New York – A brazed handful of beggars in New York have been posing as Orthodox Jews to panhandle Hasidic Jews neighborhoods in South Brooklyn.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
The impersonators don traditional garb, dressing in long skirts and head coverings before converging upon popular food markets ahead of Shabbat and other Jewish holidays, according to a New York Post report published on Saturday.
The panhandler’s incorporate selective Hebrew phrases such as “Shabbat,” “shalom” and “tzedaka” in the pleas directed at members of the hasidic communities.
Bernard Vei, an Orthodox Jew, told the NY Post that the panhandlers seek to exploit the communities because they always give tidings.
According to the report, one panhandler, Vincent Maurizio, said he had collected some $750 during the Passover holiday.
He said he had learned to speak Hebrew and Yiddish to enhance his solicitations for charity.
“They’re good people. They’re righteous people,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.
Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post
there is nothing wrong with what they are doing as most Jews will give charity to anybody that asks , you don’t have to be Jewish to receive charity from us .
The latest scams are Chinese ‘Monks’ aggressively demanding money. The New York Times article says they are ALL con artists. They are not only not real Monks, they are not even Buddhists.
Just ask the panhandler what this week’s parsha is.
This problem is epidemic on Avenue J in the Midwood section of Brooklyn. One panhandler runs a a Fortune Teller storefront on Avenue J, then Friday Afternoons says Shabbis Shabbis.
You don’t have to bring me your birth certificate to prove that you’re indeed Jewish, I don’t care whether you’re a Jew or not when I give you a dime or a quarter on the street. However I do care what you’re gonna do afterwards with the money, whether you’ll use it to buy a drink or to buy some crack cocaine… Last week as I was about to enter a restaurant in Crown Heights, I was stopped by a crying young Jew begging me for money to buy some food since I was hungry myself I felt bad and gave him 10 bucks. When I left the restaurant I saw that Jew dealing with some suspicious black guy I’m pretty sure he sold him crack, I was fuming at myself for giving him the money….
Just ask them what is In between Gimmel and Hay
I work in NYC and eat out almost everyday. One day as I was talking to a friend of mine a woman wearing a kerchief approached us and put her hand out and said Tzedaka, Tzedaka. She looked Sephardi and seemed to have the right accent. My friend tells me in Yiddush that she’s not jewish. He says watch this. He asks her,”How was your Yom Kippur?” She makes a strange face and says,”What” He repeats himself. She has no idea what he’s talking about. It’s obvious she was not Jewish since every Jew even one totally non observant heard of Yom Kippur. They tend to stand in front of the kosher restaurants in Manhattan.
We have a few of those here too. Its funny to see them fall over themselves when they try to look like the tzibur.
this is a great praise on jews because we have known this for a long time yet we continue to give without asking.
It happened more than once to me that someone in the subway would ask for money so he could buy something to eat. I had food with me and I would offer it to the person and he would refuse it.
Beware – many of these “jews” are arabs and some know Hebrew. Last year around Rosh Hashana, a woman on Avenue J with her kids in tow as for charity in Yiddish and Hebrew. I asked her if she was Jewish and she told me in Hebrew she was Palestinian. She then added that this is her living and asked again for a donation in both Hebrew and Yiddish.
there was a very big problem of these non jewish pan handlers in the 5t a few years ago. there was a man & woman working together, one on one side of the street the other on the other side. they were dressed like a young yeshivish couple. she came over to me & asked TZEDAKA TZEDAKA. I then asked her if she knew what time candle lighting was that night (it was a wed nite). she said HUH? I asked her again. WHAT? I then asked her what parsha it was. she gave me a totally blank look. another frum lady saw waht was going on & came over & started yelling at the lady to get away & that wat she was doing was illegal. the begger went across the street to the guy & they started walking down the street.
I too used to use some yardstick to recognize a Yid from a Gypsy or other Goy see Poster # 5 – Parsha of the week [you’ve got to be kidding! Half the time I’m not even sure what Chumash we’re in!]; Poster # 7 – have them say Shma [one I would use, until 1 day an elderly woman in Munkatch Shul in BP {late 80’s} didn’t know what the heck I was talking about, and as I smugly walked away, told me in Yiddish, how she grew up in a small village in Russia & didn’t know any לשון קודש nor any davening, and I gave her $50 because she was obviously Jewish and I was חושד בכשירים]. Poster 12 recommends using “Aleph Beis” quizzes to determine Jewishness; I’m surprised no one suggested a quick Bris Mileh check, coupled with allowing the “Contestant” to choose to give a simple “Cheftzeh / Gavreh” discourse, or a “Chazukeh vs. Roiv” analysis [for a suspected Litvak] {Oh come on! EVERY Yid should know THAT!}; or have them say over ANY מהרש״א, or have them supply at least 2 reasons for a man to Toivel on Erevan Shabbos for a Chusid.
Bottom line, my new attitude is don’t look to see if he’s a Yid or not; the dollar (or quarter) won’t kill me, and maybe if I don’t “judge” too carefully, the רבונו של עולם won’t judge me too carefully either, and “L’Eideh” find me deficient as well.
There’s a couple of Rom (Gypsy) women who go around Passaic with what looks like a baby in a carriage (it’s actually a life-size doll) asking for Tzedaka.
It so happens, the the Rov of our shul had a grandfather from Romania. These ladies approached the Rov for tzedaka, he greeted them in Romanian, and they answered him without thinking… then got annoyed.
His usual question is “What comes after Boruch?” So far none of them have come up with the right answer.
Oh, and there’s one elderly Polish guy who hangs around the shul collecting quarters. Everyone knows he’s not Jewish, but we give him anyway.
There is one gypsy woman and her son who panhandles in front of Bank Leumi in manhattan. During the Xmas holiday she moved her operation to the big tima on 5th avenue because that’s where there were more people
I too used to use some yardstick to recognize a Yid from a Gypsy or other Goy see Poster # 5 – Parsha of the week [you’ve got to be kidding! Half the time I’m not even sure what Chumash we’re in!]; Poster # 7 – have them say Shma [one I would use, until 1 day an elderly woman in Munkatch Shul in BP {late 80’s} didn’t know what the heck I was talking about, and as I smugly walked away, told me in Yiddish, how she grew up in a small village in Russia & didn’t know any לשון קודש nor any davening, and I gave her $50 because she was obviously Jewish and I was חושד בכשירים]. Poster 12 recommends using “Aleph Beis” quizzes to determine Jewishness; I’m surprised no one suggested a quick Bris Mileh check, coupled with allowing the “Contestant” to choose to give a simple “Cheftzeh / Gavreh” discourse, or a “Chazukeh vs. Roiv” analysis [for a suspected Litvak] {Oh come on! EVERY Yid should know THAT!}; or have them say over ANY מהרש״א, or have them supply at least 2 reasons for a man to Toivel on Erevan Shabbos for a Chusid.
Bottom line, my new attitude is don’t look to see if he’s a Yid or not; the dollar (or quarter) won’t kill me, and maybe if I don’t “judge” too carefully, the רבונו של עולם won’t judge me too carefully either, and “L’Eideh” find me deficient as well.
I’ll never forget Yom Kippur around 1998. I was in Borough Park by 15th ave & 47th street and this woman, who was a local fixture in BP with her cute baby, always collecting (and doing quite well for herself), by shuls, chasunehs, 13th Ave, etc; (she was attractive, “eidel” and looked like she could really use the money) who many had assumed to be Jewish (until now), all dressed in Shabbos clothes with a tichel came over to me and a bunch of others, arm outstreched, palm upside, saying; “tzedukeh”, “tzedukeh”. I felt so bad for her, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Till this day I’m wondering if someone pulled a רבי והודה בן בתירה on her (who told a Goy who bragged about eating from the “no goyim allowed” Korben Peysach every year, to ask for the tail from the Korben Peysach (and convinced her that Yom Kippur was like Purim on steroids for collecting money from Jews!