Haredi Scam: As The Scope Of The Fraud Widens, Haredi Leader Condemns The Thieves

"The organizations we raided worked as factories through and through, systematically producing fake IDs, some for students not studying at yeshivas and some for people who do not exist."     

Rabbi Elyashiv: 'Law of pursuer' for fraud
Leader of Lithuanian-haredi community says men arrested over Jerusalem Kollel fraud affair caused blasphemy, must be treated with utmost severity
Kobi Nahshoni

The leader of the Lithuanian-haredi community, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, spoke out Monday against ultra-Orthodox men arrested over a Jerusalem-area Kollel fraud affair , saying that if the suspicions were proven true – they should be subjected to the 'Law of the pursuer' (Din Rodef).

He explained that with their actions, the haredi detainees caused 'Chillul Hashem' (desecration of God's name) which could lead to acts of vengeance on the haredi community in Israel and abroad, and so they must be treated with the utmost severity.

The Rabbi Elyashiv's statements are unusually harsh, as the spiritual leader used a term that in its halachic form demands a death sentence. And yet, it is clear that in this case, the term has been used in order to stress the seriousness of the situation and not in order to promote physical violence against those involved.
 
'Assembly line of fraud'

The haredi institutions are suspected to have produced fake IDs in order to receive monthly stipends from the Education Ministry for alleged yeshiva students.

Hours after a raid on the haredi educational institutions the police stated that the organizations operating the institutions operated like industrial assembly lines for fraud and deception.

"The organizations we raided worked as factories through and through, systematically producing fake IDs, some for students not studying at yeshivas and some for people who do not exist," said Chief-Superintendant Haim Shmueli, who headed the raid.

"All of this was done in order to enlarge the annual stipends paid by the state. We checked, and found that just a slim percentage of students reported by the yeshivas actually studied there."

Six suspects were arrested and four others were brought in for questioning. The authorities are now investigating where the millions smuggled out of the country are being hidden. 

The question remains: What situation did Rabbi Elyashiv find "serious"? The stealing? Or getting caught?

There are some who say that Rabbi Elyashiv did not need to specifically condemn the stealing, because it is clearly forbidden to steal.

But stealing from and defrauding the government is relatively common in the haredi community, from open tax evasion to all sorts of money laundering and kollel scams, and you will be hard pressed to find frequent or loud condemnations of this behavior by haredi rabbis – except when one of these fraudsters is caught.

Indeed, there are even rabbinic opinions permitting various forms of stealing from the government, primarily through tax evasion.

What Rabbi Elyashiv should have done is to condemn stealing even when the victim is the government and then add din rodef to the mix.

But he did not.

Clearly, no matter how you view Rabbi Elyashiv's statement, you must say he views getting caught as being far worse than the actual theft.

Perhaps this would not have been a problem for him if he and other haredi leaders had loudly and strongly condemned stealing from the government and other white collar financial crimes in the years leading up to this scandal.

But they did not.

Comments

[Izzy]

A more balanced article. Well done.

[shimon]

Out of interest.
I wonder knowing that the charedim defraud the government etc,is the writer of the accusations-the producer of this site-is willing to have all his record checked to see if he is totally honest in every respect in his dealings with the government and others.

[Yerachmiel Lopin]

Shmarya,

I think you are underestimating the importance of the Elyashiv letter. He is justifying mesirah. That is the real importance of his letter. In the past he invoked din rodef to justify mesirah when dealing with molesters. In that case the argument was pikuach nefesh arising from the harm of molesting. There is no such consideration in this case. So halachicly he must offer another rationale for mesirah. Ergo, chillul hashem.

I don't care how the reporting to government authorities is justified. What is important is that a precedent has been created for legitemating snitching on fraudsters to the government.

Shmarya, you are focusing on your objections to the restraints that the din of mesirah places on enforcing civil law. And you are right, what good is it to say "halachically, fraud is wrong, but we won't support enforcement of the law." However, socially and politically, Eliashiv has opened the door to cooperating with the government on catching and punishing fraudsters.

As a side note, you have not shown that Elyashiv endorses tax fraud.You have not offered any factual evidence that Elyashiv endorses the postion of Dovid Cohen that tax fraud is kosher.

[Tam]

Indeed, there are even rabbinic opinions permitting various forms of stealing from the government, primarily through tax evasion.

Shmarya once again twisting the truth, according to his racist agenda. There is no rabbinic opinion permitting stealing from a government. Rather, there may be rabbinic opinions that tax evasion is not deemed as stealing according to the law of the Torah. Saying that correctly is fair and honest reporting.

[Amanda]

Clarification: It is not possible to steal from the government, rather, a person is stealing from other citizens who submit part of the income they earn to the government who re-distributes it. The government shouldn't be stealing from hard-working people in the first place.
Those who manipulate the government are really manipulating other tax payers, their fellow Jews. No wonder the secular Israeli's are annoyed at the Haredi if they earn wages and their wages are handed to people who don't work.

Too bad Israel is a socialist government that steals from some and gives to others.

[IH]

Amanda, irrespective of current affairs, you should learn about how Jewish kehilot taxed -- and in so doing redistributed income -- for centuries. You will find they were a form of "socialist government" as well...

As, of course, was Biblical truma, ma'aser, shmita and yovel.

[Shmarya]

Posted by: Tam | November 23, 2010 at 08:05 AM

Delusional, much?

[Shmarya]

Posted by: Yerachmiel Lopin | November 23, 2010 at 08:01 AM

You're wrong about RYSE's ruling on molesters.

What he said was that when it was determined (presumably by a beit din) there was clear and compelling evidence a person was a pedophile, it was permissible to call police. But he also holds it is forbidden to call police for the suspicion of child sexual abuse or when the only evidence is circumstantial or inconclusive.

What you see as a novel way around mesira is actually a fence that prevents the vast majority of cases of pedophilia from being reported to police.

The same hair-splitting is in play here, as well.

[A. Nuran]

Amanda, Libtardarian ravings notwithstanding governments absolutely exist. They own property and money. That's a matter of established law going back to Sumeria and Mohenjo Daro. Stealing from them has been a crime since before Abraham's great-great grandfather was a gleam in his great-great-greath grandfather's eye.

[anon]

Black hat yeshivos teach that it's OK (or even a mitzvah to steal from the Israeli government. I went to a famous one in Israel and when our maggid shuir told me that, I felt sick.

Rabbi Elyashiv has no concerns with the theft. He's concerned about the fact that they got caught.

[the usual chaim]

"I don't care how the reporting to government authorities is justified. What is important is that a precedent has been created for legitemating snitching on fraudsters to the government. "

yerachmiel - on a certain level i hear you, but the context for this is not a statement of ethics but, on the contrary, a statement of appearance of ethics. These men, for elyashiv, are to be considered rodfim because the chilul hashem they cause is damaging to the haredi public. Thus, a mechalel is a rodef. On the same token, those who expose abuse would, in effect, be causing a chilul hashem -using elyashiv's logic - because the matter was concealed before and, thus, not damaging to the haredi public. thus, it would be the abused and their supporters, not the abuser, who would, in his conception of it, be the rodefim. This is just as morally bankrupt as all his other statements. it does not support ethical behavior per se, only denounces shaming the charedim.