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Ghostville

By Ben Harris · May 14, 2008

This morning I got the president of Gal Investments, Gabay Menhel, on the phone. The Israeli-born Menhel heads a real-estate company in Postville, Iowa, where federal agents Monday hauled off 390 employees of the country's largest kosher slaughterhouse on suspected immigration violations.

Many of those workers were tenants of Menhel, who says his properties now resemble a ghost town. "One guy here, one guy there, most of them are gone," he said. "It's very scary."

Menhel said he doesn't know how many of his (former?) tenants were employed at Agriprocessors, the kosher slaughterhouse with a checkered history of food and safety violations in addition to its habit of hiring undocumented workers.

Unsurprisingly, Menhel didn't want to guess how many of his tenants might be in the country illegally. He did speculate that 80 percent of them were foreign-born and that when the Feds showed up Monday with their helicopters and their search warrants, many of them bolted.

"They are very scared of authorities," Menhel said.

Because of that fear, Menhel said his company tries "to take little information" from prospective tenants. He dismissed a suggestion that might indicate they have something to hide. Menhel said even his "top worker," a man he insisted was in the country legally, had fled with his family after the raid. To where? He didn't know. "This is too much, too scary," the man told him.

For now, Menhel says the prevailing feeling in Postville is fear. All the restaurants are closed and news agencies are reporting that students aren't showing up for school. "People are scared, scared what's going to be with their town," he said. "It's a big uncertainty."

Asked about his company's website – which features a picture of the headquarters of Chabad at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, where the late Lubavitcher rebbe once held court, even though his business is done entirely in Postville – Menhel had this to say: "That's the picture of our rebbe. Everything in Jewish faith is God, you know. Everything should reflect God. Even my home page should reflect godliness."

And besides, Menhel added, none of his customers go to the home page anyway.

2 Comments | Share This | Agriprocessors, Uncategorized |

Reporting from Postville

By Ami Eden · May 14, 2008

Since news broke of Monday's federal raid at the country's largest kosher slaughterhouse, the Des Moines Register has literally owned the story. Their site is overflowing with useful stuff, like:

This partial list of detainees, virtually every name Hispanic and held for misuse of social security numbers.
News that the plant's owners, the Rubashkin family of Brooklyn, admitted they hired workers illegally at their New York distribution center.
Here's a story about the anticipated economic impact of the arrests. Interesting aside: many of the workers in Postville rented housing from Gal Investments, which the story describes as "in an immediate pinch." Check out their website – that house on the home page doesn't look like Postville, does it?
*This is the Register's main page of coverage of Postville, with links to videos and photos too.
A timeline of safety problems at the factory.

The Associated Press has a video report on raid.

0 Comments | Share This | Kashrut, video |

Hasbara 2.0 (beware of bugs)

By Ami Eden · May 14, 2008

Several recent stories shine a light on the challenges and opportunities of the new YouTube-era environment that Israel and its advocates are operating in.

Ha'aretz has a report today on the Israeli Consulate in New York arranging to have videos played on the jumbo screens in Times Square of celebrities sending Independence Day greetings.

"We're aware of the influence that [the celebrities] filmed in the clip have on so many people around the world," said Asi Shariv, Israel's Consul General in New York. "Their connection with Israel is an important part of our efforts to tell the Israeli story to a young, Western audience that does not take an interest in the [Mideast] conflict."

Of course, all sides have access to video and the means to distribute it on the Internet. For example, Ha'aretz also is reporting that on Tuesday the human rights group B'Tselem unveiled video footage showing an Israeli soldier "firing a rubber-coated bullet at an Israeli protester at close range, during a protest against the separation fence in Bil'in two months ago."

"The shooting," according to Ha'aretz, "appears to violate IDF regulations, which state that rubber bullets may be fired from no closer than 40 meters."

And, of course, plenty of video of the incident in question is up on YouTube.

This video has a quick shot at the end of the wounded Israeli protester on a stretcher...

And then there are user-generated Web sites like Wikipedia, where a well-coordinated stealth campaign can tilt seemingly unbiased information one way or the other. The problem is that Internet-based campaigns coordinated via e-mail leave a paper trail – a point hammered home by Gershom Gorenberg's recent column in the American Prospect about pro-Palestinian activists exposing an alleged attempt by CAMERA to train supporters to infiltrate and influence the Wikipedia editing process.

2 Comments | Share This | Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Media, video |

Ruth Messinger on the Jews, China & Darfur

By Daniel Sieradski · May 14, 2008

JTA's Israel correspondent Dina Kraft speaks with American Jewish World Service director Ruth Messinger, who is attending the President's Conference in Israel, about China's support for Sudan, Israel's handling of Sudanese refugees, and the call for Jews to boycott the Beijing Olympics.

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1 Comment | Share This | Podcast |

Stuart Eizenstat on Israel’s resitution problem

By Daniel Sieradski · May 14, 2008

Earlier today, JTA correspondent Dina Kraft had the opportunity to speak with Stuart Eizenstat, who served as an adviser, undersecretary and ambassador under the Clinton and Carter administrations. Mr. Eizenstat discussed Holocaust restitution in Israel, the challenges posed by Iran's nuclear program, and Jimmy Carter's recent visit with Hamas.

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0 Comments | Share This | Iran, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Podcast, Shoah |

An even briefer interview with Alan Dershowitz

By Daniel Sieradski · May 14, 2008

I bumped into Alan Dershowitz by the espresso bar earlier today and asked him how he was enjoying the conference so far. Here's what he had to say...

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0 Comments | Share This | Israel, Podcast |

A brief interview with Nathan Englander

By Daniel Sieradski · May 14, 2008

Nathan Englander today at the President's Conference

JTA's Israel correspondent Dina Kraft speaks with author Nathan Englander who participated in a panel discussion on Jewish literature today at the President's Conference in Jerusalem.

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0 Comments | Share This | Israel, Literature, Podcast |

Greetings from the President’s conference

By Daniel Sieradski · May 14, 2008

President Shimon Peres opens his conference Tuesday in Jerusalem

I'm in Israel for "Facing Tomorrow," a conference hosted by President Shimon Peres on the future of Israel and the Jewish people.

3,500 attendees from around the world have gathered at Jerusalem's International Convention Center for three days of panel discussions on subjects ranging from Jewish literature to the impact of globalization on Israel's economy.

Guests include dignitaries representing 15 nations, among them the U.S., the U.K., Spain, and the former Soviet Union; Jewish business and organizational leaders, such as Google CEO Sergey Brin, News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch, and World Jewish Congress president Ronald Lauder; as well as Jewish cultural figures, such as philosopher Bernard Henri Levy and author Nathan Englander.

The event kicked off yesterday with a panel discussion moderated by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who wished Israel "mazal tov" on the occasion of its 60th birthday, and who addressed the concept of justice in the era of globalization.

Foreign British PM Tony Blair among other world leaders

"Justice is about opportunity not restricted to a small number of people, but given to all," said Blair. "It's justice that makes us want a secure state of Israel and it's justice that makes us make two states here, one in Israel, one in Palestine, living side by side in peace."

Unfortunately, due to space constraints, many attendees, including members of the press, were forced to sit outside watching the event on a projection screen without the use of assistive translation devices that were available to those inside. I was thus unable to make out the statements of the panelists who spoke in a dozen different languages.

Sheldon Adelson, Shimon Peres, Ehud Olmert and Dalia Itzik

A gala event followed the evening's dinner reception, with speeches by Mr. Peres, Jerusalem mayor Uri Lupolianski, embattled Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (who received some boos upon his entry into the event hall), and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, each of whom remarked on the miracle of Israel's success as a nation. The event, which was conducted almost entirely in Hebrew (disadvantaging international guests), was sprinkled with a number of short film screenings as well as musical performances and a questionable dance performance which raised some eyebrows for what some saw as it lascivious nature.

One of the racier moments from last night's dance performance

This morning began with a panel discussion moderated by former U.S. ambassador to Israel Dennis Ross, featuring former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Bernard Henri Levy, author Amos Oz and economist Abby Joseph Cohen.

Henry Kissinger

Kissinger focused a great deal on Iran, claiming that nation's nuclear ambitions should not be perceived as merely a threat to Israel, but as a threat to the international system itself; Oz said that any agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians could not be implemented without an international resolution to the Palestinian refugee problem; Levy imagined the invention of a Muslim Talmud (a democratic theological document) as a counterpoint to Islamic fundamentalism; and Cohen encouraged Israel to focus on developing skilled labor and investment in the 'green' sector.

Bernard Henri Levy

Some panel discussions later in the day were plagued by power failures, forcing sessions to resume in the dark without microphones or the benefit of air conditioning.

More to come, including audio...