WHAT HAVE WE BECOME?
All peoples have a few who embarrass the majority, but Jews — in particular those claiming to be “orthodox” — seem to be making negative headlines in increasing numbers lately.
THE ONGOING embarrassment in Lakewood NJ.
Six more arrested in Lakewood welfare fraud case
- Three more couples were arrested as part of a crackdown in a haredi community in New Jersey on illegally obtaining government benefits.
The couples arrested Tuesday night in Lakewood allegedly obtained over $670,000 in total in government benefits fraudulently, according to NJ.com.
They are Yitzchok and Sora Karanek, Chaim and Liatt Ehrman, and William and Faigy Friedman.
On Monday, four couples were arrested in the same probe for under-reporting their incomes to receive government benefits. A rabbi was among those arrested.
“My office gave clear guidance and notice to the Lakewood community in 2015 of what is considered financial abuse of these programs,” Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph Coronato said on Monday. “Those who choose to ignore those warnings by seeking to illegally profit on the backs of taxpayers will pay the punitive price of their actions.”
A few “bad apples” in a whole community of people who — in this case, pretend to — follow halacha “מין התורה”. Theft is even among the Big Ten!
Fortunately, most crimes committed by Jews — regardless of affiliation, if any — are financial, not physical (murder, assault, burglary, robbery of a person).
When I was a reporter for the Harrisburg Patriot-News in the mid-70s I visited Lewisburg Penitentiary — officially United States Penitentiary Lewisburg — to see how life would be for the a Watergate burglar.
What I found was an open dormitory. On each bed was the name of the occupant. I noticed a few “Jewish” names so I asked the jailer what did these folks do to get a free stay at a federal pen. “Paper crimes,” he said. This was well before Ponzi schemer Bernie Madof became a guest of Butner Federal Correctional Complex. Butner is an equal opportunity facility; it also hosted televangelist Jim Bakker.
Lately it seems prisons in the U.S. and Israel are home to an increasing number of (in)famous “religious” Jews, including:
Court Convicts Former Chief Rabbi On Charges Of Fraud, Breach Of Trust
Former Ashkenazi chief rabbi pleads guilty to corruption, faces jail
A current Member of Knesset from a “religious” party (graft, fraud and breach of trust)
A rabbi who disgraced a famous Moroccan family (bribery)
Mortgage, welfare fraud bust in Brooklyn, Orange and Rockland county Orthodox communities
Police arrested more than a dozen people Thursday morning in connection with alleged mortgage and welfare fraud operating within Orthodox Jewish communities.
Thirteen members of two extended families were taken into custody, accused of securing 20 mortgage loans totaling $20 million for properties. They are accused of vastly overstating their incomes and the amount of money in their bank accounts to obtain the loans, which then went into default
Wealthy Orthodox Couples Charged in $1.3M Brooklyn Benefits Scam
Federal prosecutors charged three Brooklyn couples lying about their assets to qualify for a raft of government programs meant to aid poor people.
The six men and women, all in their late thirties and early forties, were arrested in Williamsburg on September 27. News of their arrests spread fast on Orthodox social media channels.
Satmar Hasidic Activist Isaac Sofer Arrested for Food Stamp Fraud
The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested prominent Brooklyn Satmar community activist Isaac Sofer on Thursday morning on charges that he lied in order to obtain food stamps.
Sofer manages government relations for the Central United Talmudical Academy, the Williamsburg yeshiva system that serves followers of the politically connected Satmar Grand Rabbi Aron Teitelbaum. Sofer was the public face of his community’s support for Bill de Blasio during the 2013 mayoral campaign.
According to a complaint unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn on Thursday, Sofer vastly understated his own income and assets in order to receive $30,000 in food stamps through the federal SNAP program.
Unfortunately, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Full URLs
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Six more arrested in Lakewood welfare fraud case
- http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/231749?utm_source=activetrail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl
Court Convicts Former Chief Rabbi On Charges Of Fraud, Breach Of Trust
- http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Court-convicts-former-chief-rabbi-on-charges-of-fraud-breach-of-trust-490844
Former Ashkenazi chief rabbi pleads guilty to corruption, faces jail
- http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/231749?utm_source=activetrail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl
Rabbi convicted of trying to bribe the head of the Israel Police’s National Fraud Squad
- http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Rabbi-Pinto-headed-to-prisonFtrust-to-begin-1-year-sentence-445047
A current Member of Knesset from a “religious” party (graft, fraud and breach of trust)
- http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/01/israel-shas-deri-interior-ministry-comeback-bribery-prison.html
Mortgage, welfare fraud bust in Brooklyn, Orange and Rockland county Orthodox communities
- http://abc7ny.com/news/13-arrested-in-alleged-mortgage-welfare-fraud-in-orthodox-communities/393517/
Wealthy Orthodox Couples Charged in $1.3M Brooklyn Benefits Scam
- http://forward.com/news/351162/wealthy-orthodox-couples-charged-in-13m-brooklyn-benefits-scam/
Satmar Hasidic Activist Isaac Sofer Arrested for Food Stamp Fraud
- http://forward.com/news/357987/satmar-hasidic-activist-isaac-sofer-arrested-for-food-stamp-fraud/
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
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