Chabad Moves To Iowa

Rabbi Aaron Rubashkin purchased a disused meat-packing plant in the picturesque town of Postville, Iowa in 1987, then took over the town, and brought in Mexican labor.

A Good German Lutheran Town

The influx of the unwashed NY Chabadis  shocked the small Iowa town of 1500 staunchly Lutheran Christians. A clash of Cultures in Heartland America began, the Chabad residents took over the town government and infested everything. Incidences of the Jews spitting, not paying their bills, were rampant.

Armed Robbery

Beginning on September 27, 1991, Phillip Stillman from Crown Heights and Rabbi Pinchas Lew, son of senior London Chabad rabbi Shmuel Lew, committed a series of armed robberies in the Postville area. One of which led to Stillman shooting and critically injuring convenience store clerk Marion Bakken in Decorah, Iowa.
 

Shot A Grandmother With A 357 Magnum

The two went to Ossian, Iowa. Stillman pulled out a .357 Magnum on a retired schoolteacher working a popcorn stand and demanded his coins and bills. They then headed to Decorah where they raided a convenience store. As the clerk, a elderly  grandmother, rang a silent alarm, Stillman shot her,  leaving a bullet permanently lodged next to her spine causing her ongoing pain. Stillman pleaded guilty to attempted murder and first-degree robbery.While awaiting sentencing, on March 8, 1992 Stillman, with help, tried to flee to Israel but was recaptured. Stillman was sentenced to 55 years in jail for three offences, to be served consecutively.

The Right Judge

Lev, despite an original sentencing of ten years in prison, was merely put on probation. The judge told a journalist that he was influenced and "impressed by many of the Jews who came  trial. The courtroom had a significant number of rabbis. They were very intellectual individuals. "If the crime had stunned the Iowa locals," says Stephen Bloom, "the double standard of punishment for Stillman and Lev took their breath away." 
 

Jury Awards Victim $1.6 Million

Marion Bakken, the woman who was shot, survived and was awarded $1.6 million as settlement for her injuries. She has never been paid. 

Released After Three Months Because He Needed Kosher Food

Lew, originally charged with murder, who's $200,000 bond had been paid by a "Hasidic organization in Brooklyn", made an Alford plea to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony as part of a plea bargain, and was sentenced to 10 years in jail and 5 years on probation for driving the getaway car. After complaining that the food was not kosher, he was released on probation after three months on condition that he attended a religious rehabilitation program.

Becomes A Rabbi And A University Professor

Rabbi Pinchas Lew gained rabbinical ordination, moved to Chapel Hill, and was the shaliach to the University of North Carolina. After three years, news of his past came to light. Following the publication of Postville many in the community demanded he leave, particularly after it emerged that he had not paid any of the restitution money that the court awarded his victim. In a public meeting at the Duke University campus on May 16 2001 Lew refused to discuss the issue of restitution payments; this and press reports the victim had said that Lew had never apologized made some in the community uneasy. By this time Lew had five children, and used the name "Pinny Lew".

The Rabbi Molested A Maid

In June 2001, Lew was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor offence of indecently exposing himself while touching his genitals to his Hispanic housekeeper on May 16, a few hours before he defended himself at the public meeting at Duke. On August 10 the case came to trial. The maid testified that:

The Other Shooter

Phillip Stillman is expected to be released in five years