MK Eichler with Rubashkin
MK Eichler with RubashkinMK Eichler's office

Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin, who was released in December after serving eight years in prison, arrived on Saturday evening at the home of MK Yisrael Eichler (UTJ) to thank him for his speech in the Knesset.

Rubashkin, 57, ran the Iowa headquarters of a family business that was the country’s largest kosher meat-processing company. In 2009, he was convicted of bank fraud and later sentenced to 27 years in prison.

During US Vice President Mike Pence's visit to Israel, Eichler mentioned Rubashkin's imprisonment and the fact that he had been sentenced to 27 years in prison for an economic crime. Eichler also explained the anti-Semitic bias which had been present throughout the trial, and thanked Pence and US President Donald Trump for freeing Rubashkin early.

"It's my dream to be here, visiting you in Jerusalem," Rubashkin told Eichler. "When you visited me in New York after I was freed, and you blessed me that we should see each other in Israel, I thought it would take another few years. And here I am, in the holy city of Jerusalem, less than six months later."

"Your lengthy sentence was an expression of open anti-Semitism," Eichler responded. "Jews thought that after the Holocaust, you couldn't imprison a Jew for 27 years, even in Siberia."

"No non-Jew would have received more than two years for the crimes you were charged with. The entire US legal system, a false world, rejected every appeal.

"Only G-d chose Trump, against all odds - in order to free you. With this, He gave human rights back to the Jews. Thank G-d, you're already in Jerusalem."