Abraham Aaron Rubashkin ( ; 1927 or 1928 – April 2, 2020) was an American businessman and butcher.
Early life
An adherent of the
Chabad movement, Rubashkin was born in the late-1920s in the town of Nevel, Russian SFSR of the former
Soviet Union.
[ "Nevel". Yad Vashem] He was the son of Getzel Rubashkin and Rosa, Lubavicher Hasidim who raised their two sons and daughters as observant Jews in spite of the anti-religious repression in the Soviet Union. When the Germans occupied Nevel in July 1941, the Rubashkin family fled east, eventually reaching the Uzbek city of
Samarkand, where he married Rivka Chazanov of the Chein family of Nevel.
[Getzy Markowitz: "The Language of Faith" . Prepared for the wedding of Getzy and Shaina Markowitz, March 14, 2010. Retrieved October 18, 2010] After the war, the Rubashkin family left the Soviet Union via
Lemberg (Lviv, Ukraine) and spent time in
Austria, before they settled in
Paris in 1947. In Paris, his father ran a grocery shop and his mother served as a cook at a Jewish girls school,
and he became a butcher.
[ "The Rubashkin Story from A-Z". Yaakov Astor's Blog, May 12, 2010. Excerpt from "Rubashkin. The Entire Story", published in Zman magazine, June 2010. Retrieved October 18, 2010] In 1953, the family moved to New York City, where he and his partner opened Lieberman & Rubashkin Glatt Kosher Butchers on 14th Avenue in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn.
[Nathaniel Popper: "How the Rubashkins Changed the Way Jews Eat in America. The Rise and Fall of Agriprocessors Is the Story of an Immigrant Family Gone Awry". The Forward, December 11, 2008. Retrieved October 18, 2010]
Career
He was the head, usually referred to as "patriarch", of the
Rubashkin family, dubbed a "kosher meat dynasty" by
The New York Times. The Rubashkin family is a tight-knit family, well known among orthodox Jews in Brooklyn for its wealth and generosity towards Jewish causes. Rubashkin was the owner and president of most of the family's businesses, many of which have faced legal problems. Most notable of those problems were those of
Agriprocessors, once the largest kosher
slaughterhouse and meat-packaging factory in the United States. Through the company, Rubashkin was responsible for establishing a small
Orthodox Jewish community in Postville, Iowa.
Agriprocessors went into bankruptcy after the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) staged a raid of the plant known as the "
Postville Raid" for employing illegal immigrant laborers.
Family businesses
Although best known for his role in the kosher meat business, Rubashkin also invested in the textile industry and in real estate. Three generations, including in-laws, have been involved in the tight-knit family's business ventures.
Rubashkin's
Rubashkin's, a butcher shop on 14th Avenue in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn, which Rubashkin opened in 1953 with his partner Alter Lieberman,
[ "Nichum Avelim at the Lieberman's" . Crown Heights News, July 19, 2009. Retrieved October 18, 2010] was run by him until his death.
[ "Rubashkin Inc." Entry in Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved October 18, 2010] His office on the second floor was said to be the center from where he was overseeing his various businesses.
Rubashkin's was also one of the names under which the kosher meat produced by Agriprocessors' was marketed.
Crown Deli
Crown Deli, on 13th Avenue in Brooklyn, a restaurant run by Rubashkin's wife, Rivka, since the 1960s, was described by some as more of a
soup kitchen than a business.
It was closed several times for
sanitary violations by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), the last time on March 3, 2010.
[ "Crown Restaurant, 4909 13 Avenue, Brooklyn 11219". DOHMH Restaurant Inspection Information. Retrieved October 18, 2010]
Cherry Hill Textiles
Cherry Hill Textiles, Inc. was a corporation with its principal place of business in Brooklyn, New York. It engaged in the dyeing and finishing of textiles owned by Aaron Rubashkin and his second oldest son
Moshe Rubashkin. In 1995 he and his son Moshe were found guilty of collecting
union dues from their employees without sending the collected monies on to the "United Production
Workers Union". They were ordered by the National Labor Relations Board.
[Lynda Waddington: "Fraud charges familiar to the Rubashkin family. Brother and father have also been implicated in financial deception" . The Iowa Independent, November 14, 2008. Retrieved October 18, 2010] to repay the money with interest.
Agriprocessors
Founded in 1987, the
slaughterhouse and meat-packaging factory Agriprocessors, based in Postville,
Iowa, was owned by Rubashkin and managed by two of his sons and a son-in-law. The distribution centers in Brooklyn and
Miami,
Florida were run by one of his daughters and another of his sons.
Agriprocessors faced several accusations of mistreatment of cattle between 2004 and 2008.
On November 5, 2008, Agriprocessors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and was bought at auction in July 2009.
Personal life
Rubashkin's death from COVID-19 was announced on April 2, 2020.
Family
The couple had nine children, five daughters and four sons:
[
]
-
Gutol Goldman
-
Sara Balkany
-
Rochel Leah Rosenfeld
-
Yossi Rubashkin
-
Moshe Rubashkin
-
Sholom Rubashkin
-
Chayala Gourarie
-
Heshy Zvi Rubashkin
-
Chana Zelda Minkowicz
External links
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Elizabeth Dwoskin: "The Fall of the House of Rubashkin. As the nation's largest kosher empire implodes, Brooklyn's ultra-Orthodox Jews begin to break ranks". The Village Voice, December 3, 2008
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David Levine: "A Beef With the Rabbis". Portfolio.com, October 15, 2008
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National Labor Relations Board: "Cherry Hill Textiles, Inc. and United Production Workers Union, Local 17–18". Case 29–CA–17848. Decisions of the NLRB, August 17, 1995
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Jennie Rothenberg: "Torah Amid Corn". Hadassah magazine, April 2004. Retrieved from Shmais.com
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The Rubashkin Story from A-Z: Part 1 and Part 2. Yaakov Astor's Blog, May 12, 2010. Excerpt from "Rubashkin. The Entire Story", Zman magazine, June 2010
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"Lessons in Leadership". Forward 50 2008 . The Jewish Daily Forward
