There is a teaching in the Talmud that says an individual who comes before God after death will be asked a series of questions, the first one of which is, “Were you honest in your business dealings?” But it is the Ten Commandments that have weighed most heavily on the mind of Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles in light of the sins for which Bernard L. Madoff stands accused.
“You shouldn’t steal,” Rabbi Wolpe said. “And this is theft on a global scale.”
The full scope of the misdeeds to which Mr. Madoff has confessed in swindling individuals and charitable groups has yet to be calculated, and he is far from being convicted. But Jews all over the country are already sending up something of a communal cry over a cost they say goes beyond the financial to the theological and the personal.
This is a really big deal. I was chatting online with a Jewish friend in New York today and he said “It’s shaken the community like nothing I’ve ever seen” with the possible exception of 9/11. Read it all.
Very sad. There’s something exceedingly painful about betrayal. And for some Jews this betrayal is evidently all the more painful by evoking unwarranted feelings of collective shame. Madoff is a rogue individual and an individual rogue.
Jews often seem to think collectively as a group, speaking in general. There’s some background for this in the Hebrew Scriptures and also in the long history of a group separated and often treated badly by the surrounding cultures. Of course Madoff is a rogue individual and does not represent Judaism or Jews.
What is horrifying, and may be on the minds of some of these worried people, is the way this might reinforce some of the ugly ancient stereotypes and slanders.
What Madoff did was truly wicked. The last paragraph of this article, in which the rabbi says that Madoff cannot possibly atone for his great sin, is an excellent segue for the presentation of the Gospel.
Well, I think Christians of all people should sympathize with these victims. Certainly there has been many a corrupt charity or religious leader that has swindled the flock out of money. In fact, if memory serves, that’s really what started Luther on his merry way to reformation.
Jews have no reason to feel any sense of guilt or shame over this scoundrel’s actions. Indeed many of his more prominent victims were themselves Jews. If a Hispanic Catholic holds up a liquor store do we blame Catholics? Of course not. However given the history of abuse and prejudice which Jews have had to endure I can see where there might be some apprehension about the reaction of the less well informed or those of a malicious mindset.
I think it would not hurt to say loudly that Mr. Madoff does not reflect in any way our view of Jews or of the ethics of Judaism.
In ICXC
John
P. S. Merry Christmas to all!
If there is an identifiable group out there without mountebanks, charlatans, scoundrels and fraudsters, I’m unaware of it. Regrettably, Jews have to draw on the same fallen humanity as the rest of us for membership. It never even occurred to me that Madoff’s crimes should reflect on other Jews.
If Madoff played on his Judaism to draw unwitting Jews into his scheme, I can understand the sense of personal betrayal. But, for me, none should devote a moment’s worry to any feelings of collective guilt because of this man’s actions.
Madoff is a rogue and a scoundrel, however in point of fact, most of the financiers on Wall Street are probably Gentile. Trinity Episcopal Wall Street is, I imagine, filled with a similar ilk.
I do agree with “Outliers” the new book by Malcolm Gladwell, the author of _Blink_ who (charitably) details the rise of the Wall Street hostile takeover artist and litigation lawyer industry that _was_ largely (entirely at first) drawn from the ranks of third generation Jewish immigrants. Due to antisemitism, such individuals were unable to break into the “white shoe” law firms whose “gentlemanly” code of conduct made hostile takeovers and unfair litigation practices unthinkable. They thus set up their own firms who did engage in such practices, and made them overwhelmingly profitable. That changed the nature of US law, mostly for the worse.
The rise of the take over artist meant that many sound firms with balanced books who placed their profits into their pension funds and equipment were taken over by folks who were simply willing to take on large chunks of debt and to then pay it off with a pirated company. This in turn meant that sound firms were penalized, and firms had to take on debt to make them less attractive to takeover artists. Similarly, the “ungentlemanly” lawyer meant that physicians had to do more testing to protect themselves, and many began to refuse to see the sicker patients, (particularly children) that they had seen as a matter of course previously.
So while it is true that Madoff’s Jewishness did not lead to greed beyond that of gentiles, it is also true that Jewish lawyers and financiers, in part because they could not break into Wall Streets white shoe and white hat crowd, initiated an era of hostile takeovers, and mindless litigation that has become the model for both Jewish and Gentile lawyers and financiers from the early 1970s to today, and led to many of the abuses that lie at the core of today’s financial crisis.
Perhaps with Madoff’s disgrace, Rabbis will see fit to preach “thou shalt not steal” to the Jewish lawyers in their congregations, while folks in TEC and elsewhere continue to preach “thou shalt not discriminate” to the white shoe crowd.