It was a spectacle nobody in this sleepy New Jersey town would forget.
Early one Monday morning, police and FBI
agents in bulletproof vests bounded up the steps of suburban townhouses
and split levels, threatening to break down the doors, hauling out in
handcuffs husbands and wives in the distinctive clothing of
ultra-Orthodox Jews. One was a prominent rabbi and head of a synagogue.
It
was the dramatic kickoff of a series of well-publicized raids that
since late June have netted 26 suspects on charges of stealing $2
million in government benefits. Prosecutors say that the suspects
understated their income to get free healthcare, food stamps, rental subsidies and other benefits.
All
of those arrested — 13 men and 13 women — were ultra-Orthodox Jews. The
charges have tapped into a well of festering hostility toward an
insular and eccentric minority.
,,,
“You have a family or six or seven or eight, somebody is paying the
mortgage, somebody is paying the taxes, they have two cars in the
driveway, they’ve got food for all the kids … and they’re reporting
their total income at $10,000,’’ said Joseph Coronato, the Ocean County
prosecutor who took the lead in the case. “You have to ask — what is
going on here?’’
Raids in New Jersey town target ultra-Orthodox Jews accused of welfare fraud. 'What is going on here?' - LA Times
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