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Times Analyzes Madoff's Victimization of Jewish Philantropists and Charities

By Howard M. Friedman

Today's New York Times carries an interesting analysis of the Jewish charities and philanthropists that were victims of the Bernard Madoff fraudulent Ponzi scheme. (See prior posting.) Titled Trust and Exploitation in a Close-Knit World, the article points out that the Jewish victims were all part of the Modern Orthodox community. It remarked: "[T]he conspicuous fact remains that no institutions explicitly, or even implicitly, affiliated with Reform, Conservative or Reconstructionist Judaism had investments with Mr. Madoff."

The article suggests that Madoff, who himself was not Orthodox, earned entree through J. Ezra Merkin of Ascot Partners. The synagogues, schools, institutions and individuals that were defrauded, it says, "are bound by religious praxis, social connection, philanthropic causes. Yet what may be the community?s greatest virtue ? its thick mesh of personal relations, its abundance of social capital ? appears to have been the very trait that Mr. Madoff exploited."

Full post as published by Religion Clause on December 27, 2008 (boomark / email).