Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

6 More Jews Arrested In Mushrooming Lakewood Benefits Scam

Image by Courtesy Ocean County Prosecutor's Office

Six more arrests have been made in connection with a sprawling welfare scheme in Lakewood, according to the Asbury Park Press. These follows eight prior arrests that had been made earlier in the week.

“This is just the beginning,” said a law enforcement agent close to the investigation.

Those arrested Tuesday were Yitzchok and Sora Kanarek, Chaim and Liatt Ehrman, and William and Faigy Friedman. According to the report:

“The Kanareks wrongfully collected $339,002.56 in Medicaid, nutrition assistance, Social Security and federal housing funds, according to the prosecutor’s office. The Ehrman’s brought in $185,692.22 in improper Medicaid, nutrition assistance, utilities assistance and Sandy relief funds and the Friedmans bilked $149,842.28 in Medicaid, food, energy and housing funds, according to the prosecutor’s office.”

The six new arrests are accused of underreporting their incomes over a period of several years to collect public-assistance benefits they weren’t entitled to receive.

Contact Jesse Bernstein at [email protected] or on Twitter @__jbernstein

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.