BretLudwig
December 17th 08, 06:51 AM
Bradley Burston / The Madoff betrayal: Life imitates anti-Semitism
By Bradley Burston
>>"For the true anti-Semite, Christmas came early this year.
The anti-Semite's new Santa is Bernard Madoff. The answer to every
Jew-hater's wish list. The Aryan Nation at its most delusional couldn't
have come up with anything to rival this:
The former chairman of Nasdaq turns out, also, to be treasurer of the
board of trustees at Yeshiva University and chairman of the university's
business school. Rich beyond human comprehension, he handles fortunes for
others, buying and selling in a trading empire that skirts investment
banks and other possible sources of regulation. He redefines avarice,
knowingly and personally bilking charities and retirees in the most
classic of con games.
Advertisement
Even better, for those obsessed with the idea that Jews control finance,
entertainment and the media, is the idea that Madoff's greed was
uncontrollable enough that he targeted fellow Jews, even Holocaust
survivors, some of them his own friends, as well as Israeli companies who
insured Jews, including Holocaust survivors.
The beauty part, for the anti-Semite: Madoff's machinations, which could
have been put to use for the sake of humanity, have directly harmed Jewish
welfare and charity institutions.
He has managed to harm contemporary Jewry in ways anti-Semites could only
dream about. He has sapped the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles of
11 percent of its assets, or some $18 million. In the words of prominent
educator Avraham Infeld, he "obliterated" long-standing charitable
foundations for Jewish causes in Israel, Eastern Europe and North
America.
Along the way, Madoff assured the story enormous play, not only with the
scale and the impudence of the scheme, but with his A+ roster of celebrity
victims, among them Stephen Spielberg, Elie Wiesel, and billionaire
real-estate tycoon, media mogul, commentator and former chairman of the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Mort
Zuckerman. A senior U.S. senator is one of his client-marks, as well as
present and past owners of professional football and baseball teams.
Then there was the betrayal of old friends like philanthropists Carl and
Ruth Shapiro, megadonors to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston,
Brandeis University and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center.
"The scandal rippled far beyond the multimillion-dollar private foundation
run by Madoff that channeled money into hospitals and theaters," Reuters
reported, "and swept up charities large and small, directly and
indirectly, along with wealthy Jewish investors Madoff personally
advised."
Adding the element of clannishness, The New York Post was more direct.
"Working the so-called "Jewish circuit" of well-heeled Jews he met at
country clubs on Long Island and in Palm Beach, and through his position
on the boards of directors of several prominent Jewish institutions, he
was entrusted with entire family fortunes.
"The guy was totally respected. He was a heymishe Jewish guy. He had sweet
old ladies and he let their children in," said a Manhattan lawyer who
invested with Madoff.
"This guy was dealing with all the rich Jews in Roslyn and the rich Jews
in Palm Beach. This was passed down from family member to family member
because he wouldn't open up to new people."
It remains to be seen how far we've come from the days of the frank
Jew-hate and genteel anti-Semitism of the likes of Henry Ford and F. Scott
Fitzgerald. We can only hope that the Meyer Wolfsheim Effect remains
dormant, the Great Gatsby heritage of "the man who fixed the 1919 World
Series."
" ... If I had thought of it at all, I would have thought of it as a thing
that merely happened, the end of some inevitable chain," Fitzgerald's
narrator confides. "It never occurred to me that one man could start to
play with the faith of fifty million people - with the single-mindedness
of a burglar blowing a safe."
In the meanwhile, Bernard Madoff, you've made the days of uncounted devout
Jew-haters. This year, all they want for Christmas, is you."<<
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1047173.html
--
Message posted using http://www.talkaboutaudio.com/group/rec.audio.opinion/
More information at http://www.talkaboutaudio.com/faq.html
By Bradley Burston
>>"For the true anti-Semite, Christmas came early this year.
The anti-Semite's new Santa is Bernard Madoff. The answer to every
Jew-hater's wish list. The Aryan Nation at its most delusional couldn't
have come up with anything to rival this:
The former chairman of Nasdaq turns out, also, to be treasurer of the
board of trustees at Yeshiva University and chairman of the university's
business school. Rich beyond human comprehension, he handles fortunes for
others, buying and selling in a trading empire that skirts investment
banks and other possible sources of regulation. He redefines avarice,
knowingly and personally bilking charities and retirees in the most
classic of con games.
Advertisement
Even better, for those obsessed with the idea that Jews control finance,
entertainment and the media, is the idea that Madoff's greed was
uncontrollable enough that he targeted fellow Jews, even Holocaust
survivors, some of them his own friends, as well as Israeli companies who
insured Jews, including Holocaust survivors.
The beauty part, for the anti-Semite: Madoff's machinations, which could
have been put to use for the sake of humanity, have directly harmed Jewish
welfare and charity institutions.
He has managed to harm contemporary Jewry in ways anti-Semites could only
dream about. He has sapped the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles of
11 percent of its assets, or some $18 million. In the words of prominent
educator Avraham Infeld, he "obliterated" long-standing charitable
foundations for Jewish causes in Israel, Eastern Europe and North
America.
Along the way, Madoff assured the story enormous play, not only with the
scale and the impudence of the scheme, but with his A+ roster of celebrity
victims, among them Stephen Spielberg, Elie Wiesel, and billionaire
real-estate tycoon, media mogul, commentator and former chairman of the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Mort
Zuckerman. A senior U.S. senator is one of his client-marks, as well as
present and past owners of professional football and baseball teams.
Then there was the betrayal of old friends like philanthropists Carl and
Ruth Shapiro, megadonors to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston,
Brandeis University and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center.
"The scandal rippled far beyond the multimillion-dollar private foundation
run by Madoff that channeled money into hospitals and theaters," Reuters
reported, "and swept up charities large and small, directly and
indirectly, along with wealthy Jewish investors Madoff personally
advised."
Adding the element of clannishness, The New York Post was more direct.
"Working the so-called "Jewish circuit" of well-heeled Jews he met at
country clubs on Long Island and in Palm Beach, and through his position
on the boards of directors of several prominent Jewish institutions, he
was entrusted with entire family fortunes.
"The guy was totally respected. He was a heymishe Jewish guy. He had sweet
old ladies and he let their children in," said a Manhattan lawyer who
invested with Madoff.
"This guy was dealing with all the rich Jews in Roslyn and the rich Jews
in Palm Beach. This was passed down from family member to family member
because he wouldn't open up to new people."
It remains to be seen how far we've come from the days of the frank
Jew-hate and genteel anti-Semitism of the likes of Henry Ford and F. Scott
Fitzgerald. We can only hope that the Meyer Wolfsheim Effect remains
dormant, the Great Gatsby heritage of "the man who fixed the 1919 World
Series."
" ... If I had thought of it at all, I would have thought of it as a thing
that merely happened, the end of some inevitable chain," Fitzgerald's
narrator confides. "It never occurred to me that one man could start to
play with the faith of fifty million people - with the single-mindedness
of a burglar blowing a safe."
In the meanwhile, Bernard Madoff, you've made the days of uncounted devout
Jew-haters. This year, all they want for Christmas, is you."<<
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1047173.html
--
Message posted using http://www.talkaboutaudio.com/group/rec.audio.opinion/
More information at http://www.talkaboutaudio.com/faq.html