‘A small town feel’
The Times’ “Room for Debate” blog asked various writers why NJ seems so susceptible to corruption. Here’s Helene Stapinski:
Hudson County, where many of the arrests in New Jersey were made, has a small town feel and mentality. Everybody knows everybody. Lots of people are related to each other. It’s an isolated place, in many ways, so that the politicians who live there really don’t feel connected to the larger world. They feel they operate in a sort of vacuum, where no one will really notice what they do.
Substitute “Deal” for “Hudson County” and “rabbis” for “politicans,” and you have a pretty good summary of the roots of the allegations within the Syrian-Jewish community — or any insular ethnic grouping.
JustASC is written by Andrew Silow-Carroll, Editor-in-Chief of the 