JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Posted in: Rabbi: Kick Madoff out of the Jewish people

12/30/08 02:41 PM

Ima Gentile writes "As a gentile, allow me to comment on what I perceive to be the essence of Rabbi Hammerman’s letter. Rabbi Hammerman seems to condemn Madoff because of what he did to Jews and to Jewish charities." No. You are missing his point completely. The question Rabbi Hammermann is answering is not 'what should happen to Madoff because of his crimes?' but rather 'what should be the response of the organized Jewish community to Madoff?' which is something rabbis ought legitimately be expected to comment upon. Did Madoff hurt non-Jews? By the thousands, see: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,472866,00.html But he also (and primarily, I think it is going to become clear) hurt Jews and Jewish organizations, and that is what Rabbi Hammmermann is responding to, which is completely appropriate. Marat BN writes: "First of all, how do you make somebody “un-Jewish” after they have been born Jewish?" You don't. Excommunication won't make Madoff not-Jewish. It will merely set the terms of the Jewish communities non-engagement with him. Jews have historically dealt with those amongst themselves that endangered/harmed the Jewish community as a whole in this way. A famous case: "[Baruch] Spinoza became known in the Jewish community for positions contrary to normative Jewish belief, with critical positions towards the Talmud and other religious texts. In the summer of 1656, he was issued the writ of cherem (Hebrew: חרם, a kind of excommunication) from the Jewish community [..]. Righteous indignation on the part of the synagogue elders at Spinoza's heresies was probably not the sole cause for the excommunication; there was also the practical concern that his ideas, which disagree equally well with the orthodoxies of other religions as with Judaism, would not sit well with the Christian leaders of Amsterdam and would reflect badly on the whole Jewish community, endangering the limited freedoms that the Jews had achieved in that city. The terms of his cherem were severe. [..] It was never revoked." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedict_Spinoza#Controversial_ideas_and_Jewish_reaction Marat BN also writes: "Madoff will be prosecuted in a criminal court, and if convicted guilty he will be sent to prison and forced to pay a fine. Upon the completion of this burden he will be given a chance to return to the society. That is how criminal activity is dealt with in modern civilized society." No, that is how criminal activity is dealt with in modern, secular society. Madoff will surely be subject to the process you describe, and no one (including Rabbi Hammermann) has suggested that he will not or should not be. But inside the our large, modern, secular society are a whole bunch of smaller communities: blacks, whites, Latinos; straights, gays; the elderly, the young; Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, etc. ... and Jews. And as a religious community, Jews have their own religious Law. (Catholics, too: they call it 'canon law.' And Muslims: 'shari'a.') Religious Law regulates the relationships between individual members of the particular community, and between members of the community and the entire community. Assuming the charges are true (and there are reports that he's confessed) Madoff has acted in such a way as to egregiously harm the Jewish community. They must respond to that in some way. Rabbi Hammermann has suggested a response, and made the case for it being the appropriate response. I agree with him. Madoff will probably also go to jail, but that will be the response of the larger, secular society; it is also an appropriate response. In sum, this is a 'both/and' situation, not an 'either/or' situation, which Rabbi Hammermann could perhaps have made clearer. Best, Schneider