Madoff: Jewish, yes, but Orthodox too?

“As a religious Jew, how do you see it being OK to daven three times and day and then defraud the Jewish communities of many cities of their funds?“ Dorff asked. “If anything, this shows you can’t be a religious Jew simply by observing the laws. Being a religious Jew must entail being moral as well. Beside the fact that it both illegal and immoral to do this to individual investors—to do it to Jewish federations representing the Jewish community is just unconscionable. What happened to Kol Yisrael Areivim Zeh BaZe—all Jews are responsible for each other?“

“Piety,“ he added, “is not an excuse, let alone a justification, for immorality.“
It was Dorff’s comments that led Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein to pick up the phone.
“If he isn’t Orthodox, please clear that up,“ Adlerstein said. “We don’t need the attention.“

Adlerstein called back two hours later, saying he had spoken with a “highly placed Manhattan source,“ which I understood to mean a friend.

“He ain’t Orthodox. He isn’t a Sabbath observer. He is a Sabbath desecrator. By no means can he be considered Orthodox.“

SHOOT: " If it does not move us to decency and goodness, it matters not at all what pieties we profess."- Talmud
The Madoff case and the Barry Tannenbaum Ponzi scheme (in South Africa) has put the Jewish community in an awkward spot. My suggestion is that they should recognise that these sorts of crimes can be potentially very damaging to the Jewish reputation and to communities, especially now, as intractable economic conditions worsen.
Also, distancing the pious from the not pious is not enough. I think the individuals responsible ought to apologise and more...provide some gesture of reparation. Otherwise it's just words to make up for some pretty-far reaching deeds.

clipped from www.jewishjournal.com Talk about bad PR. Since Bernard Madoff was charged with running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, Jews have been taking a lot of blame for this bad apple. Anti-Semities are usually looking for any opportunity to malign Jews, and Madoff made it easy. Madoff’s co-religionists have distanced Jewish values from the avarice that sunk Bernard Madoff Investment Securities. Rob Eshman’s column this week, online later tonight, is wistful for a Jewish concept of hell: “Because then I could take comfort that Bernard Madoff will go there. And Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple wrote for On Faith that Jewish ethics can’t just be present in the home but must also underlie business practices: The Rabbis of the Talmud declare: “If one is honest in business, and earns the esteem of others, it is as if one has fulfilled the whole Torah (Mechilta, Vayassa).“ Religion may begin at home, but it should never end there. If it does not move us to decency and goodness, it matters not at all what pieties we profess.