Wendy Weiner & Iowa

Welcome to Jewish in Des Moines an unaffiliated posting about living Jewish in the Middle of the Midwest.  As always your comments, questions are welcome here and on Twitter, I monitor @JewishDesMoines.

Last week, my rabbi told me a family had come to town and used the guest house on an overnight trip to the city.  It's not uncommon as travelers often come by to daven and stay with us a day or two.  I didn't think anything of it until my friend Wendy Bernstein sent me a note about a Wendy Weiner, the un-named visitor, and exactly why she was in Des Moines.  It's a story about the Iowa Film Office, being Jewish and some disturbing actions by judges and the Iowa Attorney Generals office...and, we've seen much of this before in the trial of Rabbi Shalom Rubashkin.  Here is the story of  Ze'eva Rochel bas Chaya, from her Blog - Why Wendy.

I'll warn  you...it's shocking. 

In August 2008 my feature film production company was invited to take part in a new and exciting film program in Iowa, which is my parent's home state. The Iowa Legislature recognized that encouraging local film and television production could provide much needed jobs and a broader tax base. At that time, the Legislators and the Governor had recently enacted a rebate program that offered producers and investors a return of HALF of the money we spent in Iowa -- all qualified expenditures -- and they were seeking partners to help them build an infrastructure for film and television production. We were selected and encouraged to do as much business as possible to help Iowa get the program off the ground.

Every step of the process we sought advice from our attorneys and accountants and received approval from the designated State officials to make sure we were meeting the requirements of the program. We completed our project and in December 2008 we were awarded every single dollar that we had been anticipating, and ENCOURAGED to bring more business like ours to Iowa! At the behest of the State officials, we filed applications for future projects and made plans to invest significantly in two different sound stages in Council Bluffs and Newton, where economic development of film production would make a HUGE impact on the community.

The film incentive program was shut down by the Governor in September 2009 due to government's mismanagement of the program, and in an election year, the Governor needed an outsider to blame for the issues. He and the Prosecutors have selected me and my project. I have been charged with 15 felony counts for doing EXACTLY what I was told to do, and if convicted, G-d forbid, I face 25 years in prison.

This same Prosecutor brought the child labor charges against Rabbi Rubashkin, and asked me about my relationship to them. I suspected anti-Semitism might be the reason for these charges, especially when there are 25 other similar projects who did what we had done. Then, the former Judge scheduled my pre-trial hearing on Rosh Hashana because "Rosh Hashana is not a State holiday in Iowa, therefore she has to appear".

HaShem has given me an incredible challenge to PROVE my innocence and as Reb Michel Twerski's bracha concluded, "To be victorious!"

I work every minute of every day to face these horrible charges the way the Spinka Rebbe instructed me to: B'Simcha. Everything HaShem does for us is good...and should be celebrated. What a task!

Fighting these charges is exhausting, and on top of it all I need to raise a great deal of money to pay my attorneys to protect me. Our four children deserve a Mom by their side at their Bar and Bas Mitzvahs, chasunahs, the birth of their children and all of life's challenges.

Please help me with your tzedaka, your tefillah, and acts of chesed because Avinu Malkenu is listening to our prayers.

Thank you

Wendy

Ze'eva Rochel bas Chaya

 

Here is the link to her blog.

 

As we enter Simchat Torah...let's ponder this story and do the right thing.  If even half of her story is true...we've got some serious issues in Iowa.  That and the fact that I know Matt Whitaker, her attorney, and he is as good as they come.  What do you think?

Comments

[straight shooter]

This is for a court of law-not her blogging.