Journalist Stephen G. Bloom's Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America is a study of two rigid, conservative, insular cultures in conflict with each other. The story of the conflict unfolds in context of Bloom's personal journey into his own cultural and religious beliefs, and this structure gives the book a novelistic flavor which makes it a "good read" for a sociological study.
The two cultures are the white, Lutheran long time residents of the small farming town of Postville, Iowa and the ultra orthodox Hassidic Lubavitchers Jewish Americans from Brooklyn, New York. As Bloom notes, "As in all of Iowa, Christianity has always been at the heart of Postville" (89).
When the Jews began arriving in the mid-1980s,
Postville, as it had always been, was a closed,
Insulated, solidly Christian communityBas much a
shtetl as the Hasidim's ancestors had created in
Eastern Europe, as much as the one the Lubavitchers
had created in Crown Height, Brooklyn. Shtetlach
Were incubators and fortresses of Jewish tradition
Where religious values were preserved and
The two religious traditions at conflict are two in which cultural values cannot be separated from religious values, especially for the Hasidic group. Bloom notes that a key value among the Iowan farmers and families was a "mutual support system among neighbors" (56). The harsh winters, hard farm life, and uncertainty of crops required a strong communal bond to ensure survival of the small community. Along with mutual support was a friendly attitude. In contrast, the Hasidim motto was: "just leave me alone" (56). In fact, the new Jewish residents would not even look at the locals, let alone mingle with them. "They refused to acknowledge even the presence of anyone not Jewish" (51).
It was essential for the Hasidic newcomers to remain "pure" and apart in keeping with their religious and cultural beliefs. They believed that could make their own r...