Anti-Semitism in Iowa?

By Michael Orbach

Issue of June 18, 2010/ 6 Tammuz 5770

A filmmaker claims anti-Semitism is the motivation for criminal charges brought against her by the State of Iowa.

In December of 2008, Wendy Weiner Runge, an Orthodox woman from Minnesota, and a producer on the science-fiction film, “The Scientist,” set production of the film in Iowa because of a generous tax incentive program. The program offered close to 50 percent in sellable tax credits for expenditures spent in the state. In an essay for The Jewish Press, she called it “a field of dreams,” and said she was hailed as the “Vanna White of Iowa.” 18 months later, the Iowa Film Office was shuttered, its director charged with civil misconduct, and Runge and two of her colleagues were facing a dozen criminal charges — charges that, if Runge is found guilty, could send her to prison for 25 years.

“It is possible that I could go to prison — my daughter who just turned 20 will turn 45, my age, when I get out,” said Runge, whose sister lives in the Five Towns.

The indictment alleges that Runge and her colleagues inflated the cost of items like step ladders and shovels, while the budget of the film was quadrupled from $800,000 to $2.5 million. Runge denies any wrongdoing and says that all charges were run through her attorneys and approved by the Iowa Film Office.

“This is my first film,” Runge explained. “I’m an executive producer — I’m a fundraiser, a Jewish mommy. I’m not an attorney, I’m not an accountant, I’m a fundraiser,” she said.

Runge explained that cost inflation is simply part of filmmaking — especially film making in Iowa. Most of the items, she explained, were rented in a package deal over a 45-day period.

“Remember, Council Bluffs, Iowa is very far from a Hollywood-caliber rental facility,” she said via email. “This is standard operating procedure for film production. If we were to buy an item, we would have to arrange for our crew to stay on the payroll for extra days or weeks to sell/donate all the items.”

Additional felony charges were based on proposals that had yet to be approved, she said, and that any charges related to in-kind services, where money did not exchange hands, were expressly approved by the film commissioner. Other charges, she said, are complete fabrications.

“There are 26 productions that have done the same thing I did,” she explained. “It’s a little weird, I don’t scream anti-Semitism.”

The crux of the story, she says, is that one day during the deposition Thomas H. Miller, a deputy attorney general, asked Runge if she knew Sholom Rubashkin, then, as now, at the center of an infamous case centered in Iowa. When Runge replied that she did not, Miller, according to Runge, leaned over and asked, “How’s the family doing?”

In a letter sent to Runge’s attorney, Miller said that his comments were, “perhaps inadvertently, mischaracterized.”

He explained that during a conversation between Runge, her lawyer and Miller’s assistant, Max Miller, it had come up that her husband had worked in the kosher food industry. Miller asked if her husband had dealt with Agriprocessors.

“Because it somewhat surprised me, I clearly recall her responding, ‘I wouldn’t know Rubashkin if he walked into this room,’” Miller wrote. “Please note that it was Ms. Weiner, not I, who mentioned Rabbi Rubashkin. I do acknowledge, however, that I had mentioned Agriprocessors.”

He concluded the letter saying he would be more careful.

Runge calls Miller’s recollection “inaccurate and ridiculous.”

“There was no friendly conversation between myself and Tom H. Miller. Ever,” she told The Jewish Star. She also said that Miller’s assistant was not present at the time.

“My attorney did not know what to do, he has never dealt with anything like this,” Runge said. “I urged Primmer [her lawyer] to seek the advice of the ADL [Anti-Defamation League], but he did not do so.”

Shmarya Rosenberg, the blogger known as Failed Messiah, lives in Minnesota and knows Runge and her husband casually.

“If you had asked me last week to draw up a list of actual or potential criminals in the Twin Cities Orthodox/haredi community, Wendy Runge would not have been on the list. Let’s hope I would have been correct and not naïve,” he wrote.