Raids in New Jersey town target ultra-Orthodox Jews accused of welfare fraud. 'What is going on here?'
LAKEWOOD, N.J. - 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 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 health care, 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.
Once a backwater of at the edge of New Jersey's Pine Barrens, Lakewood is now home to one of the largest concentrations of ultra-Orthodox Jews outside of Israel. They are a fast-growing population with a
