Vol. LXXXVI No. 44 Omaha, NE
Celebrating 86 Years of Service to Nebraska and Western Iowa
5 Av, 5767 July 20, 2007
Video renews beefs about slaughterhouse’s practices, this time in Nebraska by NATHANIEL POPPER The Forward A video from a kosher slaughterhouse in Nebraska is reigniting concern about the way the nation’s largest kosher meat company handles its animals. The three-and-a-half minute video shows bloody images of cows being killed at the Local Pride slaughterhouse in Gordon, NE, which is owned by the Brooklynbased Rubashkin family. The footage was filmed and released by the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The Rubashkins, adherents of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic sect, also own the Postville, Iowa-based A video shot in May by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals records the slaughter of AgriProcessors, the nation’s Credit: PETA cows at a kosher plant in Gordon, Nebraska. largest kosher slaughterhouse. In 2004, AgriProcessors came under sharp criticism ment of its workers. The new video shows much less gut-wrenching detail from a number of rabbis and animal rights activists after PETA released a separate video from the Postville than the one from 2004. A PETA spokesman said that slaughterhouse that showed gruesome footage of cows allegations this time around are more limited. Unlike the walking around after having their necks cut. Since then, previous video, which was filmed clandestinely, the new AgriProcessors has also come under fire for the treat- one was made with the knowledge of the workers,
according to PETA. The group alleges that the video provides proof of the Rubashkins’ failure to follow through on reforms that they agreed to make after the previous video was released, including a promise to use a gun to immediately kill any animal that is not rendered insensate after the kosher cut is administered. “It’s extremely disappointing to find that three years later, AgriProcessors still can’t slaughter without horrible abuse of the animals involved,” Bruce Friedrich, PETA’s vice president of international grasssroots campaigns, told the Forward. PETA has filed complaints with the county attorney in Nebraska and with the United States Department of Agriculture. Calls to AgriProcessors’ headquarters and to an AgriProcessors’ spokesman were not returned before press time. Nat Lewin, a Washington lawyer who has defended AgriProcessors in the past, said that the video does not show anything illegal or out of the ordinary in slaughterhouses. “All I can conclude is that it proves that PETA is out to destroy or make unlawful [kosher slaughter] in all its actual implementation,” Lewin said. “The purpose of the video is to have people say, ‘Look, there is a man with a beard and a long knife.’” The new footage comes from a Nebraska plant that the Rubashkins opened in 2006. It is staffed by residents of a nearby Indian reservation. The Nebraska plant is reported to have 100 employees, an eighth of the number who work at the Iowa facility. Continued on page 3
Industry under pressure
Jewish newspapers fighting to survive the Internet Age by DAN PINE j., the Jewish News Weekly of Northern California When veteran journalist Don Harrison bought the San Diego Jewish PressHeritage in 2001, he wanted to keep a local tradition alive. Since its inception in 1913, the paper strived to cover the local Jewish community, for better and for worse. It got worse. Despite circulation topping 18,000, the Press-Heritage went belly up in 2003, a victim of declining ad income and soaring expenses. “We didn’t drown without calling for help,” says Harrison. “We said we’re in deep trouble. A whole group wanted to save this 90-year-old paper. But we couldn’t stay in business.” Then, just before Passover this year, San Diego’s Jewish community suffered another shock when the other local Jewish newspaper, the Jewish Times, folded as well. The region’s 80,000 Jews found themselves without a Jewish weekly. That leaves the San Diego Jewish Journal, a monthly magazine, to serve the community. “It’s not right that San Diego should be left without a news source,” says Harrison. “I didn’t like the idea of giving up the independence of a newspaper. It’s important that the Jewish community have outside voices which can cover our institutions objectively.” These are treacherous times for news-
Inside Opinion Page see page 8
papers in America. Plummeting subscriptions, declining numbers of advertisers and the rise of the Internet have all contributed to vanishing profits and massive layoffs at daily papers. Some have gone under. Last October, the San Jose Mercury News dismissed 8.5 percent of its workforce, with plans to cut another 40 employees this week. The San Francisco Chronicle recently pink-slipped 25 percent of its editorial staff after reporting a $61 million loss last year. The paper continues to lose $1 million a week. Even titans like the New York Times and Los Angeles Times have suffered unprecedented annual revenue losses. Though dissimilar in many ways from dailies, the American Jewish press finds itself at a crossroads of its own. Subscriptions are down, in part because younger Jews, steeped in Playstation, YouTube and Facebook, don’t read “dead tree” editions of newspapers. Meanwhile, printing and mailing costs have skyrocketed. Yet, determined to reinvigorate the Jewish press in America, many papers have begun responding to these challenges. To optimistic observers, the Kiddush cup remains half full. According to Brandeis University professor Jonathan Sarna, these are the best of times for Jewish journalism in America. “We really do have some first-class Jewish papers that have set a new standard for
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these are the worst of times. “I have a sense the mood is not good in the field,” adds Sarna. “Within Jewish journalism, we haven’t seen models that have truly captured young Jews. The question is whether Jewish newspapers will be able to survive.” With long-term survival at the top of the agenda, the American Jewish Press Association gathered in San Francisco at the end of June for its annual conference. Founded in 1944, the AJPA represents nearly 250 Jewish newspapers (including the Jewish Press of Omaha), magazines, journalists, wire services (like the venerable JTA --Jewish Telegraphic Agency) and affiliated organizations throughout North America. It’s usually an upbeat conclave. Nominated AJPA presiLast week’s home page from the Jewish Press website. dent and Cleveland Jewish Jewish journalism,” he says. “There are News CEO Rob Certner is the organizasignificant stories that broke in the Jewish tion’s biggest booster. “The AJPA has a press because it was doing its job of prob- terrific opportunity to assist its membering Jewish organizational life.” ship in creating better products and On the other hand, says the foremost stronger businesses,” he says. historian of the American Jewish press, Continued on page 4
Coming Next Month: The Learning Curve education issue, Aug. 10
Bert’s Eye VIew: Happy Birthday to NJHS: Page 3
No Frills provides discount to Sudanese refugees: Page 4
Another point of view: The challenge of Tisha b’Av: Page 8