Rubashkin Gets Rebbe’s Dollar

By COLlive reporter
Photos by Baruch Ezagui

Just as every Jewish boy the nearing the exciting age of Bar Mitzvah, Menachem Mendel Rubashkin of Postville recently received his new pairs of Tefillin, a Chitas and other traditional items.

Unlike others, this soon-to-be 13 year-old did not have his father at his side guiding him through the milestone of entering into adulthood.

His father, Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin, is currently jailed in the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Otisville, NY, after being sentenced to 27 years on bank fraud charges.

Almost like a gift, just in time for his Hanachas Tefillin that took place Sunday, evidence that Judge Linda Reade unlawfully cooperated with the prosecution was presented this week – evidence which, according to reports, could possibly lead to a new trial.

The young Bar Mitzvah boy got another ray of hope last week when one of the shops on Kingston Avenue in Crown Heights handed him change of a dollar bill – which has writing on it that indicates it was received from the Rebbe‘s hand.

Menachem Mendel is keeping the bill in his Tefillin bag and showed it to participants of a BBQ that took place in the Nevel bungalow colony in the New York Catskills.

Present at the event were his mother Leah Rubashkin, siblings, grandfather Abraham Aaron Rubashkin, uncles Moshe Rubashkin and Heshy Rubashkin and distant cousin and real estate mogul Shaya Boymelgreen.

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