Should the Township of Lakewood be renamed the Shtetl of Lakewood?

Imagine, for a moment, that Lakewood became a completely independent township/shtetl/etc. Even better, imagine that it became its own state or country, and no longer had to pay any local, NJ, or federal taxes. Who, then, would pay for all of the social welfare benefits? Do you think that the amount in taxes paid by all residents of Lakewood more than cover all of these benefits, so that breaking away would save money? The costs of maintaining roads and parks and utilities, and of school busing, and rent subsidies, food stamps, etc? My guess is that if Lakewood became independent, it would either very quickly fall into terrible disrepair (much worse than its current state), or else quickly people would realize that the model cannot survive, and way more people would start working.

That’s a translation, not an upgrade.

Joseph – “A huge portion of federal taxes go towards national defense and homeland security.” Are you suggesting that the US cuts such spending? or only that frum Jews don’t benefit from this spending? This sounds strange to me. I mean, should a farmer in Iowa pay less taxes if he doesn’t feel like he benefits from national defense and homeland security?

Also, “Another huge chunk of … taxes go towards social benefits …” Roughly half of the federal budget goes towards social security and medicaid, medicare, chip, etc. Are you suggesting that frum Jews don’t benefit from this? Unemployment and disability? I imagine that frum Jews in Lakewood, let’s say, receive at least as much if not more federal/state/local dollars in aid as they pay in taxes. If 49.2% of Lakewood residents report income below the poverty level (2015), then certainly they’re not paying much in taxes. It’s hard for me to imagine that the remainder of those living there make so much as to offset what they are receiving.

At the end of the day, I think that frum Jews are very happy to be living here, paying taxes, and receiving welfare from the state.

Hebrew and Loshon Kodesh are 2 sepreate things: Loshon Kodesh is holy. Hebrew is not.

Maskim
I wasn’t criticizing people who speak Hebrew. I was just pointing out that Hebrew is not holy, as DaMoshe said it was.

DaMoshe

There really isnt a revival of Yiddish among secular jews, Even the Folksbien has to perform many of its shows in simulcast in English because there are few Yiddish speakers left.

More Jews likely speak Spanish than Speak Yiddish

Yiddish IS the same holy as Hebrew.
Not holy at all.
The reason that only frum jews speak it now is because all the irreligious American Jews have either died or became much more Americanized and wouldn’t want to identify as Jews through the language they speak.

There are about 200,000 Jews in Argentina and about 50,000 Jews in Mexico alone

Plus there are jews in other South American coutries and in Spain and there are jews in the US who also speak Spanish

You’re counting those who claim to speak Yiddish but don’t speak authentic Yiddish.