Rabbi, this was truly an ecumenical group of swindlers- bunch of syrians, some black hatters, and 3 or 4 chassidim! Always great to see our brethren working together for a common goal.
And the corroborating witness was one of our own. I believe that this incident coupled with Madoff should disabuse any “member of the tribe” that either we are “untouchable” or “unjailable.”

Let us not confuse jew-baiting with reporting of the truth. Even IF the reporters were biased against this group of Jews (or Jews in general), it is not jew-baiting to report the facts of a story involving Jews.
My own reaction to the story in the Ledger as well as today’s NY Times was: assuming the allegations are true, have any of these people ever heard of the Ten Commandments? (Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not covet they neighbor’s possession)

to view a partial list of crimes committed by FBI agents over 1500 pages long see
http://www.forums.signonsandiego.com/showthread.php?t=59139
to view a partial list of FBI agents arrested for pedophilia see
http://www.dallasnews.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3574

And the crimes of FBI agents somehow justify crimes by rabbis?
The rabbis, and the other people arrested are certainly due their day in court and are innocent until proven guilty.
But pointing a pedophile FBI agents in an effort to somehow “exonerate” these accused men is just ridiculous.

It is always terrible when those who are supposed to be moral leaders turn out to be positively immoral. It happens all the time and in all religons. Think of the scandals with pedophile priests, greedy protestant TV preacher-swindlers, ministers frequenting prostitutes, Islamic religous leaders calling for the murder of those who disagree with them…
In this case, we have an insular community, religous leaders puffed up with their own feelings of self-importance and old-fashioned greed. People should not say “look at the Jews,” any more than we should say, “look at those Catholics.” We ALL live in glass houses and had better not throw stones. We all have to admit that sometimes members of our own communities are very, very bad.
I do think, however, that these very self-contained, self-isolated communities are not healthy. It is essential that we learn to live with and even befriend, others. Too much isolation makes for a sort of intellectual inbreeding. It stifles growth.

Lucy your comments are accurate and appropriate in my opinion also well expressed.It is sad when people behave as though they have no conscience but that is a reality.

When some Jewish people hear this story about Rabbi’s it gives the reform or conservative Jews an excuse not to become orthodox Jews or not to believe in God.I’ve heard comments “See look what these Orthodox Rabbis’s do, why should I believe in God”.
People with a weak belief like these stories.

People with a weak belief sell kidneys for $160,000.

When the humility and gratefulness due God is lost along the way, our leaders change. Not always noticed by us or by them until caught.

Moneylaundering is a crime and dealing in fake designer bags, but the biggy is the man from Brooklyn, NY, who was being investigated for bringing donors of kidneys from Israel paying them $10,000, and then selling them for $160,000 to people here in the states that needed them. He called himself “a matchmaker”. They have it on tape, with the agent pretending to need a kidney for a relative. If this turns out to be true, it’s the first documented illegal organ operation in US. No where does it say this man is a Rabbi.

It would be a tragic mistake for Christians to take away the wrong lesson from the arrests of these five Rabbis, as well as the recent downfall of prominent Jewish business and investment figures such as Bernard Madoff. A cursory glance might confirm for the anti-Semite the long-standing canard about ‘crooked Jewish financiers’. But these men constituted five of forty-four arrests for corruption, the rest presumably being Christians.
Also, the Christians have had their fair share of leading televangelists caught up in similar financial malfeasance. Jimmy Swaggert, Jim and Tammy Fay Baker, Tony Alamo, and Orel Roberts are just a few of the hit parade. In my Church (Catholic) we periodically have the arrests of priests who have embezzled staggering sums of Church money. So there seems to be a concupiscence regarding fleecing the flock that touches every community.
In the case of Madoff and these Rabbis, Jewish charities have been slammed hard both in outright theft and in money laundering schemes. These charities have done a great service beyond the Jewish Community, and those hurt worst are the beneficiaries who now go without the largesse swindled from them and those who donated their hard-earned money in the earnest belief that their leaders and those who managed the portfolios were honest and trustworthy men. A better system of checks and balances, confirmed by annual certified audits would go a long way to reinstate integrity and trust in a system that has been badly abused by a few brazen criminals, abusing the faith of good people.
The anti-Semites cannot be assuaged of their mindless bigotry and hatred. Those of us who are of good will, will keep our Jewish brothers and sisters in our prayers as they set about rectifying the institutional structures that direct their charitable largesse. And we condemn the anti-Semitic opportunists who would use these few notable lapses to further their own twisted world-view.

You wrote, “I was simply raising questions about the underlying resentments against Syrian Jews in particular, which may have inappropriately shaped the coverage of the story.”
If a person feels that the folks at Star Ledger are biased against Jews, then they need to confront them with specifics, rather than throw out accusations publicly and turn this whole issue into an Anti-Semitism issue; which it is not.
For more in-depth reporting on the politicians and Rabbis who were busted, I would suggest folks read an article on Wall Street Journal. You will not find this article on the front page….it is hidden in the Law Blog.
Here’s the title of that article along with the location….
On Loopholes, Kidneys and Zone Changes: More on Thursday’s NJ Bust
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/07/23/on-loopholes-kidneys-and-zone-changes-more-on-thursdays-nj-bust/tab/comments/

People are born humans, before they consider themselves part of any religion.
Human’s make mistakes.
The Jewish Tribes have given much to the world, way beyond their numbers.
A good investment?
Every Jew is not a judge or a prophet.
Moses, and King David were murders, yet, from the worst of all sins, even they found redemption.
Hitler was part Jewish, and probably did not find redemption.
This is the case of breaking the 1ST commandment. Money has been put,like a golden calf, before Adonai.
We should have justice, tempered with the Tree of Life’s opposite, mercy. As another Jew, (Jesus) once said, let him who is without sin throw the first stone.
Shalom. Rabbino shel Olam pray for us.
Dr. Daniel Muffoletto ND
President Christians for Moses
votemuff.com

I cannot even believe what I am reading. I am not a Jew. I was raised to have great respect for Jews, for whatever shaped my mother and my father included respect for all (well, almost all).
How can these Jews, and the emphasis is on “Jews”, take part in the sale of body parts? Is not the body sacred to them? The pocketbooks — they just embarrassed themselves but also led to a look into their souls.
They have broken my heart, my Christian heart, my Jewish heart, my heart which seeks God’s presence.

OK.. THE ERR OF THE 5′S RABBIS..SORRY RABBBBIES?/ ARE NOT THAT OF OVERWHELMING MISTERIES TO OVERLAP THE COVERED GOOD BEHIND THE MASQUERADE OF MALEFICIOUS MINDS INVOLVED IN SAVING THE RICH BY KILLING THE POOR??? AMAZED THE WORLD MAY BE …BUT WHEN THEIR CONNECTION TO THIS RING OF BESTIALITY AND INHUMAN TRAGEDY IS EVOLVING INTO A EVERYDAY SITUATION AS… IN DO THEY NEW ?? THE ORGANS COME FROM THE POOR DEATH AND WAS OFFERED TO THEM BY OTHER 44 PERSONS IN THAT… THE SAME RING?? ITS CONFUSING.. SOME WAY ALONG THE LINE.. WHO STARTED TO LIE TO THE RABBBBI’S? IN THE SHAPE OF ANIMALISTIC BEHAVIOR? IN ORDER FOR JEWS TO SUCUMMBED TO THE CRIME COMMITTED IN THE NAME OF THOSE THAT CAN PAY AND AFFORD TO MAKE THIS CRIME VIABLE TO RABBI’S? A BIG 44 PEOPLE INVOLVED OTHER THAN THE MERE AND ONLY 5 JEWS…WHO’S PERFORMED THE BUY AND SALE IN THE NAME OF DETERRED THE DEATH OF THE RICH?? THE RICH PAYING FOR IT?THE 44 PERSONS INVOLVED? OR THE 5 JEWS?

First of all, the nottion that Rabbi Kassin “placed himself above the law” represents a total ignorance of the “Takkanah” regarding conversion. this was not only doen by Rabbi Kassin but by Rabbis of OTHER Syrian communities — worried about insincere conversions done for the sake of the ealth of the community. It was not a step taken lightly and should not be cited as an example of the community being a “law unto themselves”. If anything, the cohesiveness of that community has tended to PREVENT the horror of men trying to extort their wives before giving a Gwt (I heard a personal story in this connectin that was very powerful).
Second, we have NO idea what Dweck — the informant — the MOSER — the person who defrauded many without any evidence of regret (see story in the Star Ledger about HIM) — told these Rabbis. we have no idea what “sob story” he spun in order to persuade the Rabbis to do sometihng illegal — in order to help Dweck out. We DO know that the Syrian community has a history of helping its members in need. Could this have led to some possibly illegal actions? Maybe. Might there be some extenuating circumstances in which these Rabbis felt that they “had” to help out this unfortunate son of their community? Yes.
What this episode REALLY shows is how low one Jew will stoop to “save himself” — Dweck had committed fraud — had bilked a lot of money out of people and faced a serious punishment. In order to save himself, he not only becomes an informant (Rabbi H — maybe you should review the section of Shulchan Aruch about Informants) but he becomes an “enticer” — someone who seeks to tempt someone to sin.
Where is the condemnation of this creature who betrayed all — family and friends with barely a blink?
I do not know the story of these Rabbis — but what is clear is that we have a JEW who DELIBERATELY targeted other Jews, deliberately tempted them [possibly even providing a "compelling reason"] and then “turned them in.
Reminder: It is an uncontested Halachic that Jewish informers can be killed if that will prevent them from doing their nefarious acitvities. and, Rabbi moshe Feinstein Z”L (among others) stated that these rules apply EVEN IN A “Democratic” (and supposedly just) society.
I feel sorry for the Rabbis and for the overt antisemitism (come on — Money laundering is a WORSE crime than corruption and betrayal of the Public Trust?? Yet it was the Rabbi’s picture that was the largest and not that of the politicians…). But I feel nothing but contempt and scorn for “Dweck the dreck” — the “Vinegar son of wine” who sought to save his skin by screwing as many pepole as he could.

More than one time in history has “the light unto the nations” been dimmed by the acts of Jewish persons within and outside of the Jewish community. What shames me most, as a Jew living in a primarily non-Jewish community, is that these were the “leaders, the teachers of the community”. If I remember my lessons correctly, the law of the land is the law of the people unless that law interferes with religious observance. Here the law of the land has been broken, not for religious observance, but for greed. If the community does not seek forgiveness for these acts and demand that their leaders show remorse, they (the community) will share the scorn and ridicule deservedly heaped on their leaders.

wrong is wrong…right is right…no matter your color, religion, personal beliefs, orientation, tall or short…and until this value is in each of us there will be no peace of heart, justice for all, and healing in our everyday lives with regards to our neighbors (who ever they may be).

If you had two sons one good son and one bad or evil son,which would you worry or try to help more? the bad son right? Why do you think God is any different than you? The Jews are not gods people cause they are good. He was trying to help them and send his only son down and we all know what happened to him!