The following article (excerpted below) appeared in the Washington Jewish Week just before Yom Kippur, and I wanted to make sure the Boulder Jewish community was aware of both the White House program described and the petition relating to the Sholom Rubashkin case.

We the People

10/5/2011 11:37:00 AM

by Alyza Lewin
Special to the Washington Jewish Week

Two weeks ago, the White House launched a project it calls “We the People.”
Americans are invited to post a petition online at the White House’s
“We the People” website. If the petition garners 5,000 signatures
within 30 days, the White House guarantees it will issue an “official
response.” To date, 132 petitions have been posted to the website.

One petition deserves the attention of both the Jewish community and
the broader legal community. It is the “Petition to Call For an
Investigation into Allegations of Prosecutorial & Judicial Misconduct
in the Case of Sholom Rubashkin.” That petition is currently the
fourth most popular petition, with more than 22,000 signatures. The
only petitions to garner more signatures are petitions to 1-Legalize
marijuana (with more than 48,000 signatures), 2-Forgive student loan
debt (with more than 26,000 signatures) and 3-Abolish the
Transportation Safety Administration (with more than 24,000
signatures).

The Rubashkin petition asks President Obama to direct the attorney
general to investigate prosecutorial misconduct in the case of Sholom
Rubashkin and to “correct the gross injustice” that has been
perpetrated in that case. I am familiar with the injustice that has
been suffered by Rubashkin, the former manager of Agriprocessors, the
kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa, who was sentenced to 27 years in
prison. My father and I represented Sholom Rubashkin in his appeal to
the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. And I can tell you that the American
justice system has failed Sholom Rubashkin.

Read the rest of the article here.

Alyza D. Lewin is an attorney at law with the firm Lewin & Lewin LLP.