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In writing, "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America," Stephen Bloom made a connection to his Jewish heritage. But it wasn't the connection he expected.
The University of Iowa journalism professor thought it would come when he met the ultra-orthodox Lubavitcher Hasidic Jews, who operate a kosher slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, population 1,470.
In 1993, the New Jersey-born Bloom, a journalist who had lived among a large and diverse population in San Francisco, found himself a stranger in the strange land of Iowa City. A Reform Jew, he found himself uncomfortable with the Christmas caroling and Easter egg hunts.
When Bloom began visiting Postville, instead of forging a bond with the Hasidim, he began siding with the Lutheran old-timers. The Jewish connection he sought instead came with a doctor who died in 1996, before Bloom decided to write the book.
"Doc Wolfe is the real hero of the book," Bloom told Dubuquers recently at a reading he gave in the Carnegie-Stout Public Library.
The Hasidim cling to centuries-old customs and clothing and shun the idea of assimilating. The city-bred Henry Wolfe both embraced small-town life and enriched it by his kindly example.
"He never...