UTJ Viewpoints

1. What were the scandals?
2. Why do they happen?

3. What can we do about the scandals.

The great modern Orthodox historian of American Judaism, Jonathan Sarna, called the past year Annus horribilis, the year of the scandal, the year where our American Jewish vows of honesty, decency, propriety and the moral high ground were observed in the breach. Just as new bad news took down the stock market, scandal after scandal took down the moral reputation of the American Jew, the Jew who talks social ethics but whose public figures seem to be above review or rebuke and therefore act in a way that is beneath contempt.

I. What were the scandals?

The Forward issue of January 25, 2008 (Case of Informant Reverberates Through L.A.’s Orthodox Community) reports that a Hassidic rabbi in Los Angeles being charged with defrauding the Federal government of taxes. In the prestigious Beth Jacab synagogue, the rabbi delivered a sermon on the issue with exquisite irony. The prayerbooks were paid for by Robert Kasirer, who just happened to have served as state’s evidence against the arrested Hassidic rabbi. We take money for good works but we ask rarely if the money was earned by good works. We profess one religion, Torah, in public, but we make gods of ourselves, excuses for ourselves, and irrationalize what is left of our conscience to ourselves.

It is often argued that to give state’s evidence against another Jew is to be a moseir, an informer, is a grievous sin, when one informs against another Jew just in order to spare oneself a harsher sentence or even to be a good citizen. In ancient times, the unjust Romans would use any pretext to punish high minded Jews. Being an informer is collaborating with the enemy. Now, the courts are vigilant and usually just, here, the Jews are really guilty, yet we may not be moseir, because we are told by those in Jewish authority that Jewish law forbids informing the government of the wrongdoing of the other Jew, no matter what, is a terrible sin.

This behavior has a history. In 1926-7, Orthodox rabbis distributed wine during Prohibition, not just for ritual usage, but to circumvent the American law and to quench the quest for alcoholic refreshment. On January 16, 1920, the 18th Ammendment (Editor’s note: ratified in 1919 and took effect in 1920) outlawed the “manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors.” Reform and Conservative rabbis switched to grape juice; it was not Orthodox Judaism, but some Orthodox rabbis, who used or abused religion to make moonshine and money. We fed anti-Semitic stereotypes, then as well as now. Higher ethical religion was used to justify an illegal demand. The service of the heart and the push for immediate, pulsating pleasure, reflect two conflicting human goals.

On one hand, Jewish law requires that Qiddush wine be fermenting; but to exploit a legal loophole to act illegally for profit shames the Jewish people.

At long last the Agriprocessor glatt kosher meat business of Pottsville, Iowa, has changed hands. Owned by the Chabad Rubashkin family, the business was accused of hiring illegal aliens, not paying minimum wage, and failing to maintain a safe plant. Even when accused and then convicted, the family was defended in the Orthodox community. The Rubashkins are very religious, they give charity to Orthodox Jewish causes, they employ and provide a livelihood to Orthodox Jews, and by being good business people, their cutting corners lowers the price of kosher meat for pious but Orthodox Jews. Therefore, their non-Jewish accusers must be anti-Semites and the Jews who accuse them are not Orthodox, so what they say does not count. Apparently, when God commanded, “you shall love your fellow as yourself,” God had in mind to mean, “you shall love the fellow who is like yourself.”

While the upright German ultra-Orthodox community pulled out of Pottsville on its own, the Orthodox Union defended its client until the Rubashkin’s were convicted as accused. The Orthodox Union enforces kosher laws, not business ethics. When money changes hands, religious convictions are reconstructed into judicial convictions.

The NEWARK, N.J., July 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire reports that “The mayors of Hoboken, Secaucus and Ridgefield, the Jersey City deputy mayor and council president, two state assemblymen, numerous other public officials and political figures and five rabbis from New York and New Jersey were among 44 individuals charged today in a two-track federal investigation of public corruption and a high-volume, international money laundering conspiracy, Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra, Jr., announced.” (Official #FBI Press Release: 300 Agents, 44 arrested in 20 locations, 28 bank accounts frozen, ONE INFORMANT ‘CW’)

The non-Jews who were caught are weeds, but not the weeds in our garden. The five rabbis are weeds in our garden:

• Eliahu Ben Haim, of Long Branch, N.J., the principal rabbi of a synagogue in Deal, N.J., charged with money laundering of proceeds derived from criminal activity.

• Saul Kassin, of Brooklyn, N.Y., the chief rabbi of a synagogue in Brooklyn, New York, charged with money laundering of proceeds derived from criminal activity.

• Edmund Nahum, of Deal, N.J., the principal rabbi of a synagogue in Deal, charged with money laundering of proceeds derived from criminal activity.

• Mordchai Fish, of Brooklyn, N.Y., a rabbi at a synagogue in Brooklyn, charged with money laundering of proceeds derived from criminal activity. His brother, also a rabbi, was charged as well.

• One criminal complaint charges a Brooklyn man, Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, with conspiring to broker the sale of a human kidney for a transplant, at a cost of $160,000 to the transplant recipient. According to the Complaint, Rosenbaum said he had been brokering the sale of kidneys for 10 years.

The Newsweek caption to a sarcastic cartoon reads “The Rabbis did not practice what they preached.” These are the ultra-Orthodox leaders who were at first defended by the community. They did what they did so they could give charity. When looking at the Sefardic homes in Deal, New Jersey, one appreciates the saying “charity, lavishly given, starts at home.”

Solomon Dwek, who turned state’s evidence, is now seen as a rat, a traitor, a betrayer, a moseir. To save oneself jail time by sending others to jail, shaming and impoverishing their families, is an outrageous breach of authentic Jewish values. Dwek and Kassin are rich and ultra-Orthodox. Their culture requires affluence be conspicuously displayed just as it is inconspicuously acquired. Writing in the New Jersey Jewish Star, Rabbi David Bibi claims that Dwek who turned states evidence for a lighter sentence is a traitor, but the other rabbis who were arrested are good people.

Since most Orthodox money is new money, men with money, even if non- Orthodox, are respected if Orthodoxy is the recipient of the largesse. Money donated is prestige inflated. Even Merkin of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue and investing board member for Yeshiva University, was fooled. Our culture is like the unreliable narrator in first person fiction; the character we profess is negated by the crimes for which we will have to confess.

The most grievous scandal that erupted last year is that of Bernie Madoff, who made off with millions. He stole from everyone. He was arrested after having admitted that he ran a $50,000,000,000 Ponzi scheme, which was is called an “affinity” scheme suckering people on trust, with money, affluence, and the social standing of beautiful people with fancy cars, prestigious addresses, and boastful bling. reportedly would not accept any investment in his fund below $10 million.

It also emerges that Madoff, a member of the Fifth Avenue Orthodox Synagogue, ate shellfish, consorted with ladies of and for the evening, and had an affair with an executive at Hadassah.

Mrs. Madoff, who apparently is not visiting her husband in jail, chaired a Yeshiva University fund-raising event right before the scandal broke. Who were Madoff’s victims? (Editor’s note: unless otherwise specified, quotes are from the article: Madoff scandal rocks Jewish philanthropy world by Jacob Berkman.)

1. Elie Wiesel’s Foundation for Humanity

2. Hadassah

3. YU, “Sources close to Yeshiva University, where Madoff served as treasurer of the board of trustees and board chairman of the university’s Sy Syms School of Business until he resigned last week, said the school has lost at least $100 million. Y.U. officials declined to offer any specifics.”
4. “The Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation in Salem, Mass., announced Dec. 12 that it would shut down after losing $8 million — all of its money.” (Editor’s note: as of Dec 25, 2009, Lappin responds: “The Foundation is not dissolving at this time. However, all but two programs have ceased because the money to fund the programs is gone.” See: Lappin: ‘It breaks my heart’ .)
5. “And the Chais Family Foundation, which gives out some $12.5 million each year to Jewish causes in Israel, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, announced its closing Dec. 14.” (See also: Chais Family Foundation Closes)
6. “The Gift of Life Foundation, a Jewish bone marrow registry that relied heavily on Madoff as a benefactor, announced on its Web site Sunday that it would immediately need to raise $1.8 million to make up for recent losses.” (See also: Madoff Collapse Hits Bone Marrow Foundation, Hospital)
7. While John Ruskay, the CEO of the New York Federation was not hit directly by the scandal, other major donors to the UJA were hit. Do we catch the irony here? Orthodox Jews are unorthodox is business, the non-Orthodox UJA engaged in orthodox fiscal policies. (A Jewish Charity That Avoided Madoff)
8. Fifth Avenue synagogue

9. Ramaz

10. SAR

11. D.C. Federation loses $10 million. And no bailout money. (D.C. federation endowment takes Madoff hit)
12. New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon. The Mets are this year inferior to the Orioles. (Mets owner Fred Wilpon may have been big loser in Bernard Madoff’s $50 billion ponzi scheme)
13. GMAC Financial Services chairman J. Ezra Merkin
14. “Former Philadelphia Eagles owner Norman Braman”
15. “Reports have surfaced also that media magnate Mortimer Zuckerman was significantly hurt by investing with Madoff.” (See also: Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman Madoff victim)
16. “In Los Angeles, the Jewish Community Foundation’s $238 million Common Investment Pool lost $18 million it had invested with Madoff, according to a letter sent out by the foundation.” (Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles releases findings of special committee examining Madoff fraud)
17. The American Jewish Congress,
18. Technion-Israel Institute of Technology,
19. Steven Spielberg’s Wunderkinder Foundation,
20. Carl Shapiro’s charitable foundation.
21. State of Israel Bonds,
22. The Jewish Campus Life Fund,
23. Elaine Kaufman Cultural Center
24. “Sources say that several of these entities had money in Ascot, which they now stand to lose because of Merkin’s decision to invest so heavily in Madoff’s fund. According to Orthodox communal insiders, Ramaz and SAR lost millions between them.”
25. Yad Sarah in Israel,
26. The Maimonides School in Boston,

27. Charles I. and Mary Kaplan Foundation in Rockville, Md., (Madoff fraud hits locally: Federation endowment invested $10 m.)

28. Julian J. Levitt Foundation
29. “As of the end of 2007, Sandy Gottesman had $20 million of his foundation’s $144 million invested with Madoff and”
30. “Robert Beren had two foundations with more than that in endowments invested with Ascot, which invested with Madoff.”
31. “U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) says his foundation has about $15 million invested with Madoff”

This is a year of scandal in Baltimore. We protest the opening of the JCC in Owings Mills on Shabbat but not the charges of sexual abuse by rabbis of their little charges.

The modern Orthodox community is not immune from scandal; Rabbi Jacob Max was convicted of sexual abuse, disaffiliated from Moses Montifiore Synagogue, and forced to withdraw from the Baltimore Board of Rabbis. The Rambam Yeshiva discovered that one of its rabbis had a very sticky finger that collected and embezzled for itself funds of the yeshiva.

II. What can we do about it? How do we address this problem?

We have to be watchdogs, ethical kosher supervisors. The Securities and Exchange Commission was asleep at the wheel. So are we. Look at our money and we find the rule “In God we Trust.” Everyone else pays cash.

We police our own community. It is not Orthodox bashing to hold to a higher standard that Judaism that proclaims that it lives by a higher standard. Yossi Klein Halevi is quoted in Time Magazine that some haredim, or fervently Orthodox Jews, have a “mentality” that too often “slides into rationalizations for acts that cannot be rationalized.” Mark Charendoff of the Jewish Funders Network urges Orthodox leaders to examine the behavior that “creates fertile ground for this type of fraud.” Charendoff and Klein are Orthodox. They make the unorthodox claim that Orthodox Judaism really believes that “thou shalt not steal” still has appeal because the Torah does not change with the times.

By fostering groupthink, we foster contempt for the other. So you can steal from the other. God said don’t steal and don’t commit adultery. Madoff violated both commandments. He stole not from the other; Madoff exploited affinities. We must adopt a policy that holds that shaming and defaming the Jewish community will result in a modern Here, expulsion from the Jewish community.

III. What can we do about the scandals?

We must mean, affirm, and enforce the following:

• Dina d’malkhuta dina-the secular law, of the land is binding on the Jew.
• We do not hide behind technicalities to avoid doing we right. We may not argue for a statute of limitations to exonerate sexual predators while arguing that in civil cases, cold cases can be restarted because, we like money, we want to win, and the only sins are getting caught, losing and getting caught while losing.
• Stealing, whether from Jew or Non-Jew, individual or corporation or government, is a Torah prohibition. It is not allowed to steal.

• Change our attitude toward Jewish courts, which do not represent communities and for which there is no oversight or accountability

• Change our attitude towards informers. The rabbis sit on their hand when they do not call the police when wrongdoing occurs.

• When not subject to peer review feel immune from divine review

• We gratefully acknowledge the beneficence and justice of American courts and laws which allow our community to prosper here both materially and spiritually. The non- Jewish courts have Jewish qualities that Jewish courts unfortunately do not have:

• • Public rules

  • Community oversight

  • Appeals when there is error

• Jews must be willing to suffer financial loss to avoid shaming the Jewish people, and Jews must police their own community in order to promote and honest and law-abiding society.

• To use the phrase coined by Rabbi Joseph Breuer, zt’l: A Jew must not only be Glatt Kosher – he must be Glatt Yoshor.

1. 1. The Jewish challenge going forward is this:
      1. We need to be honest about the behaviors that bring out the worst in us,
      2. whether “us” means
         1. the Orthodox,
         2. or the big givers, or the communal professionals, or
         3. the political partisans.
      3. We need to examine the ways we — all of us — leave ourselves open to fraud or exploitation, or turn a blind eye to the schemers and crooks among us.
      4. We have to live as if there is a God,
         1. like Abraham and not like the sinners of Sodom,
         2. like the honest and straight Jacob and not like the crooked Laban,
         3. like the redeeming Moses and not like the tyrant Pharaoh, and
         4. like the ethical excellence of the prophets of Israel, for whom authority defends the people, and not like the priests of Baal, in their time and ours, for whom authority is used to exploit the people

Last 10 posts by Rabbi Alan Yuter

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• The Piety Polemic and its Implications for Orthodox Judaism: Identifying the Real Religion of Jewish Extremism - July 22nd, 2010
• The Barzilai Hospital Crisis - July 18th, 2010
• Why Middle East Peace is Not at this Time Attainable - July 11th, 2010
• Avot 1:16 Sages’ advice should be sagacious - July 6th, 2010
• The Quest for the Original Torah - July 4th, 2010
• Avot 1:17 The Attentive Disposition - June 30th, 2010
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• The State of the State of Israel - June 22nd, 2010

Tags: madoff

This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 6:45 pm and is filed under Ethics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.