Some Jews fear Madoff case stokes anti-Semitism

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

Some Jews fear Madoff case stokes anti-Semitism
Thursday December 25, 12:54 pm ET
By Jennifer Peltz, Associated Press Writer
Madoff scandal fits profile of `affinity fraud,' proves particularly wrenching for Jews

NEW YORK (AP) -- Of all the words that have been used to describe the Bernard L. Madoff scandal, the most emotionally charged may be "Jewish."

The disgraced investment guru is accused of orchestrating a $50 billion Ponzi scheme that preyed heavily on fellow Jews and ultimately drained the fortunes of numerous Jewish charities and institutions.

There's nothing new about con artists targeting their own kind. There's even a word for it -- affinity fraud -- and it has struck numerous religious, ethnic and professional groups.

But the allegations against Madoff are particularly wrenching for some in the Jewish community, who fear that the sensational case is fanning vicious stereotypes about Jews that go back to the Middle Ages.

The Anti-Defamation League cites a spike in anti-Semitic comments online after Madoff's Dec. 11 arrest. A columnist for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz lamented the case as "the answer to every Jew-hater's wish list."

And the American Jewish Committee's executive director, David A. Harris, wrote a letter to The New York Times criticizing what he saw as "a striking emphasis" on Madoff's faith in one of the paper's many stories about the scandal.

The case is "fodder for the bigots," Abraham H. Foxman, the ADL's national director, said in an interview this week with The Associated Press. "It's both embarrassing and it's painful."

It's difficult to describe the case in any detail without mentioning Madoff's religion. The 70-year-old money manager and former Nasdaq stock market chairman donated hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, much of it to Jewish causes. And many of the known victims of his business, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, are big names in Jewish life.

Yeshiva University, one of the nation's foremost Jewish institutions of higher education, lost $110 million; Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, lost $90 million; director Steven Spielberg's Wunderkinder Foundation acknowledged unspecified losses; and a $15 million foundation established by Holocaust survivor and writer Elie Wiesel was wiped out. Jewish federations and hospitals have lost millions and some foundations have had to close.

Madoff is charged with securities fraud and is under house arrest in his Manhattan apartment with round-the-clock security. His lawyer has said he intends to fight the charge.

The damage to the Jewish community is psychological as well as financial, said Kenneth Bandler, a spokesman for the AJC. He said his organization declined to invest with Madoff earlier this year because it was unable to decipher how Madoff was producing his renowned returns.

At Jewish organizations and synagogues, Bandler said, people ask themselves: "How could someone who is held in such high esteem in the Jewish community knowingly rip off what were supposed to be his friends, the organizations he admired and supported?"

Members of churches, minority groups and various occupations have wondered the same thing after falling victim to similarly targeted frauds. Religious-based schemes alone swept up more than 80,000 people and nearly $2 billion nationwide from 1998 to 2001, according to the most recent figures available from the North American Securities Administrators Association, an investor-protection group.

The Baptist Foundation of Arizona told investors their money would build churches while paying returns. In fact, their savings were sucked into what authorities called a $550 million Ponzi scheme in the 1980s and 1990s. Several foundation officials were sentenced to prison in 2006 and 2007.

Chicago real estate investment firm Sunrise Equities Inc. had the blessing of Muslim clerics, who said its dividends conformed with Islamic laws against earning interest. Its owner disappeared this past August, leaving 200 of his fellow Muslim immigrants with losses that could total $50 million.

Whatever the circle, affinity frauds exploit trust. Victims are approached by one of their own and "therefore there's less suspicion, there's less concern," said Joseph P. Borg, the Alabama Securities Commission's director and a former NASAA president.

Adding to the sense of betrayal in the allegations against Madoff are worries about whether they feed into centuries-old, ugly caricatures of Jews.

Since Jews served as lenders in medieval Europe, where they were barred from many other occupations, they have sometimes been portrayed as miserly, greedy and obsessed with money. In just one example, Shakespeare's Shylock, the Jewish character who demands a pound of flesh in payment for a loan in "The Merchant of Venice," has become synonymous with usury.

In his letter to the Times about a Madoff article, the AJC's Harris wrote: "Yes, he is Jewish. We get it. But was this relevant to his being arrested for cheating investors, or so key to his evolution as a businessman that it needed to be hammered home again and again?"

The Rabbinical Council of America issued a statement Wednesday underscoring that "there is no reason to believe such terrible behavior is more common among Jews" than anyone else.

Still, anti-Semitic broadsides have peppered the Internet in the wake of Madoff's arrest, some in highly visible public-comment sections of popular news sites, Foxman noted.

Some get removed by the sites' administrators or draw replies noting there are bad apples of all creeds and in all walks of life. Victims also extend to all creeds and walks of life -- banks, insurers, pension funds and even the International Olympic Committee are among those who say they've been taken by Madoff.

Still, the scandal has reverberated throughout the Jewish community. This week, representatives of about three dozen Jewish foundations met in New York City to come up with a plan to help Jewish nonprofits that lost money with Madoff, said Jeffrey Solomon, president of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies. Solomon said the foundations agreed to contribute to a pool of money that will be distributed to hard-hit organizations.

"This is a tragedy by any stretch of the imagination but within the context of $300 billion worth of donations to American charities, we shouldn't lose sight of the larger picture -- both the generosity of Americans and the effectiveness of the nonprofit system," he said.

http://www.ajc.org/

http://www.hadassah.org/

http://www.acbp.net/

http://www.eliewieselfoundation.org/

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081225/madoff_a ... itism.html

[high_treason]

So basically they want to bury the story...Its too late for that , one down more to go!

[LatinAmericanview]

I have a few questions. Maybe I should say that a few things about this story trouble me. Where did the 50 billion dollars go? Why would the FBI investigate someone like Madoff in the first place. Why would the story get so much press in Jewish owned presses? Lastly, don't these poor Jews realize that through the power of suggestion that they are fanning the flames of anti-antisemitism?  This could become a self fulfilling prophesy.

[Rockclimber]

What concerns me is how they are attempting to pass Madoff off as a 'bad apple' and sweep the rest of the Jew mafia's crimes under the rug. They always bring out the anti-semitic charge right away because it always attempts to produce the desired affect: 1) Because of conditioning since birth sheople hear the charge and it strikes fear in them 2) It strikes fear in them but also provokes a sympathetic response towards the 'eternal sufferers'. 3) It prevents debate no matter how well reasoned and factual the debate is, the charge always sticks. And so on.

But it's losing it's affect. People are starting to take notice and the mafia is running out of excuses, which leads me to believe that the Jew mafia will try to pass hate laws as soon as they possibly can in effort to shut free speech down once and for all and run right over us. These are some of the most wicked people in history.

[§N9sh2bj]

I wonder what happens to the the flames, when every so-called parrot site of Rafiq's article, apparently stealing it's contents without ascribing the credit to Rafiq, functions to spread the story that Madoff's so-called 'Scam' is itself a scam?

These criminal, unsympathic, racist-trained people are bellyaching now how much money they 'lost', without commenting they are first in line to get all of it - ahead of 699 other hedge funds gone to -0 - and then some, back, all because Madoff stepped up and said it was a 'fraud'.  Is it right that this triggers actions put in place after Enron which ensures some of the money comes from the Feds, plus taxes paid, plus an insurance policy with Lloyd's, all pay into the investor's coffers to replenish them and then some?

Further, this was a normal fund, very agressive, whos' aggressive position was intentional, and meant Madoff was immediately out as soon as the market took a turn for the worse. These people are not dumb and it was likely part of the plan all along.

Admittedly the dollar might be worth-less by the time they recieve payment.