Where are the Jews? Jewish Names Noticeably Absent in Agriprocessor's Raid Documents

B"H

OK, what is going on?

Unless you have been living in a cave, you must know that the largest kosher meat processor in the country was hit by an immigration raid on May 12th in Postville, Iowa.

The ICE press release is clear about what happened, and the Des Moines Register has been following the story closely.

In the Des Moises Register article about scheduled hearings for the detainees, it says:

"The hearings come one week after federal police and customs agents raided the kosher meatpacking plant and detained 389 workers. The workers – 281 men and 25 women – are suspected illegal immigrants from Guatemala, Mexico, Ukraine and Israel. "

In addition to this tantalizing bit of information, suggesting that many of the Jewish workers were also detained, there is an article, featured by failedmessiah.typepad.com today, which states that Rabbi Tal Gitner was detained and was visited by a group of Rabbis from Rubashkin.

In the article, it states that Rabbi Gitner chose to have a cell in solitary confinement:

"The visit was conducted under heavy guard and they were allowed to speak to Rabbi Ginter only through a glass window. He told the rabbis that although he is being treated well the conditions there are very difficult. He said that he chose to be in consolitary confinement in a cell1.20 meters by 2 meters so he could spend Shabbos alone."

However, the article in the Des Moines Register states that the detainees were held in a facility at the National Cattle Congress facility in Waterloo . . . a place distinctly void of solitary confinement cells.

A search of the names of those detained in the raid--both the hearing schedule from the US District Court, and the list released by the Des Moines Register--does not contain any Jewish names, and certainly not the name of Rabbi Gitner. In addition, I did an "inmate search" of all Iowa jails, and never located Rabbi Gitner's location.

So, where are these detainees from Israel and the Ukraine? I guess they must all have very Mexican/Guatemalan names, or I just can't find them in the list . . .or . . .

Maybe someone has made sure they don't appear?

I thought that the names were all public information. How many of our Jewish citizens are now detained in Iowa? Are they getting Kosher food? Do they have everything they need?

I guess we can't know that.

Perhaps Rabbi Gitner is not detained! Maybe no Jews have been held! In that case, both the Des Moines Register and the Jewish paper are telling lies about the fact that people from Israel and the Ukraine were detained.

So, what's the truth?

M