Ami Magazine Selects Nathan Lewin as Person of the Year

On Monday, October 1,the first day of Sukkos, the worldwide Jewish community received distressing news.

The United States Supreme Court formally declined to review the 27-year prison term given to Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin, the former Agriprocessors vice president who was convicted of financial fraud after a huge immigration raid in 2008 at his Iowa meatpacking plant.

Without comment, the Supreme Court justices declined to consider an appeal filed by Sholom Rubashkin as they opened their new term.

The decision lets stand his conviction on 86 counts of financial misconduct and a prison term that could keep the 52-year-old chasidic man locked up for the rest of his life.

Earlier this month, we shared the comments his lawyer, Nathan Lewin, one of the foremost criminal defense and appellate attorneys of our time, gave to Matzav.com:

“The Supreme Court’s refusal to consider the Rubashkin case - which is the greatest injustice that I have seen in more than 50 years of law practice - was very distressing. But the legal battle is not over.

There are, in American legal history, a few famous cases “that will not die.” The Rubashkin case is in that league.

The Torah teaches that tzedek does not come easily; it must be pursued. Even at this juncture, there are legal avenues for overturning a fundamentally unfair trial.”

Ami Magazine has chosen Mr. Lewin as its Man of the Year, with an interview of Mr. Lewin by Mr. Yitzchok Frankfurter in its latest edition.