The first Jewish city council member in the northeast Iowa town of Postville will keep his job. Aaron Goldsmith was appointed to the city council last fall after another member was elected to the state House. Tuesday’s special election which was prompted by a petition drive, which Goldsmith says was spawned by bigotry. The 44-year-old Hasidic Jew got 60-percent of the vote, which he says is a mandate of the things he stands for in getting the town to come together.Goldsmith moved to the Allamakee County town several years ago from Los Angeles because he sought a slower-paced place to raise his family. He runs a global business that makes specialty equipment for disabled people. A few weeks ago, Goldsmith had called the petitioned election a “stupid approach to drag Postville back to the dungeons.” He says that was a comment that reflected on how some people were trying to turn Postville back instead of forward. He says the vote confirmed that the heart of the town is now ready to move forward into the future.In the past decade, Postville has gone from being nearly all white to being about 40-percent minority, including members of 20 ethnic groups from Mexico to Russia and from Israel to Bangladesh. There are about 200 Hasidic Jews in the community of 22-hundred-37.
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