“They all have names and they all have personalities,” said Brenner, 58, as she surveyed 50 heads of Barbados Blackbelly sheep milling about her backyard. Ram-bam, Ram-ban, and Bah Bah Ganoush are all members of the flock. So was Fuji once upon a time.

Brenner runs, with a partner, EcoGlatt, a kosher meat company established in March that sells pasture-raised heritage breeds of cattle by mail order and through a local organic delivery service. Saunders does the slaughtering. Like others in the Jewish food movement, Brenner and Saunders had come in recent years to distrust kosher meat conglomerates whose treatment of both factory workers and animals they see as inhumane. For them, the 2008 federal raid on Agriprocessors, the country’s largest kosher meat producer in Postville, Iowa, cemented their ambivalence and made them decide they wanted to consume meat that was both kosher and ethically produced. Since nothing like that was available at that time, they became vegetarians.

About a year later, in the spring of 2009, Saunders and Brenner ate meat again—a goat named Hansel that they raised and slaughtered on the eve of Passover with other members of the tiny Jewish community in Pueblo. We “really developed a sense of the sacrificial consciousness that went into bringing an animal that you know,” said Brenner. “It wasn’t just that we’re taking an animal to butcher it. We understood the identification that people had with their animals at the Temple.”

In the years since Saunders and Brenner tried Hansel, a handful of American companies have begun selling meat that is pasture raised, humanely treated, and slaughtered in accordance with kosher laws. But now EcoGlatt is the only of that group that also supplies cuts from the hind quarters of the cow, the area which provides the choicest cuts: sirloin, T-Bone, and filet mignon. Under Jewish law, the sciatic nerve and certain forbidden fats must be removed from the hind to render it kosher, a process known as nikkur achoraim. In Israel, this process is commonplace. But for various reasons―labor-intensiveness among them―kosher meat producers in the United States traditionally do not remove the hind quarters and instead simply sell the hind off to non-kosher meat producers, depriving the kosher-observant of what Saunders calls “all the good stuff.”

The EcoGlatt team raise sheep in Pueblo and then buy Warhill lambs and Charolais cows from other ranchers in Colorado, which they process at a hahal slaughterhouse in Fort Collins, 180 miles away. (Federal law mandates that meat sold for retail must be processed at a USDA–approved facility, like the one in Fort Collins. Brenner and Saunders’ ranch does not have USDA approval.) The company sells about $1,000 of product a week to about 100 regular customers who pay $9 a pound for grass-fed ground beef and $14 a pound for brisket, pricier than non-organic kosher meat but comparable to other organic kosher producers’ prices. Sirloin sells for about $15 a pound, and filet mignon can run up to $28 a pound.

“Philosophically, what we’re about is striving to bring the healthiest, holiest meat on earth to people,” said Nalini Indorf Kaplan, Brenner’s business partner, who is studying for ordination in the Renewal movement.

As a business, EcoGlatt has its challenges. Saunders takes his time slaughtering, saying a standard blessing over each animal―rather than over a whole lot, as is common among kosher meat producers―and guiding each animal into a slaughter box. After the cut is made, EcoGlatt delays processing until an animal has fully bled out and ceased all motion, a process that takes between 10 to 15 minutes. That means they can process only four or five animals an hour. The fastest conventional kosher meat lines can process about 250 heads an hour; non-kosher slaughterhouses can process nearly 400 an hour.

Each slaughter “is a conscious act,” Saunders said. “And that’s how I hope people will consume the food.”

At their ranch, Brenner and Saunders perform slaughters on the animals they consume in an outbuilding behind their home. Saunders showed off the red slaughter box designed by the animal-welfare expert Temple Grandin as well as the flawlessly sharp knives he uses to swiftly dispatch the animals. Later, he retired to a small concrete patio behind the house, furnished only with wicker furniture and a grill, to cook the steaks―barely. Everything was rare, flesh only faintly darkened by fire.

Over dinner―three cuts of meat accompanied by a warm tomato-kale stew and delicata squash―Saunders apologized repeatedly for having no Charolais on hand, a muscular cattle breed celebrated for its well-marbled and tender flesh. “The Charolais would just actually explode your brain,” he said, with deadly earnestness. As Brenner blessed the food, Saunders closed his eyes.

“It’s about taking the divine energy that’s within an animal and preparing it in that way that is usable by us,” Saunders told me. “To then take that divine energy and raise it to a higher level.”

• Congratulations, Tzipi Livni, you can travel to London again! [AP/WP]

• Prime Egyptian presidential candidate and former Arab League head Amr Moussa called the Israeli peace treaty “untouchable.” From his lips … . [Ynet]

• New York on Judy Miller, Tablet Magazine’s new theater critic. [NYMag]

• Thanks to a new visa-free travel agreement, the number of Israeli pilgrims to Rev Nachman’s tomb in Ukraine is expected to double. [Ynet/Failed Messiah]

• The appeals court struck down Agriprocessors honcho Sholom Rubashkin’s request for a new trial. [JTA]

Keep it simple, stupid.

• Lebanon’s more complicated, diffuse upheaval. [NYT]

• Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is taking notification that he will likely be indicted in strive. If it happens, it won’t happen for several months. [NYT]

• David Ignatius looks at three important leaders in the new Egypt: Amr Moussa; Mohammed ElBaradei; and mega-businessman Naguib Sawiris, a Coptic Christian. [WP]

• Acting on a U.S. extradition request, Israelis arrested an official from the scandal-tainted Iowa Agriprocessors kosher meat plant. [AP/NYT]

• For the first time, two non-Jews entered into a civil union in Israel. [JTA]

• Four Hamas-affiliated politicians rejected an Israeli demand that they leave East Jerusalem for the West Bank. [WP]

• The House will likely pass a version of Iran sanctions that is harsher than the White House hopes for. [Politico]

• The response in Gaza to the easing of the blockade can be summed up in two words: “We’ll see.” [NYT]

• Even concert cancellations have contributed to Israel’s current unprecedented feeling of isolation. [WP]

• Because former Agriprocessors head Sholom Rubashkin’s 27-year sentence was so high, it promises to deepen the case’s controversy among his Orthodox defenders. [NYT]

Rubashkin Sentenced to 27 Years [JTA]
Earlier: Rubashkin Found Guilty of 86 Fraud Charges
Rubashkin Cleared of Child Labor Charges

Rubashkin stood accused of hiring 26 teenagers from Guatemala and Mexico at the plant. Not only were the underage laborers knowingly on the payroll, prosecutors argued, but they were forced to work excessive hours around dangerous machinery and chemicals. While earlier trials against Rubashkin were held in neighboring South Dakota, the child labor hearings unfolded in Waterloo, Iowa—a short hour and a half drive from Postville.

The trial, which dragged on for nearly a month, revealed a company beset by divisive management and a vigilant anti-union streak. But the defense successfully cast Rubashkin as an unfortunate victim, uninvolved in day-to-day hiring practices that included workers’ falsifying documents.

One former plant employee testified that she began her job, defeathering chickens for 12-hour days, when she was 15. Another took to the witness stand to claim the company directed its workers to lie about their age to state labor investigators. An Agriprocessors Human Resources rep, he said, “Told us not to tell them I was 17 because the plant would have problems.”

Two former supervisors brought more apparently damning evidence against the plant. Mark Andrew Spangler, a night shift supervisor, said the slaughterhouse “most definitely” hired minors. While a second supervisor, Matthew Derrick, recalled approaching Rubashkin about the presence of underage workers, his warnings, he claimed, were shrugged off.

But the defense pushed back hard, calling upon a plant manager to refute the supervisors’ claims. Spangler, the manager said, was a drunk, and Derrick was “lazy.”

An agent from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation told jurors that Derrick never reported his tale of warning Rubashkin before. Plus, according to Rabbi Zvi Bass, Derrick got a little too close to one underage female employee—though that testimony was thrown out.

Rubashkin’s lawyers culled mugshots of Latinos from Mexico and Guatemala and asked the lead investigator to guess the age of each. He missed more than a couple times. (Agriprocessors is accused of hiring workers as young as 13.) The tactic was pivotal to the defense’s main point: That the Rubashkins were fooled into hiring minors and, therefore, not culpable.

One witness for the defense was Rabbi Moses Weissmandel, who oversaw the plant’s Kosher certification. He testified that, on his frequent trips through the plant, he didn’t notice any underage workers. A former plant controller also testified that the Rubashkins were always staunchly against hiring minors.

Yesterday’s acquittal marks a rare victory for the former Agriprocessors’ management. A federal judge recently sentenced a company accountant to three years in prison.

The trial also points to the continual reverberations the industry and raid have in the rural community and beyond. Both a PBS documentary, “In the Shadow of the Raid,” and a lengthy Des Moines Register report explore the transnational impact of the plant’s saga.

Last week, the prosecution rested its case, pinning Rubashkin directly for ignoring repeated warnings about labor violations. In response, the defense framed Rubashkin — in odd, allegorical language — as a scapegoat, targeted maliciously and unfairly. Defense attorney F. Montgomery Brown described his client: “The stranger in a strange land. He became the white whale. You can feel from the absence of evidence and the evidence itself that they rushed to the conclusion that he was responsible, this white whale. Moby Jew.”

Rubashkin’s lawyers pushed the midwestern jurors to identify with their client. “He takes his kids to Disney World,” Brown said. “He’s just like us, he just looks different and believes in God a little different way.”

Former Manager of Iowa Slaughterhouse Is Acquitted of Labor Charges [NYT[
Earlier: Rubashkin Found Guilty of 86 Fraud Charges

Prior to his current incarnation as bike advocate, Herzfeld spent a year shuttling back and forth between the Dominican Republic, where he ran operations for a telecom company called SkyMax Dominicana, and Brooklyn, where SkyMax’s parent company is based. On paper, it was an absurdly good fit: Herzfeld reported to the company’s owner, a Williamsburg Satmar gentleman named Moses Greenfield, but he also got to indulge his penchant for Dominican culture, and particularly merengue. Naturally, he was bitten by the merengue bug while he was a bad student at Yeshiva University, which is conveniently located in the heavily Dominican Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights.

In the spring of 2007, after Herzfeld clashed with his colleagues one too many times, Greenfield fired him. An ugly dispute followed over how much money Herzfeld was owed. As per their contract, the parties took their conflict to the beth din, or rabbinical court.

The Beth Din of America is an odd institution: The judges are Orthodox rabbis (and their decisions are binding only because the claimants have agreed to use them as arbitrators), but the lawyers are … lawyers. In fact, Greenfield’s attorney in this case was Nat Lewin, an Orthodox lawyer who regularly argues before the Supreme Court. (Says Herzfeld of his foe, “He’s the guy who if they don’t let you wear a yarmulke and you’re an astronaut, he’ll sue NASA.”) According to Herzfeld, Lewin’s approach to the beth din case was to besmirch Herzfeld’s character and to highlight his least Orthodox habits. And so Exhibit A, in Herzfeld’s telling—Lewin says it was only a minor detail of the case—was a photograph of Herzfeld dancing the merengue with a Dominican woman dressed a tad short of modestly.

“In the Orthodox community, there’s no worse crime than mixed dancing,” Herzfeld explains. (By “mixed,” he means gender, although his dance partner’s skin color probably didn’t help.) “They wanted to show that they were at a higher level of religiosity than me.” The incriminating photo appears on Herzfeld’s Facebook page, followed by a seriously impressive number of punning captions submitted by Herzfeld and his friends, from “the behind the rabbis maligned” to “the dark tail that made the Hasidim turn pale.”

According to Herzfeld, the photo was used in court to back up the even weightier charge that he had sexually harassed two Dominican SkyMax employees. Lewin presented affidavits signed by the young women making these claims; Herzfeld asserts that their supervisors paid them to sign the statements, and indeed—at Herzfeld’s behest—one woman later said as much on video. (Lewin in turn counters that the harassment charges were just a small part of the evidence that Herzfeld’s conduct as a SkyMax employee was inappropriate.)

The beth din ruled that Herzfeld was entitled to some of the profits he demanded. However, in Herzfeld’s view, it did not go far enough in enforcing the verdict—to the point that, almost three years after the case first reached the beth din, he is suing Greenfield in civil court, where a hearing will take place later this month. Lewin has moved on from the case, but Herzfeld remains on a mission against him. Among the attorney’s highest-profile clients of the past few years are the Rubashkins, the ultra-Orthodox family that owned the Agriprocessors kosher slaughterhouse in Iowa that was shut down after a huge immigration raid. The day of the raid, Herzfeld said, Lewin was in the beth din with him. “I think the way it happened,” he said, “was that God punished the Rubashkins because Nat Lewin did what he did.”

Herzfeld, meanwhile, reports being happily married to an Orthodox woman. So, how does she feel about his merengue dancing?

“Eh,” Herzfeld replies. “She prefers to salsa.”

Clash of the Bearded Ones [NYMag]
Earlier: Bike Lane Battle Takes A Turn for the Civil

• The Iowa meatpacking plant once owned by kosher slaughter behemoth Agriprocessors, which shut down after a 2008 immigration raid, is producing (kosher) beef again for the first time, its new owner says. [Vos Iz Neias]

• An Israeli bookstore chain stopped selling a book called The National Left, a political manifesto denouncing settlers and calling for a revival of the Israeli left wing, after receiving “many complaints that the book hurts the feelings of some of our customers.” [NYT]

• The Nation reexamines the life and legacy of the late Holocaust scholar Raul Hilberg. [The Nation]

• Self-congratulations are due: the Webby Awards have named Tablet Magazine an honoree in the category of “Religion and Spirituality” on the Web! [Webby Awards]

In a jury trial held in Sioux Falls, South Dakota (defense attorneys feared that Iowa jurors would be biased against Rubashkin because of pretrial publicity), Rubashkin was found guilty of bank fraud, making false statements to a bank, mail fraud, and money laundering, the Des Moines Register reports. He was found not guilty of five additional charges of failing to pay livestock providers within a 24-hour window required by law. Defense attorneys “tried to portray Mr. Rubashkin as a bumbling businessman who was in over his head,” said the AP, but prosecutors successfully countered in his closing arguments that “Mr. Rubashkin had been aware of the fraud at the plant and that to assume otherwise was ‘ridiculous.’”

Rubashkin’s attorneys say they intend to appeal. They are also seeking to dismiss the charges related to money laundering because, they say, Rubashkin did not profit from the crime. “It’s unbelievable,” Rubashkin’s daughter Roza Weiss told the Argus Leader, a Sioux Falls paper. “My only comment is, we’re Jewish and we’re proud of it.” The Rubashkins are part of the Chabad-Lubavitch sect of ultra-Orthodox Judaism.

Jury: Fmr. Slaughterhouse Manager Guilty of Fraud [AP]
Sholom Rubashkin Guilty on 86 Charges in Fraud Trial Involving Postville Meat Plant [Des Moines Register]
Rubashkin Found Guilty on 86 Counts [Argus Leader]

Witnesses Say Fraud in Postville Occurred for Years [Des Moines Register]
Slaughterhouse Worker: Manager Was Incompetent [AP]
Judge in Rubashkin Case Refuses to Order Mistrial [Des Moines Register]

One is tempted to wonder how differently things might have turned out if instead of a camera-hiding sleuth, PETA had sent these two beauties to Iowa. But, then, maybe Capitol Hill and Postville aren’t all that far from each other. In the old joke, aren’t the two things you’re never supposed to see produced sausages and laws? And there’s another commonality between Congress and a kosher slaughterhouse: a professed aversion to pork.

Video: Peta Parades Playmates for Vegans [Politico]

The Court’s argument is strikingly similar to ones used by the Orthodox Union, America’s leading kosher certifying agency, in recent debates over whether animal cruelty or mistreatment of workers played a role in the kosher status of meat produced by the Agriprocessors slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa. The O.U., like the Israeli court, took a narrow view of kosher certification, arguing that kosher status has to do with food and food only.

I’d be curious to know, though, what the O.U. thinks of the (secular) Israeli court’s recent ruling. If they’re at all in agreement with Israel’s rabbis, the answer is not much.

Court Declares Jew for Jesus ‘Kosher’ [Jerusalem Post]

Except: Sholom Rubashkin, the former CEO of the beleaguered Agriprocessors slaughterhouse, is currently under court order to stay in Iowa’s Allamakee County until his trial. (He stands accused of 142 counts of fraud, money laundering, and immigration-related violations there.) He has, however, gotten special permission—on “religious” grounds—to travel to New York today. What holiday is he observing? The 15th anniversary of the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s death. The commemoration, Rubashkin’s lawyer said, is of “exceptional religious significance for those of the Lubavitcher faith.” It’s a faith, we imagine, much like Judaism.

Rubashkin Allowed To Leave Iowa For ‘Jewish’ Holiday [FailedMessiah.com]

Partners Agree to Buy Iowa Kosher Slaughterhouse [AP]

Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty [Official site]

Jon Stewart thrilled and reassured us all year with the Daily Show‘s political coverage, but soon after the election results were in, he appeared on pal Stephen Colbert’s much-hyped special, A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All. The other semi-bold-faced names to make appearances carried out their duties with aplomb, but it was Stewart’s sad-faced Hanukkah song (the holiday is a sensible alternative to Christmas,” he warbled sweetly) that stole the show. —Eryn Loeb

Best Reason to Become a Vegetarian

After years of allegations that it mistreated both animals and humans, Agriprocessors’ kosher slaughterhouse faced its most high-profile challenge yet: the Bush administration’s largest crackdown on illegal workers at a single site. The 54-year-old company eventually filed for bankruptcy, but not before sparking a mainstream debate about the laws and ethics of keeping kosher.

—Alana Newhouse

Best Substitutes for Actually Joining the Israeli Defense Force

Jobnik!, Miriam Libicki’s autobiographical graphic novel, bleakly chronicles her formative years in the IDF during the second Intifada. Against the backdrop of war, Libicki moves through a parade of disappointing relationships, making the grayscale illustrations particularly fitting. Similarly inspired by her years in the IDF, photographer Rachel Papo set out to capture the experiences of young women in the army. Her Serial No. 3817131 is a meditation on the incongruities of military adolescence, juxtaposing classic portraiture and yearbook-style candids to mesmerizing effect. —Rachel Sugar

Best Fictional Taste of Chicago Political Corruption

While the blogosphere parses the Blagosphere, readers greedy for all things Windy City can look to Aleksander Hemon’s novel The Lazarus Project. In following an immigrant from Sarajevo who becomes obsessed with the century-old story of Lazarus Averbuch, a Jewish newcomer killed by the city’s chief of police, Hemon weaves together contemporary and historical tales of loneliness and dislocation, showing, despite contextual differences, the unity among immigrant tales. —Sara Ivry

Best Traditional Ladino Wedding Song Most Worthy of Inclusion on the Soundtrack to a Pedro Almodóvar Film

“Shecharchoret” (“Black Beauty”), by 22-year-old London-based Israeli singer Mor Karbasi, is a haunting, epic song; like the other tracks on her debut album The Beauty and the Sea, it conjures a palette of emotions that have imbued my apartment-cleaning and subway-riding rituals with a sense of dramatic Mediterranean grandeur. Karbasi brings to mind a more dignified Shakira with her tragic, timeless, romantic songs. She sings in Hebrew, Spanish, and Ladino, but listeners need not understand the words to be

transported to one of the amber-lit cobblestone corridors depicted in the CD’s liner notes. —Hadara Graubart

Best Revisionist History

Earnest beneath a veneer of irony, Camp Camp aims to capture the essence of so many youthful summers. It’s the Wonder Years of coffee-table books: color war bullies and awkward mixers, athletic humiliation and profound weeklong romances, all seen through the rose-colored glasses that come with distance from adolescence. Camp Camp‘s grainy photos and glib anecdotes are enough to convince you that camp was a formative Jewish-American experience—and that you loved every minute of it. —Rachel Sugar

Best and Least Likely Depiction of Someone Using Tefillin

In Surfwise, Doug Pray’s documentary tracing a family’s beyond-unconventional lifestyle, Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz—the man responsible for bringing surfing to Israel—holds forth variously on the merits of rigorous self-sufficiency, meticulously calculated sexual compatibility, and robust Judaism. His nine kids, the products of an unofficial sociological experiment, also have things to say about growing up as nomadic truants and chasing waves while packed into an RV—some wistful, some resentful, all riveting. —Hadara Graubart

Best Fruitful Obsession

Rafael Goldchain reconstructed his family’s photo album by putting himself at the center of every image, in a host of guises. The self-portraits that comprise I Am My Family are alternately funny and haunting, enriched by their creator’s palpable sense of curiosity about the story behind every character” he embodies. The rich result of Goldchain’s inquiry into his family’s past is as generous as it is personal. —Eryn Loeb

Best Scandal with a Cantor in a Starring Role

In April, news broke that Naftali Hershtik—one of the most famous and well-respected cantors in the world—was the target of a bizarre entrapment scheme allegedly orchestrated by one of his former students. Sex! Rivalry! Hazzanut! We’ll wait years for another story like this one. —Alana Newhouse

Best Movie Experience That’s Akin to Torture

In My Father My Lord, the debut feature from Israeli writer-director David Volach, the young child of an ultra-Orthodox couple grows resistant to their beliefs—and since his father’s a rabbi, it’s a problem. Volach, who grew up ultra-Orthodox, portrays the boy (Ilan Griff) with sensitivity, and takes theology seriously. But a film this schematic can end only one way, and when it does—when it goes from incisive to mawkish—you’ll want to scream. —Lawrence Levi

Best Thrill-Ride Primer on the Siege of Leningrad

It’s hard to keep up with global brutalities—this year alone we’ve had massacres in the Congo, terror in Mumbai, and aggression in Georgia. And yet violence of the past, at least in Leningrad’s case, holds a rightful place on the podium of extreme malevolence. What David Benioff achieves in his fast-paced novel City of Thieves is nothing short of a coup—offering a primer on the German occupation of that Russian city in 1941, as well as a riveting buddies-on-the-run thriller that is long on pathos and entertainment. War may be hell, but reading about it doesn’t have to be. —Sara Ivry

Best Revenge of the Nerds

As part of its 60th-anniversary celebrations, Israel sent the band Oy Division to entertain at its embassies in southeast Asia. The irony, as frontman Noam Inbar is quick to point out, is that Oy Division, virtually the only klezmer band in Israel, passionately embraces the shtetl culture Israel’s founders were so determined to eradicate. While the host ambassadors looked on with some measure of discomfort, Inbar and company performed manic, unmanly songs in Yiddish, Russian, and Romanian. —Julie Subrin

Best Result of Growing up Jewish in Nebraska

In her collection of autobiographical essays, Have You No Shame, Rachel Shukert walks us through the rites of passage in her precocious girl-to-womanhood—from Holocaust obsession, to stealthy youth-group hook-ups, to losing a grandparent. As she points out the uncomfortable details in all-too-familiar situations, Shukert’s frenzied voice is honest and, moreover, hilarious. —Eryn Loeb

Best Foreplay

Paul Schrader’s movie adaptation of Yoram Kaniuk’s novel Adam Resurrected is far from perfect, but it does have two things going for it: Jeff Goldblum, who plays Adam Stein, a

onetime Weimar cabaret performer who survives the Holocaust by pretending to be a dog (long story) and winds up in an experimental Israeli asylum, and Ayelet Zurer, who plays the asylum’s head nurse and carries on a steamy affair with Adam. How does she turn him on? Arf! —Lawrence Levi

Best Cautionary Tale

Janice Erlbaum’s wrenching memoir Have You Found Her recounts her all-consuming relationship with a homeless teenage girl who turned out to be more messed up than anyone

could have imagined. The story’s concluding twist is probably also the year’s Best Surprise Ending—or would be, if it hadn’t broken real people’s hearts. —Eryn Loeb

Best Reason to Wonder if Contender for First Jewish President” Might Be Some Sort of Curse

In March, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned after it was revealed that he had engaged the services of a high-priced prostitution ring. This was widely considered a shoo-in for Shande of the Year…until Bernard Madoff came along. —Alana Newhouse