An Orthodox rabbinical leader and a former U.S. Attorney General joined today in criticism of federal authorities for their refusal to allow Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League, to have kosher food while he serves out a one-year sentence at the Allenwood (Pa.) prison Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld, president of the Rabbinical Council of America, and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark made their criticisms at a press conference at the Rabbinical Council office.
Brooklyn Federal Judge Jack Weinstein, who sentenced Kahane, is scheduled to hear arguments tomorrow on a motion filed by U.S. Attorney David Treger, asking that the rabbi be transferred immediately to the Allenwood facility from a Manhattan halfway house where he was sent, after he was sentenced March 18 for violation of his parole.
Kahane, who was sent to the halfway house so he could observe Passover, was allowed by Weinstein to remain there after the JDL leader protested he could not get kosher food at the Allenwood facility. Under an order from the judge, Kahane has been allowed to leave the halfway house for several hours daily to get kosher food and to worship.
Schonfeld, who said that Weinstein had originally issued an order that Kahane was to receive kosher food during his incarceration, noted that “one need not have great sympathy for the methods of the JDL to regret and condemn the deprivation of religious rights during incarceration.” He said that if Weinstein does not sustain Kahane’s request for kosher food at the Allenwood facility. the Rabbinical Council would “marshal all its energies to assure the provision of kosher food as a constitutional right.”
Clark said that it was “sad” that it was still necessary “to get a specific court order to gain elementary religious rights.” He said that “if our correctional institutions had a real sense of their own responsibility for the rehabilitation of inmates, they would actively encourage continuing the religious commitments of inmates.”
KOSHER FOOD PACKAGES REFUSED
A Rabbinical Council spokesman said that what was at issue was approval by the Federal Bureau of Prisons of arrangements to provide observant Jewish inmates with widely-available pre-packaged kosher meat and poultry meals. The spokesman said this should be done at federal expense, noting that prison officials provide pork-free diets for Muslim prisoners. He said there are currently no arrangements for kosher food at any federal correctional institution.
The press conference came after a futile effort yesterday by five Orthodox rabbis to provide kosher food for Kahane at the halfway house. They brought 50 pre-packaged frozen kosher meals to the facility but facility officials refused to accept the packages. Later the five rabbis tried to present the food packages to John Kinney, executive administrator of the West Side Federal House of Detention but he refused the offer.
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