Looking for a New Cleaning Lady

[onionsoupmix]

In this here article, some dude named Bentzion Elisha from Crown Heights tells us his very sad and woeful tale of how the Evil Spanish-Speaking Cleaning Lady robbed his family of their precious jewelry. Their items were returned to them, but it was still quite traumatic for the poor dears.

After the heart-wrenching story, Bentzion asks his readers

Comments

[tesyaa]

Ugh, I just followed the original link the YWN (which I usually try to avoid like the plague). And I'm eating lunch at the same time. I can't believe these commenters and me belong to the same religion.

[buildin_a_bayis]

btw, OSM, its not only frum women who have cleaning ladies. Plenty of my irreligious friends have cleaning help on a somewhat regular basis.

And hired help can be dishonest, there are plenty of stories of cleaning ladies, nurses and handimen people who have stolen from the homes they work in (frum or not). Of course, many more are honest and upfront but there are enough bad stories that it can scare people off and is enough to warn others about. You gotta keep your eyes open and make many references before leaving strangers alone with your stuff.

[onionsoupmix]

I had a handyman fail to make good on his contract b/c his "rabbi" told him he didn't have to finish the job. It cost me over 1,000 to get it done, over and above what I already paid him. Should I warn everyone about the morals of frum people?

[buildin_a_bayis]

no, just to be extra cautious when hiring anyone in your home?

[barilanisher]

Buildin,
Indeed using of domestic help is not limited to Jeiwsh orthodox society. The question how do you treat these people. For me, my cleaning lady is a human being totally equal to me, doing her job same as I do my job. In "Frum" folklore, there is a clear tendency to see and to describe maids as inferior, dirty, stupid, lacking moral norms, dangerous creations. And this point of view considered to be real frukayte and iras shamaim. In my eyes, it's nothing to do with "choosen nation", it's more or less the way Russian nobles treated their serfs

You should post that clip on Imamother

[anonymous]

I would be curious to see the reactions.

It may just make some people think.

Re: You should post that clip on Imamother

[onionsoupmix]

I've posted it a million times there. Maybe I'll do it again.

Natural Pork Flavor

[shevh]

This was my favorite story: "I've been using a special flavor-- Pork!" I don't know, I've been to quite a few supermarkets in my life, and I've never seen this mythical jar of "pork flavor." I wonder where they sell it?
Also, if this family was so frum, why were they letting this non-Jew cook for them--- isn't it Bishul Akum?

Now to debate you a little-- sure, this guy is painting all cleaning people/immigrants with a very wide brush, but aren't you doing the same thing about frum people? There are dishonest people in both groups. But that doesn't mean that it's ok for ANYONE to generalize them to the rest of the group. Do you disagree?

Also, I took your "we can clean up our own messes" metaphorically! :-)

Re: Natural Pork Flavor

[onionsoupmix]

Heh-heh. My point is that if all cleaning ladies can be said to have one set of morals that we have to watch out for, the same can certainly be said of Jews, particularly certain groups who play loose and fast with the law.

But that was just rhetorical of course. All Jews are not criminals and thieves, no more than all cleaning ladies are.

But my clean up your own mess was not meant metaphorically :)

Re: Natural Pork Flavor

[tesyaa]

This is a variation on the classic story, which involves a knob of butter dissolved in the chicken soup on Friday afternoon...most likely apocryphal but famous for its shock value.

Re: Natural Pork Flavor

[shevh]

I'm going to chalk it up to "urban legend." And let's say it did happen-- well if you let some non Jewish person cook for you for 10 years without ever looking at what they're doing or saying, "hey, this is great! How did you make it?" well then... you kind of deserve it.
MMMMMM.... pork.

[mindycl]

Our very trustworthy Mexican cleaning help also stole from us - petty cash. We called her english speaking nephew and told him we want to keep her and dont want to fire her but she should know we are on to her. She came back the next day tears streaming down her face swearing up and down she never took a cent. We had to hug her and comfort her and tell her we believed her. Since then, not a cent is missing from any of us (my mother, sister, me). anyway, I would never leave my child home with a cleaning woman. Not because they arent jewish, but because we dont really know who they are or their contact info, and they could just make off with our kids and disappear.

Also, i dont believe the story with the pork, sorry. Makes no sense on a ton of levels.

Pork

[mindycl]

I also don't believe the pork story. In fact, I think it is the great Pork Libel of 2010.