Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin: The Inside Story - TEEN EDITION

Three police vehicles pulled up outside the house, and police officers jumped out. There was a knock on the door. It was a knock meant to awaken terror.

Hashem is in charge, R’ Sholom Mordechai reminded himself.

Leah answered the door.

“We’re here for Sholom Rubashkin,” one of the police officers told her, his voice surly and intimidating.

The officers flooded the den. They crowded around R’ Sholom Mordechai and cuffed his wrists.

“Sholom Rubashkin, you are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent. Anything that you say can and will be used against you in a court of law…”

When Rabbi Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin, owner of Agriprocessors, the largest kosher meatpacking factory in the country, found himself the target of a malicious plot to bring his company, his family, and himself down, little did he know that this would be the start of a saga that would sweep through all of Klal Yisrael for years to come.

Who is Sholom Rubashkin? How did he land in jail with a near life-sentence, incriminated by the very people for whom he’d done so much good? What was the secret of his soaring faith? How did he survive—no, thrive!—as a Jew in the ugliness of a place called prison?

In this book, the famous story of Rabbi Rubashkin’s personal struggle is recounted to a teen readership, with many firsthand details and much of the emotion he and his family actually experienced. Also included are the Rubashkin kids’ perspectives of the ordeal, as they witnessed their father being arrested and thrown heartlessly behind bars.

Follow Rabbi Rubashkin and his family’s journey, from his initial arrest until, at long last, his thrilling release. It is a journey of true emunah, bitachon, and ahavas Yisrael…a journey that really became all of Klal Yisrael’s.

By Chaya Sara Ben Shachar