Teens Take Lead on Agriprocessors

by: Mik Moore

Wed Jun 25, 2008 at 18:27:39 PM EDT


BBYO, the youth movement, has come out in support of the workers at Agriprocessors kosher meat processing plant. Building on the work of

Rabbi Morris Allen, Uri L'Tzedek, Jewish Community Action, and others, BBYO put out this release:

Camp Food is No Joking Matter
BBYO Teens Demand Agriprocessor-Free Camp Programs

As a result of the allegations of intolerable injustices at Agriprocessors, the largest producer of kosher meat and poultry in the U.S., BBYO takes major stand by asking its various camp partners to avoid serving Agriprocessor products, to which they comply.

Nine hundred teens participating in BBYO’s summer leadership experiences at Perlman Camp, PA; Beber Camp, WI; and American Hebrew Academy, CA, over the course of this summer, will eat meals free of Agriprocessor products, showing a unified commitment to social justice and Jewish values.

Teens make concerted effort to expand summer program curricula to address the Agriprocessor issue from variety of angles, including the ritual and ethical implications of kashrut, worker’s rights, immigration reform and Jewish values.

The first program will take place on Thursday, June 26, 11:45 am – 1:15 pm, when nearly 100 Jewish teens will gather at Beber Camp in Mukwonago, Wisconson (suburban Milwaukee) to make their voices heard against the intolerable injustices at Agriprocessors. Confirmed speakers include Rabbi Morris Allen, a Minneapolis-based leader of the Heksher Tzedek campaign for kosher foods to be produced ethically, who has been to Postville multiple times and will share first-hand accounts from factory workers. Lauren Shenfeld, BBYO’s International Teen Co-President, will also address the group, to raise awareness among her peers and encourage action when teens return home to their local communities.

“If anyone is going to make their opinion on this problem matter to the Jewish community and communities at large, and ultimately stand up against an issue in which human rights and Jewish values are demeaned, it’s BBYO teens.” – Lauren Shenfeld, BBYO International Teen Co-President. ...


I loved my youth movement growing up, but unfortunately we never took the lead on an issue like this. Yasher Koach BBYO!

Mik Moore :: Teens Take Lead on Agriprocessors
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JCUA joins the fight (4.00 / 1)

with this email I received last night:

[Jewish Council on Urban Affairs] has launched a relief campaign to help provide food, housing and legal assistance for some 250 families -- including 500 children! -- who are thousands of miles from home with no resources and an uncertain future.
(Three hundred workers remain imprisoned since the May 12 raid. Others, mainly women with small children, were released with ankle bracelets that allow federal officials to track their whereabouts at all times.)

AgriProcessors, in Postville, Iowa, is the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse. It produces 60 percent of the kosher meat and 40 percent of the kosher poultry consumed in this country. The company has received multiple federal and state citations for workplace safety and health violations -- resulting in amputations, broken bones, eye injuries and hearing loss. And employees working under these conditions largely are immigrants from Guatemala, Mexico, Israel and Ukraine -- a vulnerable workforce unable to demand fair treatment and improved conditions.

These are people struggling to provide for themselves and their families. Following the raid, they live with fear and uncertainty, unable to find jobs that would pay for even basic necessities as they wait to learn their fate -- or the fate of their loved one who languishes in prison. With 20 percent of Postville's population arrested in the raid -- and another 40 percent made up of other immigrant workers at the company -- local charities are unable to keep up with the continuing need.

Please stand with us -- as Jewish individuals outraged by the abuse and exploitation of society's most vulnerable members --  in responding to the critical needs of these families who have nowhere else to turn.

Here is a link to JCUA's statement and a fact sheet on Agriprocessors.

"When something important is going on, silence is a lie." -- A.M. Rosenthal

tell bbyo "yasher koach!" for standing up for meatpacking workers! (0.00 / 0)

Mik is right - this is a great step for BBYO to take and really shows that they are engaging the next generation of Jews in really thinking about ethics and leadership.  It makes me proud to be a former local youth group president (maybe I should be calling USY about following in BBYO's steps...) I'm sure they're getting lots of pressure from the industry to back down.

Let's all email BBYO Executive Director Matt Grossman at mgrossman [at] bbyo [dot] org and tell him how much we appreciate what they're doing - and that they should hold firm!

 



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