Just a nosh...

Kosher meatpacking executive Sholom Rubashkin was sentenced to 27 years in a federal prison for his conviction on federal financial fraud charges. Rubashkin was convicted last November on 86 counts of fraud in connection with the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa.

The prison term will be followed by five years of parole, according to U.S. District Judge Linda Reade’s ruling. Rubashkin also will be required to make restitution of nearly $27 million to several financial institutions.

Prosecutors had requested a 25-year sentence, according to the Des Moines Register. Rubashkin lawyer Guy Cook, noting the prosecutors’ request, called the sentence “essentially a life sentence for a 51-year-old man, and it’s not in the public interest.”

Rubashkin was acquitted earlier this month in an Iowa state court on 67 counts of child labor violations relating to 26 teenagers from South America. The Agriprocessors plant was the site of a federal immigration raid in May 2008 in which 389 illegal immigrants were arrested.

Clinton makes plea for Cuban detainee

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton asked Jewish groups to press the case of Alan Gross, an American Jew imprisoned in Cuba. Gross, 60, has been held since his Dec. 3 arrest for assisting the Cuban Jewish community to connect to the Internet. He was contracted to the U.S. Agency for International Development.

“Our government works every single day through every channel for his release and safe return home,” Clinton said at a State Department reception. “But I am really making an appeal to the active Jewish community here in our country to join this cause.” Jewish leaders said they would reach out through third parties who deal with Cuba.

American university heads visit Israel

JERUSALEM— A delegation of American university presidents visiting Israel met with their Israeli counterparts and discussed opportunities for academic collaboration. The 13 presidents, including the heads of the University of Miami, Cornell University, California Polytechnic State University, the University of South Carolina, Oregon State University and San Jose State University, were in Israel July 5-11 under the auspices of Project Interchange, an educational institute of the American Jewish Committee.