Rating: 
Summary: Bloom is not biased!
Review: Much has already been said about this book's writings. I feel that had it been written a topic totally foriegn to me, due to the author's attention to detail and introspection,it would have maintained the same level of interest. I also don't feel that Bloom's writing about the Lubavitcher Chasidim is dishonest or deliberately hurtful. While it often unpleaseant; this was the reality that was given to him. Considering the self-congratulatory syle of writing that is so rife in the Orthodox Jewish world, it is a fair counterweight to such tomes.
I am an Orthodox Jew, and I do not feel that his view of Lubativch Jews is biased at all. That Bloom mentions his own distance from such Orthodoxy does not disqualify his emotions or views. Bloom's point that many in such groups will try to defend themselves using mechanism and guilt and aggresiveness, remains vaild-as some of these reviews prove. It is a shame that some people can't take criticism, and must twist it to be slander.
Rating: 
Summary: well written hogwash
Review: So far as I can tell, Mr. Bloom only missed one of the Hasidim's sins: He told us about the un-mowed lawns, the bikes in the driveway, the failure to appear at hours-long morning koffee klatches to discuss the price of corn, the failure to appear at ecumenical sessions, the tendency to be too busy for proper Iowa-style greetings. They tried to BARGAIN in the corner store, for crying out loud. Who ever heard of anything so atrocious? He remembered to hint at darker secrets -- the harboring of criminals (well, of giving work to people who later committed a crime, anyway). and they bailed out another Jewish kid who was accused of a serious crime. They didn't apologize, as a community, to the woman who was hurt. He hinted at an illegal importation of workers, although he didn't spell that one out. Just planted the seeds of illegal immigration. As far as I can see, the only thing he missed was that at night, the slaughterhouse was turned into a killing center for Christian children, so that their blood could be used to make Pesach matzah. Surely no group of hard-working businessmen have ever been so maligned by one of their own. If Microsoft had set up a corporate center in Postville, staffed it with computer nerds on a tight schedule, would they have been any more accomodating to the slow moving, nothing-to-do-but talk, Iowans? If some Hollywood producer were filming a movie there, would he have been more careful about their lawns and timely attendance at the watermelon socials? Ah, but they were JEWS -- and entirely TOO Jewish for the assimilated Mr. Bloom. That's the whole issue here. With a veritible Rodney-King cry of 'Why can't we all just get along?', he mopes and whines and carries on: why can't those Jews be more like ME? Why do they have to be so DIFFERENT? It's unseemly! It's not neighborly! Why, these people even invited him to their homes, for dinner, for the Sabbath. They made his kid wear a kippa while he was there. How dare they impose their standards on him! It's downright un-American. Mr. Bloom is of course right about one thing: Jews who observe the Mitzvot are not just like everyone else. They aren't supposed to be. That's the point. But Mr. Bloom has another agenda: He isn't anything like the Lubavitchers. He eats pork, and baloney and cheese sandwiches. He treats the Sabbath like any other day. He knows nothing of Yiddishkeit, and doesn't want to know anything. So he has to prove (to himself, if no one else) that he is just as good as those Jews, the ones who have 'no faith', according to him. Stealing a line from Professor Henry Higgins, he just can't get enough of the thought: Why can't they be more like HIM? He's certainly entitled to his opinion. And the book is both well-crafted and well-written -- even though I know Rubashkins didn't move, I was still kept in suspense. It's a good read. But it's hogwash, pure unadulterated hogwash. Keep that in mind.
Rating:
Summary: Journalism it's not-: not-so-hidden biases
Review: Like the author, I make a living through the use of words. I am therefore sensitive to the careful spin of the language when it is used to influence readers. I was deeply disappointed in this book because of it's caricature of Hasidic Jews and rural Americans. I have lived in rural America, and found the people to be more open-minded, multi-faceted and complex than the stereotypes the author presents. I currently live in the SF Bay Area and have friends in the Hasidic communties here who also are nothing like the Jews portrayed in this book. Even some of the "neutral" information, such as the rules concerning the use of the mikvah by women for one, is simply flat out wrong. There are other simple factual inaccuracies which a reasonably unbiased writer should have been able to report accurately. Other Hasidic practices as explained by the author include a preoccupation with money, drunkenness and oppression of women. I am a woman, and women friends of mine in the Hasidic community near us are cherished, not oppressed. All of them have careers. The "arranged marriage" the author disparages in his musings was presented to me by Hasidic women as a positive thing for a woman to choose her prospective mate -- a healthy alternative to the serial sexual encounters American girls must subject themselves to nowadays to get a husband. I think the author's foci and his shadowed nuances in his presentation say more about his own insecurities as a rootless secular Jew in a largely Christian rural culture. It certainly doesn't accurately portray rural Christian Americans or Hasidic Jews as a whole, and I certainly hope that any reader unfamiliar with either or both of those cultures will seek guidance elsewhere. The author does a huge disservice to two large and well-meaning groups of people through his subtle bias.
Rating: 
Summary: Does the author carry personal baggage?
Review: This book is extrememly interesting and I had trouble putting it down. This is a compelling story of a culture clash in the heartland of America. A Hasidic community sprung up in the small town of Postville, Iowa for the purpose of setting up a Glatt Kosher meat slaughetring and processing plant. There is a boon to the economy of this Iowa community but, the largely Luthern farmers and the fundamemtalist Jewish newcomers are locked in a culture clash. Some of the non Jewish townspeople are supportive of the newcomers (largely people whose businesses have greatly benefitted from the Jewish influx). Others are hostile, some claiming they have had untoward experiences with the newcomers. The author draws conclusions and, quite frankly, these are rather harsh judgments of the Hasidim who settled in Postville. I had the opportunity to speak with a city councilman who is mentioned in the book (Aaron Goldsmith). Based upon my conversation with this articulate member of the Postville orthodox community, I am convinced that Bloom was unfair in his characterizations. Councilman Goldsmith, on the one hand, is a very observant Jew and on the other hand, he is proud of the city he represents and commited to representing all citizens, Jewish and non jewish alike. Bloom sees the Hasidim as standoffish, unscrupulous in their business practices, and disdainful of their non Jewish neighbors. In evaluating Bloom's conclusions, although it is hard to determine how much his personal perceptions get in the way of his objectivity, Councilman Goldsmith provides additional insights of Bloom's hostility to the Hasidic and indeed, greater Jewish community. In reading the book, we learn that Bloom is Jewish and he had recently settled in Iowa City with his wife and son to teach at the University of Iowa. In a new afterword to the book, Bloom notes that he had enrolled his son in a religious school program at Iowa City's only synagogue but withdrew him from the school for, what to me, appeared to be a very petty reason. In short, Bloom is an extremely secular Jew who appears to have almost no commitment to his Jewish community. Councilman Goldsmith stated to me some disturbing additional information, including the fact that Bloom has, at times, lost his journalistic objectivity and gotten into angry arguments including statements that local Jews are being interested only in money. I am unsure whether Bloom's extreme secularism has led to a hostility toward the fundamentally orthodox community in Postville. I know many very orthodox individuals from the black hat, beard and "tzizit" (fringed garment) wing of the orthodox community. In order to preserve that type of community, they take measures against assimilation and therefore tend to remain separate from the overall community. However, the observations Bloom makes seem very harsh based upon my own experiences. Additionally, a long conversation with Coucilman Goldsmith who was elected with votes of many non Jews, I am convinced that many of the observant Jews, as exemplified by Goldsmith, cannot possibly fit the descriptions set forth by Bloom. I know that Bloom cannot possibly be accurately judsing all members of this particular orthodox community. It is evident that his objectivity is clouded due to his extreme secularization. This book tells a compelling tale and, although I am skeptical that Bloom's judgments are correct, "Postville" is a book that is hard to put down.
Rating:
Summary: Another View by an Iowa City Jew
Review: Stephen Bloom's book proved to be a quick and interesting read about a subject to which I can relate. Like Bloom, I am a secular Jew who moved to Iowa City a number of years ago and who has taken an interest in how the Hasidim and local Iowans in Postville have gotten along. I have visited the community on several occasions and have informally talked to a few of the Hasidim. I was even approached by two of them while having lunch at the kosher delicatessen and asked to put on tefillin (the Jewish "good deed" that Bloom himself performs with the owner of the slaughterhouse). My impression is that Bloom's portrayal of the transformation of the town as well as the clash of cultures is accurate. It is also valuable from a number of perspectives, including how it addresses the issue of assimilation. Jews, as well as other strongly identified religious and ethnic or cultural groups, have a difficult balance to strike in rural areas such as Iowa: retain (at least some) of their unique identity while also becoming a part of the community. Postville is an example of a place where the strongly identified newcomers, the Hasidim, choose not to even acknowledge the locals and their customs or way of life. This has dire consequences for all involved, although, paradoxically, the success of the Hasidic owned and run kosher meat packing plant has invariably influenced the local economy. For the better. While this book was informative and enjoyable to read over a weekend, I hesitate to recommend it whole-heartedly because the author's voice got in the way. Mr. Bloom seems to have concluded that he, as the narrative observor, was entitled to inject his own internal conflict about being a Jew in rural Iowa into the story as if it is of particular interest to all readers. As a reader who can relate to many of Mr. Bloom's observations about adapting to Iowa culture as an identified Jew, I am not quibbling with his conclusions. However, his own story impeded his ability to comment on the situation in Postville without generalizing to a rediculous degree about all parties. Even when he seems aware of this, I still found it to be annoying and difficult to ignore. For those seeking to understand the effect of multicultural perspectives on a small rural community, Postville is a worthwhile book. It is also informative and interesting for Jews who seek to answer some of their own questions about their religious and/or cultural identity by learning about how the author accomplished this. I just wish his own struggle had been a side-light to the main story rather than its competition.
Rating:
Summary: So Much More than Dirty Laundry...
Review: In this book, the parallels and rivalries between "Jewish" and "American" are brought to the fore both in the political and economic setting of Postville, Iowa and in Bloom's own life as an assimilated Jew. It might be tempting to dismiss "Postville" as one more hostile attack on Orthodoxy by a non-observant Jew, a disturbing trend in recent (Jewish) media. But Bloom manages to mostly keep his book from deteriorating to that level. He rarely stoops to rhetoric, choosing to let the facts speak for themselves. I have no doubt that he's editing the facts to support his story, but that's the task of any decent journalist. If he allows the Postville Lubavitchers to hang themselves with their "anti-everyone else" sentiments, they've certainly provided him with enough fodder to do so. And as for the inevitable questions about whether Jews ought to air "dirty laundry" for a non-Jewish reading public, Bloom is honest enough about his motivations, and shares enough of himself, poignantly depicting the clash between his suspicion of the "very Jewish Jews" of Postville and the kinship he (at times) desparately wants to feel with them. It's clear from his personal angle that he's not writing merely for sensationalism. This book doesn't offer concrete closure, either in terms of the Postville situation or Bloom's own life. Politically, the "native" Iowans vote against the Jews, but they stay anyway (despite having threatened to leave). The palpable tension still hangs in the air, but nobody's backing down. As for Bloom, at the end of the book, he's left with a Hebrew name and a Jewish son and little awareness of where he needs to go with either one. Alienated from the Postville Jews by his unwillingness to become Orthodox, and alienated even more from his superficial cultural Judaism by the physical distance to New York, Bloom's situation in the end mirrors that of many American Jews. The fact that he's able to write about it eloquently -- though he may not be able to draw any immediate conclusions -- makes this book worthwhile reading for Jews in the heartland, and anyone else who hopes to understand the current exile.
Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable read of a clash of cultures
Review: I'm not going to go into a summary of the plot. Many other reviewers have already done a great job summarizing the book. I would like to say, however, that the book was a quick and easy read of what happens when two very distinct cultures mix. Was it accurate? I can't say. Is Stephen Bloom totally objective? No. One of the first things I learned at the University of Missouri School of Journalism is that no one is truly objective. He wrote this book through the eyes of an secular Jew who grew up in New Jersey, moved to San Francisco, and then to the Midwest. Like any human being, he has a certain bias. His portrayal of the Hasidic Jews and small-town Iowans was interesting because both groups, in many ways, do not let "strangers" in very easily. I think Bloom was trying to convey that the Jews and the Postville natives, while very different on the outside, are very similar on the inside. Many reviewers seem hung up on how accurate Bloom is when portraying the personalities of the Hasidics and Iowans. I don't think that's the point. Ultimately, Bloom does a good job at providing an overall account of what happened when these two cultures "clashed."
Rating: 
Summary: Insightful, Balanced, Well Written
Review: As a native of Northeast Iowa and someone who had the opportunity to once tour the Agriprocessors kosher meat processing facility, this account was right on the mark... to the very detail. Mr. Bloom does a remarkable job of capturing both cultures and perspectives. His analysis and personal journey are also interesting and with merit. I applaud him for bringing deserved attention to this unique situation, with two cultures unwilling and some would say unable to assimilate into each other.
Rating:
Summary: Some Follow-Up Research On Bloom's Book
Review: On pages 322-324 of the hardcover edition, there is a a passage concerning Glenda and her disconcerting experience with an apparently outrageously rude and abusive rabbi who runs out of Tindell Shoes without paying for an item. Wanting to perform a "mitzvah" and undo some of the hurt and insult, I located Glenda through information to send her the lost money, as a Jew who was deeply pained by her story. Glenda told me that very shortly after the incident, the rabbi realized that he had been mistaken in abusing her, and that he actually did owe the money. While the rabbi was too embarrassed by his behavior to address the matter himself, he did have his wife call Glenda to apologize for him, and the wife then appeared at the store to pay the diputed amount. So it appears the rabbi was not quite the ogre that Bloom depicted, after all. If I, a total stranger living in Virginia could follow up the story, why could not Bloom have done so before his scathing book was published?
Rating:
Summary: some surprises in this balanced account
Review: (...) Stephen Bloom has written a balanced account that will stir you to perhaps re-think some of your ideas of diversity, friendship, and kinship. His study of Postville,Iowa, where a colony of strict Hassidic Jews have opened a hugely successful kosher slaughterhouse, is told against the backdrop of his own young family's emigration from San Francisco to the academic groves of Iowa City. Bloom gets to know both the native Iowans--"tall, big-boned, blonde people" like Garrison Keillor's Lake Woebegon folks--and the Jewish families, from Crown Heights, Brooklyn. He relishes the quick wit, the overlapping conversations, the lively warmth and good food of the Jewish Sabbath meals. He also appreciates the personal and financial integrity, and the wide-open friendliness of the native Iowans. Bloom writes well of the Iowa landscape, and the summer evenings when you can hear rumblings and cracklings from the fields, sounds of the corn growing. Read this book to draw your own conclusions about who excludes whom, who uses whom, and who is to blame for the animosity between the two groups. It's a light read, but a rewarding one!
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