SPATE OF FRAUD CASES PROMPTS QUESTIONS ABOUT INSULAR HASIDIC
2001-05-10 14:24 (New York)
society
Editors: Good through weekend.
Graphic: HASIDIC, a locator map, posted May 10 on GGN2
Sidebar: HASIDIC-SIDE
By OLIVER W. PRICHARD
and GARY STERN
The (Westchester, N.Y.) Journal News
Hasidic Jews are an Old World mystery to most outsiders, a
black-and-white blur of untrimmed beards, large families and rigid
piety.
But this image has been clouded by a series of recent criminal
cases in New York involving the ultra-insular Hasidim. Public scrutiny
intensified after outgoing President Clinton reduced the prison terms
of three Hasidic men from New Square, N.Y., who stole millions of
federal dollars.
It is a striking moral paradox: How can people who live by strict
religious law choose to defy civil law?
``Hasidim go to synagogue three times a day,'' said David Zweibel
of Agudath Israel, a Manhattan-based advocacy group for Orthodox Jews.
``By their appearance and their lifestyle, they are holding themselves
to a more pious standard. So it's troubling and surprising when these
stories happen.''
Experts emphasize the great majority of Hasidim are both
law-abiding and devout, and that many respect America for having
provided a religious sanctuary after World War II. Observers worry
that media coverage of Hasidic crime - boys with dangling curls
squeezing into courtroom benches - can feed stereotypes.
The Hasidim are hardly the first religious group to see members
stray. When evangelical Christian ministers faced financial and sexual
scandal, Catholic priests molested children, and Amish youth were
arrested for drug dealing, the devout felt shame, and skeptics cried
``hypocrisy.''
Still, the Hasidim are unique in that some have been accused of
devising financial schemes to bail out their poverty-stricken
communities. Since many Hasidic men study the Torah instead of holding
jobs, their families often live below the poverty line. So complex
schemes of fraud are tempting for some.
``They see this world and say, 'No thanks. We don't want any part
of it,' `` said Samuel Heilman, professor of Jewish studies at the
City University of New York. ``They would rather live under their
restraints, even if they can't afford it. They believe they are making
a sacrifice - the way they live - to protect Judaism.''
The federal cases were thrust onto the national stage with
Clinton's pardoning three men from the Hasidic village of New Square
who were convicted in 1999 of stealing millions from federal education
and anti-poverty programs.
New Square gave Hillary Rodham Clinton 1,400 of its 1,412 votes for
the Senate in November; a federal grand jury is probing whether the
pardon was a quid pro quo.
A year ago, 14 men from the Kiryas Joel Hasidic community in Orange
County, N.Y., were accused of stealing millions from financial
institutions, the government and private citizens.
And in recent years, dozens of Hasidic men from Brooklyn to Orange
County north of the city have been accused of such crimes as swindling
millions from trusting Orthodox investors, laundering money for
Colombian drug lords, bribing zoning officials to bolster development
deals, sneaking the drug Ecstasy past airport inspectors, and bilking
millions from elderly annuity-holders in Florida.
Many in the Jewish community feel anger and humiliation.
``It's an unmitigated disaster,'' said Marc Stern of the American
Jewish Congress. ``It lends itself to the canard - which certainly has
deep roots in the history of anti-Semitism - that Jews have no regard
for anybody but themselves when it comes to money.''
A step back in time
Descendants of the Ukrainian Skver dynasty who emigrated from
Eastern Europe to Brooklyn after World War II founded new Square, with
about 4,700 Hasidic Jews, in 1954. Many were Holocaust survivors.
They purchased 130 isolated acres and set out to create a home
where they could uphold Jewish law and protect themselves from
corruption.
New Square is a step back in time. Bearded, yarmulke-wearing men
walk on one side of the street, women in long skirts and
head-coverings must stay on the other side. A sign announces a ban on
displaying one's legs or arms.
``They came to America not because they loved America and wanted to
participate in the American dream, like most Jewish immigrants, but
because it was the best place to live their traditional life with as
little disturbance as possible,'' said Arthur Green, a professor at
Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.
Hasidic communities battle poverty. Career advancement often is
abandoned for religious devotion. There are many mouths to feed -
family sizes routinely triple the national average in an effort to
promote self-preservation. And it costs to send those children to
Jewish schools (yeshiva).
Poverty figures from the new census have not yet been released, but
the 1990 census showed half of New Square's population below the
poverty line - an annual income of $12,674 for a family of four.
Forty-one percent of residents lived in homes that included seven or
more people.
One woman offered a glimpse into the Hasidic way of life in a 1999
letter to U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones in the New Square case
seeking mercy for Benjamin Berger, then principal of a boys' yeshiva.
``Rabbi Berger has a special knack of making children happy with
very little,'' wrote Judith Rajcensztajn. ``They own very few
possessions. They have no major toys. Each child has very few articles
of clothing to wear. It is obvious that Rabbi Berger makes up for the
physical things with his wonderful rapport with children.''
Even after a jury convicted the New Square men of devising phony
religious courses to steal federal education funds, supporters argued
they had done it not for self-enrichment but to feed and educate a
struggling community.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joanna Hendon told jurors not to consider
the defendants' financial or religious situations.
``The fact that they did live in a relatively poor community, and
they dedicate themselves to religious pursuits, is not an excuse,''
Hendon said.
But it may have explained their motive.
'Nobody got rich here'
Rabbi Mayer Schiller, a spokesman for New Square, said the crimes
that led to the presidential pardons were similar to others in Hasidic
communities probed by investigators during the early 1990s. During a
1993 Senate hearing, witnesses cited 37 instances where Hasidic groups
were using federal funds illegally.
``Nobody got rich here,'' Schiller said. ``The men convicted used
the money to support local schools, and while they might have violated
the letter of the law, they didn't think they violated the spirit of
the law.''
Janet Belcove-Shalin, author of several books of Hasidic
communities in America, said that while doing research in Boro Park in
Brooklyn she often heard about intricate scams to boost government
funds - many by inflating school rosters and school lunch programs.
``If you think you're doing a mitzvah (good deed) for your
community - feeding the hungry - and that government won't miss the
money, the human power to rationalize is remarkable,'' she said.
Green of Brandeis said that Hasidim are Eastern European Jews who
nearly were wiped out in the Holocaust, and ``come from a tradition
that never experienced a government that wasn't hostile and
oppressive.''
``They are desperate and see other people getting the money, which
is being handed out like water flowing in a river,'' said Hasidic
Rabbi David Eidensohn, a biblical scholar. ``They want their cut of
the action. And they quickly see it is so easy to steal from the
government.''
Eidensohn said Hasidim need to end reliance on government and
perhaps start their own colleges to educate people for high-income
professions.
Mandell Ganchrow, former longtime president of the Orthodox Union,
which represents 1,000 synagogues, said he understands why the media
and others zero in on crimes committed by people who flaunt piety. But
he says all Hasidim must not be lumped as potential criminals.
``We have to be very careful not to judge Hasidim by the deeds of a
few,'' Ganchrow said. ``Most Hasidim are hard-working, honest,
family-oriented.
``People don't like those who are different, who speak a different
language, look different, act different. It can be very easy for some
to take this situation and condemn all.'' |
