Calling accused swindler Bernard Madoff a “crook, a thief, a scoundrel,” Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel said today he could never forgive the man he says stole all of his foundation’s money.
Wiesel said he twice met Madoff, a once-respected Wall Street trader who authorities say preyed on the Jewish elite of North America and Europe in what grew to be an estimated $50 billion fraud. They discussed ethics and education, not finances.
“Could I forgive him? No,” Wiesel said during a discussion, “Madoff and the Meltdown,” hosted by Conde Nast Portfolio magazine. “First of all, it would mean he would come on his knees and ask for forgiveness. He wouldn’t do that.”
He said the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity had $15.2 million under management with Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, substantially all of its assets. Wiesel said he and his wife also lost personal investments, but he did not disclose the amount.
Asked about so-called affinity frauds and whether Madoff’s being Jewish had any relevance, Wiesel said Madoff “is simply a crook, a thief, a scoundrel. It is not the Jewishness in him, it is the inhumanity in this man.
“What he has done to people breaks my heart.”
Wiesel, who survived Nazi Germany’s concentration camps in World War II and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, said he was introduced to Madoff through a friend. He said the unidentified friend lost $50 million in the purported fraud.
The 80-year-old Wiesel, on a panel with former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Harvey Pitt and veteran short seller James Chanos, suggested a government bailout for the charities.
“I would like, just as they bailed out the banks, to bail out all of the charitable institutions,” Wiesel said. “I think it would be a great demonstration that the Obama administration showed that they really think of those who are helpless.”
(Source: Reuters)
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11 Responses
Adam nikar b’kiso, b’koso ub’ka’aso. I don’t recall Wiesel being this indignant over the human rights issues he champions. But his money. . .
Its a great theory if the obama administration bailed out all the charities that lost from this event, but its unrealistic. This is life its not some game there are no “do overs.” The government should not be bailing out people because they invested their money and lost it all its not their responsibility.
nice idea a bailout for the charity, I would extend it to all charity funds, all of them need a lot of money to take care of all the people that lost everything.
let’s ask hashem for a bailout!
#1, I don’t think he’s so upset about losing his money, what really hurts him is that he worked so hard for this foundation to further justice for humanity but his means on furthering his cause have been destroyed.
he is a fool for putting all his eggs in one basket and now he blames Madoff.
anyway where were his brains when he invested. everyone knows “get rich quick” schemes never work in the long run, so again he didnt open his eyes and now he blames Madoff.
although all he says about Madoff is true and i agree with him, but still, he must look at himself a little and realize how foolish he was!!!!
Tzvideer:
As far as I know (though I may be wrong), Madoff’s “investment” program was not marketed as a “get rich quick scheme.”
Is everyone that invested in Madoff a fool? Clearly he had a convincing selling point, because a lot of very intelligent people invested with him.
I think that “a thought” had it right. It’s especially heinous that Madoff knowingly stole from charitable and humanitarian institutions. While it’s disgusting that he did it to anyone, the fact that he hit those organizations arouses particular disgust.
casualobserver
there is an Israeli saying that goes as follows “Freierim lo metim, hem rak mitchalfim” which loosely traslated is fools dont die they just change.
is everyone who invested in Madoff a fool? to some extent YES!!!! they all wanted to “get rich quick” and here was someone offering them huge instant returns.
why didnt they open their eyes?? why didnt they realize this was a “pyramid scheme”?
a few times a year we hear of people who invested and lost, sometimes more, sometimes less, all Madoff did was to do the same but on a huge scale. somehow he built himself a reputation over many years and although i would like to believe possibly there was a time when he played the game straight, evertually he soured. the outcome? 50 billion in losses to innocent people.
so while all you write about him is true, it is about time people started realizing that no-one “gets rich quick” unless Hashem specifically wants him to.
unfortanatelly i have too little faith in people and beleive the same can happen again tomorrow, next month AND next year. fools dont die they just change.
and while i really feel for all these people that lost their life savings and more, and honestly i feel their pain, yet people must begin realizing that these offers, even from reputable people DON’T work.
so if somoene invested a small fraction of their money in the hope it would work, if it did, good and if not, it is not too much lost!! but to put all your eggs in one basket – why even an honest scheme could go bankrupt – look at Lehmann brothers – therefor YES, someone who puts all his eggs in one basket can be considered a little bit of a fool.
if wiesel had been invested in maddoff for over ten years wich it seems indeed he was then there is nothing to complain about becuase those peapole came out with a gain its only the overwhelming maj. of his investors that came in the last few years that realy lost and by then there were enogh red flags to say anyone who joined was a fool also those who reinvested all the divedends lost but those pepole are geedy and dont need the $ if they can afford to just let it sit
Tzvideer:
Again, what makes you think that anyone was trying to “get rick quick?”
Second, if it were that easy to just know what is and isn’t a pyramid scheme, we wouldn’t have these problems. The problem is, they aren’t exactly advertised as such – the investor had no way of knowing it was a pyramid scheme. I’d be willing to bet a hefty amount that the investment scheme looked completely legitimate and that there wasn’t much the investors could have done to figure out what Madoff was up to.
From pictures of Madoff, one can think he is not all there. Seriously.
Get over it!