Jewish Inmate Demands Transfer in Alabama Prison Kosher Food Fight
Keeping Kosher: Rabbi Sholom Lipskar wraps tefillin with a prisoner in a Florida jail. Image by COURTESY OF ALEPH INSTITUTE
A Jewish man being held in an Alabama prison who sued the federal government demanding to be served kosher food has asked a federal judge to grant a transfer to another prison.
Rafael Alberto Lloveras Linares, a federal immigration detainee from Venezuela, has asked to be transferred to a facility in Miami or Newark, N.J. where he can have a kosher meal provided by a “Jewish catering service,” according to Jewish traditions and federal standards, the online edition of the Huntsville Times Al.com, reported.
Linares on May 1 filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Birmingham saying he was in danger from fellow inmates in the Etowah County Jail, and arguing that he had been moved to an area in the prison with the most dangerous inmates in retaliation for the lawsuit on kosher meals which had been filed in late April.
Four days later he was assaulted by six inmates , according to the emergency request for a transfer filed late last week, Al.com reported.
Linares claims that he is not being served kosher meals as required by federal law. He also has asked to observe the Sabbath, meet monthly with a rabbi and celebrate the major Jewish holidays.
A federal law passed in 2000 calls on state prisons services to accommodate the religious practices of prisoners whenever possible.
Linares has been detained by the immigration agency since July 2010, when he was arrested for overstaying a 1995 tourist visa. He applied for asylum, saying that as a Jew in Venezuela his life is in danger.
A federal judge ordered that Linares be deported, but he has refused to board planes to return him to Venezuela four times. Linares has an arrest record that includes convictions for trespassing, driving with a suspended license and eluding law enforcement, according to the Huntsville Times.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
