It's about time. If you're familiar with Lakewood, NJ, they've been gaming the system for years..

http://www.nj.com/news/index.s...kewood_di_ionno.html

The arrests of a Lakewood rabbi, his wife, and several others Monday is just the "first wave" of a federal and state crackdown on public assistance fraud in the Orthodox community.

The second wave is planned for as early as dawn Wednesday when authorities are scheduled to move in on three other couples, according to law enforcement sources. After that, warrants will be served to an unknown number of others by Friday and the investigation is continuing. And growing.

"There are more (arrests) coming," the source said, who was not authorized to speak on the record. "This is far from over."

It may be just the beginning. There is a new scrutiny on Lakewood as the town continues to make headlines. Money-laundering indictments, a school system in financial freefall, unabated development. And now welfare fraud charges.

MORE: Recent Mark Di Ionno columns

The charges against those scheduled to be arrested Wednesday and later in the week, will be similar to those filed Monday. The complaints say they systematically schemed to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal benefits designed for the poor, some during a period as long as five years.

"We are sending a message to this community that the party is over," the law enforcement source said.


"We are sending a message to this community that the party is over," the law enforcement source said.


"The party," the source refers to are allegations that Orthodox Jews bilk the public assistance systems.

That accusation repeatedly shows up in the comment fields on recent columns here designed to separate perception from reality.

Certainly, the charges against Rabbi Zalmen Sorotzkin and his wife, Tzipporah, feed those allegations. The couple is charged with stealing $338,642 from Medicaid, Social Security, and food and housing benefits designed for the poor while living a luxurious lifestyle. Sorotzkin's home is a mansion at the end of a cul-de-sac valued at $885,000 and owned by Congregation Lutzk.

According to the Lakewood tax assessor's office, the Sorotzkin's home was tax-exempt as a religious property.

The home of Mordechai and Jocheved Breskin, also arrested Monday is valued at $577,000. They were accused of stealing $585,862 in public assistance.

A third arrested couple, Yocheved and Shimon Nussbaum, live in a home valued at $450,000. The complaint says the Nussbaums earned $1.8 million in 2013, but still took $178,000 in benefits.

Mordechai Sorotzkin, the rabbi's brother, and his wife, Rachel Sorotzkin, were charged with taking $96,000 in Medicaid benefits from 2011 to 2014, despite earning a combined $1 million in 2012 and 2013.



The three couples scheduled to be arrested tomorrow live in homes valued between $627,000 and $450,000. All three are on the tax rolls, with two couples paying about $10,500 in property taxes and the third paying $7,487.

One couple will be charged with stealing about $330,000 in entitlements from Medicaid and Social Security, Housing and Urban Development funds, and SNAP benefits. SNAP is the federal government's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, once called food stamps.

The other two couples will be charged with stealing about $100,000 in benefits.

These arrests are the latest in a series of arrests that paint an unflattering picture of the Orthodox community in Lakewood. Not all. But some.

And it leads to questions about why there is so much poverty in a township where money is flowing.

For instance, 75 percent of the homes in Lakewood sell for between $400,000 and $1 million, yet the official poverty rate is 38 percent and the per capita income is $11,775. By contrast, neighboring Brick Township has a poverty level of 6.1 percent and a per capita income $34,840.

Home building goes on unabated in a township that has seen its population double to 100,000 in 20 years. In 2016, all the properties in the township had a total assessed value of $6.5 billion. In 2017, that rose to $9.5 billion on the strength of construction of 600 new houses and 20 new commercial developments. And yet, the 6,000-student public school system remains broke.


The cost of transporting 30,000 private school students in gender-specific buses to a multitude of Orthodox schools consumes the bulk of the public school's $24.5 million transportation budget.

The district sends 346 special education students to "out-of-district" schools, including 193 to the School for Children with Hidden Intelligence (SCHI), which charges tuitions in the $100,000-range. SCHI's owner and founder, Rabbi Osher Eisemann, was indicted in March by the state attorney general's office on charges of transferring $630,000 of publicly-paid tuition funds into SCHI's foundation accounts and using the money for personal investments and expenses.

Eisemann was the second high-profile Lakewood case this year. In February, beeper store owner Yisroel Malamud pleaded guilty to running an unlicensed money transfer business, laundering $3.5 million in cash through his own accounts from his customers to third parties.

A second law enforcement official who asked not to be identified said there are connections between the Malamud money transfers and the breaking cases of welfare fraud, in that some of the money that went through Malamud's accounts came from the new defendants.

Meanwhile, federal money pours in. The township received $28,642,612 in federal housing subsidies last year.


Another $10,837,810 in Pell grants were given to students in six yeshivas, the largest being Beth Medrash Govoha. The yeshivas' 6,500 students received $10,208,627 in Pell grants. The yeshiva also received a $75,000 Homeland Security grant.

The Lakewood office for the state-run and federally-funded WIC (Women, Infant and Children) program for poor pregnant or breastfeeding women and children under 5 is one of the busiest in the state. Ocean County - with its huge population of retirees - has the fourth largest WIC program in the state.

These are the numbers and the contradictions that go with them. Things in Lakewood sometimes just don't add up. And there is surely more evidence to come.

Mark Di Ionno may be reached at mdiionno@starledger.com. Follow The Star-Ledger on Twitter @StarLedger and find us on Facebook.

I'm not shocked to hear this. At my last job in NJ my co-worker lived in Lakewood and told some stories. Hassidic Jews came to his home with an offer to buy. He was told:

"Sell it now or wait until we take over the neighborhood and it's worth half".

They're mostly bold and obnoxious, I'm glad I had few dealings with them.

How cliché

quote:

Originally posted by UTsig:
I'm not shocked to hear this. At my last job in NJ my co-worker lived in Lakewood and told some stories. Hassidic Jews came to his home with an offer to buy. He was told:

"Sell it now or wait until we take over the neighborhood and it's worth half".

They're mostly bold and obnoxious, I'm glad I had few dealings with them.

Yeah, them obnoxious Jews. I'm glad I'm not one of them. Oh, wait ...

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by UTsig:
I'm not shocked to hear this. At my last job in NJ my co-worker lived in Lakewood and told some stories. Hassidic Jews came to his home with an offer to buy. He was told:

"Sell it now or wait until we take over the neighborhood and it's worth half".

They're mostly bold and obnoxious, I'm glad I had few dealings with them.

Yeah, them obnoxious Jews. I'm glad I'm not one of them. Oh, wait ...

Uh, obviously you've never been to Lakewood. No need to pretend to be offended.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by UTsig:
I'm not shocked to hear this. At my last job in NJ my co-worker lived in Lakewood and told some stories. Hassidic Jews came to his home with an offer to buy. He was told:

"Sell it now or wait until we take over the neighborhood and it's worth half".

They're mostly bold and obnoxious, I'm glad I had few dealings with them.

Yeah, them obnoxious Jews. I'm glad I'm not one of them. Oh, wait ...

My statement was directed at the Hassidic community in Lakewood. In fact my co-worker was Jewish and that's how he was treated. I ran a company for a Jewish family for 17 years, trust me I know the difference. Sorry for the unexplained statement.

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:
Uh, obviously you've never been to Lakewood.

Actually, I have been to Lakewood. I grew up in the NY / NJ metropolitan area, worked at Bell Labs in Monmouth County for a number of years. Of course that was more than half a century ago.

I have also spent a fair amount of time around Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn.

My grandparents were Russian Jew refugees, with a name change by an immigration agent at Ellis Island due to a language / spelling misunderstanding.

To clarify, I am not "pretending to be offended," I know that some really good, some really bad, and a lot of "average" people can be found in just about any group. Bell-shaped curve and all that. I just thought that the allegation that "They're mostly bold and obnoxious" was a little over the line. Sort of like claiming that "most black people are thugs." How about saying, "some <group of> people ...?" That would make it a true statement, no matter what group of people you choose.

But in Lakewood, they really are mostly obnoxious.

I expect a full crack down across the spectrum of system gamers then. Odd that they started in this community. Is it because they are easy targets with no sympathetic politically corrected defenders? I guess we'll see how this plays out. Glad to see SOMETHING getting corrected. Just imagined it would start elsewhere. I didn't even know Hassidic Jews were gaming the system in sufficient numbers to raise attention...

I just listened to a radio program about the Hasidic community of East Ramapore, NY, and all the shenanigans they are pulling in the Public School District. They are diverting lots of public funds from the public schools tp private Yeshivas. And they have taken over the School Board, and the city officials are in the pockets of the Hasidic community. And any criticism of what they are doing is met with denials and unfounded accusations of"antiSemitism" by the Hasids, and thus they try to shut down discussions and everyone is frightened of offending the Hasids. In fact, we see it here, V-Tail jumped on Ramius just because Ramius was discussing how bad the Hasids are.
I am not Jewish, but am the grandson of a German-Jewish lady, whose entire family was killed in Treblinka.
But, the Hasids are the worst among the worst, always using the slur of antisemitism as a defence.

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:
But in Lakewood, they really are mostly obnoxious.

The word is Orthodox, not obnoxious, but it is easy to confuse the two.

BTW. I loath those who game a system as much as those who create such systems in the first place.

Often, the "systems" (public funding of this and that, special benefits and such for specific people) are created for politicol gain, and also create classes and divisions that otherwise would have little power to influence, and the same are then exploited by those who seek selfish gain or advantage. (Who'd a thunk it?).

And in the end, we have people who are not in the fight, fighting.

Oy! Indeed.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:
But in Lakewood, they really are mostly obnoxious.

The word is Orthodox, not obnoxious, but it is easy to confuse the two.

Haha, this is true.

Is this subject supposed to be taboo? Do we have to prove we're not anti-Semitic to comment on the subject, and then follow up with copious apologies if we dare say anything bad about Jews?

Clichés becomes clichés because at their core is a kernel of truth.

Asians are notoriously poor drivers. Does stating this truth make me anti-Asian?

"Once a theif, always a theif."
Pay back the $$$ & serve the time.

I agree with Para. We get accused of anti-semitism anytime someone even mentions anything negative about a Jewish individual or about segments of the Jewish polulation, like the Hasids.
It is very similar to what muslims are all about. They try to shut down any discussion of the ills of the muslim community by accusing people of "islamophobia". And the homosexual lobby used to label people as "homophobes" or "suffering from homophobia" in order to shut down all opposition.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Asians are notoriously poor drivers.

I resemble that remark.

quote:

Does stating this truth make me anti-Asian bad drivers?

Yes.

In my family the Asians are def bad drivers. We have two totaled cars, two smashed garage doors and countless smaller 'matters' to prove it.

quote:

The three couples scheduled to be arrested tomorrow live in homes valued between $627,000 and $450,000. All three are on the tax rolls, with two couples paying about $10,500 in property taxes and the third paying $7,487.

One couple will be charged with stealing about $330,000 in entitlements from Medicaid and Social Security, Housing and Urban Development funds, and SNAP benefits. SNAP is the federal government's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, once called food stamps.

The other two couples will be charged with stealing about $100,000 in benefits.

These arrests are the latest in a series of arrests that paint an unflattering picture of the Orthodox community in Lakewood. Not all. But some.

Not all. But some.

Welfare fraud is a huge problem. Not just in the Orthodox community in Lakewood, of course.
But... some are better at "gaming the system" than others. There are two problems: the "gamers" and the "system". We can't excuse those who commit fraud just because the system is so terrible. And we also can't confirm the modern welfare state as OK, it just needs some of the fraud rooted out.

quote:

Originally posted by sidss1:
I agree with Para. We get accused of anti-semitism anytime someone even mentions anything negative about a Jewish individual or about segments of the Jewish polulation, like the Hasids.
It is very similar to what muslims are all about. They try to shut down any discussion of the ills of the muslim community by accusing people of "islamophobia". And the homosexual lobby used to label people as "homophobes" or "suffering from homophobia" in order to shut down all opposition.

That's a pretty broad brush, and not entirly truthful.

I do not defend Jewish centric topics because of the Jewish content, but on the merit of the argument.

In this topic, I have no trouble calling out those in that comunity breaking the law, and would expect they be held accountable for their crimes.

And yes, I understand that most stereotypes and cliches exist for a reason.

But Para has a rule against attacking people for their looks or bringing it into an argument for not having any bearing on the point, in a similar fashion, I have trouble with such use of a person or people's gneder, skin color, ethnicity, religion or what not when it is not relevent.

That said, this is not such a case, but is a specific number of a secific group who have broken the laws and it is unfortunate that their actions re-inforce the sterotype.

That said, I would (and do) speak out against those who do such things, because those things are wrong.

My only attempt at defense is against unwarnted attacks for thoise hwo simply want to throw a stone.

BTW, my post above was the same as what chellim said concenring the two edged sword of "bad system and opportunists", and that it knows no bounds. And is the same in this case.

Being Jewish, is not reason for the breaking of the law.

But being Jewish is no excuse from the light being shined on the actions, especially because the group happens to be Jewish.

Hope I did not muck the thoughts up too much in the telling...

Some Hasidic communities are organized like criminal gangs. The fact that Yahweh is their god is incidental. In fact, they literally wouldn't give a non-Hasidic Jew the time of day. Not worshiping/living like they do makes other Jews dirt, in their eyes.

I remember, from my time growing up, in NY.

Good times.

Bruce