New York – What is so shocking about Bernie Madoff is not that he is a gonif, there will always be thieves and crooks and we have all met our fair share of them. That he was able to crook people for so long without them realizing it is what I find most outrageous.
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Since 1999 there were a number of people who looked into Madoff’s operations and came away with serious suspicions of impropriety. In 2005 independent financial fraud investigator Harry Markopolos sent a long memo about Madoff’s fund to the SEC. The title of the memo was: The World’s Largest Hedge Fund is a Fraud. But how was he able to maintain a veneer of respectability and trust when he was under such serious and credible suspicions?
The most obvious answer is that we as humans are fooled by the allure of money. We equate net-worth with self-worth. In truth the two are completely unrelated. But for many, wealth equals power and importance. If you have never observed this before, next time you are at a fundraising dinner watch the table where the wealthiest people are seated, you will notice a constant stream of people walking over to talk to those sitting at that table. Why it is that they get a disproportionate amount of attention?
A few years ago I was visited by a man who used to be a very wealthy but had lost all of his money in a Ponzi scheme. He was devastated and depressed. At one point he was donating more than a million dollars a year to causes in Israel and now he was virtually penniless. The thing that hurt him most, however, was the fact that together with the loss of his money he lost all of his friends. The wealthy people he used to associate with were no longer interested in him because he was no longer rich.
‘Who cares where the money is coming from?’
Whilst in Judaism wealthy people are looked upon as deserving of respect this is because the wealth is seen as a mark of an accomplished person. In other words the wealthy individual should be respected for the success, accomplishment and attainment that brought the wealth rather than for the wealth itself. And, if it is real, personal success and achievement is something that a person cannot lose. Unfortunately the allure of money was blinding to too many people in this case as well.
However, there is another more ominous reason that people overlooked the suspicions that hung over Madoff. Often suspicions of financial dishonesty are not taken seriously enough. Frequently questions are answered by the words, “but everyone is doing it.”
In addition, many people are not concerned whether their investments make money in an ethical manner. People are happy to invest in companies that have questionable practices. As long as they are getting a piece of the pie they don’t worry it. For many investing with Madoff meant consistent double digit returns. If he had to steal in order to achieve that they did not want to know about it nor did they care.
Dishonesty must become taboo
It now clear to all that we must completely stigmatize any type of unethical financial behavior. White Collar crime must be taken as seriously as any other. A person against whom there are credible suspicions of financial impropriety should be removed from communal positions no matter how wealthy they are or how much they donate each year.
Dishonest business people must be taboo in our communities. People must know that if they cheat in business there will be real social and communal repercussions. We cannot brush this under the rug any longer.
Unfortunately there are Jewish communities that have people who have been convicted of financial fraud as their presidents and Israel currently has a prime minister who is under serious suspicion of financial irregularities and the previous Israeli prime minster served under similar suspicions. This must stop. As long as we allow people who perpetrate this type of behavior, or are suspected of it, a veneer of respectability within our communities when something like the Madoff scandal occurs we are all collectively culpable.
Rabbi Levi Brackman is author of Jewish Wisdom for Business Succes
Who knew he was dishonest?
Well said
i think it will never happen since all the rabbis and the so called gedolim will never go out in public and say this or that ganev people should not allow him in shuls or any zedakah function because that ganev will give big donation
and they will find away around that why we should take his money and why he is not aganev the will say we should be malamed sechus on that person
now the modern orthodox is feeling the pinch abd big losses they come out a little there will be plenty more MADOFFS and other ganowim out there
today when someone comes out of jail he is the SHAINER YID
before if someone went to jail the family was so ashamed they moved to diferent city
Let ’em make a Hecsher Tzedek.
Were are they now???
Madoff was coservative and part of YU which is modern orthodox
What does this show ?
That they are full of baloney just trying to become a force and happy to talk against others.
They made a chilul hashem in the entire world and will be remebered forever in the economic world.
I’ll go a step further. We need to honor actions, NOT Money
This has to come from us, not the rabbeim. That means disassociate yourself from these people (don’t invite them over for meals). If you are a gabbai, don’t give them an aliyah or another kavod.
Friends of mine were making a brit milah for their son. The father-in-law of the husband wanted his rabbi to speak at the brit. My friend said absolutely not. I don’t care if your rav is supposedly frum (by dress and has a shul in Brooklyn). Your rav has criminal record for stock fraud, and there are other allegations about drugs.
My friend did not want his shul corrupted with someone like this. His reasoning? The brit was going to be done infront of the Aron HaKodesh. It would have perverted the Torahs behind the parochet.
I wish all these commentators would stop giving us Mussar for the sins of someone who was not Orthodox and didn’t follow Torah law.
We should strengthen ourselves internally with our own greater adherence to following the Torah’s rules for honestly and fair dealing.
Washing the gonif’s dirty laundry in public gives fuel to those that want to blame all Jews for the sins of one evil individual.
What about the dishonest ‘businessman’ Rabbi who runs a shul or large organization? Unfortunately we have a couple of those too!!
It is no longer a “Shanda” for community members to serve time in jail. That’s a shame!!
Yeshivos and parents have to teach kids that ‘stealing and unethical behavior’ IS the crime not ‘getting caught’.
I was happy to read this article, but don’t expect much to come from it. True, Madoff was not “frum”. But I can confirm Shaul in Monsey who says that in our stadt, various ganoovim daven for the oimed and have all the kibbudim on a daily basis. The rabbonim don’t seem to be want to get involved. I personally was a victim of a frum Ganif. He stole much from us. He is a member of a shul of which I am a member. People know about it. My wife and I cried our hearts out to our rav. He listened, but did not want to be involved. The other mispallelim in shul also know about it, and they were angry, for about a week. Then, they decided its also not their problem either. And this is the way it is in our community. As a BT, I can tell you that in my old town where I grew up, these types of things were unheard of, and if they did occur, the ganef would be socially ostracized. He certainly would NOT be getting kibbudim in shul.
This article was the best ever. It’s so sad to say, we have among us ehrlicha “looking” yidden who are big scam artists. They would make up stories about a sick family memeber in order to get ” tzedaka”. I know of one man who went shnoring because he said his mother had a stroke and needed money for doctors. His mother NEVER had a stroke! Yes, Its not a PONZI scheme but never the less, its fraud! What is this world coming to????
we do not have a “rabbonim” that have a guts ther are simply kovod seekers
Listen, many of the Rabbi’s today see dollar signs and wonder how they can get in on the action, the money makes them go blind. After all they want to drive nice cars and go on nice vacations too. Maybe instead of taking the “dayanus” test they should have gone to Business school.
Rabbi Brackman is 100% right, he is using Madoff as an example, but THIS KIND OF THOUGHT PROCESS IS VERY COMMON in frum communities too. Anyone that is involved in the business world knows this well if they have half a working brain. ” Often suspicions of financial dishonesty are not taken seriously enough. Frequently questions are answered by the words, “but everyone is doing it.””
KOL HAKAVOD RABBI BRACKMAN
I agree with all of you..I am a victim of a Ganef who swindled my life savings and called him to Din Torah and he refused to come. After serving him and his Ruv with a copy of the SEREF his ruv told me I am SORRY i can not get involved because he is a major supporter of mine shul. I explained to the RUV that his donations is my BLOOD which he stole from me and my wife..All i can say i am left a VICTIM and the ruv gives wonderful speeches why klal yisroel is suffering so much..Not because his Ganef davening in his shul….Because women are not dressed modest.
I believe this will never END because the ones who didnt get burned do not care about some one else(and i dont blame them)…This is the world we living in today.
To: # 15: My heart goes out to you. My brother a commerial real estate broker was screwd out of a huge commission. By a fellow BG from 5 Towns. The fellow would not show up to a din torah by the iggud horabonim, so they called BG a misaref l’din and put this person in “cherem” my brother called BG’s Rabbi in the 5 towns and sent him a copy of the “siruv”. But the Rabbi said there was nothing he was going to do because BG, was a supporter of his shull. These are the Rabbi’s of today. “Oy meh hoyoh lonu”
Rav Brackman’s powerful article says what has needed to be said for a long time. Until yidden stop rationalizing the behavior of the Madoffs and Rubashkins and others because they were either a baal tzadakah or had done much for the community, we will continue to have a dual standard of Midos….there is no amount of tzedahkah that can make up for the pain and suffering and risk to klal yisroel they have caused.
money is not the root of all evil , the love of money is in short, that is the situation in todays world
Until you clowns start mentioning the guilty parties by name, ain’t nothing gonna change!
Hashem yiracheim…what are we teaching our children when we plaster the names of ganovim on the buildings of our yeshivas and shuls, as well as on the covers of hebrew-english “seforim”?!?! Unfortunately in todays world not only do we not shun the actions of crooks, rather we embrace these people and give them tremendous kavod. This approach is what creates a world of cynicism which ultimately dilutes daas torah.
#28 :
I have met numerous people who worked for Agri prior to the May 12th raid. Almost every one of them told me: a) They were shorted on their hours; b) they didn’t rec overtime pay: c) they were charged for company supplied and government required frocks (these are supplied by every other meat packing company). When workers complained about the missing pay they were told the money would be made up on their next paycheck – which never happened.
This is ganavus plan and simple and it went on for years. When you are the owner and manager of a business, whether its a big business or small, you cannot claim that you did not know what was going on under your roof. YOU are responsible and the buck stops at your desk.
“Whilst in Judaism, wealthy people are looked upon as deserving of respect, this is because the wealth is seen as a mark of an accomplished person. In other words, the wealthy individual should be respected for the success, accomplishment, and attainment that brought the wealth, rather than for the wealth itself.”
I don’t understand this statement. Whoever is not wealthy cannot be an accomplished person?
Wealth and Parnasa ultimately come from Hashem, not from people. A person does Hishtadlus, effort; but the ultimate success is up to Hashem.
What a person has today can C”V be taken away tomorrow, whether it’s wealth, health, or life.
It’s what a person does with the money that should be respected, if the person uses the money for Torah causes.
If a person inherits a lot of money from a wealthy parent, or if he wins the Lottery; where is the “accomplishment and attainment that brought the wealth” ? What did he do to earn the wealth?
So if a person is a Rov or a Talmud Chochom or a big Baal Chesed, and he’s not wealthy, he’s not an accomplished person? He shouldn’t be respected?
I heard from a very respected godol that it could be the reason why we are having so many problems with kashrus, shidduchim, divorce rates, lack of mentchlichkeit and may more problems in our communities is the fact that people are not honest with themselves and in business.
I would also add that most people who accumulated massive wealth in such a short time without working for it have made money by stealing. Unless someone won the lottery or recieved the money through their parents it is hard to believe how so many people have made millions of dollars at the age of 30 and did not work more than 4 years for the money they supposedly “earned”.
A person who is found to be a ganef should be thrown into cheirim and not allowed in to any shul or yeshiva. If this issue was taken seriuosly people wouhtink before they want to steal.
If we removed ALL THE GANOVIM from communal positions, WE WOULDN”T HAVE VERY MANY RAH BONIM around.
A community should not be judged by how many Rabbonim they have, but by the justice for klal yisroel the Rabbonim exhibit in their rulings.