March 28, 2008

How did the Diveroli family qualify for "minority ownership" preferences?

Following up on the story of the 22-year-old international arms dealer Efraim E. Diveroli, whose AEY firm just had its $200-$300 million contract with the U.S. government yanked, I noticed that a company called Worldwide Tactical, managed by Efraim's father Michael Diveroli, operates out of the same address in Miami Beach and has the same fax number. What caught my eye was this line on FedVendor.com form for Michael Diveroli's Worldwide Tactical.
Ownership: Minority Owned

So, Diveroli's dad gets ethnic preferences on government contracts? Sweeeeet! (Here's a mugshot of young Efraim, who looks like maybe he's a big fan of fellow Miami Beach denizen Jose Canseco's health and fitness techniques.)

I explained how something like this could happen in a VDARE.com article "What's Spanish for Chutzpah?" which explains how a Polish-born entrepreneur named Liberman got himself declared Hispanic for the purposes of getting tax breaks on buying radio stations. See, the Libermans got tossed out of Spain in 1492, which makes them Hispanics.

But "Diveroli" appears to be an Italian Jewish name. Maybe they got themselves declared "Latinos" because their ancestors spoke some Latin 2000 years ago? Who knows?

Updated: See the comments for a 1984 NYT story on how the Reagan administration declared Hasidic Jews to be a "disadvantaged" minority for purposes of minority business development.

As it turns out, Efraim's AEY is officially listed by the federal government as being owned by an ethnically "disadvantaged" person. And it turns out that the Reagan Administration added "Hasidic Jews" to the list of who is eligible for affirmative action in 1984.

But are the Diverolis Hasidic Ashkenazis? The name sounds Roman Jewish. And is his mother's side of the family Botach / Boteach Hasidic either? Maybe -- that's what Efraim's uncle, the celebrity rabbi Shmuley Boteach was ordained as, but Shmuley's father claims to be an Israeli citizen and the rumor is that their background is Persian Jewish.

So Efraim must claim to be Hasidic in order for AEY to qualify as "disadvantaged." Funny, he doesn't look too Hasidic in this mugshot. I guess he must have lost his hat and beard on the way to the police station after he beat up that parking valet.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

22 comments:

Grumpy Old Man said...

Gales of hysterical laughter.

Anonymous said...

Could it be because they made one of their wives a part-owner and women-owned = minority-owned?

This is an example of the silliness of affirmative action in government contracting: most minorities aren't smart enough or don't have the entrepreneurial zeal to get these contracts.

- Juan

Anonymous said...

Very very entertaining. Please keep on top of this. I'd love to know how this clan got minority preferences. It's outrageous how perverted the whole concept of affirmatives action got, Originally intended only for blacks and Indians. Now immigrants with no history of slavery can get a ride on the gravy train. Immigrant blacks and Hispanics should be barred from all affirmative action and minority preferences

But Democrats always do this. Super delgates started out as 10% of the DNC delegates. They are now up to 20% due to favors bestowed

Anonymous said...

The Miami Dade Court system lists the defendant, Efraim Diveroli, as "White".

http://www.miami-dadeclerk.com/cjis/akaname.asp?65C6B2C6D6D0D6D0E3C6E2C6DA8BD8D3D6D8DAC6DED3E6D2B2ABA5CAAB95A9C6A895A9D0A58BE7C6B297AD75

And his court case here:

http://www.miami-dadeclerk.com/cjis/case.asp?50B18BB3B1B1C1B1B376B1C3AFC3B3B58B967EB3848082B1818082C37E76C0B58B82864E

Anonymous said...

This is a good example of why I say Jews aren't white. Or to be more precise, Jewishness and whiteness are opposite poles.

Whites can't play this slimy game with a clear conscience, and insofar as they're white, Jews can't either. But the further Jews go toward Jewishness and away from whiteness, the more they can play it.

Similar kind of thing seen with "white guilt," which Jews only feel to the extent that they're white and not Jewish.

Anonymous said...

I've been saying this for years: Eastern Europeans should just desert the white race. We spent forever battling to be considered white instead of part Mongoloid (or full Mongoloid for us Finns) and once we finally succeeded in it, it turns out that it's not the deal we were promised.

If we were Asian, we could run whatever immigration policy we wanted and we could say anything since we couldn't be racist. For those resident in America, it's not as good as identifying as black or latino, but it's good enough for those of us in Eur... sorry, for us Asians who want to accept mainly fellow Asians.

Sure, I'm 6'2" with brown curly hair and blue eyes, but as we all know, race is just socially constructed.

Anonymous said...

I'm curious to know if there's a strict legal definition of "minority" in the context of this kind of contract. After all, every one of us is minority something.

And yeah, he might not be the "owner" of the company. I lost count of the number of white friends who used the Asian wife as a figurehead for his "minority owned" company.

Anonymous said...

Why name a company AEY?

My guess is AEY includes the first initials of some of Michael Diveroli's offspring. A = Avrahom Diveroli ; E = Efraim Diveroli ; Y = Yeshaya Diveroli . The two younger offspring were not old enough to include.

Anonymous said...

Italian Jews are by and large of Sephardic descent. Hispanic to some extent then.

Anonymous said...

From their "About Us" page. Note typos:

About Us
Worldwide Tactical LLC has been intimately involved for years with both the Homeland Defense as well as the Iraqi reconstruction efforts. Furthermore, we have established key strategic vendor alliances, enabling us to offer the most advanced products in the marketplace. In todays' world, it is reasuring to know that our company is fully dedicated to meeting your rigid equipment demands.

Aspergers.life said...

Steve,

Your readers will be interest to know of a non-profit that opening boasts of ethnic and gender discrimination:

http://www.businessmatchmaking.com/about.shtml

According to the site:

"For the past four years, BMM has produced regional face-to-face selling events, plenary seminars and workshops, online training and collateral material for primarily minority, women, veteran and disabled veteran owned firms."

Business Matchmaking's function is to help small business owners secure government contracts.

Anonymous said...

Hasidic Jews have received preferences in nearly all federal contracts, like other official 'minorities', since June 1984. I'm sorry I haven't brought this up before.
See the New York Times article in the next comment. It was possibly the first and last time the NYT ever had an article on this aspect of affirmative action. By the way, if you google hasidic and affirmative action, most web pages, articles, and books, including the 2002 posthumously published Hugh Graham book, erroneously state in one form or another that Hasidic Jews do not receive affirmative action. (Carter Administration turned down their request in 1980, which is referenced in many sources, the 1984 Reagan thumbs up is in very few.) I have never been able to find any statistics on hasidic federal contracts, but is is certainly in the official federal AA regulations and guidebooks, though it has become harder to find over the years.

Another thing to think about - any Jew can become a Hasidic Jew without going through conversion, and your neighborhood Chabad House (lubavitcher) is always looking for more (Jewish) members.

Anonymous said...

Copyright New York Times Company Jun 29, 1984

They were talking about it in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn yesterday. Bearded men in dark coats under a hot sun, men known for their deep spiritual values, their belief in education and hard work, their pride in self-reliance.

They were all Hasidic Jews, and they were talking about President Reagan's decision, announced Wednesday, to add them to a list of minority groups considered ''disadvantaged'' by the Government.

The list already includes Hispanic people, blacks, Indians and other groups that are considered by the Government to have encountered severe economic problems because of discrimination.

The designation means the Hasidim are able to apply for Federal assistance in running businesses. They will also be eligible for programs that set aside work for minority-group businesses.

The designation took effect immediately. Greeted With Hope

Most of the Hasidim did not know the details of what the decision would ultimately mean for them. But there seemed to be accord, at least among the thousands of Lubavitcher Hasidim who live on Crown Heights, that the Government had done a good thing for them. Zeb Katz, who was rushing to close his Kingston Avenue textiles outlet at 2 P.M. so he could go to Manhattan to study the Talmud, said he hoped the designation would enable him to better compete with other business people and, perhaps, aid him in expanding customer list nationally.

In the Bay Ridge section, Israel Szempow, who makes special items out of flexible vinyl at a business on 63d Street, said that the new policy would ''give us a great opportunity to move up in this country.''

He said that over the years he has been in business, there had been numerous occasions when he had bid for jobs but did not receive them, even when his bid was lower, ''because when I made the bid I was wearing a yarmulke.'' Some Fears Expressed

He said he has sensed the discrimination on occasion, then had it confirmed for him by a third party who knew for sure that a potential customer did not want to do business with people who look as the Hasidim do.

In the leadership of the Lubavitch movement, there were fears expressed the classification would not be properly understood, either by other Jews or by non-Jews.

Rabbi Abraham Shemtov, who worked for years in Washington explaining to Government officials the reasons why such a designation was important to the Lubavitch movement, was visiting a Lubavitch center on Crown Heights and said he hoped the designation would not become a new way to stereotype the Hasidim.

Rabbi Shemtov made it clear he did not even like the term ''disadvantaged.'' Rather, he said, he preferred to think that the reason the Lubavitchers needed the designation was because their style of life gave them certain ''limitations.''

Anonymous said...

The Federal contracting set-aside category not even coming close to meeting the goals, even though they are comparatively modest to the others?

Service-disabled Veteran-owned Small Business (SDVOSB). Welcome back from the war and thanks for your service. . . suckers.

Anonymous said...

I've thought about declaring myself 'Latino' when I was applying for college. Instead, I checked white & male.

My rationale for selecting Latino was that I was exposed to Latino culture while living in San Diego, during the ages of 6 months and 5 years, and as a consequence was exposed and therefore came from Latino culture. I suppose I could have technically done so because of that, despite my light blond hair and blue eyes (Scandinavian roots).

Anonymous said...

It's interesting that it's the predominantly Jewish New York Times that's reporting these outrageous stories. I guess it's kind of like how only Ward Connerly can lead those anti-affirmative action initiatives.

neil craig said...

If a member of the bin Laden family moved to the US & invested hios very considerable amounts of money in a munitions firm would he get a minority preference?

Anonymous said...

Is it just me, or does he not look exaclty like SNL's Andy Samberg:

http://www.saturday-night-live.com/snl/castbios/andysamberg.html

Anonymous said...

The Hasidic AA preference is interesting. How do you tell?

With all of these minority AA scams the government appoints official "minority detectors" who go around checking out your credentials (for a fee) Typically some woman from the local NAACP will visit you, go over your papers, ask about parentage, and make a decision whether you are officially "black" enough.

But what do you do with a purely religious designation like "hasidic Jew".

Does the Grand Rebbe send someone around to check up on your chumras, you yicchus, whether your wife wears an Indian-hair sheitel, whether you are on or off the derech?

And don't think that this mixing of church and state is uncommon.

As much as they don't want your Christmas tree to appear in public schools, until recently New York State had officially licensed, state-funded rabbi kosher inspectors who would go around checking food and wine.

Part of their job was assuring the State of New York that no Christian had touched and therefore befouled wine made in upstate New York wineries. Any such contamination would render it unfit for consumption by decent law-abiding Jews and therefore he would revoke their kosher designation (purely as a matter of false advertising, of course).

Even now, New York state will withhold a final divorce settlement to force a Jewish man to "voluntarily" give his wife a "get" (a religious divorce).

The Jewish courts can't give a Jewish divorce to the wife since God says he must voluntarily give it to her -- and what if he doesn't WANT a divorce?

If the Jewish judges lean on him then it isn't "voluntary" ... so they get gentiles to legally bludgeon the dude and make him "sign ze papers". Keeps their hands clean if the gentiles do it for them, I guess.

So while you are keeping your eyes out for sharia (Islamic law) coming through the front door of your court, watch out for halacha (Jewish law) sneaking in the back.

I'll bet there is some Bull Jewish Inspector who goes out and checks on Jewish souls to make sure they are "real" Hasids. I wish I knew how that was Constitutional.

If anyone knows who the Bull Jewish Inspector is and the religious tests he uses I would love to know.

Anonymous said...

It's interesting that it's the predominantly Jewish New York Times that's reporting these outrageous stories. I guess it's kind of like how only Ward Connerly can lead those anti-affirmative action initiatives.

The difference is Ward Connerly believes affirmative action is wrong and counterproductive, so it's consistant with his ideology.

For the NYT, I suspect the love for AA competes with disdain for people that take their religion seriously.

Anonymous said...

There was an episode of the Sopranos in Season 1 "Denial, Anger, Acceptance" where a Hasidic hotel owner makes a deal with Tony's crew to convince his son-in-law to divorce his daughter. And then reneges on the deal.

Anonymous said...

I don't think Hasidic Jews are eligible for affirmative action. I could be wrong, but I've looked around on the Internet and it says they applied and were denied as a religious group.