Starting with Madoff, charges over 2009 escalated against Madoff investors, Orthodox Rabbis selling body parts, immigration violations and worse in Iowa, insider traders, and on and on. Even Rajaratnam was alleged to be the critical player in an insider trading schemed by two brothers with vaguely Israeli names. Then, near year-end came the news that a Florida Ponzi scheme was alleged to have been implemented by high flying Ft. Lauderdale lawyer, Scott Rothstein; an an LA "philanthropist," Elliot Broidy, pled guilty to massive bribery of government officials in New York; and, post-Madoff some of his most significant investors have been alleged to have been part of his chicanery. Then, just last week Canada's National Post reported on the alleged swindle perpetrated by one Tzvi Erez. Will the list ever stop?
We need to take a careful look at ourselves, our values. In the confluence of a failing economy and the desire to be rich quick, too many have disregarded them. As it turned out, the failing economy, and nothing else -- not a guilty conscience, not a return to piety -- exposed so many of the fraudulent among us. Ponzi schemes collapsed, witnessed came forward, government stings succeeded. Does anyone have any doubt that Madoff and so many of the others would still be operating had the economy continued to burn brightly?
Rob Eshman, writing in this week's The Jewish Journal, stated it best when writing about the criminals in our midst with a focus on LA's Broidy: "The best response I can offer to all these men is one Rabbi Steven Weil gave in a fiery speech from his pulpit in January 2008, after a benefactor of his then synagogue, Beth Jacob, was indicted in the Spinka case. 'You call yourself a tzadik, you're a liar!" Weil said, using the Jewish term for a saintly person. Weil said that when non-Jews look at Jewish behavior, they don't look at whether we keep Shabbat or keep kosher -- they look at how we treat our employees, how we deal with the government, whether we are honest and straightforward." Continuing, Eshman concluded: "The Beverly Hills synagogue removed the indicted donor's name from the places it appeared: on the study hall he funded, on the Torahs and the prayer books his monies helped buy. The Jewish community doesn't have fines or jails. Its main enforcement tool, after the fact, is the kind of public opprobrium that helps put others on notice about what values we hold dear, and what lines cannot be crossed."
There are too many of us dedicated to "get rich quick" schemes; who ignore or Jewish values and Jewish responsibilities. Too many of us, so intelligent in so many things, seem totally unaware of the reality that "if it sounds too good to be true, it is." If we only can resist the schemers and the crooks, they will no longer be able to prey on the worst in us. In 2010 and beyond, our obligations must be to the best in us; as a People to be the reflection of the values we have been taught.Rwexler
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2 comments:
I've been following the
Rajaratnam case out of general interest and have Google alert me on developments - which is how I found you. What does UJ stand for and what has Rajaratnam to do with Jews? I suppose that Jews seem to have a disproportionate number of white collar criminals and I have no idea why. I am reminded of a fascinating interview of Eric Hoffer by Eric Sevareid many years ago in which Sevareid threw out words and Hoffer gave him instant reactions. When Sevareid said Kennedy, Hoffer said, "He is a European. Count the number of times he went to Europe and compare that to the number of times he crossed the Great Divide." When Sevareid said, "Intellectuals," Hoffer responded, "Wonderful people. Give them everything, give them comfort give them money, give them everything but power because they are the most corruptible people - they can rationalize anything." The average Jew is perhaps more of an intellectual or rationalizer than the average Anglo-Saxon and perhaps that is a contributing factor.
When Paul Newman died, they said how great he was but they failed to mention he considered himself Jewish (born half-Jewish).
When the woman (Helen Suzman) who helped Nelson Mandela died recently, they said how great she was, but they failed to mention she was Jewish.
On the other side of the equation, when Ivan Boesky or Andrew Fastow or Bernie Madoff committed fraud, almost every article mentioned they were Jewish.
However, when Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, Martha Stewart, Randy Cunningham, Gov. Edwards, Conrad Black, Senator Keating, Gov Ryan, and Gov Blagojevich messed up; no one reported what religion, denomination or national heritage they were, because they were not Jewish.
This is reminiscent of the famous Albert Einstein quote:
In 1921, Albert Einstein presented a paper on his then-infant Theory of Relativity at the Sorbonne, the prestigious French university.
"If I am proved correct," he said, "the Germans will call me a German, the Swiss will call me a Swiss citizen, and the French will call me a great scientist.
"If relativity is proved wrong, the French will call me a Swiss, the Swiss will call me a German, and the Germans will call me a Jew".
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