The welfare fraud charges and arrests of 14 Jewish Lakewood, New Jersey, residents last week, including a rabbi, have spurred a rash of anti-Semitic messages.
The backlash — hateful social media comments, fliers, and slurs painted on a sheet covering a Holocaust memorial — against those arrested in the majority Orthodox Jewish municipality of 100,000 has some officials and residents concerned.
“The allegations and the charges levied against (the defendants) have nothing to do with their religion,” regional Anti-Defamation League Director Joshua Cohen said, the Asbury Park Press reported. “That’s why we’re deeply concerned when we see comments online, whether it’s on newspaper websites or social media, that are anti-Semitic.”
The social media comments centered around the religion of the accused and made defamatory and dehumanizing statements about Jewish people, the Press reported, adding that a Jewish ambulance driver was given the finger by a driver who cut him off purposely.
The suspects have been charged with wrongfully collecting close to $2 million in public assistance funds by underreporting their incomes, much of it between 2009 and 2014, according to NJ.com.
These particular arrests seem to play into the stereotype that Jewish people are rich and are greedy, the website noted, which may be causing some of these angry, virulent reactions on social media and within the community.
“We believe that this recent rash of anti-Semitic incidents is directly related to the recent arrests in our town. We have not had any other incidents before,” said Chief Gregory Meyer of the Lakewood Police, the Asbury Park press reported. “We will not tolerate this kind of behavior and we are working with the state and the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office in an attempt to make arrests.”