Syria and New Jersey
This is only tangential to this blog, but worth a mention. A small community of Syrian Jews along the New Jersey coast has been rocked by a federal corruption case involving several Jersey politicians and rabbis. The town, Deal, is a tight-knight, quiet area so this is a major event. Most of the residents are seasonal, returning to Brooklyn (according to this article Deal is known as “Brooklyn South”) when summer ends. Al-Farabi once spent a night in Deal, though as a young child he doesn’t remember much.
This story is truly bizarre. For those who may not have heard about it, here’s a brief summary of the charges:
-bribery
-extortion
-money laundering
-trafficking human body parts (kidney)
It should be noted that not all of those charged in this case are Syrian Jews.
