Itz not the stealing that's the problem, itz getting exposed while doing the stealing. "Get that spotlight off me, you anti-Semitic bastard!"

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Rabbis' arrests touched a raw nerve in the Jewish community
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Last updated: Wednesday August 5, 2009, 8:43 PM
BY MEREDITH MANDELL
The Record
STAFF WRITER

The day after five Orthodox rabbis were charged in an international money-laundering scheme, Elyse Frishman, rabbi of Barnert Temple in Franklin Lakes, was moved to write to her 485 congregants.

“How could an Orthodox Rabbi be corrupt?” Frishman asked in her letter, counseling congregants that “being Orthodox or Reform implies no indication of religious character.” She wrote that, “the emphasis of religious must be on character – and that is only demonstrated by ethical behavior and giving deeds.”

Images of the handcuffed rabbis being marched into federal court on July 23 touched a raw nerve in the Jewish community, igniting passionate reactions in the blogosphere, around dinner tables and at Friday night services.

“First Madoff and now this?” is a common refrain among Jews who worry the scandal intensifies bad press from Bernard Madoff’s multibillion-dollar ponzi scheme, and may provoke anti-Semitism or reinforce a “Shylock” stereotype.

The rabbis arrested July 23 are accused of using charities affiliated with their synagogues to launder enormous amounts of money generated by unlawful activities. They were among 44 people, including elected and appointed public servants, rounded up in a broad federal corruption sweep.

Frishman, 54, who recently edited a prayer book for the Reformed Movement, said in a recent interview that congregants thanked her for giving them “the language to manage (the corruption scandal) when people ask us about this.” Many congregants said they’d been asked questions by non-Jewish co-workers and friends, but didn’t know how to respond.

“People had this feeling right in the first few days, ‘What do we say? We’re embarrassed,’” she said. “We want to see Jews doing the right thing and contributing to the world. We feel so proud of Jews who have excelled, whether it’s through invention or philanthropy, and feel hurt by those who do the opposite — Madoff and the others before him,” she said.

Deborah Lauter, a Manhattan-based civil rights lawyer in the national office of the Anti-Defamation League, said the group regularly monitors Web sites of the mainstream press and more extremist sites, and noticed an uptick in hate speech in the wake of the arrests. For example, one reader posted this in the comments section of the New York Post’s Web site:

“Rabbis are involved in money-laundering? This proves that there is no such thing as a Jewish religion outside of money worship. How many more of these financial crimes do we need to happen before we shut down all the synagogues across the country. Time to shut it all down and withdraw all support to Israel.”

Maurice Elias, Rutgers University professor of psychology, leads the school’s Jewish Adolescent Identity Project.

Elias said he’s been trying better to understand how Jewish youth form their identity amidst an “American culture that doesn’t promote Jewish identity.” A “culture of greed,” he said, competes against the Jewish ethical culture.

“We all do have a sense of discomfort when members of our group do things we regret — folks who are members of the same reference group,” he said. Elias said the media loved playing off the shock of rabbis who do wrong.

“In the media, we tend to amplify negative exceptions,” he said. “How many rabbis at the same moment that these rabbis have been doing something regrettable, how many of them have been engaging in genuine acts of charity?”

In Hoboken, Rabbi Robert Scheinberg said that members of his Conservative congregation, United Synagogue of Hoboken, called him the morning of July 23 as the story broke. Schienberg had attended the swearing-in ceremony of Anthony Cammarano, who stepped down as Hoboken mayor after his arrest in the corruption sweep. Scheinberg said his congregants said they saw the words “rabbi,” “Hoboken” and “arrested,” and made assumptions that were not true.

“I saw many errors in the news stories, especially in how the story was spun in places around the world,” Scheinberg said.

Schienberg wrote a letter to his congregants, which he later posted on his blog, saying that the only connection between the money-laundering scheme and the political corruption schemes was the cooperating witness: Solomon Dwek, a member of the Syrian Jewish community in Deal, at the Jersey Shore, who in 2006 was charged with bank fraud.

“The conflation of these stories fed into some people’s anti-Semitic preconceptions.” Recent news reports are more responsible, he said.

As a response to the arrests, the rabbi led a discussion on Saturday entitled “bribery in the Jewish tradition.” He was careful to note the discussion was provoked by the “Hoboken community issue” not a “Jewish community issue.”

Schienberg discussed biblical passages from Exodus 23: “Do not take bribes, for bribes blind the clear-sighted and upset the pleas of those who are in the right.”

“It’s a modern problem but it’s an ancient problem,” he said in his office, as he read over a handout he created for the discussion on the eve of Shabbat.

http://www.northjersey.com/community/religion/jewish_street_placeholder.html

[color="Blue"]The following are comments added by readers of this article on the newspaper's website:

keefer says:
The truth hurts is right. And according to religous law, you Elyse Fishman ( gotta choke myself) are not a Rabbi. Go clean up your own community and realize that Jews are baiters. Please shower before you go to bed.
8/5/2009 10:54PM EDT

Dominick says:
This is the result of worshipping money as your God. And I second what Quietstorm says. A Jew who isn't a money-grubbing Goy-hater is the exception, not the norm. I think histroy has proven that beyond a shadow of a doubt. Now if we could only figure out a way to relinquish the deathgrip they have over this country...
8/5/2009 10:27PM EDT

Quietstorm says:
lumpy - Small portion my foot!
8/5/2009 10:19PM EDT

lumpyeddie says:
The Jewish community needs to show no mercy in their condemnation of Jews that commit the types of acts that reinforce the stereotype. The reality is these acts are perpetrated by a small portion of the Jewish population, and every 500 years or so the whole population pays tragically.
8/5/2009 10:09PM EDT

Dominick says:
THE TRUTH HURTS. They have a well-deserved reputation.
8/5/2009 8:50PM EDT