From NJ.com some nice positive coverage about Lakewood by Mark Di Ionno. "This is what people don't understand about us," said Muller, one the approximately 70,000 Haredi or ultra-Orthodox Jews living in Lakewood. "We're very American in that way. We volunteer. We love our community and we're very involved in our community, like everyone else."
The news out of Lakewood in the past several months has portrayed certain members of the town's Orthodox community has takers, not givers.
A public airing of the high cost of private school busing and private special education for Orthodox Jewish children was followed by the arrest of 26 people charged with welfare fraud. The stories fueled perceptions that the entire Orthodox community is self-serving and insulated.
But, as anyone following this series of columns on Lakewood has read before, perception and reality are like fifth cousins. Related, but barely.
"Many of our (Lakewood EMS) volunteers are from Hatzolah," Meyer said.
But without Hatzolah, Meyer said, the Lakewood EMS would be "overwhelmed" and forced to expand at taxpayer expense. "There are things we do that create savings for the town that are sometimes overlooked," Muller said.
The service is free to all residents, not just the Orthodox, he added, though Hatzolah, like most volunteer first aid squads, has begun to bill insurance companies.
"If they pay, fine. If they don't, it's free," he said. read more at NJ.com
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