In an op-ed yesterday in the Jerusalem Post, Rabbi Avi Shafran offers the first public statement on the Agriprocessors situation from Agudath Israel of America, the haredi umbrella group whose constituents are probably the company’s most reliable consumers.
Shafran writes:
Neither I nor Agudath Israel of America has any connection to Agriprocessors. And for all we know, it may yet be shown that the firm indeed knowingly hired illegal aliens. Or that it mistreated them, or that it was a front for a drug operation, a neo-Nazi group or a baby-cannibalizing cult. All under the eyes of the federal inspectors present at the plant at all times.
But unless and until some wrongdoing is actually proven, not merely suspected or charged, no human being – certainly no Jew, bound as we are by the Torah’s clear admonition in such matters – has any right to assume guilt, much less voice condemnation or seek to levy punishment.
It’s a fair point.
