Lakewood's woes a reminder that Jews always create chaos in Gentile societies and bring no benefit

Lakewood Yeshiva students read posters in Hebrew. The community was criticized after it was revealed police training includes helping  members on the Sabbath by turning on lights for them or even going to the drug store! Seems to me to nullify the purpose of Sabbath rules if you can so easily get someone else to do it for you. (Alvaro Leiva/Getty Images/)

By Carolyn Yeager

LAKEWOOD, NEW JERSEY'S LARGE HASIDIC ORTHODOX COMMUNITY  exemplifies how Jews create chaos in Gentile societies; they do not contribute value as they claim. They are not good neighbors since they're extremely clannish and care only for the advancement of their own personal goals and those of the Jewish community of which they are a part.

Already in Lakewood, the school district had to be bailed out by an $8.5 million loan from the state because the Orthodox don't attend the public schools, therefore the public school system does not receive state money for their education, yet it has to bus the 30,000 Orthodox students to their far-flung private schools in separate gender buses. The district is nearly $15 million in the red, while Jews dominate the school board seats. The Orthodox founder of a prominent special-needs school, Rabbi Osher Eisemann, was indicted on charges of stealing more than $600,000 in public money, while three other black-hatted Lakewood rabbis are on their way to prison after losing the appeal of their guilty verdict for conspiring to kidnap and torture a husband in an Orthodox “divorce” case.

With leadership like this, is it any wonder 26 community members (13 “married” couples) have been arrested and charged in June and July with more than $2 million in public assistance fraud (with more arrests promised). Rabbi Moshe Zev Weisberg (below), a spokesman for Lakewood's Vaad (Jewish council) has contented himself with saying they will hold community seminars to educate residents about the rules for applying and reapplying for public assistance. He doesn't mention that the district attorney held such meetings a couple of years ago, warning the Orthodox community against welfare fraud (in essence, giving them a head's up) but at least some of these Hasidic Jews did not stop what they were doing. 

Recently, Rabbi Weisberg had these careful words to say:

“Our community has become much better at reaching out for resources. This is one example of that.

In years past, it was more of a cultural thing — and I understand other societies have it as well — when there was illness with a child, or there are special needs or a disability, and that child was somewhat hidden away and wasn’t spoken of. The public interaction with that child was minimized.

Now the first reaction a family has to getting the news about an afflicted child — after the shock — is, ‘What can I do about it? What resources are available? How can I help this child?’"

One of the resources they've made use of is the Catastrophic Illness in Children Relief Fund (CICRF) funded from an annual assessment of $1.50 per employee levied on all workers who are subject to the New Jersey Unemployment Compensation Law. This state fund is for families whose children have an illness or condition not fully covered by insurance or other government programs. Two of the 13 couples arrested were accused of wrongfully collecting CICRF benefits: Tzvi Braun, 35, and wife Estee, 34, are accused of taking $62,747 they weren't entitled to in Medicaid, low-income heating assistance, and CICRF money between January 2009 and December 2013.

An Asbury Park Press investigation found that Lakewood residents received $5 million from the fund over the last five years, compared to Newark and Jersey City combined who received $627,000. Because the Lakewood Jews have become so adept at “reaching out for resources”, the township received a total of 756 grants from the CICRF, while records show that Paterson NJ (population 150,000) was in second place with just 26!

For children from newborn to age 21, covered expenses include the works – special ambulatory care, acute or specialized in-or-outpatient hospital care, medical equipment, medically related home and vehicle modifications such as ramps or wheelchair lifts, home health care, and medical transportation.

Program officials said the applications from Lakewood have the same rate of chronic childhood medical conditions associated with reduced mobility — such as muscular dystrophy and cerebral palsy — as found in other municipalities. However, the Lakewood applications have higher instances of reimbursements for therapy treatment of speech and language disorders, apraxia (a motor disorder caused by brain damage) and lack of coordination, hypotonia (also known as floppy baby syndrome, marked by reduced muscle tone and strength). These are often congenital (genetic) disorders but can be caused by infection or injury after birth. There is currently no known treatment or cure for the causes, and objective manifestations can be lifelong.

Which brings us to the cost of Jewish genetic disorders and why Jews are so in favor of government health care. David Shafter, the Jewish state-appointed monitor of Lakewood schools, admitted

“We have a high number of children who have special medical needs that arose from genetic disease. A lot of children in the Orthodox community have this. In some cases, it requires special environmental conditions. We also have a number of children who need one-on-one nurses.’’

According to the Jewish Genetic Disease Consortium, an awareness group, there are a number of genetic diseases for which people of [racial] Jewish heritage (at least one grandparent) are more likely to be carriers of than the general population. Thus, in the past year the Lakewood school budget spent $33.8 million on 1,254 special needs students, not including out-of-district busing for 346 children of that group to private schools in surrounding towns.

Rabbi Weisberg used the word “cultural” in reference to what is going on with the Hasidic Jews in Lakewood. Other Orthodox leaders say that “cultural pressures” cause many young families to rely on public assistance to make ends meet. [??!] It is not their culture but their religion that tells them to marry young and start families while the men are studying in yeshivas for many years still, meaning that they don't have sufficient money to raise the children they are required to have. But what must be said is that often they hide money they do have so that they can get the Goy government and charities to pay their high child-raising expenses. This last is both their religion and their culture. By marrying within a close-knit group as they do, they increase their chances of passing on genetic weaknesses and diseases they are known to have. But they will not control this because it is a religious commandment; thus they have large families to insure a certain amount of healthy offspring. In the distant past, the unhealthy ones would die, but not now. Now we make it possible for them to even reproduce.

Another organization that helps Jews get as much “free” money from agencies as possible is the Lakewood office of Agudath Israel of America, a nonprofit that advocates for civil and religious rights in the Jewish community, directed by another rabbi, Avi Schnall (left). He said,

"Children are the top priority. Everything is about education and taking care of our kids and making sure they have the resources to thrive and, when assistance is needed, making sure parents are educated on what’s available and make sure they know."

This Jewish organization doesn't itself help families financially, but only helps them to find it from Goy sources. They want their kids well taken care of, but not if it means Daddy has to get a job to bring home the bacon (or Kosher equivalent) instead of going to yeshiva all day, mentally submerged in Torah and Talmud. So it's pure hypocrisy to you and I, which they very well know but don't care as long as it works for them. In their teachings, this is the proper world order as their G-d has ordained it to be.

All that it takes for it not to work is for the goyim to say Stop – enough of this! How much chance is there of that happening?

Well, when the arrests began, hundreds of Jews called township leaders asking how they could drop their public assistance or avoid arrest in relation to the investigation. It is clear the Gentile community is followng this scandal with great interest, leaving many sharply-worded comments at the online news reports. It is being openly acknowledged that a divide exists “even among the much more moderate members of the [Gentile] community.” The accusatory warnings against expressions of “anti-Semitism” are also being raised.

Tom Gatti (above), chairman of Lakewood's Senior Action Group, said he doesn't see a clear way forward for the town if Orthodox leaders don't start the conversations. (They, however, say they can't.) "Everything that  happens in this town results in a benefit for the Orthodox community," Gatti said. "I think it's up to the Orthodox community to have more than a symposium." Among the top issues for Gatti, other officials and thousands of residents is the unceasing development in Lakewood. "It seems there is no regard [concern] for high-density housing," he said.

Endless rows of new homes keep going up - these a part of Pine River Village across from a shopping center.

State Assemblyman Sean Kean, R-Monmouth, said, "Development is a serious issue that has to be addressed." The construction has choked strained roadways and taxed infrastructure in town, and given rise to a strong anti-development movement. Planning board and zoning board meetings that previously were lightly attended are now followed with interest.

A man who calls himself the 'First Amendment Activist' records nearly all public meetings in Lakewood. An anonymous resident has started a movement called "Take Back Lakewood," which aims to challenge development in town. The result is people in Lakewood are more aware of development than ever. Dozens of residents came to a zoning board hearing to fight a planned four-story apartment building on Park Avenue. In the face of the opposition, the developer's attorney pulled the project.

You can bet that the Orthodox community's sharp businessmen are finding ways to cash in on all the development. Earlier this year, a 167,000-square-foot shopping center proposed by a development company owned by Lakewood's Beth Medrash Govoha, the large rabbinical college that started all the growth to begin with, was delayed after protest from residents.

At the last Township Committee meeting, Mayor Coles called for unity, saying, "We are one town. We are one big family." This is a sentiment that is often expressed by township leaders, but evidence of a desire for real compromise remains elusive.

"Lakewood has a problem," said Black pastor Daniel Wilson, "As long as we continue to cater to one community over another, we're always going to have this divide."

It's much worse than that. It is not possible to be "one community" with ultra-orthodox Jews. They are always a people unto themselves. It is they who should not settle among us but should remain in their own land.