Madoff Is a Jew & A Criminal: What About Us?

by: Rabbi Francine Roston

Tue Jan 06, 2009 at 18:44:36 PM EST

Two weeks ago, on December 27, I gave this Shabbat sermon to Beth El, my congregation in South Orange, New Jersey.

"A little over a week ago, Bernard Madoff admitted to his sons that Bernard Madoff Investment Securities was a fraud. It is estimated that over $50 billion was stolen. It will be a long time before anyone understands how much money was really stolen, how Madoff profited, and how the entire scheme worked for so long.

A few things have been clear very quickly, however. The list of victims is long and diverse. There are people who have lost their life's savings and their retirement plans; there are people whose massive fortunes have been diminished. There are banks, investment firms, Jewish federations, and a high number of foundations that do good work around the world and whose bottom lines are reduced.

It was also very clear, very quickly, that Bernard Madoff was Jewish. In fact he seemed to use his Jewish identity to parley his reputation as a man of integrity and trustworthiness. According to some reports, he demanded that his investors be charitable and trustworthy in order to be let in to his fund.

The news reports have highlighted Madoff's Jewish identity quoting folks who referred to him as the Jewish TBill because of his remarkably steady returns, a member of the Jewish elite, etc. David Harris of the American Jewish Committee wrote a letter to the New York Times challenging their portrayal of Madoff as a Jew. Why does it matter he asks?

In conversations around Shabbos tables and diner booths, fear that Madoff's Jewishness will fuel the fires of anti-semitism already simmering in a bad economy leads many to want to downplay Madoff's Jewish identity.

Does it matter that Madoff is Jewish, we ask?

The Jewish Ritual of Gift-Giving

by: racrj

Fri Jan 02, 2009 at 11:55:05 AM EST

Happy Other New Year

by: Hannah Farber

Wed Dec 31, 2008 at 18:36:08 PM EST

Being Jewish in a Christian-majority country is a little like having divorced parents - you get to do some holidays twice! Cool!

Here's wishing you a very happy Other New Year, with best wishes for health and happiness to your families and friends, and good luck to all your favorite Senate appointees.

Milk and the movement for our lives

by: Sheila Webb-Halpern

Tue Dec 30, 2008 at 23:21:22 PM EST

No Worries

by: Hannah Farber

Mon Dec 22, 2008 at 22:41:28 PM EST

An old Jewish joke:

Leah and Rachel sit down on a park bench and pull out their reading material. Leah, obviously, has brought the New Yorker. But Rachel pulls out her iPhone and starts reading this kooky anti-Semitic  newsletter, so of course Leah's jaw drops, and she goes, Rachel, what's wrong with you, why are you reading that anti-Semitic news? How can you bear to look at that garbage? And Rachel answers, Well, Leah, actually I love reading this newsletter because every week, I read it and I find out that Jews control the banks, we control the media, we control the government. What's not to like?

 Why did that joke come to my mind last week? Well - let it serve as a reminder to you that if you've felt a little bit anxious lately, like, maybe you've started to worry that this guy is actually less interested in furthering your agenda than he is in hanging out with this guy, you can always cheer yourself up by popping on over to check in with this guy.

Snapshots from the Great Depression

by: Hannah Farber

Fri Dec 19, 2008 at 03:37:05 AM EST

It's become more than cliche to compare our various economic crises of the past year to the Great Depression. So this week I picked up Hard Times,  a collection of interviews the late Studs Terkel conducted with people who lived through the actual Great Depression. Whether or not you'd see any parallels with today, it makes for great reading, especially for those folks interested in labor history.

A recurring theme of Hard Times is that most people had absolutely no information about what was happening, or why, even as it dragged on for years and years and years. Another theme is the way protesters were marginalized (frequently with billy clubs). As one man reflected years later,

People would regard a depression today as man-made. In the past, depressions fell in the same category as earthquakes and bad weather. An act of Providence or God. [Today] I don't think there'd be the acquiescence of the Thirties. I think there'd be a rebellion ... There was some of this [rebellion] in the Thirties, the left wing. There was anger and frustration ... these were the nuts, the fringe. They wouldn't be in the fringe today...

Do you think he's right about this? I've been going back and forth. On the one hand, since we know so much about how the economy works these days, it's easier to feel that there is some story in the crisis, some themes, some lessons to be learned.

On the other hand, these days, even when actual humans admit that they and their companies lost billions of dollars because of bad decisions they and their employees made, it's all on such an incomprehensibly broad scale, and there are so many tangled relationships of causality, that in some sense it all still feels like an act of God. It's hard to gin up any outrage against the latest Wall Street Buffoon staring out of your local paper, because you know next week they'll dig up someone who did something even stupider.

But if - God forbid - a deeper crisis emerged, and if it went on for year after year after year, would Americans demand something more from their government than they did in the Great Depression? And would they get a response?

Some more excerpts, below (an excessive number of excerpts, because I just love the simple language Terkel pulls out of people):

Bush Assaults Women

by: Sheila Webb-Halpern

Thu Dec 18, 2008 at 20:02:52 PM EST

• Birth control can be called abortion
• Doctors, nurses, and pharmacists can deny women birth control and sexual health information

• ER staff can deny rape victims information about emergency contraception (EC) to prevent a pregnancy from the rapist
• Birth control counseling can be refused at family planning clinics
• STD (including HIV & AIDS) testing and treatment can be denied at health care facilities

This is a devastatingly low blow to every one of us that relies on health care professionals for honest information and basic services.  This rule flies in the face of the American values of privacy and freedom. 

If Bush can do this to women, what can the next guys do to you?

Speak out; keep reading to find out how we can fight back…

2009 Cornerstone Awards! - Deadline Approaching!

by: Sheila Webb-Halpern

Thu Dec 18, 2008 at 14:54:43 PM EST

We live in a society where power and wealth are concentrated among very few. Yet, across the nation, young Jews are empowering themselves and partnering with low-income communities to combat poverty and injustice. Inspired by Jewish tradition and teachings, these young leaders are the cornerstones of our Jewish community and our country.

Through the Cornerstone Awards, the Jewish Funds for Justice honors these individuals as Jewish leaders and supports the work of their organizations.

In 2009, the Jewish Funds for Justice will present four $10,000 awards to young Jewish individuals who exemplify strong Jewish leadership and values through their work in the secular nonprofit and organizing communities. Twenty-five percent of each $10,000 Cornerstone Award will go toward the winner's professional development; seventy-five percent will be granted to the winner's organization for general support.

Applications are due by January 1, 2009.

Is the Black Church too Conservative for Liberal Jews?

by: Mik Moore

Wed Dec 17, 2008 at 11:56:05 AM EST

On a recent Sunday the NYTimes published an op-ed by Caitlan Flanagan and Benjamin Schwarz titled "Showdown in the Big Tent."

THE attitude of white, liberal Hollywood toward African- American churches has long been one of almost participatory respect. Whether it’s Gospel Brunch at the House of Blues on Sunset Boulevard, or the Blind Boys of Alabama on the iPod, or a serious — reverential — mention of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference over dinner, the understanding is clear: the black church is a foundational institution in the history of the civil rights struggle, and its music (although it makes reference to Jesus Christ as a personal savior) is smoking hot.

It was only recently that the A-list discovered that this love is unrequited. Last month, Proposition 8 passed, making gay marriage illegal in California, and the demographic that lent insult to injury was the state’s African-American voters.

... Left-leaning California’s horror about this newly revealed schism between two of its favorite sons is a situation that cries out for a villain, but the one that liberal white Hollywood has chosen for the role probably won’t make it all the way to the third act.

“It’s their churches,” somebody whispered to one of us not long after the election; “It’s their Christianity,” someone else hissed, rolling her eyes. Apparently the religion espoused by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is now the enemy, at least among the smart set, and if this sounds like a regional issue, it’s not.

The next day, this photograph graced the cover (top of the fold) of the NYTimes.

The Madoff Debacle and Cowboy Philanthropy

by: Lenny

Wed Dec 17, 2008 at 01:40:29 AM EST

It took them an extra day to catch up on this story, but now even CNN is reporting on the hit that the Jewish philanthropic network is taking by the collapse of Bernard Madoff's investment firm.

A compelling story in the Jerusalem Post reports that "At least $600 million in Jewish charitable funds have been wiped out...what may amount to the most spectacular financial disaster to hit Jewish life since the Great Depression."

For the worldwide Jewish community, the fact that the man at the heart of what may be Wall Street's worst-ever fraud was an active member of the community could be the worst news yet in a bad recession period. Not only could Madoff's alleged dishonesty increase anti-Semitic feeling in a time of worldwide economic downturn, said many Jewish leaders, but his close involvement with the Jewish community has exposed vast amounts of Jewish communal assets to his scheme.

Several Jewish foundations have disappeared overnight, and it appears that such major institutions as the Yeshiva University, the American Jewish Congress, the Los Angeles Jewish Community Fund, the UJA Federation of New York have been significantly exposed to losses associated with Madoff's firm.

Jonathan Sarna, a Brandeis University professor, argues that crisis marked an unprecedented loss to the "Jewish economy" - a vast networks of Jewish institutions, donors and charities that form the backbone of the organized Jewish community. He is worth quoting at length: