Assimilated Jews Must Address “Dark Side” of Judaism

By Henry Makow

Stephen Bloom represents the love of fairness and justice typical of many liberal American Jews. A journalism professor at the University of Iowa, he saw the opening of a Kosher meatpacking plant in Postville Iowa in 1987 as an opportunity to learn about his religion and study the Jewish-gentile dynamic in microcosm. He discovered more about Judaism and the causes of anti-Semitism than perhaps he wanted to know.

This is from his “Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America” published in 2000:

“Initially I had gone to Postville to learn from the Hasidim, to share with them a sense of identity and belonging. Instead, what the Postville Hasidim ultimately offered me was a glimpse of the dark side of my own faith, a look at Jewish extremists whose behavior not only made the Postville locals wince, but made me wince, too.

I didn’t want to partake in Hasidim’s vision that called on Jews to unite against the goyim and assimilation. The world, even in Iowa, was too bountiful to base my likes and dislikes solely on religion. The word Hasid …literally means “the pious one,” but the Postville Hasidim..were anything but pious. You couldn’t become casual friends with them…They required total submission to their schema of right and wrong, Jew vs. Christian — or you were the enemy. (291)

ROCKY RIDE

The influx of hundreds of Orthodox Jewish families into a tiny Christian farming community in the Northeastern corner of Iowa was rocky from the start. Yes the Jews had a seemingly wholesome family life and a pretense of piety. But it soon became apparent they wanted nothing to do with their Christian neighbors. They were there to make money and the non-Jews, (goyim) whether Postville merchants or immigrant workers, were barely different from the cattle on their assembly lines.

The meatpacking plant, Agriprocessors, filed for bankruptcy this month after the owner Sholom Rubashkin was arrested for bank fraud in regard to a $35 million loan. This after the State of Iowa levied $10 million in fines for 9000 violations involving illegal wage deductions and child labor. Then in June, the company was accused of helping illegal aliens forge documents. Four hundred hapless laborers from Guatemala to Palau were arrested and jailed. (more…)