Butcher Is Accused of Passing Off Chicken as Kosher

By now you've all heard about Monsey's kosher chicken scandal and how Hasidim of every stripe are busy scrubbing their kitchen counters and stoves, and dipping their pots and utensils in scalding water.

Why wasn't the meat protected under a chezkas kashrus? No clue. Perhaps Gil can explain.

A better question is this: Why don't other communtiy crisises evoke the same sort of mass response? Reports of welfare fraud, for example, in these same Monsey communities are legion. I have a close friend who practices medicine in a prominent Hasidic neighborhood, and he unabashadly reports that many of his Hasidic Medicaid patients arrive bedcked in expensive clothing and jewlery. Many of them own houses, he says, but put the deeds in the names of other people to protect their benefits. Others marry religiously, but not legally so that they can continue to qualify for Aid to Families with Dependent Children, a program that is not available to married women.

Aren't these sorts of scams at least as venal as the sin of eating unkosher chicken? If so, why aren't the men and women of Monsey working en masse to rid themselves of them?