NEW JERSEY
Times of Israel
Michael J. Salamon
In case you have not yet heard, there have been several arrests made in Lakewood, New Jersey this week. The FBI and local authorities arrested seven married couples thus far and accused them of defrauding the welfare system of over a million dollars.
These arrests should not come as a surprise as some time ago the authorities in Lakewood have signaled their intent to crack down on fraud. The investigation and charges indicate that there are many families who have found ways to hide income and assets in order to gain unwarranted, unnecessary and illegal monies from the government. According to local reports, following the arrests, the local welfare offices were overwhelmed with calls from individuals seeking to get off the welfare rolls so as not to risk being investigated and found guilty of fraud as well.
According to Census data Lakewood is the fastest-growing town in New Jersey. Well over 100,000 people now live there. The area is burgeoning with new housing popping up everywhere. Lakewood’s expansion is driven by a blossoming Orthodox community linked in a variety of ways to the large, prominent yeshiva community there. Most interesting is that recent data also indicates that almost 39% percent of people in Lakewood claim to live in poverty.
These arrests highlight an all too common problem in certain communities. According to Rabbi Mike Moskowitz, writing in the Forward, the community suffers from “systemic corruption.” Rabbi Moskowitz blames this on the well-worn but highly outdated notion that government is the enemy. The religious system was meant to create an environment of normative halachic purity but that has not happened in our times.
Rabbi Moskowitz goes on to say:
“The goal was to minimize, and ideally eliminate, the space between the ideal Torah centric life and actual way we live our lives. Unfortunately, the void between the two is vast, painfully disappointing and continues to widen. The world and our communities are changing, perhaps faster than ever, but spiritual practice is often frozen in time. There is complex tension between innovation and tradition that requires collective rabbinic skill to address. But instead of being present for the holy labor of asking what God expects from us now, the pause button was pressed and the need for updated answers avoided.”
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