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Russert and the Jewish questions

By Ami Eden · June 16, 2008

What to say about Tim Russert that hasn’t already been said? Not much.

But two separate Jewish-cringe-inducing moments come to mind that help explain why so many people loved (and some hated) his aggressive interviewing style.

Most recently there was the much-discussed Louis Farrakhan question during the February 26 debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Many liberal bloggers and Obama believers cried foul, saying that Russert had crossed the line, even for him. Of course, plenty of Clinton backers and Jewish conservatives thought it was a perfectly fine line of questioning.

As the post-debate debate raged, my memory flashed back to a February 2003 episode of “Meet the Press,” when Richard Perle was the one sitting in Russert’s hot seat, as the Bush administration prepared for war. This time, though, the NBC bulldog was pressing from the opposite political advantage point.

Here’s what I wrote at the time:

The key moment on “Meet the Press” came when host Tim Russert read from a February 14 column by the editor at large of the Washington Times, Arnaud de Borchgrave, who argued that the “strategic objective” of senior Bush administration officials was to secure Israel’s borders by launching a crusade to democratize the Arab world. Next, Russert turned to one of his guests, Richard Perle, chairman of the Defense Policy Board, a key advisory panel to the Pentagon.

“Can you assure American viewers across our country that we’re in this situation against Saddam Hussein and his removal for American security interests?” Russert asked.

“And what would be the link in terms of Israel?”

It was a startling question, especially when directed at Perle, the poster boy – along with Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith – for antisemitic critics who insist the United States is being pulled into war by pro-Likud Jewish advisers on orders from Jerusalem. But Russert is no David Duke, nor even a Patrick Buchanan. He is generally regarded as a balanced, first-rate journalist in sync with the zeitgeist of Washington’s media and political elite. If Russert is asking the question on national television, then the toothpaste is out of the tube: The question has entered the discourse in elite Washington circles and is now a legitimate query to be floated in polite company.

Russert asked tough questions. And, yes, once in a while one of them may have been off the mark or inappropriate in someway. But he asked what was on people’s minds – and it didn’t matter which side of the plate his guest swung from, whether it was a Richard Perle or a Barack Obama. One week that could mean giving voice to the world view of Mearsheimer & Walt loyalists, another channeling the anxieties of Commentary readers.

Click here and Jump ahead to 6:18 to hear Russert make the point in his own words (and the words of the show’s founder, Lawrence Spivak).

Baruch Dayan HaEmet.

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Chag Sameach

By Ami Eden · June 8, 2008

JTA (and our blogs) are closed for Shavuot on June 9 and June 10. Enjoy the holiday (which commemorates the Jewish people’s receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai).

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More from Agriprocessors

By Ben Harris · May 15, 2008

Agriprocessors’ PR folks just sent us a statement. The company says it’s trying to upgrade its immigration compliance procedures, but the first priority is getting the plant up and running again. No mention made of steps to address charges of illicit drug production on the premises, however, as reported in the government’s affidavit on the company.

Agriprocessors Addressing Challenges Following Worksite Enforcement Action

POSTVILLE, IA (May 15, 2008) – Agriprocessors, Inc., continues to make meaningful progress in addressing the challenges presented by the worksite enforcement action by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies on May 12, 2008.

According to Chaim Abrahams, a company representative, Agriprocessors is concentrating its efforts on production.

“We were able to bring the plant back into operation the next day, and even though we’re not running at full capacity, we are able to resume production,” Abrahams said. “We are in the process of replacing workers so we can avoid any interruption of meeting customer needs for high quality products.”

Abrahams also noted that the company was in the process of enhancing its immigration compliance procedures.

“We are working with experts in immigration compliance to help us bolster our compliance efforts to employ only properly documented employees,” he said. “We have signed up for a government electronic verification program, and are working with our consultants on additional compliance measures that will enhance our hiring process.”

Agriprocessors also has launched an independent investigation into the circumstances which led to the worksite enforcement action, and is cooperating fully with the government.

“We extend our heartfelt sympathies to the families whose lives were disrupted and wish them the best,” Abrahams said.

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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.

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Feds raid the shochet, but the slaughter continues

By Ben Harris · May 13, 2008

JTA just published my story on yesterday’s raid at Agriprocessors, which the Feds are calling the largest such operation in American history. The plant, the country’s largest kosher slaughterhouse, was back in business today without the 390 of its employees detained on immigration violations. Criminal charges are expected to follow.

The Des Moines Register has been all over this story. Click here for their full coverage, including links to video and photos.

UPDATE: Members of the Conservative movement’s Hekhsher Tzedek Commission have just weighed in. 

We, the members of the Hekhsher Tzedek Commission, condemn the corrupt practices of Agriprocessors which resulted in a raid by government agents.  The actions of this company have brought shame upon the entire Jewish community.  Yesterday’s discovery, along with the other violations of the ethical standards set forth by our Torah and our tradition underscore the need for Hekhsher Tzedek.  To be sure, Halacha has never limited its concern to the ritual elements of Kashrut alone.

The Hekhsher Tzedek seal will ensure that no one in the Jewish community will turn a blind eye toward the treatment of workers, the impact that the production of kosher food might have on the environment, the welfare of the animals during the shehitah process, and the integrity of the company producing our food.  The HT seal will assure the Kosher consumer that products that they purchase reflect the highest standards of Kashrut on both the ritual and ethical level.

The alarm in Postville has sounded once again.  It is our hope that the entire Jewish community will accept the need for change and will join us in this sacred effort. Kashrut should always symbolize the best of our tradition…not otherwise.

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The pope and a rabbi end up on the Daily Show…

By Ami Eden · April 22, 2008

The Daily Show covers the pope’s visit to the United States:

Oh, fine, for those who prefer the real thing…

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Unpeaceful end

By Ami Eden · April 18, 2008

Here’s a sad story:

An Italian woman artist who was hitch-hiking to the Middle East dressed as a bride to promote world peace has been found murdered in Turkey.

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AJC commercial rejected

By Ami Eden · April 7, 2008

David Harris of the American Jewish Committee writes on his Jerusalem Post blog about the refusal of a New York Times-owned radio station to air a commercial condemning Palestinian rocket attacks against the Israeli town of Sderot.

[According to the station’s] logic, the only way to broadcast the plight of Sderot’s residents over the airwaves is to equate Israel’s right of self-defense with Hamas’s and Islamic Jihad’s right to strike Israel at will. ...

I can only imagine what would have been the response had we done a spot during the London blitz. Would it have been turned down as well, perhaps on the grounds that we failed to refer to reciprocal British military actions against Nazi Germany?

Listen to the radio ad or read the transcript.

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Parchment chic

By Ami Eden · April 1, 2008

The Jewish Museum has a slideshow from the their “Off the Wall: Artists at Work,” a two-week slate of events featuring more than a dozen young artists of various sorts. Jennifer Bleyer did a profile for Nextbook about one of the participants, a Chabadnik-turned-fashion designer named Levi Okunov, who put on a runway show at the museum using scraps of parchment, the dried calfskin that mezuzahs, ketubahs and other holy texts are written on.

Click here to see JTA’s Daniel Sieradski video interview with Okunov.

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If you love Jews, then you need to convert them

By Ami Eden · March 25, 2008

Stan Guthrie makes the case in Christianity Today for evangelizing Jews:

I love and respect the Jewish people and their faith. After all, Jesus was a Jew, and Christianity is firmly rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures. Certainly the Holocaust and the church’s horrific anti-Semitism have changed the context for evangelism. We have much for which to apologize. But we cannot apologize for the gospel, which is Good News for Jewish people precisely because they—like all human beings—need Jesus.

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