It does however demand that justice is done with gentleness, modesty and love.
With all due respect, the lack of outrage at Bernie Madoff in the Jewish Community is an outrage in itself.
A confessed criminal he has siphoned off billions and billions of dollars from our community and yet the community has been relatively silent.
Witness: Elie Weisel’s Foundation wiped out.
Picower Foundation wiped out.
etc etc etc
Hard Working Jewish Americans who worked a lifetime and put money aside for their futures and their families wiped out.
If anything the Jewish Community should speak with one voice and denounce Bernie Madoff forever. Just as it denounces the Holocaust, and Hitler. Bernie Madoff has destroyed more wealth in our community than Hitler (who’s heinous crimes should never be forgotten).
Compassion, Love, Forgiveness? Not for Bernie Madoff, not ever.

As a non-Jew, I can see the bright side of the Madoff scandal.
It will discourage people from losing money by doing business with Jews.
Each and every time I have ever had a business transaction with a Jew, or used a Jewish agent, or a Jewish lawyer, I’ve been ripped off for every dollar in the deal. Most recently I went out to Laguna Beach to see an agent holding $350,000 I had planned to use to keep my father in a nursing home. He drives down from his $15 million house in his Jaguar with sterling silver fixtures and tells me over a $1.50 cup of coffee, “Times are tough. I’m sorry, I can’t pay you (for the last two years of your working life).”
Does my personal experience mean all Jews in all time are, have been, or will be crooks?
Of course not. But when was the last time you heard of a Rastafarian in a financial scandal.
There are those who would consider my point of view bigoted, and to you, I’d say, you are entitled to your opinion and I’m entitled to mine. I didn’t start at this place. I simply believe that people will attribute Madoff’s attitudes to Jews as a whole and this is valuable warning.

I simply believe that people will attribute Madoff’s attitudes to Jews as a whole and this is valuable warning.
Then you are beyond bigotted. You are a complete anti-Semite, and as such should be shunned from civillized society.
Rabbi,
This person is polluting quite a few of your posts. Please remove him. Thanks.

Scott R.
I was going to post an open question about whether or not “Rob’s” Jew-hating comments should be taken down or not. You have started the converation for me –Thanks.
So, here is the plan: I will ask all readers to weigh in on whether or not those anti-Semitic words should come down or not, because I think that we will all learn from the responses no matter what they are. Then, before I leave the office, I will do what my head and my heart tell me is the right thing to do, at least for this moment.

My first reaction is, Take them down! but then I think… Leave them up so that others can see what living without G-d in your heart – living in darkness – sounds like. What Madoff has done is despicable , but it is not anything that has not been done before by any number of men and women of every race, nationality, ethnic background, or religion. Hate is what allows it to continue. Fear of not having the biggest and the best “something” rather than giving joy, and hope, and love – that’s what makes people like Madoff tick, and that’s what makes people like “Rob” pick out a person’s heritage, color, or religion as a basis for their(own) hate and fear. Leave it up, Rabbi – if people don’t know what fear and hate look or sound like then they won’t know what to look out for, and NOT be like.

njbh-
Hitler? Do you really want to compare a thief, admittedly a giant one, to the architect of the destruction of global Jewry? Would you make that analogy in front of an Auschwitz survivor? Financially wiped out is different than gassed and burned, no?
Cully,
I’m not sure I agree, but you have touched my heart…and my brain. Thank you.

Rob is a sad individual. Of course, if one of his fellow whatevers committed a crime of this magnitude, he would say that it’s just one individual who is responsible and cannot be cast upon his entire tribe, nationality, religion, etc. That it was a Jew makes it easy for him to blame and suspect all Jews. After all, we Christ killers are all guilty of every crime ever committed or yet to be committed. His sickness needs no justification except more news to confirm his rationale.
Can he also admit that some Jews have benefited society and the world in medicine, the arts, science, economics… (just look at the list of Jewish Nobel prize winners), or would he like to retroactively give up the health he has gained from their work?
Rabbi, you have merely reminded us that bigots and idiots continue to exist. This one is a poster child for (retroactive) pro-choice. It’s a pity his parents could neither control themselves nor their progeny.

Atonement? How does one atone for driving men to suicide? for depriving philanthropists of the ability to help the poor, the hungry, the sick?
He does not equate with Hitler, but he deserves a special place in history for his evil.

My husband and I were just discussing the Madoff scandal over dinner, and he lamented that ignorant people will take this scandal as verification of the old stereotype about Jews that they are all “money grubbers.” I then came upstairs to read my e-mail, the first of which was your blog for today. And sure enough, there was Rob’s comment about Madoff being a warning to all that Jews are crooks and will “rip you off.”
As someone who has spent much of her life running programs to help dispel stereotypes, this kind of comment really offends and saddens me. I hope Rob reads the rest of the comments on your blog and realizes that he is unfortunately being trapped by the hate that so plagues humanity. I hope others take Rob’s comments as a warning that we all still have a lot of work to do in the area of increasing respect and understanding. Of course I’m not excusing Madoff!! He is a disgusting crook. But if Madoff were Christian, would we condemn most Christians as crooks??

I request that Rob’s comment not be removed. Killing the messenger is neither wise nor moral.
When I was young (1950′s), a Black family (they were Negroes back then) wanted to move into a fancy street in our Jewish part of town. A petition arose to prevent the sale. The three leading rabbis in our mid-size town visited every Jewish family on the street and none of the Jewish families signed the petition (for some Jews “not signing” mean retracting their names.). The family moved in and their children went to our school.
I have long since departed the East for L.A., and to my dismay, the number of corrupt Jewish developers, judges and bigots is reprehensible. I have long thought that the organized community should take some action to reign in these moral degenerates, but nothing is done. We take zero responsibility as long as they are successful. We only exclude Gays.
Most recently, the stellar Jewish firm Greenberg and Glusker, who used to be a paragon of ethics, has been brought low with the machinations of attorney Bert Fields and the Pellicano scandal. Although Fields has only been named a person of interest, local attorneys realize that Fields not only knew what Pellicano was doing but that he structured the situation so that Pellicano and not Fields would take the fall.
While the California Jewish community can still kvell in its heroes of yesteryear like Stanley Mosk and Bernie Witkin, today’s Jewish judges are a shanda. Essential to L.A.’s fabled Westside Mafia were leading Jewish lawyers, judges and businessmen.
Does the Federation Council or any other Jewish organization attempt to protect us from any shanda fur die goyim? What about also protecting the general society from these crooks? There will most likely be more Bernie Madoffs and fewer Bernie Witkins.
Let’s print out Rob’s comments and post them to the right hand door posts of our houses so that when we exit our homes, we remember that we have both an individual and a collective moral duty to ourselves and to society.

Essentially, anyone that thinks larger than ordinary/customary financial returns are possible, without someone giving up something in the process is naive. Even Mother Teresa was rewarded for her good deeds… if not a palace then by her conscience. As a matter of fact the world was her palace.
In times of need I’m willing to pay back and even with something extra as a thank you. It may be the words only. In regard the Bernard Madoff affair most of the investors at the 90% bottom of the pyramid scheme didn’t even understand they were part of the plot. They only rode along the coat tails of what they thought was their successful investments.
In the short run the top instigators will have to not only live with their conscience but also with meted punishment. I suspect if shoplifting is a crime and when exceeding a certain dollar figure becomes grand theft and is punishable by years of prison time then Madoff & company should be put away for life after being legally dispossessed of all their earthly goods.

Both Alex and Ruvain seem to also blame the big wigs who lost billions. I think Alex is especially correct to limit the joint blame to the top 10% who had the knowledge to know better.
All the big players had to know about how the mortgage market had been turned into a Ponzi scheme like Equity Funding in 1971. Of course, it was not only us Jews who should have known better. There is Bernacke and Paulson. Having cohorts in crime, however, is not a valid defense.
Can there be crime through stupidity? I would allow the defense — for the bottom 90%. One cannot be the had of the Federal Reserve and Secretary of the Treasury can assert the defense of Stupidity.
Can Spielberg or others responsible for Jewish charities claim Stupidity? I think not. Although they will deny knowing, by the 1990′s everyone knew about Equity Funding, Lincoln Savings, Enron, etc. and everyone knew that any business which reported unbroken gains was a scam. The very financial statements, on which these guardians of Jewish charities say they relied, were shouting, “Scam, Crook, Ponzi scheme” for years.
There were Jewish millionaires and billionaires around the world who knew or should have known that Madoff was running a Ponzi scam; yet they remained silent. Collectively, they can rehabilitate themselves and remove this disgrace from the Jewish Community by gathering $50 Billion to pay back everyone who lost money to Madoff. It’s time for Spielberg, Zuckerman, etc. to assert some moral leadership and spearhead “making everyone whole.”

Rob’s inability (or unwillingness) to recognize that a crook is a crook quite apart from his religious views, or to take into account the fact that many of Madoff’s victims are themselves Jewish, reflects clearly upon the prejudice which is the source of such disparaging remarks.
Please allow his views to stand as the testament they are to the limited scope of understanding and insight they exibit.

There is a vast difference between a confidence man or a robber who knows he is victiming his target with the intent that the victim will never see that money again, as compared to a man who is confident in a Ponzi scheme that can make money for his “victims” as well as for himself, although operating illegally. With all of Mr. Madoff’s experience and visibility as an expert in the stock market, I gotta believe he KNEW this scheme WOULD WORK. From I read he would only take referred clients, and he KNEW he could make a profit for them, as well as for himself. And he did for years. I see this NOT as a crime of intent to steal, but rather as a crime by definition. His purpose was to give MUTUAL FINANCIAL REWARD to his victims and himself.
If it had not been for the economy tanking, something Madoff could never have predicted when he started the scheme years before (who could have predicted 9/11, followed by the Bush-Cheney deceit that led us into the invasion of Iraq, the military ineptness of Sec/Def Rumsfeld that followed for 5 years, resulting in incredibly huge financial costs on America and financial impact upon the world economy?) his Ponzi scheme would still be going on today with everyone happy with the income.
Today, instead of being happy with the INCOME the victims (and unknowing partners) are justifiablly very distressed with the OUTCOME.
As a lawyer (now retired) I do not see this as an
evil-intent crime. It is a crime by definition in the statutes. I see it as greed, but greed balanced by the desire to enrich those who invested, as they enrich him.
Stewart Perry

Dear Stewart Penny:
You do not understand the mechanics of a Ponzi scheme. They never work! No person with even a elementary understanding of finance or math would think a Poniz scheme would ever work. That is why they are illegal.
Ponzi schemes, like Madoff’s and Equity Funding’s, take the money of later investors to make the interest payments to the prior investors for the criminally fraudulent purpose of deceiving outsiders into thinking that the leader of the Ponzi scheme is making wise and profitable investments. By showing bogus investment returns, the Ponzier then garners more investors, and the Ponzier then uses this new money to make payments to the prior investors. Of course, the scheme is a fraudulent sham since the payments to the investors do not come from investments but from the funds of the newer scamees. Each time more investors are added to the Ponzi scheme, the need to raise more cash increases as there are more “older investors” who need to be paid high returns in order to keep the criminal illusion of success alive.
As the records reveal, Madoff was engaged in criminal fraud by telling investors that their money had been invested in certain securities when no such investments had been made. From the news reports, Madoff invented false “investment vehicles” showing a high rate of return. No one could ever believe that a non-existent investment would ever make money for any investor. Madoff knew for an absolute fact that he was involved in criminal fraud where his “investors” would end up losing billions of dollars. That is why he had a bogus CPA firm.
Next year you will also find out that during the reign of Gov. Arnie, Countrywide and other California mortgage companies were also running Ponzi schemes. They were selling non-existent mortgages to Wall Street, but due to their overwhelming greed, they were pocketing so much of the loot that 20% to 30% of Countrywide’s alleged mortgagees were missing their first payment.
After encouraging California businesses to engage in fraudulent business practices, Gov Arnie now wonders why California is bankrupt. Gov Arnie, in contrast to Madoff, appears to have actually believed that California could cheat its way to success. But that’s a story for 2009.