The arrest last week of Bernard L. Madoff, the Wall Street trader who stands accused of the largest Ponzi scheme ever, will have an immediate and profound impact on Jewish organizations. Madoff may have defrauded investors out of as much as $50 billion. He was released on bail of $10 million.
Madoff has since resigned from his position at Yeshiva University, where he served as the chairman of YU’s Board of Trustees, and the treasurer of YU’s Sy Syms School of Business. Madoff and his wife, Ruth, had also endowed a “Presidential Fellowship” at the university and he frequently acted in an advisory capacity for many of the Jewish wealthy and was a major contributor to many Jewish organizations.
Hedy Shulman, a spokesperson for YU, expressed “shock” over the news of his alleged illegal activities and the school is investigating his activities and prefers to decline comment until it has an opportunity to study the details of the case. Strangely, his name mysteriously disappeared from the YU website, and the NY Times changed their original online report to leave out the part which mentioned the YU connection. One Internet blog known for uncovering scandals showed photos of the Yeshiva University website showing his name clearly printed, and then as it now appears; “Hidden”. He claims that YU apparrantly attempted to secretly wash their hands of the biggest crook in American history, without issuing a decent public statement.
One immediate victim of the arrest was the Boston-based Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation, the daily Haaretz reports, which had invested of its funds invested with Madoff’s securities company. It terminated its seven employees and closed its doors. The tzedaka organization worked to combat assimilation among Jewish youth, sponsoring trips to Eretz Yisrael and other related programs.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel / Dov Gordon – NYC)
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15 Responses
Another Wextrust Ponzi scheme, just bigger.
Also attracted orhodox yidden.
These guys have no Neshomo!
Despicable!
Good thing he was a shomer shabbos. Imagine how many more billions would have been lost had he worked 7 days….
If he was a moslem too, he would have saved even more!
He is Shomer Shabbos?
is this not a warning for all of us?
Is this where those illegal life insurance plans were being washed??
Given his country club – yacht – Palm Beach life style, I doubt he was frum. The non-frum parts of YU attract many non-frum Jewish donors.
“Given his country club – yacht – Palm Beach life style, I doubt he was frum. The non-frum parts of YU attract many non-frum Jewish donors”.
NO BASIS for what you wrote, rather than personal feelings. I will not name the frum personalities with penthouses, 5 limos, jewelery, art works, summer homes, European villas etc.
Aliza, The YU website is the MO version of YWN?
#8, many stories never make it to YWN because they are lashon hara, and asur to report. How about being dan likav zichus on YWN?
why isn’t this story considered loshon harah? please remove the story immediately and don’t hold yshivashe scandals to a higher level.
Edited by Moderator.
i agree with stan the man, many ppl have such lifestyles and are shomer shabbos (sidenote – the term is ss, not shomer shulchan aruch)
The only thing not being discussed in the general media is whether he was Shomer Shabbos (I’ld be very skeptical that he was based on the description of his lifestyle, where he sent his kids to school, names chosen for his children, etc.). The rest of the story is covered in incredible detail elsewhere, so at this point it is common knowledge. Except perhaps for YU, it doesn’t seem any Torah institutions were affected directly, and his primary connection with YU was with the business program (which is not one of the frum schools within YU).
Whether it started out as a “Ponzi” scheme is unclear. It could easily be that like many investors he didn’t go broke until a few months ago, and tried to cover it up and ended up getting in deeper and deeper.
I see chasidim driving Cadillacs. I see sephardim driving Mercedes. I see agudah people building mansions on east 23rd street in Brooklyn. I see modern vacationing in the Bahamas. this is all show off – not the Jewish way. The world will look at us and say – all the rich jews swindling us for our money. Why can we not just live nicely, give tzadaka, build lasting institutions, and not show off. When well all the rabbaim say enough. Its all going to bite us back in the end if we don’t pull back how we show off.
#14 Frum people have been affected by this gigantic loss. Companies held pension, retirement and other funds in his ‘so called investments’-this devastation will be apparent in tzedakahs and business dealings.