That a young chasid from Williamsburg should become famous for his national and international advocacy and lobbying is a rarity. That he should have that happen multiple times is astounding. But Reb Moshe Margaretten’s work and results on behalf of the incarcerated, Afghan refugees and people facing infertility have put him in the spotlight multiple times, for good reason.
The reach of his advocacy can be seen in regard to that last issue, infertility, which he has made a special effort on recently. The Washington Post published a story over the weekend claiming that President Trump was backing off of promises he made during his election campaign that the government would help pay for fertility treatments, something that Rabbi Margaretten had advocated for. But Rabbi Margaretten’s organization, Tzedek Association issued a statement in which it was made clear that he had gone straight to the source to inquire about this journalistic claim.
“We wanted to quickly address the Washington Post article making the rounds today about fertility treatment coverage and the Trump administration,” the statement said.
“First and most importantly: the White House has made clear to us that they remain committed to expanding access to fertility treatment, and that goal has not changed.
“This particular article is based entirely on two anonymous sources. As with any complex policy, there are always internal discussions and back-and-forth, but nothing has been finalized, and no decisions have been made to walk away from this effort.
“In fact, we’re actively pursuing multiple avenues with the administration beyond just the ‘essential health benefits’ path, and those conversations are ongoing and productive.
“As always, we’ll keep you posted. But for now please know that we’re still very much in the fight — and so is the White House.”
Rabbi Margaretten’s national standing in the US was established during the first Trump term, when he was one of the most prominent advocates whose efforts led to the First Steps Act, which provided the first meaningful federal prison reform in decades. That was an effort that took years of work behind the scenes by Rabbi Margaretten, but both the Trump and Biden administrations took public notice of it. President Trump had him light the menorah at the 2019 White House Chanukah celebration in honor of his advocacy—and during that public occasion, the president extolled the work Rabbi Margaretten had done.
The passage of the First Steps Act led Rabbi Margaretten to establishing Tzedek Association, and he continued to advocate on behalf of prisoners. A New York Times article published in 2021 credited Tzedek Association with many of the pardons made by President Trump in the last days of his first term, and while the Times painted those efforts in a sinister light—as one would expect from that paper—the care and exertion that Rabbi Margaretten took on behalf of imprisoned people was nonetheless visible from between the lines.
But his efforts wouldn’t remain limited to the United States. The fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban caused Rabbi Margaretten to take up advocacy on behalf of the last Jews in the country, but then he saw that there were many more people in need of help, and he pushed hard for Christians and Muslims who were desperate to escape. Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska gave an admiring speech on the US House of Representatives floor about the work that Tzedek Association did to rescue people of all religious and ethnic backgrounds from the oppressive, murderous clutches of the Taliban.
What task will Reb Moshe Margaretten take on next? To learn more, we recently spoke with him about his past, present and future efforts.
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Helping people get out of prison is a very high calling. Many great tzaddikim were involved in pidyon shvuyim over the centuries. The Skverer Rebbe, who mentioned your name at a recent meeting with Senator Chuck Schumer, once went to Washington to lobby for pardons.
My Rebbe’s success in pidyon shvuyim was certainly an inspiration to dedicate myself to this cause. I was young when the Rebbe went to Washington, and somewhere in the back of my mind was the thought that we should also go there and get more done.
Did you learn in Skver?
I went to cheder there. For yeshivah ketanah, I learned in Pinsk Karlin in Yerushalayim. My family lived in Yerushalayim for seven years because my father had bought a business there, so I learned in the local yeshivah ketanah. I was the only American. For yeshivah gedolah, I learned in Chernobyl in Bnei Brak. I was there until 2000. My wife is from Williamsburg, so I’ve been living there ever since I got married. On Shabbos I daven in the Skverer shtiebel.
When I was helping people get out of Afghanistan, there were a few times when Afghanis came to the shul looking for me because they wanted me to help their family members. It got to the point where the shul put up a sign that said in Urdu “Rabbi Margaretten has moved his office” because they didn’t want people knocking on the door. One person came all the way from California. It’s a small, quiet shtiebel, and they didn’t want any noise. That’s another reason why I like davening there.
Helping people get out of Afghanistan only came later. First you lobbied successfully for a monumental prison reform bill, the First Step Act, which transformed how people in federal prisons can earn significant time off their sentences through rehabilitation and expanded early-release opportunities.
I’ll tell you one of the main catalysts for starting the Tzedek Association. In 2011, I visited the prison in Otisville. There weren’t many frum visitors because it was right before Pesach. In general, I would say that usually 90% of the visitors there are heimish, because the non-Jews don’t often get visitors. I was waiting for the prisoner I was visiting to come to the visitation room, and while I was sitting there, there was a frum family a few benches away from me, a mother with a few young children. The mother realized that the father wouldn’t be home for Pesach, so she had brought a few Haggadahs along so the kids could ask the Mah Nishtanah. I heard them saying it very nicely, but the mother was so emotional that she turned to the side so the kids wouldn’t see her crying, and she broke down. The father was also very emotional. It was a heart-wrenching scene. The room was quiet; it was basically just me and them. Even the guard was visibly moved. That’s when I decided that it was time to get fully involved in a federal bill that would dramatically change the system even though I didn’t know a thing about lobbying. We didn’t have sponsors yet, but I was ready to jump in.
This isn’t really a Jewish cause per se. It’s a trickle-down situation, because by helping all American prisoners, Yidden will be helped as well.
Correct. One of the first meetings about the First Step Act was held in the house of the Munkatcher Rebbe, and he asked one thing of me: Don’t make this a Jewish issue. Not only did he want us to make this a national issue that would help everyone, but he wanted us to conceal our faces and not be out there. We told the lobbyists to keep our names out of it, and we tried to stay under the radar. We only went public toward the end.
How often do you visit prisons?
Not that often, although I did just visit the Otisville minimum security camp very recently. I used to go every Thursday, but then Tzedek’s work shifted more to policies. I’m trying not to get so involved with individuals; that’s what Aleph Institute does. But if Aleph needs help from us or they think there’s an area where we can be helpful, then we get involved. We work with them hand in hand.
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