store robbery.
Bakken, who has a .38-caliber slug near her spine, said Monday she did not have to testify. She testified at Stillman's sentencing.
"I really don't enjoy it. I really don't like seeing those guys," she said.
Though she was satisfied with Stillman's sentence, she is not happy with the fact that he'll be eligible for parole in five years.
"That doesn't seem fair. I'll suffer from this for the rest of my life."
Bakken still has weakness in her right leg that causes her to drag her foot as she walks, she said. She also suffers from a sore back that prevents her from bending over to perform such chores as sweeping.
She will have to return to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for a further examination, she said. And while her doctor has cleared her to return to work, she said she is not ready.
If she does go back to work at the convenience store, she won't work nights or alone, she said.
By Val Swinton
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - July 21, 1992
Gazette Northeast Iowa Bureau DECORAH - The second of two defendants accused of robbing an Ossian popcorn vendor and a Decorah convenience store on Sept. 27 and shooting the store's clerk pleaded guilty to a lesser charge Monday as the jury was being selected.
Pinchas Lew, 22, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a forceable felony. The charge, stemming from the robbery of the popcorn vendor, carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.
He was originally charged with attempted murder and two counts of robbery. He faced maximum sentences totaling 75 years, said Winneshiek County Attorney Karl Knudson.
"I personally would have preferred holding off for a more serious conviction," Knudson said. "But I was not unhappy with the result."
THE PLEA agreement had the blessing of Assistant Iowa Attorney General James Kivi, the lead prosecutor.
Lew, a native of Israel, will be sentenced on Oct. 5. He is free on $100,000 bond.
Lew will have the other charges against him dismissed if he appears for his sentencing and cooperates with corrections officials conducting a presentence investigation, Knudson said.
His accomplice, Phillip Stillman, 22, pleaded guilty to attempted murder, robbery and escape for fleeing the Winneshiek County Jail. He was sentenced in March to 55 years in prison. He is awaiting sentencing on a second escape charge.
Stillman is accused of wielding the handgun, robbing the popcorn vendor and attempting to rob the convenience store while Lew drove the getaway car in both crimes, according to court records.
When clerk Marian Bakken refused to cooperate, Stillman shot her and fled without any money.
None of the witnesses in either crime was able to positively identify Lew as the driver, which necessitated a plea agreement, Knudson said.
"THE DECORAH Police Department was wanting a plea agreement in this case because of its circumstantial nature," he said. "They were concerned. They wanted to have a conviction."
Stillman also was prepared to testify that Lew didn't know Stillman planned to conduct the two robberies, further weakening the case, Knudson said.
There was some circumstantial evidence, though.
Lew, a rabbinical student working at Agriprocessors in Postville, wore a baseball cap over his Jewish skull cap, apparently to conceal his identity.
Agriprocessors produces ko- Please turn to page 3B: Plea Plea 1B sher and non-kosher meats. Production of kosher meats is supervised by a staff of rabbis and students.
Lew was driving a getaway car registered to the rabbinical staff, Knudson said. He removed the license plate and kept the screws in his pocket.
The two men were arrested shortly after the attempted convenience store robbery.
Bakken, who has a .38-caliber slug near her spine, said Monday she did not have to testify. She testified at Stillman's sentencing.
"I really don't enjoy it. I really don't like seeing those guys," she said.
Though she was satisfied with Stillman's sentence, she is not happy with the fact that he'll be eligible for parole in five years.
"That doesn't seem fair. I'll suffer from this for the rest of my life."
Bakken still has weakness in her right leg that causes her to drag her foot as she walks, she said. She also suffers from a sore back that prevents her from bending over to perform such chores as sweeping.
She will have to return to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for a further examination, she said. And while her doctor has cleared her to return to work, she said she is not ready.
If she does go back to work at the convenience store, she won't work nights or alone, she said.
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DECORAH. Lew sentenced to 10
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - November 26, 1992
DECORAH. Lew sentenced to 10 years Pinchas Lew, 23, one of two Postville men accused of robbing a Decorah convenience store and shooting the store clerk on Sept. 27, 1991, was sentenced to 10 years in prison Wednesday by Judge James Bauch.
Lew earlier pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a felony in a plea agreement with the Winneshiek County Attorney's Office. He had originally been charged with attempted murder and two counts of first-degree robbery.
Lew's accomplice, Phillip J. Stillman, 23, was sentenced in March to 55 years in prison on charges of attempted murder, robbery and escaping from jail. He is accused of actually pulling the trigger. Lew drove the getaway car, authorities said.
Store clerk Marion Bakken still has a bullet in her back from the shooting.
Lew remains free on $100,000 bond, which was posted by an acquaintance shortly after Lew's arrest. Lew has already filed an intent to appeal.
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - November 26, 1992
DECORAH. Lew sentenced to 10 years Pinchas Lew, 23, one of two Postville men accused of robbing a Decorah convenience store and shooting the store clerk on Sept. 27, 1991, was sentenced to 10 years in prison Wednesday by Judge James Bauch.
Lew earlier pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a felony in a plea agreement with the Winneshiek County Attorney's Office. He had originally been charged with attempted murder and two counts of first-degree robbery.
Lew's accomplice, Phillip J. Stillman, 23, was sentenced in March to 55 years in prison on charges of attempted murder, robbery and escaping from jail. He is accused of actually pulling the trigger. Lew drove the getaway car, authorities said.
Store clerk Marion Bakken still has a bullet in her back from the shooting.
Lew remains free on $100,000 bond, which was posted by an acquaintance shortly after Lew's arrest. Lew has already filed an intent to appeal.
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In Rural Iowa, Residents Learn The Ways Of Their Orhtodox Jewish Neighbors
by Rogers Worthington
Chicago Tribune - November 27, 1992
Before the two gunsels and the succahs, first there were the house lights that burned all through the night Fridays.
Then there were the pale, bearded men in long black coats who walked about on Saturdays, hands folded behind them, backs so erect they seemed almost to lean backward.
``They have their beanies, and they walk with their lips moving like they are reciting a long poem . . . like they are constantly thinking about something,`` said Stanley Schroeder, the town`s unofficial historian and a keen observer of life on Postville`s few streets.
Postville (pop. 1,476), a 143-year-old farm town of German and Norwegian Protestants, finds itself brushing up against an ancient, diaspora culture of sojourners that dates back roughly 3,200 years.
That`s when Moses reputedly descended from Mt. Sinai with God`s word on, among other things, how Jews should prepare their meat.
Four years ago the town`s shuttered HyGrade meat packing plant was bought by Aaron Rubashkin, a Brooklyn businessman and follower of the Orthodox Lubavitch movement.
It became Agri-Processors, Iowa`s only kosher meatpacking plant.
Postville now has more jobs, a market for local cattle and chickens, gefilte fish and farfel on the shelves of the local IGA and, most of all, rabbis-as many as 20 at a time.
To have a kosher meat processing plant, you must have rabbis. They are, in essence, trusted private meat inspectors paid by each of several Orthodox Jewish congregations that have settled in the U.S.
Specially trained rabbis, called shochtim (Hebrew for ritual slaughterers), slit the animals` washed necks using a flawless razor-sharp 11- inch blade, constantly tested with a finger for sharpness and unacceptable nicks.
Other supervising rabbis devein the beef. And they soak and salt, and soak again the chicken to draw out all its blood.
For meat to be kosher, there must be no blood left in tissue or capillaries.
The rabbis also inspect the lungs and stomachs, sometimes pumping air inside, looking for lesions and abnormalities that would make the meat treif, or unkosher.
One rabbi came from St. Paul to explain at a town meeting some things about Judaism; for example, that the Sabbath begins at sundown Friday and ends at sundown Saturday, and that in between, Orthodox Jews are not allowed to touch a light switch, drive a car or turn on the stove.
But the rabbi may not have explained about the booths, or succahs, the small, loosely erected plywood shacks with open roofs covered with branches that appeared on lawns of the town`s few Orthodox Jewish residents in mid-October.
Townspeople drove out to look at the curious structures, which to rural Iowa eyes fell somewhere between an ice fishing shack and an outhouse. People wondered what was happening inside.
``We`ve never seen Orthodox Jews before,`` explained Postville`s mayor,
John Hyman, who teaches shop at the high school. ``We don`t understand all their rituals. We just wish we knew more about them.``
Rev. Chuck Miller, of St. Paul`s Lutheran Church, did some reading and learned of the Feast of Booths. He learned that during the seven-day holiday, called Succot, meals are taken in the booths, a reminder of the temporary dwellings the Jews pitched while wandering in the Sinai desert after the exodus from Egypt.
He told parishioners who spoke of the oddness of the booths that the annual Christian tradition of erecting manger scenes and depictions of fat jolly men in red probably looked equally as odd to non-Christians.
``It was an opportunity to learn about things we know nothing about,`` Miller said. ``It became for me a teaching opportunity.``
Then there were the two feckless gunsels (hoodlums, or gunslingers in Yiddish slang). Pinchas Lew and Phillip Stillman, both then 22, came to Postville to work at the kosher meat plant. Lew is a tall, thin former rabbinical student and son of a respected Brooklyn rabbi. Stillman is the Colombian-born adopted son of an Orthodox Jewish couple in Queens.
On the night of Sept. 27, 1991, the two went on a holdup spree. Stillman, who had been drinking, was the gunman. Lew, wearing a baseball cap over his yarmulke, was the getaway driver-unwittingly, contends his lawyer. He drove a car that had a temporary spare tire on one front wheel, and its license plates had been removed.
The first victim was an elderly popcorn vendor in the town of Ossian.
Stillman flashed the butt of his .357 magnum revolver and made off with $70.
The second victim, a 50 year-old grandmother clerking at a convenience store in Decorah, rang the silent alarm when he demanded money. Stillman shot her and fled. The woman, critically injured, recovered.
The two, easily spotted by the lopsided, licenseless car, were captured without resistance a short time later.
Both were convicted; Stillman was sentenced to 55 years in prison and Lew was given an indeterminate sentence of no more than 10 years.
Surprisingly, there wasn`t all that much talk about it in Postville because, like all small towns, Postville has a simple logic to its gossip.
``The reason was, hardly anyone knew who they were,`` Schroeder said.
In fact, few in Postville know any of the newcomers. There have been some overtures of friendship. For example, Kedrick Groth, a young hog farmer, took Heshy Rubashkin, one of Aaron`s sons, and several others from the Orthodox community water skiing on the Mississippi two summers ago.
When he sees the newcomers on the street, Schroeder, like most Postville residents, smiles and nods ``Hello.`` But for the most part, the two communities remain separate.
Still, for the newcomers, some of whom do not speak English, the smiles and friendly greetings are enough.
by Rogers Worthington
Chicago Tribune - November 27, 1992
Before the two gunsels and the succahs, first there were the house lights that burned all through the night Fridays.
Then there were the pale, bearded men in long black coats who walked about on Saturdays, hands folded behind them, backs so erect they seemed almost to lean backward.
``They have their beanies, and they walk with their lips moving like they are reciting a long poem . . . like they are constantly thinking about something,`` said Stanley Schroeder, the town`s unofficial historian and a keen observer of life on Postville`s few streets.
Postville (pop. 1,476), a 143-year-old farm town of German and Norwegian Protestants, finds itself brushing up against an ancient, diaspora culture of sojourners that dates back roughly 3,200 years.
That`s when Moses reputedly descended from Mt. Sinai with God`s word on, among other things, how Jews should prepare their meat.
Four years ago the town`s shuttered HyGrade meat packing plant was bought by Aaron Rubashkin, a Brooklyn businessman and follower of the Orthodox Lubavitch movement.
It became Agri-Processors, Iowa`s only kosher meatpacking plant.
Postville now has more jobs, a market for local cattle and chickens, gefilte fish and farfel on the shelves of the local IGA and, most of all, rabbis-as many as 20 at a time.
To have a kosher meat processing plant, you must have rabbis. They are, in essence, trusted private meat inspectors paid by each of several Orthodox Jewish congregations that have settled in the U.S.
Specially trained rabbis, called shochtim (Hebrew for ritual slaughterers), slit the animals` washed necks using a flawless razor-sharp 11- inch blade, constantly tested with a finger for sharpness and unacceptable nicks.
Other supervising rabbis devein the beef. And they soak and salt, and soak again the chicken to draw out all its blood.
For meat to be kosher, there must be no blood left in tissue or capillaries.
The rabbis also inspect the lungs and stomachs, sometimes pumping air inside, looking for lesions and abnormalities that would make the meat treif, or unkosher.
One rabbi came from St. Paul to explain at a town meeting some things about Judaism; for example, that the Sabbath begins at sundown Friday and ends at sundown Saturday, and that in between, Orthodox Jews are not allowed to touch a light switch, drive a car or turn on the stove.
But the rabbi may not have explained about the booths, or succahs, the small, loosely erected plywood shacks with open roofs covered with branches that appeared on lawns of the town`s few Orthodox Jewish residents in mid-October.
Townspeople drove out to look at the curious structures, which to rural Iowa eyes fell somewhere between an ice fishing shack and an outhouse. People wondered what was happening inside.
``We`ve never seen Orthodox Jews before,`` explained Postville`s mayor,
John Hyman, who teaches shop at the high school. ``We don`t understand all their rituals. We just wish we knew more about them.``
Rev. Chuck Miller, of St. Paul`s Lutheran Church, did some reading and learned of the Feast of Booths. He learned that during the seven-day holiday, called Succot, meals are taken in the booths, a reminder of the temporary dwellings the Jews pitched while wandering in the Sinai desert after the exodus from Egypt.
He told parishioners who spoke of the oddness of the booths that the annual Christian tradition of erecting manger scenes and depictions of fat jolly men in red probably looked equally as odd to non-Christians.
``It was an opportunity to learn about things we know nothing about,`` Miller said. ``It became for me a teaching opportunity.``
Then there were the two feckless gunsels (hoodlums, or gunslingers in Yiddish slang). Pinchas Lew and Phillip Stillman, both then 22, came to Postville to work at the kosher meat plant. Lew is a tall, thin former rabbinical student and son of a respected Brooklyn rabbi. Stillman is the Colombian-born adopted son of an Orthodox Jewish couple in Queens.
On the night of Sept. 27, 1991, the two went on a holdup spree. Stillman, who had been drinking, was the gunman. Lew, wearing a baseball cap over his yarmulke, was the getaway driver-unwittingly, contends his lawyer. He drove a car that had a temporary spare tire on one front wheel, and its license plates had been removed.
The first victim was an elderly popcorn vendor in the town of Ossian.
Stillman flashed the butt of his .357 magnum revolver and made off with $70.
The second victim, a 50 year-old grandmother clerking at a convenience store in Decorah, rang the silent alarm when he demanded money. Stillman shot her and fled. The woman, critically injured, recovered.
The two, easily spotted by the lopsided, licenseless car, were captured without resistance a short time later.
Both were convicted; Stillman was sentenced to 55 years in prison and Lew was given an indeterminate sentence of no more than 10 years.
Surprisingly, there wasn`t all that much talk about it in Postville because, like all small towns, Postville has a simple logic to its gossip.
``The reason was, hardly anyone knew who they were,`` Schroeder said.
In fact, few in Postville know any of the newcomers. There have been some overtures of friendship. For example, Kedrick Groth, a young hog farmer, took Heshy Rubashkin, one of Aaron`s sons, and several others from the Orthodox community water skiing on the Mississippi two summers ago.
When he sees the newcomers on the street, Schroeder, like most Postville residents, smiles and nods ``Hello.`` But for the most part, the two communities remain separate.
Still, for the newcomers, some of whom do not speak English, the smiles and friendly greetings are enough.
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Food not kosher, so prison term on hold
By Associated Press
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - February 27, 1993
DECORAH (AP) - A Postville man serving a 10-year prison sentence in connection with a convenience store shooting was transferred to the Winneshiek County Jail after he complained he wasn't served kosher food.
Pinchas Lew, 23, was released from the Iowa Medical and Classification Center at Oakdale after serving one day.
Prison warden Rusty Rogerson said Lew's request for a special diet was impossible to meet.
"He was not ever going to receive it," Rogerson said. "We don't provide kosher diets. We prepare 600,000 meals per year here."
Rogerson said the Oakdale center serves specially prepared meals only on a doctor's order.
A court order issued last week said the transfer was for sentence reconsideration.
Lew was sentenced in December after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony. He admitted driving a getaway car after Phillip Stillman shot a convenience store clerk during a robbery.
Stillman pleaded guilty last February to attempted murder and first-degree rob bery. He is serving a 55-year sentence.
Winneshiek County Sheriff Floyd Ashbacher said there's barely room in his jail, but he's required to hold Lew until a judge can determine where - or if - he should serve his sentence.
Rabbis bring specially prepared food to Lew's jail cell at their own expense.
Rogerson said Stillman also requested kosher food when he was brought into prison but was denied.
"I don't understand the difference between the two cases," Rogerson said. "I really don't."
By Associated Press
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - February 27, 1993
DECORAH (AP) - A Postville man serving a 10-year prison sentence in connection with a convenience store shooting was transferred to the Winneshiek County Jail after he complained he wasn't served kosher food.
Pinchas Lew, 23, was released from the Iowa Medical and Classification Center at Oakdale after serving one day.
Prison warden Rusty Rogerson said Lew's request for a special diet was impossible to meet.
"He was not ever going to receive it," Rogerson said. "We don't provide kosher diets. We prepare 600,000 meals per year here."
Rogerson said the Oakdale center serves specially prepared meals only on a doctor's order.
A court order issued last week said the transfer was for sentence reconsideration.
Lew was sentenced in December after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony. He admitted driving a getaway car after Phillip Stillman shot a convenience store clerk during a robbery.
Stillman pleaded guilty last February to attempted murder and first-degree rob bery. He is serving a 55-year sentence.
Winneshiek County Sheriff Floyd Ashbacher said there's barely room in his jail, but he's required to hold Lew until a judge can determine where - or if - he should serve his sentence.
Rabbis bring specially prepared food to Lew's jail cell at their own expense.
Rogerson said Stillman also requested kosher food when he was brought into prison but was denied.
"I don't understand the difference between the two cases," Rogerson said. "I really don't."
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Felon gets unusual probation - in New Jersey - Hasidic Jew is put in 'monastic' environment
by Sarah Strandberg; News correspondent
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - March 31, 1993
DECORAH - After serving less than three months in jail, Pinchas Lew was placed on probation, with special provisions, for five years.
One of the provisions orders him to live in a Jewish program in which the conditions of his probation would be monastic.
Lew's application to have his 10-year sentence on a Class C felony reconsidered was granted Tuesday by Judge James Bauch during a hearing in Winneshiek County District Court in Decorah.
Lew, 23, formerly of Postville, had been charged with attempted murder and two counts of first-degree robbery for the shooting of Decorah convenience store clerk Marion Bakken and the holdup of an Ossian popcorn vender in September 1991.
After a plea bargain agreement reached in July, Lew pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony.
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, which he appealed.
Phillip Stillman, who was with Lew at the time of the crimes and was accused of shooting the clerk, began a 60-year sentence in March for attempted murder, first-degree robbery and two escape charges.
Lew dropped his appeal in February and was to have begun serving his sentence at Oakdale. He was ordered back to county jail pending the reconsideration hearing because prison authori ties would not give kosher food to Lew, a Hasidic Jew.
During Tuesday's hearing, Lew's attorney, Lawrence Scalise, questioned Rabbi Shalom Lipskar about the Aleph program that Lipskar started 12 years ago as an alternative to prison.
After an extensive background check, Aleph officials determined Lew could benefit from the program, Lipskar said.
The program involves intensive study, prayer and rehabilitative counseling.
Lipskar testified that Lew had acted irresponsibly but was not by nature "diabolical."
Bauch ordered Lew to take part in the Aleph program, which will include residing in Morristown, N.J., for at least six months.
Lew will then be placed under house arrest for six months at his father-in-law's residence in Brooklyn, N.Y.
During the year, Lew will be required to live as a monk, with no leisure activities, Bauch said.
There are no televisions or radios at the campus, and Lew will be allowed to read only designed texts. He will be required to remain in the program for four more years and to perform 750 hours of community service.
The judge also ordered the Aleph program director to submit monthly progress reports.
In resisting the sentencing reconsideration, County Attorney Karl Knudson called Bakken to the stand and questioned her about the extent of her injuries as the result of the shooting.
Bakken, who walks with a limp, said she continues to have pain in her back from the bullet, which lodged next to her spine.
by Sarah Strandberg; News correspondent
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - March 31, 1993
DECORAH - After serving less than three months in jail, Pinchas Lew was placed on probation, with special provisions, for five years.
One of the provisions orders him to live in a Jewish program in which the conditions of his probation would be monastic.
Lew's application to have his 10-year sentence on a Class C felony reconsidered was granted Tuesday by Judge James Bauch during a hearing in Winneshiek County District Court in Decorah.
Lew, 23, formerly of Postville, had been charged with attempted murder and two counts of first-degree robbery for the shooting of Decorah convenience store clerk Marion Bakken and the holdup of an Ossian popcorn vender in September 1991.
After a plea bargain agreement reached in July, Lew pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony.
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, which he appealed.
Phillip Stillman, who was with Lew at the time of the crimes and was accused of shooting the clerk, began a 60-year sentence in March for attempted murder, first-degree robbery and two escape charges.
Lew dropped his appeal in February and was to have begun serving his sentence at Oakdale. He was ordered back to county jail pending the reconsideration hearing because prison authori ties would not give kosher food to Lew, a Hasidic Jew.
During Tuesday's hearing, Lew's attorney, Lawrence Scalise, questioned Rabbi Shalom Lipskar about the Aleph program that Lipskar started 12 years ago as an alternative to prison.
After an extensive background check, Aleph officials determined Lew could benefit from the program, Lipskar said.
The program involves intensive study, prayer and rehabilitative counseling.
Lipskar testified that Lew had acted irresponsibly but was not by nature "diabolical."
Bauch ordered Lew to take part in the Aleph program, which will include residing in Morristown, N.J., for at least six months.
Lew will then be placed under house arrest for six months at his father-in-law's residence in Brooklyn, N.Y.
During the year, Lew will be required to live as a monk, with no leisure activities, Bauch said.
There are no televisions or radios at the campus, and Lew will be allowed to read only designed texts. He will be required to remain in the program for four more years and to perform 750 hours of community service.
The judge also ordered the Aleph program director to submit monthly progress reports.
In resisting the sentencing reconsideration, County Attorney Karl Knudson called Bakken to the stand and questioned her about the extent of her injuries as the result of the shooting.
Bakken, who walks with a limp, said she continues to have pain in her back from the bullet, which lodged next to her spine.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Monastic' sentence replaces prison term
by Sarah Strandberg; News correspondent
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - March 31, 1993
DECORAH - After serving less than three months in jail, Pinchas Lew was placed on probation, with special provisions, for five years.
One of the provisions orders him to live in a Jewish program in which the conditions of his probation would be monastic.
Lew's application to have his 10-year sentence on a Class C felony reconsidered was granted Tuesday by Judge James Bauch during a hearing in Winneshiek County District Court.
Lew, 23, formerly of Postville, had been charged with attempted murder and two counts of first-degree robbery in the shooting of Decorah convenience store clerk Marion Bakken and the holdup of an Ossian popcorn vender in September 1991.
After a plea bargain agreement reached in July, Lew pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony.
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, which he appealed.
Phillip Stillman, who was with Lew at the time of the crimes and was accused of shooting the clerk, began a 60-year sentence in March for attempted murder, first-degree robbery and two escape charges.
Lew dropped his appeal in February and was to have begun serving his sentence at Oakdale. He was ordered back to the County Jail pending the reconsideration hearing because prison authorities would not give kosher food to Lew, a Hasidic Jew.
During Tuesday's hearing, Lew's attorney, Lawrence Scalise, questioned Rabbi Shalom Lipskar about the Aleph program that Lipskar started 12 years ago as an al ternative to prison.
After an extensive background check, Aleph officials determined that Lew could benefit from the program, Lipskar said.
The program involves intensive study, prayer and rehabilitative counseling.
Bauch ordered Lew to take part in the Aleph program, which will include residing in Morristown, N.J., for at least six months.
Lew will then be placed under house arrest for six months at his father-in-law's residence in Brooklyn, N.Y.
During the year, Lew will be required to live as a monk, with no leisure activities, Bauch said.
In resisting the sentencing reconsideration, County Attorney Karl Knudson called Bakken to the stand and questioned her about the extent of her injuries as the result of the shooting.
Bakken, who walks with a limp, said she continues to have pain in her back from the bullet, which lodged next to her spine. Doctors have said removing the bullet is dangerous.
She said she has difficulty walking, and doctors have told her that her condition will not improve. She works part time and will not work alone.
Knudson said the court should consider leaving Lew in "a tightly controlled environment operated by Iowa."
Before signing the order, the judge said that during his years on the bench he had watched the erosion of the criminal justice system due to a lack of space in state institutions.
According to the judge, the requirements of the Aleph program are much more difficult than anything Lew would face in an Iowa prison.
by Sarah Strandberg; News correspondent
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - March 31, 1993
DECORAH - After serving less than three months in jail, Pinchas Lew was placed on probation, with special provisions, for five years.
One of the provisions orders him to live in a Jewish program in which the conditions of his probation would be monastic.
Lew's application to have his 10-year sentence on a Class C felony reconsidered was granted Tuesday by Judge James Bauch during a hearing in Winneshiek County District Court.
Lew, 23, formerly of Postville, had been charged with attempted murder and two counts of first-degree robbery in the shooting of Decorah convenience store clerk Marion Bakken and the holdup of an Ossian popcorn vender in September 1991.
After a plea bargain agreement reached in July, Lew pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony.
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, which he appealed.
Phillip Stillman, who was with Lew at the time of the crimes and was accused of shooting the clerk, began a 60-year sentence in March for attempted murder, first-degree robbery and two escape charges.
Lew dropped his appeal in February and was to have begun serving his sentence at Oakdale. He was ordered back to the County Jail pending the reconsideration hearing because prison authorities would not give kosher food to Lew, a Hasidic Jew.
During Tuesday's hearing, Lew's attorney, Lawrence Scalise, questioned Rabbi Shalom Lipskar about the Aleph program that Lipskar started 12 years ago as an al ternative to prison.
After an extensive background check, Aleph officials determined that Lew could benefit from the program, Lipskar said.
The program involves intensive study, prayer and rehabilitative counseling.
Bauch ordered Lew to take part in the Aleph program, which will include residing in Morristown, N.J., for at least six months.
Lew will then be placed under house arrest for six months at his father-in-law's residence in Brooklyn, N.Y.
During the year, Lew will be required to live as a monk, with no leisure activities, Bauch said.
In resisting the sentencing reconsideration, County Attorney Karl Knudson called Bakken to the stand and questioned her about the extent of her injuries as the result of the shooting.
Bakken, who walks with a limp, said she continues to have pain in her back from the bullet, which lodged next to her spine. Doctors have said removing the bullet is dangerous.
She said she has difficulty walking, and doctors have told her that her condition will not improve. She works part time and will not work alone.
Knudson said the court should consider leaving Lew in "a tightly controlled environment operated by Iowa."
Before signing the order, the judge said that during his years on the bench he had watched the erosion of the criminal justice system due to a lack of space in state institutions.
According to the judge, the requirements of the Aleph program are much more difficult than anything Lew would face in an Iowa prison.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Monastic conditions ordered for Postville man involved in clerk's shooting
by Sarah Strandberg; News correspondent
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - March 31, 1993
DECORAH - After serving less than three months in jail, Pinchas Lew was placed on probation, with special provisions, for five years.
One of the provisions orders him to live in a Jewish program in which the conditions of his probation would be monastic.
Lew's application to have his 10-year sentence on a Class C felony reconsidered was granted Tuesday by Judge James Bauch during a hearing in Winneshiek County District Court in Decorah.
Lew, 23, formerly of Postville, had been charged with attempted murder and two counts of first-degree robbery for the shooting of Decorah convenience store clerk Marion Bakken and the holdup of an Ossian popcorn vender in September 1991.
After a plea bargain agreement reached in July, Lew pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony.
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, which he appealed.
Phillip Stillman, who was with Lew at the time of the crimes and was accused of shooting the clerk, began a 60-year sentence in March for attempted murder, first-degree robbery and two escape charges.
Lew dropped his appeal in February and was to have begun serving his sentence at Oakdale. He was ordered back to county jail pending the reconsideration hearing because prison authorities would not give kosher food to Lew, a Hasidic Jew.
During Tuesday's hearing, Lew's attorney, Lawrence Scalise, questioned Rabbi Shalom Lipskar about the Aleph program that Lipskar started 12 years ago as an alternative to prison.
After an extensive background check, Aleph officials determined Lew could benefit from the program, Lipskar said.
The program involves intensive study, prayer and rehabilitative counseling.
Lipskar testified that Lew had acted irresponsibly but was not by nature "diabolical."
Bauch ordered Lew to take part in the Aleph program, which will include residing in Morristown, N.J., for at least six months.
Lew will then be placed under house arrest for six months at his father-in-law's residence in Brooklyn, N.Y.
During the year, Lew will be required to live as a monk, with no leisure activities, Bauch said.
There are no televisions or radios at the campus, and Lew will be allowed to read only designated texts. He will be required to remain in the program for four more years and to perform 750 hours of community service.
The judge also ordered the Aleph program director to submit monthly progress reports.
In resisting the sentencing reconsideration, County Attorney Karl Knudson called Bakken to the stand and questioned her about the extent of her injuries as the result of the shooting.
Bakken, who walks with a limp, said she continues to have pain in her back from the bullet, which lodged next to her spine. Doctors have said removing the bullet is dangerous.
She said she has difficulty walking, and doctors have told her that her condition will not improve. She works part time and will not work alone.
Knudson said the court should consider leaving Lew in "a tightly controlled environment operated by Iowa."
By committing the felony he was convicted of, Lew "set into motion a chain of events that caused a very serious injury," he said, and granting the reconsideration would show disrespect for the justice system.
Before signing the order, the judge said that during his years on the bench he had watched the erosion of the criminal justice system due to a lack of space in state institutions.
Building more prisons needs to be addressed by the Legislature, he said.
According to the judge, the requirements of the Aleph program are much more difficult than anything Lew would face in an Iowa prison.
by Sarah Strandberg; News correspondent
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - March 31, 1993
DECORAH - After serving less than three months in jail, Pinchas Lew was placed on probation, with special provisions, for five years.
One of the provisions orders him to live in a Jewish program in which the conditions of his probation would be monastic.
Lew's application to have his 10-year sentence on a Class C felony reconsidered was granted Tuesday by Judge James Bauch during a hearing in Winneshiek County District Court in Decorah.
Lew, 23, formerly of Postville, had been charged with attempted murder and two counts of first-degree robbery for the shooting of Decorah convenience store clerk Marion Bakken and the holdup of an Ossian popcorn vender in September 1991.
After a plea bargain agreement reached in July, Lew pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony.
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, which he appealed.
Phillip Stillman, who was with Lew at the time of the crimes and was accused of shooting the clerk, began a 60-year sentence in March for attempted murder, first-degree robbery and two escape charges.
Lew dropped his appeal in February and was to have begun serving his sentence at Oakdale. He was ordered back to county jail pending the reconsideration hearing because prison authorities would not give kosher food to Lew, a Hasidic Jew.
During Tuesday's hearing, Lew's attorney, Lawrence Scalise, questioned Rabbi Shalom Lipskar about the Aleph program that Lipskar started 12 years ago as an alternative to prison.
After an extensive background check, Aleph officials determined Lew could benefit from the program, Lipskar said.
The program involves intensive study, prayer and rehabilitative counseling.
Lipskar testified that Lew had acted irresponsibly but was not by nature "diabolical."
Bauch ordered Lew to take part in the Aleph program, which will include residing in Morristown, N.J., for at least six months.
Lew will then be placed under house arrest for six months at his father-in-law's residence in Brooklyn, N.Y.
During the year, Lew will be required to live as a monk, with no leisure activities, Bauch said.
There are no televisions or radios at the campus, and Lew will be allowed to read only designated texts. He will be required to remain in the program for four more years and to perform 750 hours of community service.
The judge also ordered the Aleph program director to submit monthly progress reports.
In resisting the sentencing reconsideration, County Attorney Karl Knudson called Bakken to the stand and questioned her about the extent of her injuries as the result of the shooting.
Bakken, who walks with a limp, said she continues to have pain in her back from the bullet, which lodged next to her spine. Doctors have said removing the bullet is dangerous.
She said she has difficulty walking, and doctors have told her that her condition will not improve. She works part time and will not work alone.
Knudson said the court should consider leaving Lew in "a tightly controlled environment operated by Iowa."
By committing the felony he was convicted of, Lew "set into motion a chain of events that caused a very serious injury," he said, and granting the reconsideration would show disrespect for the justice system.
Before signing the order, the judge said that during his years on the bench he had watched the erosion of the criminal justice system due to a lack of space in state institutions.
Building more prisons needs to be addressed by the Legislature, he said.
According to the judge, the requirements of the Aleph program are much more difficult than anything Lew would face in an Iowa prison.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Accommodating religious needs of inmates extends beyond meals
by Todd Dorman; Gazette news intern
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - May 23, 1993
(1 of 3 stories) The 40 to 50 Muslims in the maximum-security section of the Fort Madison Penitentiary may be separated from society for their crimes, but they are not separated from Islam.
The inmates, like those belonging to other religions in Iowa's correctional system, perform their religious rituals in their cells or the prison chapel. For their assigned hour the chapel is, to them, a mosque, a cathedral or a synagogue.
For the Muslims at Fort Madison and others with special needs, Iowa prisons and corrections facilities attempt to reconcile confinement with spirituality. "We try to accommodate everyone's religion," said Jim Helling, correctional treatment director at Fort Madison.
In February and March, during the sacred Muslim time of Ramadan, facilities accommodate Muslims by serving their meals at irregular times. Ramadan is Please turn to 10A: Inmates Inmates:Jewish man from Postville brought up diet issue 1A observed through fasting and prayer from sunrise to sunset for a month after the new moon.
The issue of diet, religion and corrections was brought to public attention in the case of Pinchas Lew, a Jewish man from Postville who was convicted in July of conspiracy to commit a forcible felony. He was charged in the shooting of a Decorah convenience store clerk and the holdup of an Ossian popcorn vendor in 1991.
Lew was moved from the Oakdale facility, where he was to begin a 10-year sentence, into a probationary program because Oakdale, like other Iowa correctional facilities, lacked the facilities and special equipment needed for the time-consuming process of making kosher meals. Lew was placed in the Aleph program in Morristown, N.J., designed for Jewish prisoners.
Religion is a part of life for many Iowa inmates. "It's something that a number of them do when they are incarcerated that they may not have done on the outside," Helling said.
The Iowa system holds 1,837 Protestants, 773 Catholics, 11 Jews, 126 Muslims and 1,749 inmates who are members of other religious groups. Another 148 are of unknown affiliation.
"Every religious group gets chapel time," Helling said. "Each has a different time for their Sabbath."
The Fort Madison prison has contracts with a Des Moines rabbi, who visits on a regular basis, and Imam Taha Tawal of Cedar Rapids, who visits once a month. An adviser for American Indians visits the complex quarterly.
A "sweat lodge," part of a Native American religious ritual, is on Fort Madison grounds.
"It's a tradition of Native Americans, especially the Plains tribes," Helling said. "It's a combination of the social and the spiritual."
The lodge is made of willows and cloth or hide and is sauna-like in function. It has not been used in recent years because no medicine man can be found to bless it.
The Fort Madison prison has moved away from providing religious diets, Helling said, but the facility does provide non-pork meals for Jews and Muslims who request them.
Sandra Scheib, a licensed dietitian for the Department of Corrections, said the state will provide special meals for vegetarian prisoners.
"We are moving toward a meatless substitute," Scheib said. "So if a religion prohibits the eating of meat, we provide an alternative."
Jim McKinney, deputy director of institutions at the Department of Corrections, said each facility requests the help of religion consultants who at the request of the state help deal with questions about religion in prisons.
The consultants represent nearly all religious faiths. The consultants help bridge the gap between inmates and prison administration.
"You do everything you can," McKinney said. "To the level of your resources and what is required by law."
by Todd Dorman; Gazette news intern
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - May 23, 1993
(1 of 3 stories) The 40 to 50 Muslims in the maximum-security section of the Fort Madison Penitentiary may be separated from society for their crimes, but they are not separated from Islam.
The inmates, like those belonging to other religions in Iowa's correctional system, perform their religious rituals in their cells or the prison chapel. For their assigned hour the chapel is, to them, a mosque, a cathedral or a synagogue.
For the Muslims at Fort Madison and others with special needs, Iowa prisons and corrections facilities attempt to reconcile confinement with spirituality. "We try to accommodate everyone's religion," said Jim Helling, correctional treatment director at Fort Madison.
In February and March, during the sacred Muslim time of Ramadan, facilities accommodate Muslims by serving their meals at irregular times. Ramadan is Please turn to 10A: Inmates Inmates:Jewish man from Postville brought up diet issue 1A observed through fasting and prayer from sunrise to sunset for a month after the new moon.
The issue of diet, religion and corrections was brought to public attention in the case of Pinchas Lew, a Jewish man from Postville who was convicted in July of conspiracy to commit a forcible felony. He was charged in the shooting of a Decorah convenience store clerk and the holdup of an Ossian popcorn vendor in 1991.
Lew was moved from the Oakdale facility, where he was to begin a 10-year sentence, into a probationary program because Oakdale, like other Iowa correctional facilities, lacked the facilities and special equipment needed for the time-consuming process of making kosher meals. Lew was placed in the Aleph program in Morristown, N.J., designed for Jewish prisoners.
Religion is a part of life for many Iowa inmates. "It's something that a number of them do when they are incarcerated that they may not have done on the outside," Helling said.
The Iowa system holds 1,837 Protestants, 773 Catholics, 11 Jews, 126 Muslims and 1,749 inmates who are members of other religious groups. Another 148 are of unknown affiliation.
"Every religious group gets chapel time," Helling said. "Each has a different time for their Sabbath."
The Fort Madison prison has contracts with a Des Moines rabbi, who visits on a regular basis, and Imam Taha Tawal of Cedar Rapids, who visits once a month. An adviser for American Indians visits the complex quarterly.
A "sweat lodge," part of a Native American religious ritual, is on Fort Madison grounds.
"It's a tradition of Native Americans, especially the Plains tribes," Helling said. "It's a combination of the social and the spiritual."
The lodge is made of willows and cloth or hide and is sauna-like in function. It has not been used in recent years because no medicine man can be found to bless it.
The Fort Madison prison has moved away from providing religious diets, Helling said, but the facility does provide non-pork meals for Jews and Muslims who request them.
Sandra Scheib, a licensed dietitian for the Department of Corrections, said the state will provide special meals for vegetarian prisoners.
"We are moving toward a meatless substitute," Scheib said. "So if a religion prohibits the eating of meat, we provide an alternative."
Jim McKinney, deputy director of institutions at the Department of Corrections, said each facility requests the help of religion consultants who at the request of the state help deal with questions about religion in prisons.
The consultants represent nearly all religious faiths. The consultants help bridge the gap between inmates and prison administration.
"You do everything you can," McKinney said. "To the level of your resources and what is required by law."
___________________________________________________________________________________
Decorah woman wins lawsuit - Jury awards damages of $1.6 million for robbery shooting
by Sarah Strandberg; News correspondent
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - March 23, 1994
DECORAH - A Winneshiek County jury has awarded $1.6 million in damages to a Decorah woman who was shot in a convenience store robbery in 1991.
But Dennis Larson, attorney for Marion Bakken and her husband, Arlin, said he may have to seek the money on the East Coast or in Europe.
The judgment was rendered against Pinchas Lew, formerly of Postville.
Lew did not appear for the trial, and his attorney, Lawrence Scalise of Des Moines, withdrew from the case about a week before the proceedings because he could not find his client, Larson said.
PHILLIP STILLMAN shot Bakken while she was working at Petro N Provision in Decorah on Sept. 27, 1991.
The bullet lodged near her spine, causing her pain and difficulty walking.
Court records said Lew drove the getaway car after the convenience store robbery.
Earlier in the day, Lew had driven the getaway car after the holdup of an Ossian popcorn vendor, records said.
In March 1992, Stillman began serving a 60-year prison sentence for attempted murder, first-degree robbery and two escape charges.
After plea bargaining, Lew entered an Alford plea to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony in connection with the Ossian incident.
An Alford plea allows a defendant to plead guilty but not necessarily admit to all aspects of the charge.
He then appealed his 10-year prison sentence, and sentencing Judge James Bauch placed him on probation for five years.
His probation included participating in the Aleph program directed by Rabbi Shalom Lipskar.
Under the program, the rabbi said Lew would lead a monastic lifestyle at an Aleph campus in Morristown, N.J., and perform 750 hours of community service work.
Larson filed the lawsuit against Lew and Stillman in December 1992.
No proceedings were conducted on the claim against Stillman because he is a prisoner and no guardian has been appointed for him, court documents said.
When Lew did not appear for trial, the court upheld Larson's motion for default on the issue of liability.
The trial was held only on the issue of damages by Lew.
LARSON SAID Lew should be able to satisfy the judgment because he was able to post $200,000 in bail while his criminal charges were pending and privately retain two defense attorneys, Scalise and Andrew Nelson of Decorah.
Larson also noted that Lew traveled to England while his criminal charges were pending and has received permission to travel there again during Passover, which begins Sunday.
by Sarah Strandberg; News correspondent
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - March 23, 1994
DECORAH - A Winneshiek County jury has awarded $1.6 million in damages to a Decorah woman who was shot in a convenience store robbery in 1991.
But Dennis Larson, attorney for Marion Bakken and her husband, Arlin, said he may have to seek the money on the East Coast or in Europe.
The judgment was rendered against Pinchas Lew, formerly of Postville.
Lew did not appear for the trial, and his attorney, Lawrence Scalise of Des Moines, withdrew from the case about a week before the proceedings because he could not find his client, Larson said.
PHILLIP STILLMAN shot Bakken while she was working at Petro N Provision in Decorah on Sept. 27, 1991.
The bullet lodged near her spine, causing her pain and difficulty walking.
Court records said Lew drove the getaway car after the convenience store robbery.
Earlier in the day, Lew had driven the getaway car after the holdup of an Ossian popcorn vendor, records said.
In March 1992, Stillman began serving a 60-year prison sentence for attempted murder, first-degree robbery and two escape charges.
After plea bargaining, Lew entered an Alford plea to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony in connection with the Ossian incident.
An Alford plea allows a defendant to plead guilty but not necessarily admit to all aspects of the charge.
He then appealed his 10-year prison sentence, and sentencing Judge James Bauch placed him on probation for five years.
His probation included participating in the Aleph program directed by Rabbi Shalom Lipskar.
Under the program, the rabbi said Lew would lead a monastic lifestyle at an Aleph campus in Morristown, N.J., and perform 750 hours of community service work.
Larson filed the lawsuit against Lew and Stillman in December 1992.
No proceedings were conducted on the claim against Stillman because he is a prisoner and no guardian has been appointed for him, court documents said.
When Lew did not appear for trial, the court upheld Larson's motion for default on the issue of liability.
The trial was held only on the issue of damages by Lew.
LARSON SAID Lew should be able to satisfy the judgment because he was able to post $200,000 in bail while his criminal charges were pending and privately retain two defense attorneys, Scalise and Andrew Nelson of Decorah.
Larson also noted that Lew traveled to England while his criminal charges were pending and has received permission to travel there again during Passover, which begins Sunday.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Strangers In A Strange Land - A Jewish Sect Comes To Iowa To Kick-Start A Factor And Finds A New Home TRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND [Part 1 of 2]
by Stephen G. Bloom. Stephen G. Bloom is a free-lance writer. John Kimmich is a freelance photographer. Both are professors of journalism at the Univerity of Iowa
Chicago Tribune - January 28, 1996
Stanley Schroeder can still remember the first day he saw a Hasidic Jew.
Schroeder was walking to the post office, and heading toward him was a man with long curly sideburns and a black, very full beard. In tiny Postville, Iowa, pretty much everyone knows everyone else, and this guy was like no one the 75-year-old Postville native had ever seen. The stranger was dressed in a thick, ankle-length black frock. And that's not all. His hands were clasped behind his back, his eyes cast down at the sidewalk, and he was mumbling something to himself in a foreign language
But what struck Schroeder most was the yarmulke. Even with the sudden gusts of autumn wind sweeping over the Iowa cornfields, billowing across the pastures where Guernsey cows and Hereford cattle graze, and whipping through the dusty Postville streets, this "little black beanie," as Schroeder calls it, somehow managed to stay firmly affixed to the stranger's head.
That was seven years ago, just after a hardy band of ultra-orthodox Lubavitcher Jews decided to leave the confines of their religious communities in Brooklyn, N.Y., Russia, Israel, Canada and Ukraine to go west. They landed in the unlikeliest place: sleepy Postville (population: 1,512), a speck of a town in Allamakee County, in the northeast corner of Iowa.
Today, about 150 Lubavitcher Jews live in Postville. With 28 Hasidic rabbis, Postville probably has more rabbis per capita than any other city in the world. Strolling around Postville these days is like finding yourself on a set for "Fiddler on the Roof," with scores of extras scurrying about.
Postville became their promised land after a Brooklyn, N.Y., entrepreneur by the name of Aaron Rubashkin in 1988 bought a defunct, run-down meat-processing plant in Postville and resurrecting it as a 65,000-square-foot kosher slaughtering house. Rubashkin installed his two sons, Sholom and Heshy as managers, and after six years of operation, Rubashkin's Agriprocessors today grosses more than $80 million a year.
Each week, 1,200 cattle, 80,000 chickens, 2,000 turkeys and 500 lambs are trucked into the renovated Agriprocessors plant, and each week a million pounds come out processed in refrigerated trailer-trucks bound primarily for Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Miami.
Rubashkin imported shochem (rabbis trained to supervise the kosher processing of the meat) and hired relatives and friends in key positions at the plant. Employees' families followed, and today the Lubavitchers form 10 percent of Postville's population. The Lubavitchers have started a yeshiva to educate their children, converted one of the oldest houses in town into a shul (synagogue) and have even built two mikvahs (ceremonial bath houses). The Lubavitcher Jews have bought 30 homes, and noware Postville's new power elite-in a region and state where Pork is King.
The last time sleepy Postville experienced such rapid growth was during the 1920s, when German Lutherans flocked to these gently rolling hills, near Iowa's borders with Wisconsin and Minnesota, to start dairy, cattle and hog farms. Seventy years later, Postville is preparing for its greatest growth spurt ever. The boom years are back.
In all of Iowa, perhaps in all the Midwest, there is no greater sense of a time warp than in Postville. A common sight is rabbis with foot-long beards and long, black wool overcoats, pacing along downtown's Lawler Street, deep in Yiddish discussion, as groups of farmers wearing dirty overalls and muddy rubber boots grouse about fertilizer and hog prices, while gaggles of blond teenagers jaw about who's going to ride on the homecoming float.
The Lubavitcher migration also has transformed isolated Postville, located 250 miles from Chicago, into a social laboratory. The hard Iowa farm life mandates a connectedness, a mutual support system among neighbors. Through the brutal Iowa winters, scorching summers, pesticide-thick springs and around-the-clock autumn harvests, a civic bond is vital if the community is to survive. The Iowans are friendly and neighborly; the Lubavitchers rely on their own mishpocheh (family). They are wary
"The Jews are lambs surrounded by 70 wolves," says Rabbi Moishe Feller, a Lubavitcher rabbi in St. Paul who has made dozens of trips to Postville.
"They've got to stick close to each other and to the shepherd at all times." If they stray too far, the rabbi seems to imply, they'll get eaten.
So, that's what was going on the autumn morning seven years ago when Stanley Schroeder first saw the Lubavitcher Jew walking alone along a Postville street, whispering in Hebrew, near the post office.
"I guess he was praying to himself," Schroeder says.
But why did the Lubavitchers pick a place with so many wolves?
"My older brother said I was crazy to move to Iowa, that I was meshugge (crazy)," says Sholom Rubashkin, who runs most of the glatt (kosher) procedures at Agriprocessors. The Lubavitchers are there for a simple reason: It's more profitable to move the slaughterhouse to the cattle than the cattle to the slaughterhouse, as had been done in America for more than a century.
Like two of the most unlikely suitors, the locals and the Lubavitchers went through alternative spells of infatuation and loathing in the beginning. Today, both cultures, so wary and protective at first, have learned to live together. Both realize they need each other to survive.
In a nation where scores of cultures have shed native identities and become a part of the great melting pot, the Lubavitcher Jews in Postville and everywhere else staunchly maintain a separate identity. In a comparison Lubavitchers surely would condemn, many Hasidic tenets are similar to those of the Amish. Both advocate withdrawal from secular society, abstinence from anything powered by electricity or gas (for the Amish, seven days a week; for the Jews, one day), no physical work on the Lord's day or the Sabbath, intense procreation (families of 8 to 10 children are not unusual) and strict domestic roles for women.
Amish might be expected to settle in rural villages miles away from the nearest McDonald's. But ultra-orthodox Jews in the middle of the cornfields of Iowa, where pigs outnumber people 10 to 1?
The vast majority of Jews establish homes in urban centers. Jews are not farmers, and where their ancestors settled shows that. In America, the greatest concentrations of Jews are in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Many say to share a sense of Jewishness means to be a part of a greater community of Jews, a shared experience of values, heritage and history. A nearby kosher deli that serves cheese Danish doesn't hurt, either. But while the Postville IGA hasn't yet added a shelf of Dr. Brown'sCel-ray Tonic, Manischewitz matzos or even Aaron's Best (Agriprocessors' trade name) next to the frozen-food case of pork loins, pork chops and pigs' hooves, for both the Postville locals and the Lubavitchers, the experiment of two opposite cultures living side by side has worked. Some in Postville might even allow that both cultures enjoy each other.
What could have happened in pastoral Postville might have become an allegory of small-town prejudice as two strong and proud cultures met head-on in a collision course. Instead, the saga of Postville is a parable about how rural America learns to survive.
The story, though, could have gone something like this:
A heartland town is on the skids; its population continues to decline as the old die and the young leave. The one cash cow-Hygrade Food Products, the meat-processing plant-closes, and for more than a decade, lies fallow. Real estate prices plummet. The town's only hospital closes because, as the mayor puts it, "We don't have any doctors or any patients."
Then a glimmer of hope appears. A man from Brooklyn expresses muted interest in the abandoned meat-processing plant. For the right price, he will buy it, and-presto!-rejuvenate the town. Yes! say the townspeople.
With the new owner comes a bizarre breed of immigrant-not Iowans, but Jews. For many in Postville who have never ventured outside Iowa, these newcomers are eye-openers. If their religion isn't exotic enough, the foreigners come with dark hats, long coats and an inscrutable language.
They move en masse to tiny Postville; each year, as relatives write relatives about their new lives in the American heartland, more and more come, and within five years, the Lubavitchers make up 10 percent of the population. The numbers, though, don't tell the whole story. The new immigrants, according to Biblical scripture, are fruitful and multiply.
Families of seven, eight children are not unusual. Yet children, the great equalizer, are unable to meld the two disparate cultures; the Jews are proscribed from mingling with their Iowa counterparts. The Hasidim start a separate school. They keep to themselves; the women are not allowed to make eye contact with the locals.
It would be difficult for Postville locals not to come to believe that their land has been taken over by these newcomers. The less charitable assessment from the locals is that not only their land but their lives are being run by the Jews. Small incidents of anti-Semitism start cropping up. A Hasidic Jew is called a "kike" by a carload of teenagers.
Then, a Lubavitcher family wakes up to find a cross burning on its front lawn.
But wait a minute. Stop the film. That isn't the case in Postville. Instead, in events that few in the town would ever have envisioned, Jews and locals are getting along famously. Something strange and serendipitous has happened. Few religious communities today-whether Jewish or not-could be created from scratch in seven or eight years. Fewer secular communities could accept newcomers as wholeheartedly as the Postville people eventually did.
The Postville library last fall received a shipment of books in Hebrew from Minneapolis. Many of the library's Hardy Boys mystery books have been checked out by Lubavitcher families. In September, when the Walker Brothers' Family Circle pulled into town, five Jewish families with almost 30 kids sat under the big top. The Jewish kids giggled just like the gentile kids when a white poodle, dressed in a Batman cape and mask, pranced around on her hind legs. When a mysterious "princess" performed
At Agriprocessors' Hanukkah party last year, when the gentile workers plugged in a tape deck and urged Sholom Rubashkin to dance with the women employees, he quite naturally said he wasn't able to dance with a gentile woman. Rubashkin pulled some of the guys out onto the floor and danced with them, which left all the employees in stitches.
Heshy Rubashkin, Sholom's younger brother, even went water-skiing a couple of summers ago with Kedrick Groth, a young hog farmer.
"The first two years here, I thought I'd go crazy," Sholom Rubashkin says with such a thick New York accent that not even a toddler could confuse it with the crisp diction of an Iowan. Today Sholom Rubashkin is a born-again Iowan.
To see dozens of Jewish men, all in black hats and coats davening (swaying back and forth and praying), and then leaving the Postville shul in single file, with row after row of corn in with what appears to be an endless green and yellow maze of fields on all four sides, stretching for miles and miles, is something to behold. Says Rubashkin: "It really is amazing, baruch ha-Shem (Thank God). It's more than amazing. You feel like you're a pioneer."
Rubashkin, at least for the Postville Jews, has a status akin to that of a venerated rebbe (rabbi)."We've got wonderful, wonderful neighbors," he says. "We don't look down on them. We are honest with everyone. I mean, if you smile at them, they'll smile back."
Maybe it boiled down to who was going to crack the first smile.
Certainly, in the beginning, few would have thought the two cultures would ever have anything to do with each other. If this was going to be a marriage, it was more shotgun than made-in-heaven.
Early on, the locals felt the Lubavitchers snubbed them.
"We're just not used to people coming in here and not wanting to be a part of us," says Schroeder. "Iowans get along with everybody."
Stanley Schroeder should know. His father in 1920 started Schroeder and Schultz Co., Postville's downtown general store.
A small, intense man with eyes that seem to get larger when he's excited, Postville's unofficial historian has amassed 50,000 typewritten pages on Postville's history.
He's got so much Postville history that his wife insisted that Schroeder build an addition onto their 1890's brick house to keep all his papers out of her way.
"I'm from the old school," Schroeder says. "When I walked down the street and I saw them wearing their black beanies and long coats, I'd say 'good morning' or 'hello there,' but they didn't even make eye contact. I'd want to invite them in for some cookies and Kool-Aid, but they didn't want to have anything to do with us." (The reason the Lubavitchers will never take Schroeder up on his Kool-Aid-and-cookies offer is that they can't-unless the Kool-Aid and cookies are kosher and served in a paper cup and on a paper plate.)
Even jovial Rev. Chuck Miller, who until the end of last year led the city's largest church, St. Paul Lutheran, with 1,300 members, and who is a walking billboard for the Will Rogers aphorism "I never met a man I didn't like," was miffed at the Lubavitchers at first.
For the first seven years, none of the Hasidic rabbis in Postville ever called Miller. None had deigned to introduce himself, and when Miller sought to establish a sort of ecumenical summit, he wasn't able to get a single rabbi to talk to him-until last July when Miller's phone rang in the church rectory. It wasn't much, maybe a five-minute conversation, just a tte--tte about a vexing Biblical question between two clerics who read the same book and pray to the same God.
When the Lubavitchers first started arriving in Postville, Miller says, more than a few parishioners came up to him and asked him to "do something about the Jews taking over this God-fearing town."As time went on, about every fourth sermon Miller delivered stressed humility and tolerance.
Miller says he left Postville recently for a smaller Wisconsin church for personal reasons. Last Thanksgiving, though, he set out to actualize his dream of an ecumenical summit. With clergy from Postville's other two churches, Miller invited the Lubavitchers to a community service-a Postville event that's been going on for as long as anyone in those parts can remember.
Miller first proposed holding the meeting at the high school gymnasium, because he figured the Jews would not set foot in a church. Then he was told that as long as the service was not in a sanctuary, it could be held under his church roof. So the service was shifted to St. Paul's fellowship hall. Then late word came that none of the Lubavitchers could attend.
It was like the Pilgrims planning a big Thanksgiving shindig, going out of their way to be civil to the Indians-only to be slighted at the last minute when the Indians pull out.
"The Jewish community always had a reason not to come," Miller says. "What they were really saying was, 'We aren't interested.' But that's who they are. They are going to maintain their identity by always keeping their walls up."
Ironically, it was migration of a different kind, many years before the Jews starting settling in Postville, that caused a similar uproar here.
There were so many German Lutherans migrs in Postville in the first half of the century that until the mid-1950s church services were conducted entirely in German. With each cancellation of another German-language service, older members of the community would complain to the Lutheran pastor. But as more younger American-born families moved in, pressure increased to discontinue the German services and replace them with English liturgies.
Today, the heart of this community is the kosher meat processing plant, which employs almost 250, both Jews and non-Jews. Postville is pressing to annex the land on which the plant is located (300 feet from the city line), which would increase control the city has over the slaughterhouse. Annexation also would create additional tax revenue for the city. Postville Mayor John Hyman was swept into office two years ago on a single campaign promise: Let the voters decide in a referendum whether to
The Lubavitchers say, in no uncertain terms, that if Agriprocessors is annexed, they'll leave. Rubashkin says annexation would kill the kosher goose that lays Postville's golden eggs.
"If you are annexed, you have to live by the law of the city," says Rubashkin. "We never would have come here if the plant was within the city limits. Packing-houses don't belong in cities."
"When we want to build something, we build it," says Agriprocessors' plant manager, Don Hunt, of the advantage of the company's current status. "At the end of the year, the county sends us a form, and we tell them what we've done."
Hunt says Agriprocessors wants to expand and create as many as 85 jobs, but if the city annexes the land, Agriprocessors will entertain offers from other states that "would provide us with incentives to move there."
"Our community is hemmed in now," Mayor Hyman says. "We need to expand, but if they moved out, our community would die. It'll bounce back, but it'll take time."
One councilman, Fred Comeau, says Postville ought to forget all this talk about annexation. He said a city consultant found that Agriprocessors paid $623,000 over a nine-month period to 41 small local businesses for construction, plumbing, heating and electrical work. "For every dollar of payroll, it turns over seven times," says Comeau. "When Hygrade left town, we had 40 to 50 houses up for sale, he says, and if Agriprocessors left, it would mean a significant loss for the city in retail
Beneath all the posturing, the issue is control. Some Postville locals say their feet are getting uncomfortably hot being held so close to the fire, which both they and their Hasidic newcomers helped ignite when Agriprocessors was so warmly welcomed here seven years ago.
"Those people think they're outside the law," says Gordon Lawson, the retired owner of the local Ford tractor dealership and member of the city's Board of Adjustment.
"They go ahead and do what they please. They've threatened dozens of times to move out. They just don't have the ability to sit down and listen. No one gets very far with threats. If you won't listen, how're you going to learn? They've slipped around regulations. They've built a new home without following any procedures-no plotting or submitting plans to the city. They don't follow procedures. They just do it-and everyone else be damned!"
Certainly there's a lingering sentiment that the Jews have been fantastically successful at the slaughtering house, whereas the previous owners, good ole' Iowa boys, failed miserably. Unlike Hygrade, which paid union wages, Rubashkin starts his line workers at $5.75 an hour. No one pretends that the work is neat, pretty or very remunerative.
Equally certainly, though, with an estimated $80 million a year in gross sales, Agriprocessors generates huge amounts of money, and where the money goes-back into the plant, into the community, to other Rubashkin enterprises, to Brooklyn-is unknown because the business is privately owned. Rubashkin says it's bad luck-others say bad politics-to "talk numbers." He has started a real estate firm, called Nevel Properties, which actually owns many of the homes that the Lubavitchers live in, saysComeau's wife, Karen Kugel, a real estate agent with Postville's Community First Agency. The Lubavitchers, she says, go for larger-style Postville homes, which sell for $46,000 to $49,000.
Many people in Postville seem to believe that if a referendum were to take place, it would be handily defeated.
Most of the problems that crop up center on cultural differences. Iowans, many say, have a profound sense of order. When spring comes around, lawns are mowed and edged, errant leaves are whisked off yards; in winter, snowy front walks often are shoveled before the snow stops falling. But because few Lubavitchers knew what a yard of lush grass was back in Brooklyn or Russia, hardly any Hasids ever had pushed a lawn mower, and some of their lawns in Postville looked it. To many Hasidic Jews shoveling snow is as alien as eating glazed ham. But today, as long as it's not Saturday, Jews are learning to deal with the suburban albatross that goes along with owning a home.
Reserved Iowans are loathe to attract attention. Yet last Hanukkah, one Lubavitcher erected a six-foot menorah atop his car and drove it up and down Postville streets for the eight days of the holiday. Postville natives didn't quite know how to react, except to shake their heads.
In their first years in town, when a Lubavitcher got behind the wheel of a car, many residents would run for cover. Few of the newcomers had owned or driven a car before. They made U-turns in the center of town and drove up on the curb. One Lubavitcher parked in the center of Lawler Street and left her car there for the afternoon. The driving has improved, but many still don't have drivers' licenses or register their cars.
Lubavitcher men, as Stanley Schroeder could not help noticing that first day, do not wear standard Postville garb: Oshkosh or Ben Davis overalls. Since almost all the Lubavitchers work in the kosher meat-processing plant, many walk around town with large white aprons, splattered with blood. Almost all have beards and payess (sidelocks of hair). The women wear calf-length dresses and take special care to cover their arms with long sleeves. Many shave their heads or clip their hair short enough
On Saturday, the Sabbath, no electricity may be used, stoves must not be lighted, telephones must not be used, cars must not be driven, certain medicines may not be taken. For the truly observant, objects may not be carried on their person. Tearing a piece of paper along an unperforated edge is proscribed.
The Lubavitchers' worldwide population is estimated at 200,000, with about 25,000 living near the sect's world headquarters, a 50-block area in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. Their movement is the largest of some 40 Hasidic groups that began in the 18th Century as a populist response and revivalist movement aimed at alienated Jewish peasants in Russia. It spread through Eastern Europe shtetls (communities), and centered on a circle of charismatic, mystical enthusiasts. Its faith is anchored in the return of the Messiah, now presumed to be Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh in a dynastic lineage of Lubavitcher leaders. Schneerson died in Crown Heights on June 12, 1994.
Each Jewish home in Postville has the obligatory mezuza (scriptural scroll) on each doorpost. Shabbos (Sabbath) candles are lit at exactly sundown (the daily times are listed in Lubavitcher calendars hanging in all Hasidic homes). At least one picture of the revered Rebbe Schneerson hangs in each house. Shabbos dinners are happy, often outrageous Friday night events, where families eat and kibitz over tray after tray of food lovingly prepared all week long by a bevy of Jewish women.
With a minyan (quorum) of 10 men, observant Hasids pray three times daily in the shul.
Shabbos dinner and prayer, though, do not a Lubavitcher community make. The Postville Lubavitchers did exactly what pioneers of the American West did when lighting out to parts unknown: After establishing work for the men, they created a house of worship for their families, and then opened a school for their children.
The Lubavitchers also converted a two-car garage on William Street, just off Lawler, into the ceremonial bath house -an absolute necessity for Hasidic women. During menstruation and for seven days afterward, a wife and husband are proscribed from touching-or even passing a plate-until the wife purifies herself.
"We used to have to drive all the way to Rochester (Minnesota, about 90 miles) every month, and in the winter, with all the snow-Oy, was that ever a problem!" says Leah Rubashkin, Sholom's wife.
The Lubavitchers bought the most expensive house in town, a majestic 1887 Victorian mansion, formerly a Sears mail-order house, and converted it into a shul, where 15 single Hasidic men live. In the basement, they constructed a mikvah for men to use before prayer.
To accommodate Postville's 50 Hasidic children, the Lubavitchers leased the basement of city hall, which used to be the Community Hospital, and two years ago set up a yeshiva for both religious and secular education. The Rubashkin family helped recruit three rabbis, who now teach at the school.
Even with the necessities in place, one would think the culture shock for the Jews would be severe. Postville and Brooklyn are probably more opposite than Nome and Miami. A pet in these parts is a pig, heifer or a calf. Public transportation means hopping in the back of your neighbor's pickup truck. To see a movie, you have to drive 30 miles.
Postville is the kind of place where every phone in town has the same prefix (864), and no one would ever use a telephone-answering machine, certainly at home. In New York, people place signs on their locked car windows that read, "No radio." In Postville, people leave the radio playing and their keys in the car when they run out to get a Slurpy at Casey's.
On a planet where more people recognize a Big Mac than Big Ben, Postville proudly claims not a single fast-food restaurant. Of course, there's absolutely no way the Lubavitchers would ever set foot in such places. They didn't move to Iowa to mix with the Goyim. Indeed, the Lubavitchers have waged holy war against assimilation, a Jewish trend that Lubavitchers liken to "the spiritual holocaust." Coming from a place where, if not on every corner, every street had a shul, when the Lubavitchers arrived in Postville, they were like gefilte fish out of brine jelly. But it didn't make any difference to them. They were on a mission.
"If you are committed to your faith, there is no culture shock," says Rabbi Feller. "Postville and Crown Heights are one and the same."
Maybe that's true for the Jews, but not for the locals. Sharon Drahn, editor of the weekly Postville Herald-Leader, says that during the first years, lots of gentile eyebrows were raised. The reactions did not have to do with the new settlers being Jewish, but more with their being outsiders. Five years ago, when a 34-year-old Lubavitcher worker was walking downtown on a Friday night, a car sped by and someone shouted, "Heil, Hitler!"
Back in 1993, Rubashkin and other machers (bigwigs) in the Lubavitch community knew they needed to do something to inform the gentile community just what its new neighbors were like. So they called on St. Paul-based Rabbi Manis Friedman, a star in the international Lubavitcher community, and then set up a community meeting.
Something astonishing happened: More than 200 people showed up. Rabbi Friedman, who sported a fedora and a long gray beard, tried out some jokes. Friedman kibitzed that normally when you have two people, you have two opinions. But with Jews, he said, when you have two people you have three opinions.
Many in the audience shifted uncomfortably. They didn't know what the heck to do. Someone asked whether Jews need more than one synagogue to practice their faith.
"There must be two synagogues, so we can boycott one of them," Friedman cracked. Welcome to Jewish Humor 101.
Friedman's shtick worked eventually, but it also underscored the fact that these Jews and their leaders were like no one Postville had seen before.
Since Hasidic boys and girls are not allowed to swim together, to use the town's public pool requires all gentiles to leave, and then a separate swim hour for each sex must be arranged. None of the 467 students enrolled in Postville's kindergarten-8th-grade school is Hasidic.
"We've asked that the Hasidic children play on our playground," says Postville K-8 Principal Daryl Bachtell. "But the answer is always no."
Last May, Bachtell had a brainstorm. He planned to show Postville students a video about the new Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. A day before the show, he had a thought: Why not invite the children from the yeshiva?
Alas, the request was turned down. There was no way Hasidic kids could mingle with both boys and girls.
Still, Bachtell's charge is to serve all students, not just those enrolled in his school. In fact, the district has much to gain by increasing student enrollment in Postville, whether at the public schools or the yeshiva. The district supplies the yeshiva with desks, books, pencils and workbooks-and in return the district earns about $2,000 per student.
With 50 students in the Yeshiva, that means a windfall for the district of $100,000.
Editor Drahn, in the best small-town journalism tradition, has used her newspaper as a town crier. The Herald-Leader is located in a storefront downtown, and last December, Drahn placed a Christmas tree in one window and a menorah in the other.
Drahn's own version of hell would be living in a city like Chicago or New York. She loves small-town living. The largest urban area she's ever lived in was Iowa City (population: 60,000), where the University of Iowa is located.
"When we moved to Iowa City, you'd have to scrape my jaw from the floor. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I'd never seen so many colors, races, nationalities."
But now Drahn has come to see a little of that diversity in Postville, and she likes it: "We've got Ukrainians, Hispanics, Russians, Israelis, New Yorkers, all in this tiny town," she says. "I mean, who'd ever think it?"
While the Postville telephone book is getting thicker, not all the Lubavitchers come from far away. Martin Appel, a University of Iowa statistics professor with a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University, commutes the 130 miles from his university office to his home in Postville. Appel is married to Beth, a blue-eyed, blond Christian convert from Lincoln, Neb.
No matter how accustomed Postville locals are to the Lubavitchers, the members of Stanley Schroeder's coffee klatch, which meets every morning at the local bakery, still talk about the newcomers. One thing that still sticks in the craw of many is a 1991 crime spree involving two Postville Hasidic youths.
Pinchas Lew and Phillip Stillman, both Agriprocessors workers, brandished a .357-magnum revolver and held up a pop corn vendor in the nearby town of Ossian. They then held up a convenience store in Decorah.
As the clerk, a 50-year-old grandmother, rang a silent alarm, Stillman shot her. The women, who was critically injured, eventually recovered from the gunshot wound.
The two young men, easily spotted by the police in a lopsided car without license plates, were convicted. Lew, who drove the getaway car, was sentenced to 10 years. Stillman, the shooter, was sentenced to 55 years.
In a town where residents keep their doors unlocked, the incident was the worst crime anyone can remember.
Certainly, no one makes allowances for such lawlessness, but life for Hasids in Postville or anywhere else is akin to living in a nation within a nation. Hasidic culture sets itself apart from American culture, and for that matter, from mainstream Judaism. Hasidism carries its own deeply instilled history and myths, its indelible, almost-impossible-to-attain schema of how to lead a righteous life, to be a tzaddik (righteous man). There are thousands of codes to pass along from generation to generation, sacred obligations due in part to the particular history of the Jews. The Jews have been expelled from community after community. They have been hunted, murdered, the victims of unspeakable pogroms. They have always sought redemption as
Caption:
PHOTO (color): Postville, Iowa, was dying until the guys from Brooklyn made the slaughterhouse hum and the locals jumpy. A story of the new wave of Heartland immigration. (Sunday Magazine, Cover.)
PHOTOS (color): Lubavitcher Jews (above) gather outside the shul for Sabbath services in Postville, Iowa, the town to which they have brought new prosperity and diversity.
PHOTO (color): Despite their cultural differences, locals such as Lynn Thompson (left) and Lubavitcher Rabbi Jacob Klein have learned to work together compatibly in the meatpacking plant.
PHOTO (color): Rabbi Pincus Krieger, a teacher in Postville's yeshiva, oversees Hebrew classwork of students Chaim Arye Rubashkin (left) and Chaim Shimon Dubov.
PHOTO (color): Stanley Schroeder is Postville's unofficial historian. In 1920 his father opened a general store in the town. Photographs by John Kimmich.
PHOTO: Asian Hmong kids in Wisconsin have boarded the bus to assimilation. AP photo
by Stephen G. Bloom. Stephen G. Bloom is a free-lance writer. John Kimmich is a freelance photographer. Both are professors of journalism at the Univerity of Iowa
Chicago Tribune - January 28, 1996
Stanley Schroeder can still remember the first day he saw a Hasidic Jew.
Schroeder was walking to the post office, and heading toward him was a man with long curly sideburns and a black, very full beard. In tiny Postville, Iowa, pretty much everyone knows everyone else, and this guy was like no one the 75-year-old Postville native had ever seen. The stranger was dressed in a thick, ankle-length black frock. And that's not all. His hands were clasped behind his back, his eyes cast down at the sidewalk, and he was mumbling something to himself in a foreign language
But what struck Schroeder most was the yarmulke. Even with the sudden gusts of autumn wind sweeping over the Iowa cornfields, billowing across the pastures where Guernsey cows and Hereford cattle graze, and whipping through the dusty Postville streets, this "little black beanie," as Schroeder calls it, somehow managed to stay firmly affixed to the stranger's head.
That was seven years ago, just after a hardy band of ultra-orthodox Lubavitcher Jews decided to leave the confines of their religious communities in Brooklyn, N.Y., Russia, Israel, Canada and Ukraine to go west. They landed in the unlikeliest place: sleepy Postville (population: 1,512), a speck of a town in Allamakee County, in the northeast corner of Iowa.
Today, about 150 Lubavitcher Jews live in Postville. With 28 Hasidic rabbis, Postville probably has more rabbis per capita than any other city in the world. Strolling around Postville these days is like finding yourself on a set for "Fiddler on the Roof," with scores of extras scurrying about.
Postville became their promised land after a Brooklyn, N.Y., entrepreneur by the name of Aaron Rubashkin in 1988 bought a defunct, run-down meat-processing plant in Postville and resurrecting it as a 65,000-square-foot kosher slaughtering house. Rubashkin installed his two sons, Sholom and Heshy as managers, and after six years of operation, Rubashkin's Agriprocessors today grosses more than $80 million a year.
Each week, 1,200 cattle, 80,000 chickens, 2,000 turkeys and 500 lambs are trucked into the renovated Agriprocessors plant, and each week a million pounds come out processed in refrigerated trailer-trucks bound primarily for Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Miami.
Rubashkin imported shochem (rabbis trained to supervise the kosher processing of the meat) and hired relatives and friends in key positions at the plant. Employees' families followed, and today the Lubavitchers form 10 percent of Postville's population. The Lubavitchers have started a yeshiva to educate their children, converted one of the oldest houses in town into a shul (synagogue) and have even built two mikvahs (ceremonial bath houses). The Lubavitcher Jews have bought 30 homes, and noware Postville's new power elite-in a region and state where Pork is King.
The last time sleepy Postville experienced such rapid growth was during the 1920s, when German Lutherans flocked to these gently rolling hills, near Iowa's borders with Wisconsin and Minnesota, to start dairy, cattle and hog farms. Seventy years later, Postville is preparing for its greatest growth spurt ever. The boom years are back.
In all of Iowa, perhaps in all the Midwest, there is no greater sense of a time warp than in Postville. A common sight is rabbis with foot-long beards and long, black wool overcoats, pacing along downtown's Lawler Street, deep in Yiddish discussion, as groups of farmers wearing dirty overalls and muddy rubber boots grouse about fertilizer and hog prices, while gaggles of blond teenagers jaw about who's going to ride on the homecoming float.
The Lubavitcher migration also has transformed isolated Postville, located 250 miles from Chicago, into a social laboratory. The hard Iowa farm life mandates a connectedness, a mutual support system among neighbors. Through the brutal Iowa winters, scorching summers, pesticide-thick springs and around-the-clock autumn harvests, a civic bond is vital if the community is to survive. The Iowans are friendly and neighborly; the Lubavitchers rely on their own mishpocheh (family). They are wary
"The Jews are lambs surrounded by 70 wolves," says Rabbi Moishe Feller, a Lubavitcher rabbi in St. Paul who has made dozens of trips to Postville.
"They've got to stick close to each other and to the shepherd at all times." If they stray too far, the rabbi seems to imply, they'll get eaten.
So, that's what was going on the autumn morning seven years ago when Stanley Schroeder first saw the Lubavitcher Jew walking alone along a Postville street, whispering in Hebrew, near the post office.
"I guess he was praying to himself," Schroeder says.
But why did the Lubavitchers pick a place with so many wolves?
"My older brother said I was crazy to move to Iowa, that I was meshugge (crazy)," says Sholom Rubashkin, who runs most of the glatt (kosher) procedures at Agriprocessors. The Lubavitchers are there for a simple reason: It's more profitable to move the slaughterhouse to the cattle than the cattle to the slaughterhouse, as had been done in America for more than a century.
Like two of the most unlikely suitors, the locals and the Lubavitchers went through alternative spells of infatuation and loathing in the beginning. Today, both cultures, so wary and protective at first, have learned to live together. Both realize they need each other to survive.
In a nation where scores of cultures have shed native identities and become a part of the great melting pot, the Lubavitcher Jews in Postville and everywhere else staunchly maintain a separate identity. In a comparison Lubavitchers surely would condemn, many Hasidic tenets are similar to those of the Amish. Both advocate withdrawal from secular society, abstinence from anything powered by electricity or gas (for the Amish, seven days a week; for the Jews, one day), no physical work on the Lord's day or the Sabbath, intense procreation (families of 8 to 10 children are not unusual) and strict domestic roles for women.
Amish might be expected to settle in rural villages miles away from the nearest McDonald's. But ultra-orthodox Jews in the middle of the cornfields of Iowa, where pigs outnumber people 10 to 1?
The vast majority of Jews establish homes in urban centers. Jews are not farmers, and where their ancestors settled shows that. In America, the greatest concentrations of Jews are in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Many say to share a sense of Jewishness means to be a part of a greater community of Jews, a shared experience of values, heritage and history. A nearby kosher deli that serves cheese Danish doesn't hurt, either. But while the Postville IGA hasn't yet added a shelf of Dr. Brown'sCel-ray Tonic, Manischewitz matzos or even Aaron's Best (Agriprocessors' trade name) next to the frozen-food case of pork loins, pork chops and pigs' hooves, for both the Postville locals and the Lubavitchers, the experiment of two opposite cultures living side by side has worked. Some in Postville might even allow that both cultures enjoy each other.
What could have happened in pastoral Postville might have become an allegory of small-town prejudice as two strong and proud cultures met head-on in a collision course. Instead, the saga of Postville is a parable about how rural America learns to survive.
The story, though, could have gone something like this:
A heartland town is on the skids; its population continues to decline as the old die and the young leave. The one cash cow-Hygrade Food Products, the meat-processing plant-closes, and for more than a decade, lies fallow. Real estate prices plummet. The town's only hospital closes because, as the mayor puts it, "We don't have any doctors or any patients."
Then a glimmer of hope appears. A man from Brooklyn expresses muted interest in the abandoned meat-processing plant. For the right price, he will buy it, and-presto!-rejuvenate the town. Yes! say the townspeople.
With the new owner comes a bizarre breed of immigrant-not Iowans, but Jews. For many in Postville who have never ventured outside Iowa, these newcomers are eye-openers. If their religion isn't exotic enough, the foreigners come with dark hats, long coats and an inscrutable language.
They move en masse to tiny Postville; each year, as relatives write relatives about their new lives in the American heartland, more and more come, and within five years, the Lubavitchers make up 10 percent of the population. The numbers, though, don't tell the whole story. The new immigrants, according to Biblical scripture, are fruitful and multiply.
Families of seven, eight children are not unusual. Yet children, the great equalizer, are unable to meld the two disparate cultures; the Jews are proscribed from mingling with their Iowa counterparts. The Hasidim start a separate school. They keep to themselves; the women are not allowed to make eye contact with the locals.
It would be difficult for Postville locals not to come to believe that their land has been taken over by these newcomers. The less charitable assessment from the locals is that not only their land but their lives are being run by the Jews. Small incidents of anti-Semitism start cropping up. A Hasidic Jew is called a "kike" by a carload of teenagers.
Then, a Lubavitcher family wakes up to find a cross burning on its front lawn.
But wait a minute. Stop the film. That isn't the case in Postville. Instead, in events that few in the town would ever have envisioned, Jews and locals are getting along famously. Something strange and serendipitous has happened. Few religious communities today-whether Jewish or not-could be created from scratch in seven or eight years. Fewer secular communities could accept newcomers as wholeheartedly as the Postville people eventually did.
The Postville library last fall received a shipment of books in Hebrew from Minneapolis. Many of the library's Hardy Boys mystery books have been checked out by Lubavitcher families. In September, when the Walker Brothers' Family Circle pulled into town, five Jewish families with almost 30 kids sat under the big top. The Jewish kids giggled just like the gentile kids when a white poodle, dressed in a Batman cape and mask, pranced around on her hind legs. When a mysterious "princess" performed
At Agriprocessors' Hanukkah party last year, when the gentile workers plugged in a tape deck and urged Sholom Rubashkin to dance with the women employees, he quite naturally said he wasn't able to dance with a gentile woman. Rubashkin pulled some of the guys out onto the floor and danced with them, which left all the employees in stitches.
Heshy Rubashkin, Sholom's younger brother, even went water-skiing a couple of summers ago with Kedrick Groth, a young hog farmer.
"The first two years here, I thought I'd go crazy," Sholom Rubashkin says with such a thick New York accent that not even a toddler could confuse it with the crisp diction of an Iowan. Today Sholom Rubashkin is a born-again Iowan.
To see dozens of Jewish men, all in black hats and coats davening (swaying back and forth and praying), and then leaving the Postville shul in single file, with row after row of corn in with what appears to be an endless green and yellow maze of fields on all four sides, stretching for miles and miles, is something to behold. Says Rubashkin: "It really is amazing, baruch ha-Shem (Thank God). It's more than amazing. You feel like you're a pioneer."
Rubashkin, at least for the Postville Jews, has a status akin to that of a venerated rebbe (rabbi)."We've got wonderful, wonderful neighbors," he says. "We don't look down on them. We are honest with everyone. I mean, if you smile at them, they'll smile back."
Maybe it boiled down to who was going to crack the first smile.
Certainly, in the beginning, few would have thought the two cultures would ever have anything to do with each other. If this was going to be a marriage, it was more shotgun than made-in-heaven.
Early on, the locals felt the Lubavitchers snubbed them.
"We're just not used to people coming in here and not wanting to be a part of us," says Schroeder. "Iowans get along with everybody."
Stanley Schroeder should know. His father in 1920 started Schroeder and Schultz Co., Postville's downtown general store.
A small, intense man with eyes that seem to get larger when he's excited, Postville's unofficial historian has amassed 50,000 typewritten pages on Postville's history.
He's got so much Postville history that his wife insisted that Schroeder build an addition onto their 1890's brick house to keep all his papers out of her way.
"I'm from the old school," Schroeder says. "When I walked down the street and I saw them wearing their black beanies and long coats, I'd say 'good morning' or 'hello there,' but they didn't even make eye contact. I'd want to invite them in for some cookies and Kool-Aid, but they didn't want to have anything to do with us." (The reason the Lubavitchers will never take Schroeder up on his Kool-Aid-and-cookies offer is that they can't-unless the Kool-Aid and cookies are kosher and served in a paper cup and on a paper plate.)
Even jovial Rev. Chuck Miller, who until the end of last year led the city's largest church, St. Paul Lutheran, with 1,300 members, and who is a walking billboard for the Will Rogers aphorism "I never met a man I didn't like," was miffed at the Lubavitchers at first.
For the first seven years, none of the Hasidic rabbis in Postville ever called Miller. None had deigned to introduce himself, and when Miller sought to establish a sort of ecumenical summit, he wasn't able to get a single rabbi to talk to him-until last July when Miller's phone rang in the church rectory. It wasn't much, maybe a five-minute conversation, just a tte--tte about a vexing Biblical question between two clerics who read the same book and pray to the same God.
When the Lubavitchers first started arriving in Postville, Miller says, more than a few parishioners came up to him and asked him to "do something about the Jews taking over this God-fearing town."As time went on, about every fourth sermon Miller delivered stressed humility and tolerance.
Miller says he left Postville recently for a smaller Wisconsin church for personal reasons. Last Thanksgiving, though, he set out to actualize his dream of an ecumenical summit. With clergy from Postville's other two churches, Miller invited the Lubavitchers to a community service-a Postville event that's been going on for as long as anyone in those parts can remember.
Miller first proposed holding the meeting at the high school gymnasium, because he figured the Jews would not set foot in a church. Then he was told that as long as the service was not in a sanctuary, it could be held under his church roof. So the service was shifted to St. Paul's fellowship hall. Then late word came that none of the Lubavitchers could attend.
It was like the Pilgrims planning a big Thanksgiving shindig, going out of their way to be civil to the Indians-only to be slighted at the last minute when the Indians pull out.
"The Jewish community always had a reason not to come," Miller says. "What they were really saying was, 'We aren't interested.' But that's who they are. They are going to maintain their identity by always keeping their walls up."
Ironically, it was migration of a different kind, many years before the Jews starting settling in Postville, that caused a similar uproar here.
There were so many German Lutherans migrs in Postville in the first half of the century that until the mid-1950s church services were conducted entirely in German. With each cancellation of another German-language service, older members of the community would complain to the Lutheran pastor. But as more younger American-born families moved in, pressure increased to discontinue the German services and replace them with English liturgies.
Today, the heart of this community is the kosher meat processing plant, which employs almost 250, both Jews and non-Jews. Postville is pressing to annex the land on which the plant is located (300 feet from the city line), which would increase control the city has over the slaughterhouse. Annexation also would create additional tax revenue for the city. Postville Mayor John Hyman was swept into office two years ago on a single campaign promise: Let the voters decide in a referendum whether to
The Lubavitchers say, in no uncertain terms, that if Agriprocessors is annexed, they'll leave. Rubashkin says annexation would kill the kosher goose that lays Postville's golden eggs.
"If you are annexed, you have to live by the law of the city," says Rubashkin. "We never would have come here if the plant was within the city limits. Packing-houses don't belong in cities."
"When we want to build something, we build it," says Agriprocessors' plant manager, Don Hunt, of the advantage of the company's current status. "At the end of the year, the county sends us a form, and we tell them what we've done."
Hunt says Agriprocessors wants to expand and create as many as 85 jobs, but if the city annexes the land, Agriprocessors will entertain offers from other states that "would provide us with incentives to move there."
"Our community is hemmed in now," Mayor Hyman says. "We need to expand, but if they moved out, our community would die. It'll bounce back, but it'll take time."
One councilman, Fred Comeau, says Postville ought to forget all this talk about annexation. He said a city consultant found that Agriprocessors paid $623,000 over a nine-month period to 41 small local businesses for construction, plumbing, heating and electrical work. "For every dollar of payroll, it turns over seven times," says Comeau. "When Hygrade left town, we had 40 to 50 houses up for sale, he says, and if Agriprocessors left, it would mean a significant loss for the city in retail
Beneath all the posturing, the issue is control. Some Postville locals say their feet are getting uncomfortably hot being held so close to the fire, which both they and their Hasidic newcomers helped ignite when Agriprocessors was so warmly welcomed here seven years ago.
"Those people think they're outside the law," says Gordon Lawson, the retired owner of the local Ford tractor dealership and member of the city's Board of Adjustment.
"They go ahead and do what they please. They've threatened dozens of times to move out. They just don't have the ability to sit down and listen. No one gets very far with threats. If you won't listen, how're you going to learn? They've slipped around regulations. They've built a new home without following any procedures-no plotting or submitting plans to the city. They don't follow procedures. They just do it-and everyone else be damned!"
Certainly there's a lingering sentiment that the Jews have been fantastically successful at the slaughtering house, whereas the previous owners, good ole' Iowa boys, failed miserably. Unlike Hygrade, which paid union wages, Rubashkin starts his line workers at $5.75 an hour. No one pretends that the work is neat, pretty or very remunerative.
Equally certainly, though, with an estimated $80 million a year in gross sales, Agriprocessors generates huge amounts of money, and where the money goes-back into the plant, into the community, to other Rubashkin enterprises, to Brooklyn-is unknown because the business is privately owned. Rubashkin says it's bad luck-others say bad politics-to "talk numbers." He has started a real estate firm, called Nevel Properties, which actually owns many of the homes that the Lubavitchers live in, saysComeau's wife, Karen Kugel, a real estate agent with Postville's Community First Agency. The Lubavitchers, she says, go for larger-style Postville homes, which sell for $46,000 to $49,000.
Many people in Postville seem to believe that if a referendum were to take place, it would be handily defeated.
Most of the problems that crop up center on cultural differences. Iowans, many say, have a profound sense of order. When spring comes around, lawns are mowed and edged, errant leaves are whisked off yards; in winter, snowy front walks often are shoveled before the snow stops falling. But because few Lubavitchers knew what a yard of lush grass was back in Brooklyn or Russia, hardly any Hasids ever had pushed a lawn mower, and some of their lawns in Postville looked it. To many Hasidic Jews shoveling snow is as alien as eating glazed ham. But today, as long as it's not Saturday, Jews are learning to deal with the suburban albatross that goes along with owning a home.
Reserved Iowans are loathe to attract attention. Yet last Hanukkah, one Lubavitcher erected a six-foot menorah atop his car and drove it up and down Postville streets for the eight days of the holiday. Postville natives didn't quite know how to react, except to shake their heads.
In their first years in town, when a Lubavitcher got behind the wheel of a car, many residents would run for cover. Few of the newcomers had owned or driven a car before. They made U-turns in the center of town and drove up on the curb. One Lubavitcher parked in the center of Lawler Street and left her car there for the afternoon. The driving has improved, but many still don't have drivers' licenses or register their cars.
Lubavitcher men, as Stanley Schroeder could not help noticing that first day, do not wear standard Postville garb: Oshkosh or Ben Davis overalls. Since almost all the Lubavitchers work in the kosher meat-processing plant, many walk around town with large white aprons, splattered with blood. Almost all have beards and payess (sidelocks of hair). The women wear calf-length dresses and take special care to cover their arms with long sleeves. Many shave their heads or clip their hair short enough
On Saturday, the Sabbath, no electricity may be used, stoves must not be lighted, telephones must not be used, cars must not be driven, certain medicines may not be taken. For the truly observant, objects may not be carried on their person. Tearing a piece of paper along an unperforated edge is proscribed.
The Lubavitchers' worldwide population is estimated at 200,000, with about 25,000 living near the sect's world headquarters, a 50-block area in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. Their movement is the largest of some 40 Hasidic groups that began in the 18th Century as a populist response and revivalist movement aimed at alienated Jewish peasants in Russia. It spread through Eastern Europe shtetls (communities), and centered on a circle of charismatic, mystical enthusiasts. Its faith is anchored in the return of the Messiah, now presumed to be Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh in a dynastic lineage of Lubavitcher leaders. Schneerson died in Crown Heights on June 12, 1994.
Each Jewish home in Postville has the obligatory mezuza (scriptural scroll) on each doorpost. Shabbos (Sabbath) candles are lit at exactly sundown (the daily times are listed in Lubavitcher calendars hanging in all Hasidic homes). At least one picture of the revered Rebbe Schneerson hangs in each house. Shabbos dinners are happy, often outrageous Friday night events, where families eat and kibitz over tray after tray of food lovingly prepared all week long by a bevy of Jewish women.
With a minyan (quorum) of 10 men, observant Hasids pray three times daily in the shul.
Shabbos dinner and prayer, though, do not a Lubavitcher community make. The Postville Lubavitchers did exactly what pioneers of the American West did when lighting out to parts unknown: After establishing work for the men, they created a house of worship for their families, and then opened a school for their children.
The Lubavitchers also converted a two-car garage on William Street, just off Lawler, into the ceremonial bath house -an absolute necessity for Hasidic women. During menstruation and for seven days afterward, a wife and husband are proscribed from touching-or even passing a plate-until the wife purifies herself.
"We used to have to drive all the way to Rochester (Minnesota, about 90 miles) every month, and in the winter, with all the snow-Oy, was that ever a problem!" says Leah Rubashkin, Sholom's wife.
The Lubavitchers bought the most expensive house in town, a majestic 1887 Victorian mansion, formerly a Sears mail-order house, and converted it into a shul, where 15 single Hasidic men live. In the basement, they constructed a mikvah for men to use before prayer.
To accommodate Postville's 50 Hasidic children, the Lubavitchers leased the basement of city hall, which used to be the Community Hospital, and two years ago set up a yeshiva for both religious and secular education. The Rubashkin family helped recruit three rabbis, who now teach at the school.
Even with the necessities in place, one would think the culture shock for the Jews would be severe. Postville and Brooklyn are probably more opposite than Nome and Miami. A pet in these parts is a pig, heifer or a calf. Public transportation means hopping in the back of your neighbor's pickup truck. To see a movie, you have to drive 30 miles.
Postville is the kind of place where every phone in town has the same prefix (864), and no one would ever use a telephone-answering machine, certainly at home. In New York, people place signs on their locked car windows that read, "No radio." In Postville, people leave the radio playing and their keys in the car when they run out to get a Slurpy at Casey's.
On a planet where more people recognize a Big Mac than Big Ben, Postville proudly claims not a single fast-food restaurant. Of course, there's absolutely no way the Lubavitchers would ever set foot in such places. They didn't move to Iowa to mix with the Goyim. Indeed, the Lubavitchers have waged holy war against assimilation, a Jewish trend that Lubavitchers liken to "the spiritual holocaust." Coming from a place where, if not on every corner, every street had a shul, when the Lubavitchers arrived in Postville, they were like gefilte fish out of brine jelly. But it didn't make any difference to them. They were on a mission.
"If you are committed to your faith, there is no culture shock," says Rabbi Feller. "Postville and Crown Heights are one and the same."
Maybe that's true for the Jews, but not for the locals. Sharon Drahn, editor of the weekly Postville Herald-Leader, says that during the first years, lots of gentile eyebrows were raised. The reactions did not have to do with the new settlers being Jewish, but more with their being outsiders. Five years ago, when a 34-year-old Lubavitcher worker was walking downtown on a Friday night, a car sped by and someone shouted, "Heil, Hitler!"
Back in 1993, Rubashkin and other machers (bigwigs) in the Lubavitch community knew they needed to do something to inform the gentile community just what its new neighbors were like. So they called on St. Paul-based Rabbi Manis Friedman, a star in the international Lubavitcher community, and then set up a community meeting.
Something astonishing happened: More than 200 people showed up. Rabbi Friedman, who sported a fedora and a long gray beard, tried out some jokes. Friedman kibitzed that normally when you have two people, you have two opinions. But with Jews, he said, when you have two people you have three opinions.
Many in the audience shifted uncomfortably. They didn't know what the heck to do. Someone asked whether Jews need more than one synagogue to practice their faith.
"There must be two synagogues, so we can boycott one of them," Friedman cracked. Welcome to Jewish Humor 101.
Friedman's shtick worked eventually, but it also underscored the fact that these Jews and their leaders were like no one Postville had seen before.
Since Hasidic boys and girls are not allowed to swim together, to use the town's public pool requires all gentiles to leave, and then a separate swim hour for each sex must be arranged. None of the 467 students enrolled in Postville's kindergarten-8th-grade school is Hasidic.
"We've asked that the Hasidic children play on our playground," says Postville K-8 Principal Daryl Bachtell. "But the answer is always no."
Last May, Bachtell had a brainstorm. He planned to show Postville students a video about the new Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. A day before the show, he had a thought: Why not invite the children from the yeshiva?
Alas, the request was turned down. There was no way Hasidic kids could mingle with both boys and girls.
Still, Bachtell's charge is to serve all students, not just those enrolled in his school. In fact, the district has much to gain by increasing student enrollment in Postville, whether at the public schools or the yeshiva. The district supplies the yeshiva with desks, books, pencils and workbooks-and in return the district earns about $2,000 per student.
With 50 students in the Yeshiva, that means a windfall for the district of $100,000.
Editor Drahn, in the best small-town journalism tradition, has used her newspaper as a town crier. The Herald-Leader is located in a storefront downtown, and last December, Drahn placed a Christmas tree in one window and a menorah in the other.
Drahn's own version of hell would be living in a city like Chicago or New York. She loves small-town living. The largest urban area she's ever lived in was Iowa City (population: 60,000), where the University of Iowa is located.
"When we moved to Iowa City, you'd have to scrape my jaw from the floor. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I'd never seen so many colors, races, nationalities."
But now Drahn has come to see a little of that diversity in Postville, and she likes it: "We've got Ukrainians, Hispanics, Russians, Israelis, New Yorkers, all in this tiny town," she says. "I mean, who'd ever think it?"
While the Postville telephone book is getting thicker, not all the Lubavitchers come from far away. Martin Appel, a University of Iowa statistics professor with a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University, commutes the 130 miles from his university office to his home in Postville. Appel is married to Beth, a blue-eyed, blond Christian convert from Lincoln, Neb.
No matter how accustomed Postville locals are to the Lubavitchers, the members of Stanley Schroeder's coffee klatch, which meets every morning at the local bakery, still talk about the newcomers. One thing that still sticks in the craw of many is a 1991 crime spree involving two Postville Hasidic youths.
Pinchas Lew and Phillip Stillman, both Agriprocessors workers, brandished a .357-magnum revolver and held up a pop corn vendor in the nearby town of Ossian. They then held up a convenience store in Decorah.
As the clerk, a 50-year-old grandmother, rang a silent alarm, Stillman shot her. The women, who was critically injured, eventually recovered from the gunshot wound.
The two young men, easily spotted by the police in a lopsided car without license plates, were convicted. Lew, who drove the getaway car, was sentenced to 10 years. Stillman, the shooter, was sentenced to 55 years.
In a town where residents keep their doors unlocked, the incident was the worst crime anyone can remember.
Certainly, no one makes allowances for such lawlessness, but life for Hasids in Postville or anywhere else is akin to living in a nation within a nation. Hasidic culture sets itself apart from American culture, and for that matter, from mainstream Judaism. Hasidism carries its own deeply instilled history and myths, its indelible, almost-impossible-to-attain schema of how to lead a righteous life, to be a tzaddik (righteous man). There are thousands of codes to pass along from generation to generation, sacred obligations due in part to the particular history of the Jews. The Jews have been expelled from community after community. They have been hunted, murdered, the victims of unspeakable pogroms. They have always sought redemption as
Caption:
PHOTO (color): Postville, Iowa, was dying until the guys from Brooklyn made the slaughterhouse hum and the locals jumpy. A story of the new wave of Heartland immigration. (Sunday Magazine, Cover.)
PHOTOS (color): Lubavitcher Jews (above) gather outside the shul for Sabbath services in Postville, Iowa, the town to which they have brought new prosperity and diversity.
PHOTO (color): Despite their cultural differences, locals such as Lynn Thompson (left) and Lubavitcher Rabbi Jacob Klein have learned to work together compatibly in the meatpacking plant.
PHOTO (color): Rabbi Pincus Krieger, a teacher in Postville's yeshiva, oversees Hebrew classwork of students Chaim Arye Rubashkin (left) and Chaim Shimon Dubov.
PHOTO (color): Stanley Schroeder is Postville's unofficial historian. In 1920 his father opened a general store in the town. Photographs by John Kimmich.
PHOTO: Asian Hmong kids in Wisconsin have boarded the bus to assimilation. AP photo
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Woman shot has yet to see a dime: A Chapel Hill rabbi was ordered in a civil lawsuit to pay the Iowa victim more than $1.4 million
by JAMES MILLER abc@herald-sun.com
Herald-Sun, The (Durham, NC) - May 18, 2001
Marion Bakken was a 49-year-old grandmother working the register of an Iowa convenience store when a young hood from Brooklyn shot her in a botched holdup.
The shooter was convicted and remains behind bars. The man who drove the getaway car received probation but was ordered in a civil lawsuit to pay Bakken more than $1.4 million.
On Thursday, Bakken, now 60, said she has yet to see a dime from the driver that night: a 22-year-old rabbinical student named Pinchas Lew, now the director of Chapel Hill Chabad House, a Hasidic outreach center serving college students.
"No, he hasn't paid anything to me, and I never expected anything," Bakken said in a telephone interview. "He never said he was sorry - nothing."
Bakken's story, and Lew's role in it, has become a subject of controversy locally since the publication last year of author Stephen G. Bloom's "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America."
Bloom describes the tension between longtime residents of the town and members of the Orthodox Lubavitcher Hasidim, who bought a meatpacking plant there and turned it into a kosher slaughterhouse.
That tension climaxed, according to "Postville," with the 1991 robbery that left Bakken with a .38-caliber slug lodged next to her spine.
On Wednesday, the Chapel Hill-Durham Jewish Federation held a meeting at Duke's Freeman Center for Jewish Life to allow Lew to tell his side of the story.
The Federation barred reporters from the meeting, and Lew refused to discuss the incident with The Herald-Sun, except to say Thursday, "I'm not going to discuss the details of what I consider to be a legal matter that the book represents in an incorrect way."
The man who fired the shot, Phillip Stillman, was convicted of attempted murder and first-degree robbery. He is incarcerated in Iowa's North Central Correctional Facility with a tentative discharge date of May 23, 2019, according to Iowa state penitentiary records.
Lew, whose $200,000 bond was paid by a Hasidic organization in Brooklyn, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony. He served one day of a 10-year prison sentence, before receiving five years of probation.
Lew's light sentence, handed down in March 1993, surprised even his accomplice's court-appointed attorney, who said he thought Lew had been given a "pass," Bloom writes.
Bakken hit back with the civil suit. On March 18, 1994, a jury returned a verdict that ordered Lew to pay her and her husband, Arlin, $1.43 million plus 10 percent annual interest.
Lew would have made a portion of his payments through district court in Winneshiek County, Iowa, clerk's designee Kim Glock said.
"No payments have come through us," he said.
Bakken said she was not certain whether her attorney continues to seek restitution payments.
The Bakkens' attorney did not return calls on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Bakken said she still suffers from the gunshot injury.
"I have my good days and bad days - more bad," she said. "The back hurts, and the legs get numb if I stand for a long time."
Although many who listened to Lew on Wednesday said the meeting created necessary dialogue, some said the rabbi didn't answer all their questions.
"This is obviously the first time Pinchas Lew has addressed the community about something difficult in his past," said Lew Borman, executive director of the Jewish Federation. "I wished he had been more forthcoming on some of the issues that were discussed."
Lubavitcher Hasidim are an Orthodox Jewish group. The Jewish Federation, which is an umbrella group for Chapel Hill and Durham's Jewish organizations, does not fund the Chapel Hill Chabad House, Borman said.
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Rabbi's criminal record raises questions in community
by Yonat Shimron; Staff Writer
The News & Observer - May 18, 2001
CHAPEL HILL -- A rabbi who was convicted of a felony 10 years ago said Thursday that he intends to stay in town and minister to students on the University of North Carolina campus.
Pinchas Lew, known as Pinny, has faced growing criticism this past month from the Jewish community after the discovery of his involvement in an attempted armed robbery.
Lew acknowledged his role as the get-away driver in an armed robbery that took place in Decorah, Iowa. In the course of that robbery, a convenience store clerk was shot but survived.
Lew, a Hasidic rabbi, part of the Orthodox Jewish sect known as Lubavitch, lives in a house on Park Place called Chabad where he conducts services and teaches about Judaism.
The Jewish community learned of his past through a recently published book, "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America," by Stephen G. Bloom. The book describes the interactions between members of the rural Iowa community and a group of Lubavitch Jews who worked at a kosher slaughterhouse they own on the outskirts of town. Two chapters in the book describe the crime in which Lew's accomplice, Phillip Stillman, robbed a retired schoolteacher and later a convenience store on Aug. 27, 1991. Lew was 22 at the time.
Lew pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but a judge reversed the ruling and placed him on five years' probation. Lew had no previous criminal record.
"I apologize for it happening," Lew said Thursday. "I apologize for not telling people about it. I felt it was embarrassing for me to tell them, which is why I didn't."
Members of the Jewish community called him to a meeting Wednesday night in which they asked questions about his involvement in the incident. Many were interested to know whether Lew had paid the $1.6 million he owes the shooting victim in damages as part of a civil suit.
But the meeting did not accomplish its goal of healing. Several members of the Jewish community said they didn't feel Lew answered the question about restitution directly.
"That's a key issue that was not addressed," said Art Werner, the president of the Durham-Chapel Hill Federation. "People are frustrated that they're not getting an answer."
The Jewish community has no authority over the rabbi, who was chosen for the job by his New York-based Lubavitch group.
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Questions remain about rabbi's run-in with law
by Dave Hart; Staff Writer
The Chapel Hill News - May 20, 2001
CHAPEL HILL -- Some members of the local Jewish community want more definitive answers from a rabbi who was involved in an armed robbery 10 years ago.
Pinchas Lew, a Hasidic rabbi in the Lubavitch sect of Orthodox Judaism, serves as director of Chabad House, a Hasidic center that ministers to UNC students.
Lew pleaded guilty in 1994 to driving the getaway car in a 1991 Iowa convenience store robbery that left a woman wounded with a bullet in her back. He had no previous criminal record, and a judge reduced his original 10-year prison sentence to five years' probation.
A separate civil judgment directed Lew to pay the victim $1.6 million. According to recent reports and a book published last year that detailed the incident, the woman has not received any of that restitution.
At a meeting Wednesday night in Durham, Lew talked about the incident with some 100 members of the Jewish Federation of Chapel Hill and Durham.
"We heard Rabbi Lew say a number of things, and we have a lot to sort through," said Lew Borman, executive director of the federation. "Opinions are diverse. I'm sure it's very difficult to come forward and talk about things like this, but he wanted the opportunity to talk with us. I think some people would agree that there are some issues that need further explanation, and I believe he'll continue to address members of the community."
Some participants said they were satisfied with Lew's comments and expressed support for him.
Others hoped he would provide a more detailed explanation of the restitution question.
"I think there's still a good deal of frustration among a number of people because he never really answered the questions regarding what he's done to satisfy the financial judgment to the woman in Iowa," said Art Werner, president of the federation. "It came up repeatedly, and his response was always, 'I have satisfied all my legal obligations.'
"But there was no definite answer to 'Have you paid the woman? If not, do you intend to? Have you started the process?' I think the most common view was probably that people expect him to make good to this woman and to be in the process of doing that. There's some frustration with the vague responses we heard."
Phone calls Friday to Lew and the victim, Marion Bakken, were not returned.
The incident in Iowa has been public record ever since it occurred, but few, if any, local members of the community knew of it until the publication last year of "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America" by Stephen G. Bloom, a professor at the University of Iowa.
The book concerns the tensions in a small Iowa town between longtime residents and a newer population of Orthodox Lubavitcher Hasidim. Part of "Postville" describes the 1991 robbery, in which a man named Phillip Stillman robbed and shot Bakken, and Lew, then a 22-year old rabbinical student, drove the getaway car.
The Chabad-Lubavitch center in New York knew of the incident when it appointed Lew to the Chapel Hill position in 1997, said Rabbi Yoseph Groner of the Chabad Lubavitch of Charlotte.
"He was thoroughly examined, and he didn't try to hide it," said Groner, who supported Lew's appointment. "The people working with him felt he had changed his life and made a profound commitment and proved himself. He's become very spiritual, and he is remorseful. I think the incident itself was one of the reasons he chose this life, why he chose to become a rabbi and live a life of service and benefit to society."
Groner said he continues to support Lew.
"We believe very strongly in forgiveness, in repentance and intent," he said. "I can understand why there is some concern, and I would encourage him to speak openly and discuss this. He made a mistake in associating with the people he associated with at that time, but people who make mistakes have a right to change.
"People should judge him on who he is. And Rabbi Lew is an excellent person."
As for what happens next, members of the Jewish Federation said that's up to Lew. The federation is an umbrella organization serving a number of Jewish organizations in the area; it has no authority to take any sort of action regarding Lew or Chabad House.
"We're not a court of law," Werner said. "If he wants to meet with us again and answer some of these questions, that would be terrific. But the ball is definitely in his court."
by Dave Hart; Staff Writer
The Chapel Hill News - May 20, 2001
CHAPEL HILL -- Some members of the local Jewish community want more definitive answers from a rabbi who was involved in an armed robbery 10 years ago.
Pinchas Lew, a Hasidic rabbi in the Lubavitch sect of Orthodox Judaism, serves as director of Chabad House, a Hasidic center that ministers to UNC students.
Lew pleaded guilty in 1994 to driving the getaway car in a 1991 Iowa convenience store robbery that left a woman wounded with a bullet in her back. He had no previous criminal record, and a judge reduced his original 10-year prison sentence to five years' probation.
A separate civil judgment directed Lew to pay the victim $1.6 million. According to recent reports and a book published last year that detailed the incident, the woman has not received any of that restitution.
At a meeting Wednesday night in Durham, Lew talked about the incident with some 100 members of the Jewish Federation of Chapel Hill and Durham.
"We heard Rabbi Lew say a number of things, and we have a lot to sort through," said Lew Borman, executive director of the federation. "Opinions are diverse. I'm sure it's very difficult to come forward and talk about things like this, but he wanted the opportunity to talk with us. I think some people would agree that there are some issues that need further explanation, and I believe he'll continue to address members of the community."
Some participants said they were satisfied with Lew's comments and expressed support for him.
Others hoped he would provide a more detailed explanation of the restitution question.
"I think there's still a good deal of frustration among a number of people because he never really answered the questions regarding what he's done to satisfy the financial judgment to the woman in Iowa," said Art Werner, president of the federation. "It came up repeatedly, and his response was always, 'I have satisfied all my legal obligations.'
"But there was no definite answer to 'Have you paid the woman? If not, do you intend to? Have you started the process?' I think the most common view was probably that people expect him to make good to this woman and to be in the process of doing that. There's some frustration with the vague responses we heard."
Phone calls Friday to Lew and the victim, Marion Bakken, were not returned.
The incident in Iowa has been public record ever since it occurred, but few, if any, local members of the community knew of it until the publication last year of "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America" by Stephen G. Bloom, a professor at the University of Iowa.
The book concerns the tensions in a small Iowa town between longtime residents and a newer population of Orthodox Lubavitcher Hasidim. Part of "Postville" describes the 1991 robbery, in which a man named Phillip Stillman robbed and shot Bakken, and Lew, then a 22-year old rabbinical student, drove the getaway car.
The Chabad-Lubavitch center in New York knew of the incident when it appointed Lew to the Chapel Hill position in 1997, said Rabbi Yoseph Groner of the Chabad Lubavitch of Charlotte.
"He was thoroughly examined, and he didn't try to hide it," said Groner, who supported Lew's appointment. "The people working with him felt he had changed his life and made a profound commitment and proved himself. He's become very spiritual, and he is remorseful. I think the incident itself was one of the reasons he chose this life, why he chose to become a rabbi and live a life of service and benefit to society."
Groner said he continues to support Lew.
"We believe very strongly in forgiveness, in repentance and intent," he said. "I can understand why there is some concern, and I would encourage him to speak openly and discuss this. He made a mistake in associating with the people he associated with at that time, but people who make mistakes have a right to change.
"People should judge him on who he is. And Rabbi Lew is an excellent person."
As for what happens next, members of the Jewish Federation said that's up to Lew. The federation is an umbrella organization serving a number of Jewish organizations in the area; it has no authority to take any sort of action regarding Lew or Chabad House.
"We're not a court of law," Werner said. "If he wants to meet with us again and answer some of these questions, that would be terrific. But the ball is definitely in his court."
___________________________________________________________________________________
Chapel Hill rabbi confronts his past before community he serves
by Yonat Shimron
The News & Observer - May 20, 2001
Rabbi Pinchas Lew took a full year to plan his move from Brooklyn to Chapel Hill. He packed up his books, his clothes, his computer - and his past.
In Chapel Hill, he planned to start a new life, and, in the process, the first Orthodox Jewish center for students and community members near the University of North Carolina campus. The Lubavitcher religious establishment gave him its blessing. In return, he planned to prove to it, and to anyone else who cared, that he was a good, capable and trustworthy religious leader.
But three years later, Lew's carefully packed secret is out. Now it threatens his entire enterprise.
Since earlier this year, fellow Jews have begun to whisper. Copies of a new book that details what he has called "the skeleton in my closet" have changed numerous hands. And people have called on Triangle rabbis asking whether Lew is fit to counsel students.
This past week, things came to a head. The Durham-Chapel Hill Jewish Federation called him to a public meeting to explain his past. Does he acknowledge that 10 years ago he sat behind the wheel of a getaway car in an armed robbery in Iowa that resulted in the shooting of a 49-year old woman? More important, is he repentant, and has he made restitution for the crime?
For Lew, who is married and has five young children, the events of the past week have been painful. Community members acknowledge he has worked hard to create a viable Orthodox Jewish presence in Chapel Hill, opening his home to students, cooking meals, conducting services, teaching about the faith.
"There's nothing in my character or actions that would make people want to wonder what I did in my life," said Lew, who is 31 and goes by the name of Pinny.
But the past will not go away, no matter how hard he wishes it would.
###
A revealing book:
Before the book came out, Lew could offer his own version of the events of Sept. 27, 1991, if anyone asked. Now they have been cast in painstaking detail by a professor of journalism at the University of Iowa.
In "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America," author Stephen G. Bloom describes the social collision between the mostly Lutheran residents of Postville, Iowa, and the Lubavitcher Jews who opened a kosher slaughterhouse and meatpacking plant on the outskirts of town.
Two chapters toward the end of the book describe a crime involving Pinny Lew, the son of a prominent Lubavitcher rabbi in London, and his onetime friend, Phillip Stillman:
Two days after Lew's 22nd birthday, he and Stillman borrowed a 1986 Oldsmobile and headed to a liquor store to pick up some beer, according to the book. They then removed the license plate and, with Lew in the driver's seat, drove to the town of Ossian. When they arrived, Stillman pulled out a .357-caliber Colt on a retired schoolteacher working a popcorn stand and demanded his coins and bills. Stillman and Lew then headed farther north to Decorah. There, at the Petro-n-Provisions convenience store, Stillman took a sandwich to the counter and asked the clerk how much it was.
"Two dollars and 10 cents," said the clerk, a woman named Marion Bakken.
Short by 10 cents, Stillman went back to the car and returned wearing a jacket. He then faced Bakken and, pointing his .357, demanded the contents of the cash register. In an interview last week, Bakken said that when she moved to press the silent alarm under the counter, Stillman shot her. The bullet traveled through her liver and kidney and lodged in her spine. Stillman and Lew took off.
When police caught up with them, the Lubavitcher community went to work. Lew, who had no previous record and was well-regarded within the Lubavitcher community in New York, was mailed $200,000 - enough to allow him to post bond. Stillman, who had a long criminal record, was abandoned.
In a plea agreement, before the selection of a jury, Lew agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Later the judge reconsidered the sentence and placed Lew on five years' probation.
During that time, Lew married, traveled to Israel and England, and was ordained a rabbi. Stillman, who confessed to the crimes, was sentenced to 55 years in prison. He remains behind bars.
Prosecutor Karl Knudson said that the book's account is accurate, but Lew denies the author's version, calling it "distorted" and a "trashy tabloid." While admitting that he drove the car during the incident, Lew says he knew nothing of the shooting. He says he was simply giving his friend a ride.
"I knew him for two weeks," Lew said. "I did not know he was going to do what he did. I was just trying to help him, talk to him, reach out to him."
One detail Lew has not forgotten is the phrase scrawled on the wall of his cell the night he was arrested: "Welcome to your nightmare."
Ten years later, Lew is facing yet another nightmare.
###
Forcing the issue:
After receiving numerous inquiries from fellow Jews, Rabbi Steven Sager of Durham's Beth El Synagogue paid Lew a visit and urged him to come forward and answer the questions festering in people's hearts. Last week, Lew finally agreed.
He arrived at the Freeman Center for Jewish Life on the Duke University campus, wearing a suit and striped tie, with his wife, (Name removed), and their youngest child at his side. About 100 members of the Jewish community turned out to hear his story.
It was not an easy night.
Lew's wife took the platform first, her baby strapped in a pouch on her chest. She thanked the 100 people who had come out to the meeting, saying she had received many calls of support all week. Next came Rabbi Sager, who asked the group to listen with a compassionate ear and repeated some of the questions people wanted Lew to answer.
Starting out in a soft voice, Lew began reading his prepared text. But the microphone wasn't working and several people in the audience called out, "We can't hear you!" The sound was turned up, and he began again. Lew apologized for the incident and then invited questions. Few, however, were interested in the details of the crime.
For members of the Jewish community there were two main issues. Had Lew repented and sought "teshuva," which in Hebrew means a turning inward in self-examination? And had he paid restitution to Marion Bakken, the victim of the robbery?
"Have you apologized to the woman who was shot?" someone asked.
"Would 'sorry' have changed anything?" he responded.
The crowd pressed the issue, wanting to know if he had made an attempt to pay the $1.4 million awarded Marion Bakken in a civil suit. (Lew never attended the proceedings of the civil suit, filed on behalf of Bakken.)
Lew gave several answers.
"I never plan to make that kind of money."
"It's nobody's business."
And finally, "I'm in compliance with my responsibilities."
Sam Levine, a professor of chemistry at N.C. State, took it a step further. "Are you in compliance with the Jewish concept of repentance?
"You ought to know that we in the audience are hoping to hear some kind of concrete description of what you have done by way of teshuva," he said. "We don't have a feel for what you've done."
Lew repeated that he was in compliance. But many members of the audience were not convinced.
"What's so abhorrent to us is that he did not have any human reaction to anything in his history," Levine said later. "This is so upsetting to us. I have tears in my eyes when I say this, but we feel he is not a mensch (a truly good human being)."
In an interview last week, Lew said he had apologized to Bakken but admitted he has not paid her.
"There was a judgment that said I owed the money," Lew said. "They never came to me with instructions on how I should pay it, to whom, in what increments and to what address."
Still, Lew says he intends to pay:
"I don't feel I owe her the money because of what I did," he said. "I owe her the money because of the court of law. And I intend to pay it."
Bakken, who walks with a limp and suffers pain down the length of her leg as a result of the shooting, said Lew never apologized.
"He has never apologized, and he has never paid any restitution," she said. "I don't expect to get any."
###
Here to stay:
Pinny Lew plans to stay in Chapel Hill and minister to students and community members in Chapel Hill. That much he's decided.
His senior colleague, Yossi Groner, the first Lubavitcher rabbi in the Carolinas, supports him in that decision. "People make mistakes, but they have the chance and the right to turn around and make something of themselves," said Groner, who works in Charlotte.
Lew might know something else, too. Even if his past had never come out, life in Chapel Hill would never have been easy. As a Lubavitcher, Lew is a minority within a minority, a devoutly Orthodox Jew living in a small but liberal Jewish community - a community that doesn't think highly of Lubavitch.
But in three years he has made some inroads. Those who have attended services in his home, or sent their children to study Torah with him, say Lew is a warm and caring person who is eager to help out.
They mention small acts of kindness, such as the time he took roast chicken to a dying member of the community or promptly visited a Jewish prisoner in jail. And that, say some members of the community, may be his own way of making up for the misdeeds of his past.
"He's done outstanding things for people in a kind, understanding and open way," said Leslie Balkany, a supporter who works at the Ackland Art Museum on campus.
As for the Jewish community, even if it wanted to do something about Lew, it could not. The community has no authority over him and neither does the University of North Carolina. He is paid by the Lubavitch organization that sent him.
The Jewish community - so embarrassed by the incident that it closed the meeting to reporters - and Lew will have to learn to live with one another.
"I don't think the journey is over," said Dr. Adam Goldstein, a member of the community. "There's a lot of healing for him and for the community."
by Yonat Shimron
The News & Observer - May 20, 2001
Rabbi Pinchas Lew took a full year to plan his move from Brooklyn to Chapel Hill. He packed up his books, his clothes, his computer - and his past.
In Chapel Hill, he planned to start a new life, and, in the process, the first Orthodox Jewish center for students and community members near the University of North Carolina campus. The Lubavitcher religious establishment gave him its blessing. In return, he planned to prove to it, and to anyone else who cared, that he was a good, capable and trustworthy religious leader.
But three years later, Lew's carefully packed secret is out. Now it threatens his entire enterprise.
Since earlier this year, fellow Jews have begun to whisper. Copies of a new book that details what he has called "the skeleton in my closet" have changed numerous hands. And people have called on Triangle rabbis asking whether Lew is fit to counsel students.
This past week, things came to a head. The Durham-Chapel Hill Jewish Federation called him to a public meeting to explain his past. Does he acknowledge that 10 years ago he sat behind the wheel of a getaway car in an armed robbery in Iowa that resulted in the shooting of a 49-year old woman? More important, is he repentant, and has he made restitution for the crime?
For Lew, who is married and has five young children, the events of the past week have been painful. Community members acknowledge he has worked hard to create a viable Orthodox Jewish presence in Chapel Hill, opening his home to students, cooking meals, conducting services, teaching about the faith.
"There's nothing in my character or actions that would make people want to wonder what I did in my life," said Lew, who is 31 and goes by the name of Pinny.
But the past will not go away, no matter how hard he wishes it would.
###
A revealing book:
Before the book came out, Lew could offer his own version of the events of Sept. 27, 1991, if anyone asked. Now they have been cast in painstaking detail by a professor of journalism at the University of Iowa.
In "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America," author Stephen G. Bloom describes the social collision between the mostly Lutheran residents of Postville, Iowa, and the Lubavitcher Jews who opened a kosher slaughterhouse and meatpacking plant on the outskirts of town.
Two chapters toward the end of the book describe a crime involving Pinny Lew, the son of a prominent Lubavitcher rabbi in London, and his onetime friend, Phillip Stillman:
Two days after Lew's 22nd birthday, he and Stillman borrowed a 1986 Oldsmobile and headed to a liquor store to pick up some beer, according to the book. They then removed the license plate and, with Lew in the driver's seat, drove to the town of Ossian. When they arrived, Stillman pulled out a .357-caliber Colt on a retired schoolteacher working a popcorn stand and demanded his coins and bills. Stillman and Lew then headed farther north to Decorah. There, at the Petro-n-Provisions convenience store, Stillman took a sandwich to the counter and asked the clerk how much it was.
"Two dollars and 10 cents," said the clerk, a woman named Marion Bakken.
Short by 10 cents, Stillman went back to the car and returned wearing a jacket. He then faced Bakken and, pointing his .357, demanded the contents of the cash register. In an interview last week, Bakken said that when she moved to press the silent alarm under the counter, Stillman shot her. The bullet traveled through her liver and kidney and lodged in her spine. Stillman and Lew took off.
When police caught up with them, the Lubavitcher community went to work. Lew, who had no previous record and was well-regarded within the Lubavitcher community in New York, was mailed $200,000 - enough to allow him to post bond. Stillman, who had a long criminal record, was abandoned.
In a plea agreement, before the selection of a jury, Lew agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Later the judge reconsidered the sentence and placed Lew on five years' probation.
During that time, Lew married, traveled to Israel and England, and was ordained a rabbi. Stillman, who confessed to the crimes, was sentenced to 55 years in prison. He remains behind bars.
Prosecutor Karl Knudson said that the book's account is accurate, but Lew denies the author's version, calling it "distorted" and a "trashy tabloid." While admitting that he drove the car during the incident, Lew says he knew nothing of the shooting. He says he was simply giving his friend a ride.
"I knew him for two weeks," Lew said. "I did not know he was going to do what he did. I was just trying to help him, talk to him, reach out to him."
One detail Lew has not forgotten is the phrase scrawled on the wall of his cell the night he was arrested: "Welcome to your nightmare."
Ten years later, Lew is facing yet another nightmare.
###
Forcing the issue:
After receiving numerous inquiries from fellow Jews, Rabbi Steven Sager of Durham's Beth El Synagogue paid Lew a visit and urged him to come forward and answer the questions festering in people's hearts. Last week, Lew finally agreed.
He arrived at the Freeman Center for Jewish Life on the Duke University campus, wearing a suit and striped tie, with his wife, (Name removed), and their youngest child at his side. About 100 members of the Jewish community turned out to hear his story.
It was not an easy night.
Lew's wife took the platform first, her baby strapped in a pouch on her chest. She thanked the 100 people who had come out to the meeting, saying she had received many calls of support all week. Next came Rabbi Sager, who asked the group to listen with a compassionate ear and repeated some of the questions people wanted Lew to answer.
Starting out in a soft voice, Lew began reading his prepared text. But the microphone wasn't working and several people in the audience called out, "We can't hear you!" The sound was turned up, and he began again. Lew apologized for the incident and then invited questions. Few, however, were interested in the details of the crime.
For members of the Jewish community there were two main issues. Had Lew repented and sought "teshuva," which in Hebrew means a turning inward in self-examination? And had he paid restitution to Marion Bakken, the victim of the robbery?
"Have you apologized to the woman who was shot?" someone asked.
"Would 'sorry' have changed anything?" he responded.
The crowd pressed the issue, wanting to know if he had made an attempt to pay the $1.4 million awarded Marion Bakken in a civil suit. (Lew never attended the proceedings of the civil suit, filed on behalf of Bakken.)
Lew gave several answers.
"I never plan to make that kind of money."
"It's nobody's business."
And finally, "I'm in compliance with my responsibilities."
Sam Levine, a professor of chemistry at N.C. State, took it a step further. "Are you in compliance with the Jewish concept of repentance?
"You ought to know that we in the audience are hoping to hear some kind of concrete description of what you have done by way of teshuva," he said. "We don't have a feel for what you've done."
Lew repeated that he was in compliance. But many members of the audience were not convinced.
"What's so abhorrent to us is that he did not have any human reaction to anything in his history," Levine said later. "This is so upsetting to us. I have tears in my eyes when I say this, but we feel he is not a mensch (a truly good human being)."
In an interview last week, Lew said he had apologized to Bakken but admitted he has not paid her.
"There was a judgment that said I owed the money," Lew said. "They never came to me with instructions on how I should pay it, to whom, in what increments and to what address."
Still, Lew says he intends to pay:
"I don't feel I owe her the money because of what I did," he said. "I owe her the money because of the court of law. And I intend to pay it."
Bakken, who walks with a limp and suffers pain down the length of her leg as a result of the shooting, said Lew never apologized.
"He has never apologized, and he has never paid any restitution," she said. "I don't expect to get any."
###
Here to stay:
Pinny Lew plans to stay in Chapel Hill and minister to students and community members in Chapel Hill. That much he's decided.
His senior colleague, Yossi Groner, the first Lubavitcher rabbi in the Carolinas, supports him in that decision. "People make mistakes, but they have the chance and the right to turn around and make something of themselves," said Groner, who works in Charlotte.
Lew might know something else, too. Even if his past had never come out, life in Chapel Hill would never have been easy. As a Lubavitcher, Lew is a minority within a minority, a devoutly Orthodox Jew living in a small but liberal Jewish community - a community that doesn't think highly of Lubavitch.
But in three years he has made some inroads. Those who have attended services in his home, or sent their children to study Torah with him, say Lew is a warm and caring person who is eager to help out.
They mention small acts of kindness, such as the time he took roast chicken to a dying member of the community or promptly visited a Jewish prisoner in jail. And that, say some members of the community, may be his own way of making up for the misdeeds of his past.
"He's done outstanding things for people in a kind, understanding and open way," said Leslie Balkany, a supporter who works at the Ackland Art Museum on campus.
As for the Jewish community, even if it wanted to do something about Lew, it could not. The community has no authority over him and neither does the University of North Carolina. He is paid by the Lubavitch organization that sent him.
The Jewish community - so embarrassed by the incident that it closed the meeting to reporters - and Lew will have to learn to live with one another.
"I don't think the journey is over," said Dr. Adam Goldstein, a member of the community. "There's a lot of healing for him and for the community."
____________________________________________________________________________________
Rabbi in more trouble
BRIEFLY IN NEWS
Compiled from wire reports
Post-Tribune (IN) - June 14, 2001
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- A Hasidic rabbi who recently acknowledged his role in an armed robbery in Iowa 10 years ago has been arrested and charged with exposing himself to a woman in his home.
Pinchas Lew, 31, was charged with misdemeanor assault on a female, said Police Chief Gregg Jarvies. Part of the Orthodox Jewish sect Lubavitch, Lew conducts services for University of North Carolina students at his home in Chapel Hill. He is married and has five young children.
On May 16, Lew allegedly exposed and touched his genitals repeatedly in front of an unrelated woman in his home, Jarvies said.
According to the woman, he locked all the doors to his house, then continued to move in front of her, causing her to fear imminent assault.
BRIEFLY IN NEWS
Compiled from wire reports
Post-Tribune (IN) - June 14, 2001
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- A Hasidic rabbi who recently acknowledged his role in an armed robbery in Iowa 10 years ago has been arrested and charged with exposing himself to a woman in his home.
Pinchas Lew, 31, was charged with misdemeanor assault on a female, said Police Chief Gregg Jarvies. Part of the Orthodox Jewish sect Lubavitch, Lew conducts services for University of North Carolina students at his home in Chapel Hill. He is married and has five young children.
On May 16, Lew allegedly exposed and touched his genitals repeatedly in front of an unrelated woman in his home, Jarvies said.
According to the woman, he locked all the doors to his house, then continued to move in front of her, causing her to fear imminent assault.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Rabbi in more trouble
BRIEFLY IN NEWS
Post-Tribune (IN) - June 14, 2001
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- A Hasidic rabbi who recently acknowledged his role in an armed robbery in Iowa 10 years ago has been arrested and charged with exposing himself to a woman in his home.
Pinchas Lew, 31, was charged with misdemeanor assault on a female, said Police Chief Gregg Jarvies. Part of the Orthodox Jewish sect Lubavitch, Lew conducts services for University of North Carolina students at his home in Chapel Hill. He is married and has five young children.
On May 16, Lew allegedly exposed and touched his genitals repeatedly in front of an unrelated woman in his home, Jarvies said.
According to the woman, he locked all the doors to his house, then continued to move in front of her, causing her to fear imminent assault.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Robber-turned-rabbi is in trouble again
by Sarah Strandberg
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - June 16, 2001
POSTVILLE - Pinchas Lew, the former Postville man accused of driving the getaway car in a Decorah convenience store holdup 10 years ago, is now a rabbi working with college students in North Carolina.
Lew, 31, was arrested this week in Chapel Hill, N.C., and charged with exposing himself to a woman in his home, a misdemeanor, according to Chapel Hill Police Chief Gregg Jarvies. Lew is scheduled to appear in court July 9.
Marion Bakken of Decorah, who was severely injured in the 1991 Decorah holdup, said Lew's arrest is just another indication he has not reformed, despite his ostensible interest in a religious vocation.
Bakken was the cashier at a Petro & Provisions convenience store when she was shot during the Sept. 27, 1991, robbery.
The man who pulled the trigger, Phillip Stillman, pleaded guilty to attempted murder, first-degree robbery and two escape charges. He apologized to Bakken before he was sentenced to 60 years in prison. But Bakken said Lew, who served only one day in prison and received five years' probation, never said he was sorry.
"He needs to face up to what he did," said Bakken, who still has the bullet lodged next to her spine.
Lew, 22 at the time of the robbery, was also accused of driving the getaway car in the holdup of a popcorn vendor in Ossian, the same day as the Decorah store robbery.
Lew now conducts services for University of North Carolina students at his home 106 Park Place in Chapel Hill. He is married and has five young children.
He moved to Chapel Hill in 1997 after being named director of Chabad House, which serves students, the Durham (N.C.) Herald-Sun reported.
His past apparently surfaced there after the New York Times reviewed Stephen Bloom's book "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America." Bloom, a University of Iowa professor of journalism, mentions the convenience store robbery in the book.
The latest charge against Lew resulted from an alleged incident May 16 in his home, the same day Lew addressed his felonious past in front of about 100 people at a meeting called by the Durham-Chapel Hill Jewish Federation.
The Herald-Sun quoted Rabbi Yoseph Groner, who recommended Lew's appointment at Chabad House, as saying that the robbery "was a turning point" in Lew's life.
"Lew became not only spiritual but remorseful," he said. "He's a man who has changed himself inside and out."
Lew was charged with attempted murder and two counts of first-degree robbery. In a plea bargain, he entered an Alford plea of guilty to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but after an appeal the sentence was reduced to five years' probation.
Portions of this story came from Gazette wire services.
by Sarah Strandberg
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - June 16, 2001
POSTVILLE - Pinchas Lew, the former Postville man accused of driving the getaway car in a Decorah convenience store holdup 10 years ago, is now a rabbi working with college students in North Carolina.
Lew, 31, was arrested this week in Chapel Hill, N.C., and charged with exposing himself to a woman in his home, a misdemeanor, according to Chapel Hill Police Chief Gregg Jarvies. Lew is scheduled to appear in court July 9.
Marion Bakken of Decorah, who was severely injured in the 1991 Decorah holdup, said Lew's arrest is just another indication he has not reformed, despite his ostensible interest in a religious vocation.
Bakken was the cashier at a Petro & Provisions convenience store when she was shot during the Sept. 27, 1991, robbery.
The man who pulled the trigger, Phillip Stillman, pleaded guilty to attempted murder, first-degree robbery and two escape charges. He apologized to Bakken before he was sentenced to 60 years in prison. But Bakken said Lew, who served only one day in prison and received five years' probation, never said he was sorry.
"He needs to face up to what he did," said Bakken, who still has the bullet lodged next to her spine.
Lew, 22 at the time of the robbery, was also accused of driving the getaway car in the holdup of a popcorn vendor in Ossian, the same day as the Decorah store robbery.
Lew now conducts services for University of North Carolina students at his home 106 Park Place in Chapel Hill. He is married and has five young children.
He moved to Chapel Hill in 1997 after being named director of Chabad House, which serves students, the Durham (N.C.) Herald-Sun reported.
His past apparently surfaced there after the New York Times reviewed Stephen Bloom's book "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America." Bloom, a University of Iowa professor of journalism, mentions the convenience store robbery in the book.
The latest charge against Lew resulted from an alleged incident May 16 in his home, the same day Lew addressed his felonious past in front of about 100 people at a meeting called by the Durham-Chapel Hill Jewish Federation.
The Herald-Sun quoted Rabbi Yoseph Groner, who recommended Lew's appointment at Chabad House, as saying that the robbery "was a turning point" in Lew's life.
"Lew became not only spiritual but remorseful," he said. "He's a man who has changed himself inside and out."
Lew was charged with attempted murder and two counts of first-degree robbery. In a plea bargain, he entered an Alford plea of guilty to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but after an appeal the sentence was reduced to five years' probation.
Portions of this story came from Gazette wire services.
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Onetime robber in trouble as rabbi - Felon unrepentant, says Decorah victim
Sarah Strandberg; News correspondent
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - June 16, 2001
POSTVILLE - Pinchas Lew, the former Postville man accused of driving the getaway car in a Decorah convenience store holdup 10 years ago, is now a rabbi working with college students in North Carolina.
Lew, 31, was arrested this week in Chapel Hill, N.C., and charged with exposing himself to a woman in his home, a misdemeanor, according to Chapel Hill Police Chief Gregg Jarvies. Lew is scheduled to appear in court July 9.
Marion Bakken of Decorah, who was severely injured in the 1991 Decorah holdup, said Lew's arrest is just another indication he has not reformed, despite his ostensible interest in a religious vocation.
Bakken was the cashier at a Petro & Provisions convenience store when she was shot just before 6 p.m. during the Sept. 27, 1991, robbery.
The man who pulled the trigger, Phillip Stillman, pleaded guilty to attempted murder, first-degree robbery and two escape charges.
He apologized to Bakken before he was sentenced to 60 years in prison.
But Bakken said Lew, who served only one day in prison and received five years' probation, never said he was sorry.
"He needs to face up to what he did," said Bakken, who still has the bullet lodged next to her spine. "I believe people can change, but I don't see where he can at all. He's lying now. He should straighten out his life."
Lew, 22 at the time of the robbery, was also accused of driving the getaway car in the holdup of a popcorn vendor in Ossian, the same day as the Decorah convenience store robbery.
Lew now conducts services for University of North Carolina students at his home in Chapel Hill. He is married and has five young children.
HE MOVED to Chapel Hill in 1997 after being named director of the town's Chabad House, which serves students, according to an article in the Durham (N.C.) Herald-Sun.
His past apparently surfaced there after the New York Times reviewed Stephen Bloom's book "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America." Bloom, a University of Iowa professor of journalism, mentions the convenience store robbery in the book.
The latest charge against Lew resulted from an alleged incident May 16 in his home, the same day Lew addressed his felonious past in front of about 100 people at a meeting called by the Durham-Chapel Hill Jewish Federation.
Lew could not be reached for comment for this article, but one thing he reportedly addressed during that meeting was the lawsuit Bakken filed against him after the robbery.
A WINNESHIEK County jury heard the case and awarded Bakken $1.6 million in damages. Lew did not show up for that trial. Bakken said she's never received a cent of the award and doubts she ever will.
Rabbi Steven Sager said that Lew, during the May 16 meeting, "said time and again that he was in compliance with the civil suit. He did not go into detail, although he was urged to several times."
The Herald-Sun also quoted Rabbi Yoseph Groner, who recommended Lew's appointment at Chabad House, that the robbery "was a turning point" in Lew's life.
"Lew became not only spiritual but remorseful," he said. "He's a man who has changed himself inside and out."
Bakken's lawyer, Dennis Larson of Decorah, said he has always been bothered that Lew, when arrested in 1991, "instantly plunked down two $100,000 checks for his bail."
Larson said he doesn't know anyone in Decorah who could do that.
"Who would have that kind of money in a checking account?" he asked.
Lew originally was charged with attempted murder and two counts of first-degree robbery. In a plea bargain, he entered an Alford plea of guilty to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but after an appeal, the sentence was reconsidered, and he was placed on five years' probation.
AS FOR BAKKEN, she said she lives with constant back pain and her legs go numb after she stands for a while. She works part-time at a dry cleaner's in Decorah, work that requires her to be on her feet.
She still thinks about the shooting.
"I'll never work in a convenience store again," she said. "I don't go out alone at all at night. I'll always have that fear. My children don't forget either. My oldest daughter is very hateful because of what they did to me.
"(Lew) has definitely gone around the law. The sentence he got was just a slap in the face."
Portions of this story came from Gazette wire services.
Sarah Strandberg; News correspondent
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) - June 16, 2001
POSTVILLE - Pinchas Lew, the former Postville man accused of driving the getaway car in a Decorah convenience store holdup 10 years ago, is now a rabbi working with college students in North Carolina.
Lew, 31, was arrested this week in Chapel Hill, N.C., and charged with exposing himself to a woman in his home, a misdemeanor, according to Chapel Hill Police Chief Gregg Jarvies. Lew is scheduled to appear in court July 9.
Marion Bakken of Decorah, who was severely injured in the 1991 Decorah holdup, said Lew's arrest is just another indication he has not reformed, despite his ostensible interest in a religious vocation.
Bakken was the cashier at a Petro & Provisions convenience store when she was shot just before 6 p.m. during the Sept. 27, 1991, robbery.
The man who pulled the trigger, Phillip Stillman, pleaded guilty to attempted murder, first-degree robbery and two escape charges.
He apologized to Bakken before he was sentenced to 60 years in prison.
But Bakken said Lew, who served only one day in prison and received five years' probation, never said he was sorry.
"He needs to face up to what he did," said Bakken, who still has the bullet lodged next to her spine. "I believe people can change, but I don't see where he can at all. He's lying now. He should straighten out his life."
Lew, 22 at the time of the robbery, was also accused of driving the getaway car in the holdup of a popcorn vendor in Ossian, the same day as the Decorah convenience store robbery.
Lew now conducts services for University of North Carolina students at his home in Chapel Hill. He is married and has five young children.
HE MOVED to Chapel Hill in 1997 after being named director of the town's Chabad House, which serves students, according to an article in the Durham (N.C.) Herald-Sun.
His past apparently surfaced there after the New York Times reviewed Stephen Bloom's book "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America." Bloom, a University of Iowa professor of journalism, mentions the convenience store robbery in the book.
The latest charge against Lew resulted from an alleged incident May 16 in his home, the same day Lew addressed his felonious past in front of about 100 people at a meeting called by the Durham-Chapel Hill Jewish Federation.
Lew could not be reached for comment for this article, but one thing he reportedly addressed during that meeting was the lawsuit Bakken filed against him after the robbery.
A WINNESHIEK County jury heard the case and awarded Bakken $1.6 million in damages. Lew did not show up for that trial. Bakken said she's never received a cent of the award and doubts she ever will.
Rabbi Steven Sager said that Lew, during the May 16 meeting, "said time and again that he was in compliance with the civil suit. He did not go into detail, although he was urged to several times."
The Herald-Sun also quoted Rabbi Yoseph Groner, who recommended Lew's appointment at Chabad House, that the robbery "was a turning point" in Lew's life.
"Lew became not only spiritual but remorseful," he said. "He's a man who has changed himself inside and out."
Bakken's lawyer, Dennis Larson of Decorah, said he has always been bothered that Lew, when arrested in 1991, "instantly plunked down two $100,000 checks for his bail."
Larson said he doesn't know anyone in Decorah who could do that.
"Who would have that kind of money in a checking account?" he asked.
Lew originally was charged with attempted murder and two counts of first-degree robbery. In a plea bargain, he entered an Alford plea of guilty to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but after an appeal, the sentence was reconsidered, and he was placed on five years' probation.
AS FOR BAKKEN, she said she lives with constant back pain and her legs go numb after she stands for a while. She works part-time at a dry cleaner's in Decorah, work that requires her to be on her feet.
She still thinks about the shooting.
"I'll never work in a convenience store again," she said. "I don't go out alone at all at night. I'll always have that fear. My children don't forget either. My oldest daughter is very hateful because of what they did to me.
"(Lew) has definitely gone around the law. The sentence he got was just a slap in the face."
Portions of this story came from Gazette wire services.
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Judge drops assault charge
by Yonat Shimron; STAFF WRITER
The News & Observer - August 11, 2001
HILLSBOROUGH -- An Orange County District Court judge on Friday dismissed a misdemeanor charge of assault on a female against Rabbi Pinchas "Pinny" Lew.
Lew, who runs an Orthodox Jewish center near the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was accused of exposing himself and touching his genitals in front of his maid in his home.
But after hearing testimony from the maid, a 20-year-old Spanish-speaking immigrant, the judge granted a motion to dismiss, arguing that the facts of the case didn't satisfy all the elements of assault by show of violence.
The dismissal represents a victory for the 31-year-old rabbi, who took a leave of absence after the charge was filed. According to an e-mail message sent to his followers in late July, Lew indicated that he would return to his ministry this month.
After the trial, attended by Lew's father, a rabbi from London, and about two dozen supporters, Lew said only that he needed "time to heal."
The three-hour trial before Judge Joe Buckner was dominated by the tearful testimony of the maid. Speaking through an interpreter, she said she and Lew were alone in the house on the morning of May 16. After cleaning the bathroom, she asked Lew for a new vacuum cleaner bag. When he came down the stairs, he was wearing a green bathrobe. After giving her a bag, he exposed himself to her, touched his genitals and asked, "Do you like it?"
The maid testified she said no, and went to the library. Lew then turned the bolt to lock the front door and exposed himself again to her in the foyer, asking, "Do you like it?" according to her testimony.
When she refused his second entreaty, he went upstairs, she testified. The maid said she then grabbed her bag and fled through the back door, fearing that if she unbolted the front door he might come back down the stairs opposite the door and attack her.
But Lew's attorney, Marilyn Ozer, asked Buckner to dismiss the case, arguing that prosecutors charged Lew with assault on a female when they realized their original intent to charge him with indecent exposure didn't apply in a private residence. Furthermore, she said, there was no assault and no immediate threat of physical injury to the maid. Indeed, Lew never touched the maid.
Buckner agreed with Ozer. In his narrow ruling, Buckner addressed only the question of physical danger. "The testimony from the victim is that (Lew) withdrew upstairs," he said.
The rabbi, who is part of the Lubavitch sect, has been embattled with the larger, more liberal Jewish community in Chapel Hill and Durham. Several months ago, the community discovered he had a 1994 felony conviction for his role in a 1991 armed robbery of a convenience store in Decorah, Iowa, in which a woman was shot.
by Yonat Shimron; STAFF WRITER
The News & Observer - August 11, 2001
HILLSBOROUGH -- An Orange County District Court judge on Friday dismissed a misdemeanor charge of assault on a female against Rabbi Pinchas "Pinny" Lew.
Lew, who runs an Orthodox Jewish center near the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was accused of exposing himself and touching his genitals in front of his maid in his home.
But after hearing testimony from the maid, a 20-year-old Spanish-speaking immigrant, the judge granted a motion to dismiss, arguing that the facts of the case didn't satisfy all the elements of assault by show of violence.
The dismissal represents a victory for the 31-year-old rabbi, who took a leave of absence after the charge was filed. According to an e-mail message sent to his followers in late July, Lew indicated that he would return to his ministry this month.
After the trial, attended by Lew's father, a rabbi from London, and about two dozen supporters, Lew said only that he needed "time to heal."
The three-hour trial before Judge Joe Buckner was dominated by the tearful testimony of the maid. Speaking through an interpreter, she said she and Lew were alone in the house on the morning of May 16. After cleaning the bathroom, she asked Lew for a new vacuum cleaner bag. When he came down the stairs, he was wearing a green bathrobe. After giving her a bag, he exposed himself to her, touched his genitals and asked, "Do you like it?"
The maid testified she said no, and went to the library. Lew then turned the bolt to lock the front door and exposed himself again to her in the foyer, asking, "Do you like it?" according to her testimony.
When she refused his second entreaty, he went upstairs, she testified. The maid said she then grabbed her bag and fled through the back door, fearing that if she unbolted the front door he might come back down the stairs opposite the door and attack her.
But Lew's attorney, Marilyn Ozer, asked Buckner to dismiss the case, arguing that prosecutors charged Lew with assault on a female when they realized their original intent to charge him with indecent exposure didn't apply in a private residence. Furthermore, she said, there was no assault and no immediate threat of physical injury to the maid. Indeed, Lew never touched the maid.
Buckner agreed with Ozer. In his narrow ruling, Buckner addressed only the question of physical danger. "The testimony from the victim is that (Lew) withdrew upstairs," he said.
The rabbi, who is part of the Lubavitch sect, has been embattled with the larger, more liberal Jewish community in Chapel Hill and Durham. Several months ago, the community discovered he had a 1994 felony conviction for his role in a 1991 armed robbery of a convenience store in Decorah, Iowa, in which a woman was shot.
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Rabbi leaves position
by Yonat Shimron; STAFF WRITER
The News & Observer - November 24, 2001
Chapel Hill -- Rabbi Pinchas Lew, who moved to Chapel Hill three years ago to start a new life and ended up struggling to defend his past, has given up his ministry after a rabbinical council decided he could no longer be effective in his job.
Lew, who ran the Chabad House, a center for Lubavitch Judaism near the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, put his house on the market and left town recently. His phone was disconnected, and he could not be reached for comment.
Since earlier this year, the 32-year-old rabbi has worked to restore his reputation in the Jewish community after word got out that he drove the getaway car in an armed robbery that resulted in the shooting of a convenience store clerk 11 years ago in Iowa. Lew's reputation was not helped when he was charged with misdemeanor assault on a female earlier this summer. An Orange County District Court judge dismissed the charge.
Rabbi Yosef Groner, the senior Lubavitcher rabbi in the Carolinas, said his organization was committed to a presence in the area and would send a new rabbi to take Lew's place.
"We are confident that the rabbi we bring will devote himself entirely to the community," Groner said.
It was not clear where Lew was headed or what he would do. His home, at 106 Park Place, registered under his wife's name, is on the market for $584,900.
The Lubavitch rabbinic council entered an arbitration process several months ago to decide whether Lew could continue his work in the area. Last month, the council decided he could not.
Lew's troubles began early this year after a book written by a University of Iowa journalism professor circulated in the Jewish community here. The book, "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America" by Stephen G. Bloom, described the social collision between the mostly Lutheran residents of Postville, Iowa, and the Lubavitcher Jews who opened a kosher slaughterhouse on the outskirts of town.
Two chapters in the book describe a crime involving Lew, known by his nickname, "Pinny," and a onetime friend, Phillip Stillman. The two men, who worked at the slaughterhouse, borrowed a car and robbed a convenience store. During the robbery, Stillman shot the clerk. Lew pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. A judge later reconsidered the sentence and placed him on five years' probation.
In May, the Durham-Chapel Hill Jewish Federation called Lew to a public meeting to explain his past. It did not go well for Lew. Many said he was not repentant and therefore was unfit to teach students about Judaism. The federation, however, had no authority to dismiss Lew, because he was appointed by the Lubavitch organization.
Rabbi Pinchas Herman, who leads Sha'arei Israel, a Lubavitch synagogue in Raleigh, said he thought there were misunderstandings on Lew's part and that of the Durham-Chapel Hill Jewish community.
Herman said he would miss Lew, whom he described as a friend.
"I wish him the best," Herman said. "I hope it all works out for him."
Is there a story out there?
Jewish Survivors of Sexual Violence Speak Out - September 12, 2005
Thanks to The Awareness Center, we now have some more background (and aliases) of Rabbi Alan Horowitz, there may be two areas worth looking deeper at:
Some of the reasons I'm asking these questions is because we all know that the majority of sex offenders were abused themselves as children. I'm not making an excuse for their behaviors, I'm just stating facts. If our communities really want to do something to end sexual abuse and sexual assault, we need to examine everything. It's time to break the taboos.
I am also posting my thoughts here because it seems no Jewish newspaper would be interested in looking into these issues. I can't figure out if it's because they fear loosing funding from JUF, due to harassment by community leaders, fear of lossing their jobs, or what?
FYI: The secular papers are only interested in cases that deal with the Catholic priests. They seem to sell more papers then rabbis who abuse.
COMMENTS
by Yonat Shimron; STAFF WRITER
The News & Observer - November 24, 2001
Chapel Hill -- Rabbi Pinchas Lew, who moved to Chapel Hill three years ago to start a new life and ended up struggling to defend his past, has given up his ministry after a rabbinical council decided he could no longer be effective in his job.
Lew, who ran the Chabad House, a center for Lubavitch Judaism near the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, put his house on the market and left town recently. His phone was disconnected, and he could not be reached for comment.
Since earlier this year, the 32-year-old rabbi has worked to restore his reputation in the Jewish community after word got out that he drove the getaway car in an armed robbery that resulted in the shooting of a convenience store clerk 11 years ago in Iowa. Lew's reputation was not helped when he was charged with misdemeanor assault on a female earlier this summer. An Orange County District Court judge dismissed the charge.
Rabbi Yosef Groner, the senior Lubavitcher rabbi in the Carolinas, said his organization was committed to a presence in the area and would send a new rabbi to take Lew's place.
"We are confident that the rabbi we bring will devote himself entirely to the community," Groner said.
It was not clear where Lew was headed or what he would do. His home, at 106 Park Place, registered under his wife's name, is on the market for $584,900.
The Lubavitch rabbinic council entered an arbitration process several months ago to decide whether Lew could continue his work in the area. Last month, the council decided he could not.
Lew's troubles began early this year after a book written by a University of Iowa journalism professor circulated in the Jewish community here. The book, "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America" by Stephen G. Bloom, described the social collision between the mostly Lutheran residents of Postville, Iowa, and the Lubavitcher Jews who opened a kosher slaughterhouse on the outskirts of town.
Two chapters in the book describe a crime involving Lew, known by his nickname, "Pinny," and a onetime friend, Phillip Stillman. The two men, who worked at the slaughterhouse, borrowed a car and robbed a convenience store. During the robbery, Stillman shot the clerk. Lew pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. A judge later reconsidered the sentence and placed him on five years' probation.
In May, the Durham-Chapel Hill Jewish Federation called Lew to a public meeting to explain his past. It did not go well for Lew. Many said he was not repentant and therefore was unfit to teach students about Judaism. The federation, however, had no authority to dismiss Lew, because he was appointed by the Lubavitch organization.
Rabbi Pinchas Herman, who leads Sha'arei Israel, a Lubavitch synagogue in Raleigh, said he thought there were misunderstandings on Lew's part and that of the Durham-Chapel Hill Jewish community.
Herman said he would miss Lew, whom he described as a friend.
"I wish him the best," Herman said. "I hope it all works out for him."
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Jewish Survivors of Sexual Violence Speak Out - September 12, 2005
Thanks to The Awareness Center, we now have some more background (and aliases) of Rabbi Alan Horowitz, there may be two areas worth looking deeper at:
1) Horowitz lived at Ohr Somayach, Monsey for several years. That's where Rabbi Yaakov Menken went to Yeshiva and got smicha (ordination). The question is: Were they both there around the same time?
2) Horowitz lived in Iowa for several years. There were behavioral problems among young men in this community, young men who would have been in their teens when Horowitz lived there. Did Rabbi Horowitz know Pinchas Lew during his years in Iowa? Rabbi Pinchas Lew was part of a group of troubled young Orthodox men who were involved in armed robberies (and Lew later had a sexual misconduct allegation made against him).
Some of the reasons I'm asking these questions is because we all know that the majority of sex offenders were abused themselves as children. I'm not making an excuse for their behaviors, I'm just stating facts. If our communities really want to do something to end sexual abuse and sexual assault, we need to examine everything. It's time to break the taboos.
I am also posting my thoughts here because it seems no Jewish newspaper would be interested in looking into these issues. I can't figure out if it's because they fear loosing funding from JUF, due to harassment by community leaders, fear of lossing their jobs, or what?
FYI: The secular papers are only interested in cases that deal with the Catholic priests. They seem to sell more papers then rabbis who abuse.
COMMENTS
Last year after Rabbi Menken posted criticism of Gary Rosenblatt, the Awareness Center and support for Rabbi Eisgrau and, if I'm reading correctly between the lines, Rabbi Matis Weinberg:
I responded with several comments with bizarre responses from Menken. Unfortunately, I did not save all of them before they were deleted. But I did save several of them and remember the content of the others.
- http://jewishwhistleblower.blogspot.com/2004/12/too-hot-for-cross-currentscom-my.html#comments
- http://jewishwhistleblower.blogspot.com/2004/12/rabbi-yaakov-menken-commits-mozi-shem.html#comments
- 1) My comment on cross-currents/ Here’s a perfect example of a rasha. He’s even a product of Maryland and it’s institutions.see: http://theawarenesscenter.org/Horowitz_Alan.html
Perhaps you can explain to me how the silence of the Jewish community and it’s leadership did not protect this monster and allow him to move from one community to the next destroying so many young lives.
Comment by jewishwhistleblower — 12/31/2004 @ 2:57 am
2) After the comment was deleted Rabbi Menken made comments which I responded to on my blog (statements with the "<" are by Menken, my response follows, links no longer contain the original data):
At 7:54 AM, jewishwhistleblower said...
link to current version:
http://www.cross-currents.com/archives/2004/12/30/blogging-and-emloshon-horaem-gossip/#comments
At 8:05 AM, jewishwhistleblower said...
>Ordinarily, we’re not going to delete comments. But when someone
>not only goes off topic,
I think it was pretty dead on topic.
>but in addition names names
The only name I name was Rabbi Alan J. Horowitz who to this day promotes sex between adults and children. He writes for NAMBLA. If ever there was a rasha Rabbi Alan J. Horowitz is it.
see:
http://theawarenesscenter.org/Horowitz_Alan.html
>and spreads rumors,
What rumors?
This is pure mozi shem rah.
3) Rabbi Menken then went on to claim that he was very familiar with the Rabbi Horowitz case and that the rabbonim involved (including the rabbanut in Baltimore) did in fact take steps to protect the community from Horowitz. Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of the exact response as they were deleted very quickly with much of the rest of the post.
4) Now we know that the rabbanut in Baltimore took steps to ensure that after his 1983 conviction Horowitz would not spend any jail time, that he would live on a Yeshiva campus in Monsey and go on to prey on children for another decade in anonymity.
Oh, yeah, and the Yeshiva in Monsey that's where Menken studied and was molded. Where he learned that one has to protect the name of even Rabbi Horowitz who to this day is an unrepentant child molester who promotes adults having sex with children, while attacking and claming to know the motives of Gary Rosenblatt and the Awareness Center.
Apparently, one must protect rashas, sexual molesters who prey on the vulnerable and attack anyone who speaks out.
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FAIR USE NOTICE
Some of the information on The Awareness Center's web pages may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The Awareness Center is making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.
The Awareness Center believes this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this update for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Some of the information on The Awareness Center's web pages may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The Awareness Center is making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.
The Awareness Center believes this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this update for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
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"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." –– Margaret Mead
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