Creator Forum - Racial Loyalty News Online

More than $64.8 billion had disappeared when the impact of the 2008  financial crisis finally undid Madoff's decades-long scheme and forced  his firm into collapse... Madoff was once the toast of the Jewish philanthropic world... But the same  judge who had sentenced him to 150 years in prison ... citing hundreds of his victims who had written to the court demanding that he be kept imprisoned. Madoff's death should cause us to ponder what it is that enables a  person to commit fraud on such an immense scale. It's also an  appropriate moment to assess the broader consequences of a crime that  caused many to wonder whether at the time whether his actions would  trigger a wave of anti-Semitism rooted in traditional tropes about Jews  and money... And though many of those groups, institutions  and individuals never entirely recovered from what he did to them,  neither was his swindle enough to topple the organized Jewish world ...

For those whose savings had been squandered, the anguish he caused lives on with their anger—perhaps all the greater because they hadn't been taken in by a common criminal or a sleazy Internet scammer. Madoff  was a pillar of the New York financial world and a former president of  the Nasdaq stock exchange. More than that, he was also a major player in  Jewish philanthropy, a treasurer of Yeshiva University and chairman of  its business school, and active in many other communal institutions. Indeed, Madoff recruited his marks by networking within the Jewish  community.  He also utilized his  connections with legitimate Jewish Wall Street operators like Ezra Merkin, who, according to a report in The New York Times, directed more than $1 billion of funds from fellow congregants at Manhattan's Fifth Avenue Synagogue into Madoff's hands.  It was precisely because Madoff was so well-connected and active in  the Jewish philanthropic world that so many institutions entrusted him  with their money.

Adding to the pain is the fact that some of those who thought of themselves as victims—thanks to Madoff's false claims about the gains their investments had made—were actually net winners since they had withdrawn some of their money over the years. Hadassah was one such "winner" since it had withdrawn about $100  million from him over the years, a sum far in excess of the $40 million  principle they had invested.    That means that some of those who were scammed were made whole, at  least in terms of their initial investment ... Those Jewish institutions who were hit hard staggered, though most,  including Hadassah, have survived and eventually can be said to have  fully recovered... Though the Anti-Defamation League published a full accounting of Madoff-inspired attacks on Jews, their report  on the issue didn't amount to much since it was largely limited to  stray comments posted on websites. Perhaps it is because it was known  that Madoff had stolen more from his fellow Jews than anyone else... Read more ...