Thursday, January 22, 2009

Madoff, Jews and Judaism




With Gaza and the Inauguration now in the rear view mirror, guess what story is still simmering - no, boiling - its way back to the surface?

The question of how Jews should respond to Bernard Madoff has been the subject of several mainstream media articles this past week. Today, Reuters chimed in: US Jews struggle to come to grips with Madoff, which discusses my proposal for excommunication. Prior articles this past week include the New York Times' Is Madoff Not So Good for the Jews? Discuss, the New Yorker's Reckoning: Thief or Crook?: The Talk of the Town: The New Yorker, Bloomberg's recent article. and last but most provacatively, Newsweek's ‘Uncle Bernie’ And the Jews.

Also of note is last week's op-ed in the Jewish Week, Get Angry Over Madoff Scandal and Nextbook's Casting the First Stones. The Forward has an interesting op-ed looking at the case for bringing Madoff before a Jewish court, a Bet Din, at http://www.forward.com/articles/14934/.

And here is an updated list of Madoff's victims and how much they lost.

Everyone's talking about it. Now we need to see something done about it. I doubt I'm the only one who is tired of seeing the headline, "Jews Ruminate."

For those who wish to see more background on why I've been calling for a united and most serious response from the Jewish community, see my Madoff postings.

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