What about animal welfare?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nWe have no problems with that anymore. We have a person that comes once a week at random to inspect the plant. And we give a daily report about how the cattle are treated. The standards are very high. You can\u2019t just whip them and get going. You have to treat them nicely. We do things by the book. Once you get into it, it\u2019s not so hard.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the output today?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nAbout 50,000 birds a day, primarily chicken. On beef, we\u2019re picky on quality. We can do up to 400 a day, but we don\u2019t slaughter that much. If you can find only 200 good head a day, just bring me what\u2019s good. The buyers know what is quality beef. All the beef comes from within a 100-mile radius. If cattle travel too much, they get banged up in the trucks. That causes bruises, and then the meat is no good. We process only our own products. It\u2019s all U.S. bred, slaughtered and processed.<\/p>\n
How much did the upgrades cost?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nMillions and millions of dollars. It was a real job until we got it implemented. We spent about $3 million last year alone on upgrades.<\/p>\n
How are you able to keep meat prices low?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nI make very little profit. If I really wanted to make money, I should just double the price and say the hell with it. But this is not a business that you\u2019re into to make a killing.<\/p>\n
Well, technically, your business is killing.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nWe try to make meat affordable.<\/p>\n
Your Israeli real estate company, Azorim, is building luxury buildings and marketing the apartments to Jews overseas. Yet Israel is in a real crisis of affordable housing. Is this an area where your roles as a businessman and Jewish philanthropist clash?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nAll luxury means is you\u2019re going to have gold-plated faucets, beautiful marble floors, a fancy-schmancy kitchen. We build basically economical. We\u2019re not advertising it as ‘go make sure Israelis don\u2019t have apartments.’ What Azorim is trying to do is get Jews to come to Israel. How do you start? You get them to buy an apartment. Then they come to Israel a couple of times a year. We all know that to be a good Jew, a Jew should really own a piece of real estate in Israel. It\u2019s called yishuv Eretz Yisrael [settling the Land of Israel].<\/p>\n
I thought yishuv Eretz Yisrael meant living there. You spend a lot of time in Israel away from your Montreal home. Is your place in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nTel Aviv. It\u2019s called the Tel Aviv Hilton.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re preaching yishuv Eretz Yisrael and you don\u2019t have your own apartment?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nA person like me is in and out. When I get up in the morning, I\u2019m really not interested in making my bed, making myself breakfast. I need to have all the comforts and conveniences of a hotel. The day I\u2019m ready to retire, I\u2019ll have a choice of one out of thousands of apartments.<\/p>\n
Are you ever going to retire?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nNo.<\/p>\n
So you\u2019ll never move to Israel.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nI\u2019m there more than any other Jew is. Even Israelis aren\u2019t there as much as I. I\u2019m there at least once a month for a week. We\u2019re in touch on a daily basis with Israel.<\/p>\n
The foreign Jews to whom you\u2019re marketing won\u2019t live in Israel either. In Jerusalem, absentee owners have turned some neighborhoods into virtual ghost towns.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nThat\u2019s a myth. You call it the dark apartments. The truth is they only seem dark because electricity in Israel is so expensive. If you live there you\u2019ll notice a little bit of light flickering in the windows \u2013 it\u2019s because they\u2019re using candles.<\/p>\n
But the shutters are closed during the day, too.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nThat\u2019s because the sun is very strong in Israel. Look, Israelis like to claim poverty, but everybody makes a living in Israel. It\u2019s just that every Israeli is a schnorrer. They know they got their rich American Jewish families or friends. That\u2019s where they get free bucks. So they come out two times a year and go around and collect. And we all give them. A Jew has a heart. But if you\u2019re a born Israeli, there\u2019s no shortage of opportunities. You have to go to the military at 16, but the government really takes care of you afterward. College doesn\u2019t cost you a penny.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s false. Israelis have to pay for university, and military service begins at 18.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nWell, you have a lot of benefits.<\/p>\n
How did you get your start as a businessman?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nAs a little boy of 5 or 6, I started going to stationary stores and buying boxes of pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners and peddling to kids in school. Years later, I\u2019d come home for vacation from Yeshiva Ner Israel in Baltimore and go to construction sites and offer to buy them lunch. I made money in tips and a little upcharge. When I got older, I put up vending machines at construction sites. I went into business at age 17 and built myself a nice little piggy bank over time. Now the companies I own make me probably the biggest packager in North America.<\/p>\n
What are your priorities when it comes to charity?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nWe have two foundations, and on top of that every one of my companies gives 10 percent of their profits locally. We give to Jewish causes, but not just haredi [Orthodox] causes. We give to federation, the hospitals, various types of schools, special-needs organizations. Book publishing is critical for us. How can you help out the kid who sits in the back of the class and has trouble following his studies? We have published thousands of seforim [Jewish religious books] that are used every day. We help a lot of yeshivot all over the world. I try to be a good boy.<\/p>\n
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