May 15, 2008

Postville, Iowa

A reader sent me a long write-up on the illegal immigration scandal at the Lubavitcher slaughterhouse in a small town in Iowa, which I'll post below. This business run by New York ultra-Orthodox Jews first became notorious a number of years ago when a Jewish academic named Stephen Bloom exposed how the newcomers were treating the Iowans. From the review in Amazon.com:
"The enterprise was a huge international success, with its kosher meats exported even to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The Jewish population grew to 150, and they were rich. The town was saved, and the people were grateful. All's well that ends well? Not quite. The Hasidim kept to themselves, did things their own way, and basically had no interest in integrating into Postville. And why would they? Their laws are strict, their mission clear, their community defined by race and religion. They are not interested in watermelon socials or coffee klatches at the diner. Their little boys do not swim with their little girls, are not educated together, and do not go on play dates with goyim. Small-town Iowans, on the other hand, are very friendly. They know each other's news, they support each other's businesses, they wish each other Merry Christmas, they want you to feel at home. They don't like that the new townspeople stomp up the street hunched over, talking in a foreign language and looking straight through them when greeted. They really don't like it when one of the newcomers drives around town with a 10-foot candelabra strapped to his car playing music at full volume for eight consecutive winter nights."

The point is not to pick on the business practices of ultra-Orthodox Jews. The bigger issue is that this kind of in-group morality is not at all restricted to Lubavitchers. In-group morality and sharp elbowed business practices are the norm among mercantile minorities across large swathes of the world, the great majority of them non-Jewish. (In fact, many are notoriously anti-Semitic.)

It's the nature of low trust societies: you have the peasants and you have the business people, and never the twain shall marry. An American-style society where it's not surprising when a farm boy like Henry Ford or Philo Farnsworth goes on to big things is a rarity in this world. (Here's Tom Wolfe on Robert Noyce of Intel, co-inventor of the silicon chip, who grew up in Grinnell, Iowa, a small town much like Postville -- except now it has an extremely rich college, due to getting in early on the companies started by Noyce and another Midwestern boy named Warren Buffett.)

Not surprisingly, lots of mercantile minorities want to emigrate to the rich pickings in America. What's in it for Americans is less clear.

There has been a giant immigration raid in Postville, Iowa, a town that has been taken over by a Hasidic Jewish sect, the Lubavitchers, and the third world illegal workers from Mexico and Eastern Europe that they have imported to work at their meat processing plant and are dumping on the community:

Des Moines Register

KMEG Channel 14

There is so much more to the story easily available on the internet. Rabbi Rubaskin, Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the Lubavitchers, Federal Prison, arson in Pennsylvania (see Failed Messiah, below), Secret PETA video tapes, fraudulent kashering, attempted bribery of the police, non-assimilation in America, self-isolation of Jews, Man! The story has everything. Read reviews of Stephen Bloom's book, "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in the Heartland" in which he challenges the melting pot ideology of the open borders crowd.

Failed Messiah a Jewish blogger, has blog entry after blog entry on the crookedness of the Rubashkin family and how they screw the gentiles and the Jews, including articles on Federal prison time for defrauding their gentile workers:

Here is a two-year-old article from the Jewish Daily Forward on the exploitation of third-world workers:

This is a "clean" interview with Stephen Bloom on his book about Postville and the Lubavitcher invasion:

This is Luke Ford's long unexpurgated interview with Stephen Bloom. Positively scathing and well worth a read.

Here is a bogus suckup article by the Jewish womens group called "Hadassah" on the wonderful diversity and multiculturalism of Postville:

Hallmark did a ditzy show called "The Way Home: Stories of Forgiveness" about the (nonexistent) touching reconciliation of the Postville locals and the third world illegals and Lubavitchers that took over ... It was narrated by Glen Close.

" In Postville, Iowa, residents were forced to reevaluate their way of life after the local meat packing plant closed, only to be reopened by Hasidic Jews from Brooklyn, N.Y. The Hasidic Jews' value of a tight-knit community seemed to clash with the openness of many in Postville. The town's story continued when workers from Mexico and Eastern Europe flocked to Postville to take advantage of the plant's ample job opportunities, and residents faced further challenges embracing diversity. Gradually the communities came to understand and respect each other's differences."

But the Rubashkins who run the Postville facility [aren't so nice] to their fellow Jews as well. Brutal animal slaughter is a way of life at the Lubavitcher Jewish plant in Postville. It is so nasty (ripping the tracheas out of cows) that many Jews won't even eat the food because it is a violation of Jewis shechita (ritual slaughter rules). The slaughter is so brutal that [the famous high-functioning autistic animal sciences professor] Temple Grandin (her fascinating life story is worth a read, too!) condemned the practices several years ago when shown the PETA tape. [She's a leading designer of animal slaughter yards.]

This is what Stephen Bloom, the author of Postville (see the Luke Ford review above) has to say about the feel-good sales pitch of happy-diversity that Hallmark and the Jewish media are pimping:

"The [Hallmark] video is an embarrassment. It's contrived. It's an audio-visual Hallmark card. It's cheery, upbeat, positive.

"Ever since Postville has come out, I've been interested in what the Japanese call Wa -- how Japanese society is run. It means harmony. In Japan, Wa is very important. It's rare in Japan for a vote in a corporation or the parliament that is not unanimous. All the differences are aired in private. By the time the public is clued in, everyone is on board, even the most vociferous critics.

"It's most important to live in a harmonious society where disagreement is eliminated. In America, journalism is generally opposed to the Wa. We journalists look at issues and we don't say, 'George Bush is doing a great job.' That is not a news story. We say, 'George Bush is screwing up big time.'

"There seems to be a tremendous attempt by the Jewish community, as prompted by the Hadassah piece, JTA, Forward, and this Hallmark presentation, to say that two different communities can flourish in America today. Postville is an example of that. There's a tremendous sense that readers and viewers need to come away with a feel good response. 'That stuff that Stephen Bloom did is water under the bridge. That was a long time ago. That was terrible. But now there's been forgiveness, reconciliation and harmony.' That's what the [Hallmark] show is all about.

"They make up a story line that when the Gentile head of the slaughter house, Donald Hunt, who's in my book, I call him a Caesar Romero lookalike, died about a year ago. His death brought together the distinct factions in Postville and began to heal the wounds. There's footage of Hunt's funeral and locals as well as Lubavitchers at the funeral. They use that as a point of entry for establishing a premise that things are going along just great.

"The people I talk to in Postville say things are not going along great.

"This latest skirmish is the slaughter house dumping some 30 tons of salt a week into the aquifers of ground water... There seems to be a journalistic mandate to remind everyone that Postville has reached Wa status. That's not what journalists do. Journalists are supposed to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.

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

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Small-town Iowans, on the other hand, are very friendly. They know each other's news, they support each other's businesses, they wish each other Merry Christmas, they want you to feel at home."

I guess that song in The Music Man, where Harold Hill gets off the train and the townspeople shun him, had it wrong!

Townspeople:
Oh, there's nothing halfway
About the Iowa way to treat you,
When we treat you
Which we may not do at all.
There's an Iowa kind of special
Chip-on-the-shoulder attitude.
We've never been without.
That we recall.
We can be cold
As our falling thermometers in December
If you ask about our weather in July.
And we're so by God stubborn
We could stand touchin' noses
For a week at a time
And never see eye-to-eye.
But what the heck, you're welcome,
Join us at the picnic.
You can eat your fill
Of all the food you bring yourself.
You really ought to give Iowa a try.
Provided you are contrary,
We can be cold
As our falling thermometer in December
If you ask about our weather in July.
And we're so by God stubborn
We can stand touchin' noses
For a week at a time
And never see eye-to-eye.
But we'll give you our shirt
And a back to go with it
If your crops should happen to die.

Farmer:
So, what the heck, you're welcome,
Glad to have you with us.

Farmer and Wife:
Even though we may not ever mention it again.

Townspeople:
You really ought to give Iowa
Hawkeye Iowa
Dubuque, Des
Moines, Davenport, Marshalltown,
Mason City, Keokuk, Ames,
Clear Lake
Ought to give Iowa a try!

Anonymous said...

I appreciate it.

Anonymous said...

The writer Thomas Disch (who was born in Des Moines) wrote a short story about Postville.

http://www.nypress.com/14/36/news&columns/feature.cfm

Anonymous said...

Steve --

As bad as isolationist in-group, low-trust folks like the Lubavitchers are, there's worse groups.

Somali immigrants. Who combine the worst aspects of in-group, isolationist Lubavitchers with violence oriented around Big Man society.

In MN, Somali immigrant kids threatened to kill a student teacher's service dog (young man in confined to a wheelchair, suffers epileptic seizures).

Young man fled the school, result? University waived his further student teaching requirements, and the school involved wants more "multiculturalism" classes.

Anonymous said...

Steve struggles. He hates to answer in racial terms: "Yeah. There have been several incidents of high profile crime in Postville. One incident involved two Hispanics. One involved a Russian and Ukrainian, both non-Jews. There was an attempted murder committed by a Jew on another Jew. So it's not exclusive to non-Jews.

No, but do you want to take a guess at how these two Hispanics, a Russian, and a Ukrainian arrived in little Postville?

Anonymous said...

Ha. This story reminds me of the Kosher Republicans. They are led by "rising stars" such as Rep. Cantor. The Kosher GOPers encourage things like toning down differences with liberals and de-emphasizing Christian values. And now they are looking to McCain to "save the Party" as the very kosher Matt Drudge would have us believe.

Check Drudgereport.com today for this narrative that is being pumped out into the minds of conservatives.

This is the neo-conservative attack writ large. Total banishment of true conservatism from the Republican Party. One might say the Kosher Republicans have been waging a Gramsci-like campaign through the institutions of the Republican Party at the local, state and now national levels. At each level of organization the focus is redirected away from the conservative cause and toward the kosher cause.

Example of this in action:

...Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor, the chief deputy whip and a rising star inside the party, suggested that he and other leaders saw little benefit in “breaking up the team” at this point."

“We need to go forward,” Cantor said."

Cantor said that Republicans needed to take note that the “paradigm has been shifted” and that GOP arguments over which candidate is “too liberal” or “too out of sync” with voters aren’t working anymore. Voters want “solutions,” he said, not political rhetoric.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0508/10371_Page2.html

Ha.

Anonymous said...

The slaughter is so brutal that [the famous high-functioning autistic animal sciences professor] Temple Grandin (her fascinating life story is worth a read, too!) condemned the practices several years ago when shown the PETA tape. [She's a leading designer of animal slaughter yards.]

It's nice to see someone else who has read Grandin's "Animals in Translation." You're almost the only other non-vegan I've ever met who has read her book.

Unknown said...

"As bad as isolationist in-group, low-trust folks like the Lubavitchers are, there's worse groups."

You bet.

But would Glenn Close narrate a sappy mockumentary about Somalis extolling their habit of female genital cutting?

I think there are limits even to what idiot feminists say.

Tanstaafl said...

I found the Ford interviews with Bloom helpful. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

1/ Well the Lubavitchers could always close (or re-close the slaughterhouse) and then everyone would be happy I suppose. While there are a lot of good things that can come about when a town's number one employer shuts down, (eg all the immigrants move out, mean old employers disappear), I'm guessing that there are a few drawbacks. But I live in a big city so I can't be sure.

2/ They could move the slaughterhouse to Mexico and let the folks at VDare complain about NAFTA.

3/ As to killing the animals, well it is called a slaughterhouse, you know, kosher or otherwise.

4/ They could assimilate with the rest of the residents and have fewer than 2.1 children. Then the folks at VDare could complain about how America was becoming an increasingly non-white society.

5/ Wasn't the Music Man all about how happily gullible rural America was (except librarians?) As a strategy for living gullibility is not geared for long term success.

6/ And the great thing about this is that unlike the camera shops recently mentioned, very few posters to this blog are going to complain about being cheated when they buy kosher meats. Darn.

Anonymous said...

I dunno Concerned. Naomi Wolfe and the late Susan Sontag and other feminists have defended female genital mutilation, polygamy, forced marriage, and arranged marriages because "it's their culture." Or rather, because conservatives don't like it.

Feminists will do anything against their real enemies: the traditional nuclear family. Any ally is acceptable.

Anon-- there is no such thing as "Kosher Republicans." No Republican likes McCain. Or "Mav" -- go see Ace of Spades for how he's perceived there. I'll vote for him in November, because Obama is too horrible to contemplate, but it's like drinking your own urine in a raw survival situation. You'll do it, but won't like it much.

Republicans are in bad shape because clueless incumbents for too long offered nothing more than "I hate Clinton" or "I support Bush" and you end up with earmark-palooza, Lindsay Grahmnesty, and so on. No one is willing to stand up and say low taxes, closed borders, and a strong defense are America's best bets. McCain's a RINO, but he's as good as we'll get this time.

Somewhat OT: you've seen that the California Supremes have held that all people have "a right" to be married, regardless of arrangement. Opens the door not just to Gay Marriage but polygamy. I imagine Muslims and the FLDS will be flooding California, demanding recognition and welfare. Just like in Britain.

Anonymous said...

Anony-mouse:
"1/ Well the Lubavitchers could always close (or re-close the slaughterhouse) and then everyone would be happy I suppose. While there are a lot of good things that can come about when a town's number one employer shuts down, (eg all the immigrants move out, mean old employers disappear), I'm guessing that there are a few drawbacks. But I live in a big city so I can't be sure."

Well I thought one problem was all those new vibrant employees the Lubavitchers had so kindly brought in, rather than the tiresome indigenous ones they cant be bothered with. Perhaps they could all leave together. Or did they perhaps found this town?

"2/ They could move the slaughterhouse to Mexico and let the folks at VDare complain about NAFTA."

See answer to one and why shouldnt Mexico get some of the benefits of vibrancy. Oh, except they actually mean it when the enforce immigration laws making it a teeny bit for this Lubavitcher operation south of the border.


"4/ They could assimilate with the rest of the residents and have fewer than 2.1 children. Then the folks at VDare could complain about how America was becoming an increasingly non-white society."

Yes, you really arent getting it are you.

"5/ Wasn't the Music Man all about how happily gullible rural America was (except librarians?) As a strategy for living gullibility is not geared for long term success."

Then why are you forcing it onto us?

"6/ And the great thing about this is that unlike the camera shops recently mentioned, very few posters to this blog are going to complain about being cheated when they buy kosher meats. Darn."

The substance of this point evades me alas.

Mike Courtman said...

No Republican likes McCain. Or "Mav" -- go see Ace of Spades for how he's perceived there. I'll vote for him in November, because Obama is too horrible to contemplate,

I have to say I don't get your logic.


Surely the Republican party are traitors and need to be punished not rewarded.

Voting for McCain only makes sense if you are a right liberal who thinks low taxes (or more accurately, the promise of them) are more important than your country's long term survival.

Anonymous said...

Well the Lubavitchers could always close (or re-close the slaughterhouse) and then everyone would be happy I suppose. While there are a lot of good things that can come about when a town's number one employer shuts down, (eg all the immigrants move out, mean old employers disappear), I'm guessing that there are a few drawbacks. But I live in a big city so I can't be sure.

I imagine that if the end result is the rapid Hispanicization of Postville, the drawbacks might very well be outweighed by the benefits for descendants of the current white Lutheran residents of the town. If the Hasidim are such a blessing, I'm sure appreciative white Iowans can always flee to New York to be closer to such a wonderful crowd of people and to take advantage of the economic opportunities they offer.

They could move the slaughterhouse to Mexico and let the folks at VDare complain about NAFTA.

Maybe they could just move into your big city neighborhood where their insularity and their Hispanic employees will be less of a problem.

They could assimilate with the rest of the residents and have fewer than 2.1 children. Then the folks at VDare could complain about how America was becoming an increasingly non-white society.

I'm sure attracting oodles of new Third Worlders who are certain to have lots of underachieving children will make family formation much more economical for Postville natives. Family life in Postville is sure to benefit from exposure to legendary (mythical?) Hispanic family values. Hispanic and Hasidic civic-mindedness is also well-known. Who could conceive of a better environment in which to raise children and lots of them? It's a formula that has worked wonders in affordable and family-friendly locales like Los Angeles.

Anonymous said...

The Hasids are odd, but Bloom and now Sailer are exaggerating. This review from Amazon seems more apt than the one quoted by Sailer:

I have to admit that my approach to this book was a little different- living 15 minutes away from Postville I thought I would be getting an 'outside looking in' point of view to consider. I have, of course, heard bits and pieces from the 'natives' and have encountered the Hasidim on the streets, at auctions, in Wal-mart- a job interview once- they've never out and out snubbed me but yes, they do have a reputation for keeping to themselves and alot of the older generation does seem to be uncomfortable with their presence. So I heard of this book and thought it would be really fascinating to get a different, more objective view of the situation.

I started to read and a few chapters in I have to admit I didn't know whether to be insulted or amused. I realize the author will take 'artistic license' to make his book more readable (and it is very readable- accurate no, enjoyable read yes) but by the time I got to the part about Catholic Iowan's not marrying Lutheran Iowan's and how upset the families would be I was laughing so hard my husband had to come and see what was going on (And then I had to tell him the rest: we all drive pickup's or tractors and cars are rare, most people are missing at least part of a finger due to gun use, we all say 'sirree' as in 'yes, sirree' 'no, sirree'- is that really a word? I've never heard it used outside of bad television- anyway, the other half just looked at me and asked when the author was planning to actually come to Iowa).

The problem is: how can the author present Iowa as some bizarre little slice of The Sound of Music crossed with Deliverance and still expect me to take his presentation on the main premise of the book seriously? Either he wanted to exaggerate the setting to sell more books in which case how do I know he didn't do the same when describing the Hasidim or he is the least observant journalist on the planet in which case, I feel, his research is tainted and either way I'm left feeling that the book can't be taken seriously which is just a shame and doesn't do justice to the topic.

Bottom line: much like my first husband the book made me laugh but neither is a keeper and neither should be taken too seriously.

Anonymous said...

Any more news on the Meth allegations/charges?

Also, does any believe that these people pay more than a fraction of the taxes they truly owe?

Anonymous said...

In-group morality and sharp elbowed business practices are the norm among mercantile minorities across large swathes of the world...

This is one of several impolitic truths that the open, generous Anglo-Saxon mindset ignores at its peril. Bottom line, anybody who's counting on immigrants to contribute to be good little net tax producers so they can bail out the WASPs' social democratic schemes is going to be in for a real shock.

Doug.

Anonymous said...

Whenever an industry run by this demographic comes to my area, natives are not hired, and are barely even considered. Instead, "diverse" employees are brought in from outside the area, or are actively recruited from the whole state.

Jews are not noticeably white-friendly. Rather the reverse, in fact. They are more apt to unbend with blacks than with whites. And are more likely to hire black applicants over (non-jewish) white applicants.

Why is this?

Are we "Nazis"?

It gets harder for me to continue liking Jews. It seems all I ever hear them talk about in serious contexts here (Tennessee) is "diversity," the heroism of Atticus Finch, the evil of "Jim Crow," and a "changing America." The latter of which they appear to be doing their utmost to bring about.

Anonymous said...

An American-style society where it's not surprising when a farm boy like Henry Ford or Philo Farnsworth goes on to big things is a rarity in this world.

Farnsworth? Farnsworth got robbed by one of those other practitioners of in-group morality, David Sarnoff.

And forget the farmboy inventors. WHatever happened to farmboy politicians? Truman, Eisenhower, Lincoln, Reagan, and so on. I have a hunch those will be disappearing, as well, as the 2024 presidential campaign of Chelsea Clinton Soros vs. George P "Chico" Bush will thoroughly attest.

Chelsea will self-fund her campaign partly via her vast inheritance while the rest will come from the billionaire hedge fund manager she married.

George P will fund his campaign with the money made from the Aztlan Guestworker & Temp Agency, co-founded by his father Jeb and by Uncle George after they both left office.

I, of course, will be voting for Tom Tancredo, Jr, head of the party that represents the remaining 10% of America that is still white - unless that party gets outlawed.

Anonymous said...

Incidentally I can see another source for Bloom's sympathy for the Lutheran Postvillers (sp?). The shrinking number of Reform Jews are being replaced by a growing number of Orthodox Jews and he doesn't like it any more than the Lutherans like to see their small town having non-Lutherans moving in to what was their original homogeneous society.

The difference of course is that Bloom's ancestors would have been very similar to the Lubavitchers, a fact he must know, and it was originally the Reform Jews who 'moved into' Orthodox Judaism (ironically in the same Germany where Lutheranism was founded hence the name 'Reform' Judaism, and why old Reform temples were designed to look like Lutheran churches).

Now onto some commenters:

bp mitchell: 'Well I thought one problem was all those new vibrant employees the Lubavitchers had so kindly brought in, rather than the tiresome indigenous ones they can't be bothered with. Perhaps they could all leave together. Or did they perhaps found this town'.

I believe Postville had 1400 residents in total and the slaughterhouse required 350 workers and growing-would there be enough people in Postville to work in the slaughterhouse?

Of course absent the slaughterhouse its unlikely that the 1400 would have remained 1400.

A stable 1400 Lutheran Postville was the only option not available, in spite of it being the preferred option of Bloom and most of the posters here.

As to the comments about Mexico, you are right. I should have said Brazil or maybe Argentina. Both places would have been more logical for meatpacking-and would have eliecited the same comments from VDare about American Businesses leaving the Us for other places when there are just so many Americans willing...

tommy: 'If the Hasidim are such a a blessing, I'm sure appreciative white Iowans can always flee to New York to be so closer to such a wonderful crowd of people and to take advantage of the economic opportunities they offer.'

Well if the Hasidim had not taken over the closed slaughterhouse, its unlikely that many Postvillers would have been able to stay. When you have 1 employer and the one employer closes you don't get much of a town left. This is why over the last century or two rural communities have been shrinking or disappearing (in general).

Where the residents of an employer-free Postville would have gone I do not know. Perhaps someone should examine where the residents of so many other ghost towns went. New York, maybe. Or maybe LA.

Anonymous said...

Is there an irony here that the Lubavitchers would be angrier than members of any other group if their own children ended up marrying children of the Hispanics they've imported to Postville?

Insulating themselves from the
consequences of their own actions is a talent Jews possess in spades. In Memphis, when desegregation and busing took effect, white "gentiles" decamped to the county surrounding Memphis. Since the rest of Shelby County had a separate school system it was not effected by busing.

Memphis Jews took another route, however. The Jewish "quarter" (why do they always get a whole quarter?) is out on the east end of the city in a subdivision called Shady Grove, which is still a part of Memphis. Instead of heading for the 'burbs and abandoning the commuity thy'd built, they managed to establish an "optional program" (i.e., magnet school) at the nearby high school of White Station, where most of the Jewish kids in town went. How do you 1) support desegregation in theory while 2) opposing it in reality? Simple: create an optional program that excludes the dregs of society. The "diversity" you children therefore benefit from is only of the highest quality.

Not only did Jews not have to leave Memphis - they didn't have to bother paying for private school for their kids.

They've done other things to protect their investment from the surrounding society, as well: the city has banned left turns off of certain streets into Shady Grove and has turned existing through streets into dead ends, so that it's easier just to go around the place instead of going through it.

Jews are large and influential enough to have the pull to accomplish such things yet small enough that they don't get noticed when doing so.

When the post-mortem of white "gentiles" is written, perhaps the author and his readers will wonder why such a group was so stupid as to outlaw all forms of discrimination by it but not towards it.

Anonymous said...

Anony-Mouse,

It raises the question as to how they staffed the slaughter house and a chicken processing plant before the Lubavitchers started importing the 3rd world. And I would imagine that some portion of the town would also be engaged in supporting agriculture besides.

"3/ As to killing the animals, well it is called a slaughterhouse, you know, kosher or otherwise."

When I hunt, I follow regulations and take precautions to make sure that I am able to make a clean kill. As I'm sure you must know, the problem isn't that they are killing animals but rather that they are doing so with unnecessarily painful methods. Normal people do not go out of there way to cause animals pain, and there are religious and secular laws prohibiting this.

Anonymous said...

Steve,

It sounds liek the Agriprocessors plant in Postville stinks a lot more than your average slaughterhouse.

The data in this story points to more than just typical identity theft taking place:

The suit [by arrested illegals] claims Sonia Parras Konrad, a Polk County attorney, interviewed over 50 detainees who told her Agriprocessors: procured false identification for its immigrant employees; withheld money from their paychecks for "immigration fees"; didn't allow employees to use the restroom during 10-hour shifts; didn't compensate employees for overtime; and were physically abused by supervisors.

If 50 different illegals are alleging all or most of these things then there's a good chance it's not just made up to keep them in the country longer.

Other allegations include:

— A floor supervisors duct-taped the eyes of a Guatemalan employee and then hit the employee with a meat hook

— Immigrants were paid $5 an hour and after three or four months, bumped up to $6.

And allegations of violations of federal acketeering laws, including:

— Employee's taxes were deducted and deposited into bank accounts belonging to an unknown person or people.

— An employee transported immigrant employees across state lines to Minnesota to get false state identification cards

— Checks were issued to certain immigrants with an unknown person's name on it and the check would be cashed at another portion of the plant

— A Department of Transportation investigator provided information that a supervisor at the company used an intricate and unlawful scheme to purchase and register a large number of car for resale to the employees and a supervisor forced the employees to buy the cars from him or be fired.

The Hasidic community in NYC is said, despite its middle class appearance, to have a very high poverty rate. Wonder if they do that by engaging in black market operations in order to avoid taxes and other regulations imposed on state-licensed enterprises?

And, if so, I wonder if there will be an FLDS-style rad anytime soon?

C. Van Carter said...

I discovered an organization deeply concerned with the abuse of immigrant labor, and I've let them know about this ugly situation.

Anonymous said...

1/ Actually the original name for 'Jewish quarter' was 'ghetto', but since ghetto got such an understandably negative connotation, I guess people started referring to the place where Jews tended to live as 'quarter', even if it no more contains a quarter of the area than the French quarter of N.O. contains a quarter of N.O.

I assume the ghetto in Memphis has always had very few Jews but I don't live there so its just a guess.

Why didn't any of the Gentiles of Memphis create magnet schools? Couldn't other neigbourhoods in Memphis have created no left turn signs-not that hard to arrange is it (darn those Jews and their evil no left turn signs and dead end streets)? Apparently the main problem with the Jews of Memphis is, well, this website does talk a lot about IQ.

2/ The previous management of the slaughterhouse I'm sure didn't import very many immigrants, etc. Of course the previous management of the slaughterhouse went out of business.

(Is there a major slaughterhouse in America that doesn't employ illegals? If there's one type of industry that VDare constantly mentions as employers of illegal immigrants its agricultural ones.)

Then the Lubavitchers came in and did the things people are complaining about.

Well maybe Agriprocessors gets shut down. But don't think that this means someone else takes over (unless this someone else does similar things.)

As I've said the choice isn't between the Lubavitchers and some other owner. The choice is between the Lubavitchers/other mean owner and no owner (that's the way it was before the Lubavitchers came in).

And as to this being a Lubavitcher thing, from Upton Sinclair to Morgan Spurlock, you would think...

3/ The main reason for the high poverty rate among the Hasidim is their high fecundity (look it up) rate. All groups throughout the world with their fecundity rate have a high poverty rate.

4/ This dog don't hunt so I don't know a thing about what one does after hunting. But hunting is a recreational activity. You can't feed an urban society on the output of hunters. I'm sure hunters treat their dead prey very humanely. But 300 million Americans can't be fed meat by hunters, and you can't turn cows into zillions of all-beef patties nicely.

PS, I don't eat meat.

Anonymous said...

Anony-mouse,

I don't think anyone was accusing the Lubavitcher Jews of being much worse than other slaughterhouse operators.

I guess people started referring to the place where Jews tended to live as 'quarter', even if it no more contains a quarter of the area than the French quarter of N.O. contains a quarter of N.O.

I of course was joking. No, Shady Grove doesn't come close to occupying even a quarter of the city.

Why didn't any of the Gentiles of Memphis create magnet schools?

They've had those before - they're called "honors classes." Black politicians do their best to dumb them down or get rid of them. But if whites had done on a citywide scale what Jews have done at White Station the federal oversears would've caught on and ended it.

Couldn't other neigbourhoods in Memphis have created no left turn signs-not that hard to arrange is it (darn those Jews and their evil no left turn signs and dead end streets)?

It is that hard to arrange, when you're inconveniencing people by making them go around rather than through.

Other white neighborhoods might be reasonably well off but lacked the clout to protect their neighborhoods.

And I'm not blaming them - I'm admiring them.

Apparently the main problem with the Jews of Memphis is, well, this website does talk a lot about IQ.

No argument here on that one.

The previous management of the slaughterhouse I'm sure didn't import very many immigrants, etc. Of course the previous management of the slaughterhouse went out of business.

Did anyone, anywhere here accuse or imply that Jews are the only slaughterhouse operators who do such things? What does stand out is how it clashes with the American belief that religions generally embrace morality and upholding the law, while these Lubavitchers were in clear and obvious violation and, per the Hammer's post, may have been even worse than other slaughterhouse operators. Read the list of charges.

Is there a major slaughterhouse in America that doesn't employ illegals?

Probably not, except perhaps for the ones which have already been raided. I haven't heard stories about any of them shutting down.


Well maybe Agriprocessors gets shut down. But don't think that this means someone else takes over...The choice is between the Lubavitchers/other mean owner and no owner.

All these other slaughterhouses have, to my knowledge, remained in business after they were raided. Such raids may eventually mean moving slaughterhouse operations across the border. The question I would ask is, if the folks of Postville were asked to move to a foreign country because their economy had tanked, would they do so? My guess is most would say no. And yet in fact instead of moving to a foreign country they just woke up in one.

And as to this being a Lubavitcher thing, from Upton Sinclair to Morgan Spurlock, you would think...

Indeed.

The main reason for the high poverty rate among the Hasidim is their high fecundity (look it up) rate. All groups throughout the world with their fecundity rate have a high poverty rate.

Some groups have lots of kids without having high levels of poverty. Mormons tend to avoid that problem, and I'd wager that Mormons have similar birthrates and slightly lower IQs than Hasidim.

I wasn't making an allegation so much as raising a question.

But 300 million Americans can't be fed meat by hunters, and you can't turn cows into zillions of all-beef patties nicely.

The actual act of killing the animal is a very small part of what goes on inside a slaughterhouse. The accusation is that Lubavitchers are causing more pain than is necessary. Other lsaughterhouses manage to do their job with more humane methods.

Anonymous said...

The meat plant previously occupied by Agriprocessors, Hygrade was union. It employed local people a living wage. I am certain if Agriprocessors paid their employees a living wage and abided by OSHA standards local residents would work there. The people who worked there then paid their fair share of taxes and owned homes. Of course all that ended in the Reagan years. Now the only people earning a living wage are the New Yorkers and the local slumlords. Iowa Turkey Products in Postville paid higher wages in the 1980's than Agriprocessors does currently. They were not union. But they burned down sometime in the past few years. I believe the employees, customers of Agriprocessors, and the local residents should insist on changes.

Anonymous said...

Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise