JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Portman references Agriprocessors raid in Oscar presentation

By Daniel Sieradski · February 23, 2009

For those who missed last night’s Academy Awards, one of the highlights of the evening came when Jewish actors Natalie Portman and Ben Stiller took the stage to present the award for cinematography. 

8 Comments | Share This | actors, Agriprocessors, comedy, Comedy, drugs, Drugs, hollywood, movies, oscars, video

YU Ethics & Kashrut Live Stream Tonight

By Daniel Sieradski · December 9, 2008

Tune in tonight at 7PM to watch YU’s panel on ethics and kashrut live online.

0 Comments | Share This | Ethics, Kashrut, Orthodoxy, video, Yeshiva University

Rap artist reps for French-Israelis

By Daniel Sieradski · October 7, 2008

Meet Shmoolik, A.K.A. Shmouel Halimi, the French-Israeli Chasidic hip-hop artist and graphic designer.  As a rhyme spouting ba’al teshuva Chabadnik, the comparisons to Matisyahu are inevitable, but Shmoolik is very much in a class of his own.

Now that you’ve met the man, hear the music. Here’s the video for his track, “Les Enfants d’Israël.” Written and recorded in the midst of the Gaza disengagement, the track samples Serge Gainsbourg’s 1967 coming-out-as-a-Jew song, “Les Soldats Et Le Sable.”

1 Comment | Share This | France, Israel, Music, video

Video from Agriprocessors

By Ben Harris · August 5, 2008

The National Council of Young Israel organized a company-sponsored visit for 25 Orthodox rabbis to Postville, Iowa, last week. Here is video shot by the Five Towns Jewish Times inside the plant.

WARNING to vegetarians and those of weak stomach (myself included): Video includes graphic footage from the kill floor.

UPDATE: Also today, the Iowa Labor Commissioner announced it had completed a months-long child labor investigation and is turning the results over to the attorney general for prosecution, citing “egregious” violations of state labor law.

Agriprocessors responded by saying it was “at a loss” to understand the commissioner’s action, claiming the government refused its request to identify child laborers so they could be fired.

The labor commissioner’s press release is here. The full Agriprocessors statement is after the jump.

STATEMENT BY AGRIPROCESSORS

Postville, Iowa 5:00 p.m. August 5, 2008…Agriprocessors is at a loss to understand the Iowa Labor Commissioner’s referral and press release of today on the issue of alleged child labor at Agriprocessors.  As the government knows, it is Agriprocessors’ policy not to hire underage workers, and to terminate any employees who are determined to be under 18 years of age.  In fact, in 2007, Agriprocessors terminated four employees whom it determined were underage and had provided false documents in order to obtain employment.

The Company has cooperated with the government throughout its investigation, providing documents and opening its plant and its records to government inspection.  In early 2008, government inspectors came to the Postville plant, looked for underage workers, identified two youthful looking employees for further investigation, investigated their background and ultimately allowed the employees to return to work.  At no time did the government identify to the company any violations.

When the government told Agriprocessors in April 2008 that it knew that underage employees were working at the Postville plant, Agriprocessors repeatedly requested that the government identify those workers so that the company could terminate them.  The Iowa Labor Commissioner’s Office refused.  As a result of the government’s decision, apparently those children may have continued to work at the plant and presumably at least some were arrested in the May 12 ICE enforcement action.

The government now has seen fit to issue a press release alleging child labor law violations.  The government’s press release does not state that the company knowingly hired underage workers.  The company asks the public to keep an open mind and wait for the evidence before making any judgments about these, or any other, allegations.

1 Comment | Share This | Agriprocessors, Kashrut, video

Two Jewish mothers!?!

By Ami Eden · June 19, 2008

Jon Stewart worries that gay marriage in California will lead to children being raised with two Jewish mothers:

Someone please let the Daily Show know that there is no need to worry (at least for now)… as noted earlier this week ... the ceremony in question was an intermarriage.

0 Comments | Share This | Intermarriage, LGBT, video

Colbert on Israel’s new national bird, plus kosher giraffes

By Daniel Sieradski · June 12, 2008

Nextbook’s Jonathan Rosen has an op-ed in the NY Times on the hoopoe.  Also, here’s more on kosher giraffe milk.

0 Comments | Share This | Comedy, Israel, video

Neighborhood Bully: The video

By Ami Eden · May 27, 2008

This video of Bob Dylan’s pro-Israel song “Neighborhood Bully” is making the rounds on the Internet:

1 Comment | Share This | Israel, Music, video

It’s Lag B’Omer: Get a haircut!

By Ami Eden · May 23, 2008

[OOOPS: If you’re looking for ‘Obama Goes to Shul’ click here.]

The L.A. Jewish Journal’s VideoJew takes advantage of Lag B’Omer:

With all those Jews in Hollywood – and with Adam ”The Hanukkah Song” Sandler – couldn’t somebody have figured out that today would have been the perfect day for the premier of “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan”?

0 Comments | Share This | Lag B'Omer, video

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