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The Madoff Paradox: American Jewish Sage, Savior, and Thief

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2012

MICHAEL BERKOWITZ
MICHAEL BERKOWITZ
Affiliation:
Michael Berkowitz is Professor of Modern Jewish History in the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University College London, WC1E 6BT. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

Bernie Madoff perpetrated a Ponzi scheme on a scale that was gargantuan even compared with the outrageously destructive Enron and Worldcom debacles. A major aspect of the Madoff story is his rise as a specifically American Jewish type, who self-consciously exploited stereotypes to inspire trust and confidence in his counsel. Styling himself as a benefactor and protector of Jews as individuals and institutional Jewish interests, and possibly in the guise of the Jewish historical trope of shtadlan (intercessor), he was willing to threaten the well-being of all those enmeshed in his empire. The license granted to Madoff stemmed in part from the extent to which he appeared to diverge from earlier Jewish financial titans, such as Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken, in that he epitomized an absolute “insider” – as opposed to an “outsider” or marginal figure. In reality he had none of the supposedly humane virtues attributed to Jewish crooks, at least in the realm of popular culture.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , February 2012 , pp. 189 - 202
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

1 Series Three, Episode Six, “Don't Forget to Thank Mr. Zedeck,” Damages (FX Network, 2010).

2 David Hinckley, “Third Season of FX's ‘Damages’ Pits Glenn Close's Patty Hewes against Bernie Madoff Clone,” Daily News (New York), 25 Jan. 2010, online at www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2010/01/25/2010-01-25_third_season_of_fxs_damages_pits_glenn_closes_patty_hewes_against_bernie_madoff_.html.

3 “Tobin” is played by Len Cariou, not a well-known actor. But Ruth is portrayed by Lily Tomlin, who looks nothing like the blonde, petite spouse of Bernie.

4 In the show, the relationship between the federal and the local Manhattan court systems is convoluted. The actual case was initiated by the United States District Court, Southern District of New York: United States of America v. Bernard L. Madoff, Defendant.

5 Tara Summers, who also played a sexy English lawyer in “Boston Legal,” another intelligent series with mainly non-Jewish lawyers.

6 In real life (more or less) he is Dominic Chianse, born 1931 in the Bronx.

7 The executive producer/creator/writer/director is Todd A. Kessler; his partners are his brother, Glenn, and Daniel Zelman; see www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/damages/crew.php.

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10 An excellent, concise analysis of the scheme is the PBS Frontline special, “The Madoff Affair,” at www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/madoff/view.

11 Guesnet, Francois, Polnische Juden im 19. Jahrhundert. Lebensbedingungen, Rechtsnormen und Organisations im Wandel (Vienna: Böhlau, 1998), 49–50Google Scholar; Ury, Scott, “The ‘shtadlan’ of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth: Noble Opportunist or Unbridled Opportunist?”, Polin, 15 (2002), 267–99Google Scholar.

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13 Michael Skakun and Ken Libo, “Sconces and Scrapbooks: A Visit to the Madoffs: First Person,” Forward, 4 June 2010, online at www.forward.com/articles/14756.

14 Markopolos, Harry, No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller (New York: Wiley, 2010)Google Scholar; Arvedlund, Erin, Too Good to Be True: The Rise and Fall of Bernie Madoff (New York: Portfolio, 2009)Google Scholar; see also Kirtzman, Andrew, Betrayal: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff (New York: Harper, 2009)Google Scholar; Oppenheimer, Jerry, Madoff with the Money (New York: Wiley, 2009)Google Scholar.

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17 See Bradley Burston, “The Madoff Betrayal: Life Imitates Anti-Semitism,” Haaretz, 16 Dec. 2008.

18 See Mark Seal, “Madoff's World,” Vanity Fair (April 2009), online at www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/04/madoff200904?printable=true&currentPage=all. Concerning the case of Laura Goldman, Madoff is quoted as rationalizing use of a rinky-dink accounting firm by claiming that it saved him money which he would then pass on, as “Jews like a discount.” Ibid., 16. He also used non-Jews from the “underworld of dubious middlemen … Frank Avellino and Michael Bienes.” Ibid., 20.

19 Ibid., 17. See Reuters, “Weisel Says He Cannot Forgive Madoff,” in Haaretz, 3 Jan. 2009.

20 The exception is Robert Jaffe, in some respects similar to Madoff as an under-achieving student.

21 Lea, Robert and Mendick, Robert, “Madoff: The London Connection. Family Linked to US Financier Is Biggest Loser in Pyramid Scam,” Evening Standard (London), 17 Dec. 2008, 5Google Scholar; see also Eric Konigsberg, “In Fraud Case, Middlemen in Spotlight,” New York Times, 17 Dec. 2008.

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24 Frontline.

25 Esther Baruh, “‘The Owner's Name Is on the Door” – Alleged Ponzi Scheme Slams Investment, Charity Communities,” Yeshiva University Observer, 30 Dec. 2008.

26 Compare to Seal, 7–8.

27 This point is raised in numerous articles and books; see ibid., 8–9.

28 Only later and infrequently; see ibid.

29 There are apparently only two universities that received money from him directly: Queens College and the University of Pennsylvania. His wife was graduate of Queens, and, interestingly, the money given was specifically to improve the “signage” on campus; see Office of Communications Press Release, 30 March 2006, Queens College, at www.qc.cuny.edu/nis/Releases/viewNews.php?id=198. His two sons went to the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania; see Leading the American Dream: The Campaign for Queens College (university fundraising brochure, 2006?). Interestingly, Seal notes that “his own favorite charity – the Lymphoma Research Foundation – did not invest in his fund.” Seal, 10.

30 For instance, Markopolos did not recognize any connection – because there was nothing direct and traceable. Seal identifies “the two tycoons he loved as surrogate fathers … Norman F. Levy [and] Carl J. Shapiro.” Seal, 10.

31 See www.nytimes.com/2001/08/25/business/boyd-l-jefferies-dies-at-70-headed-institutional-broker.html.

32 Jonathan D. Glater, “Boyd L. Jefferies Dies at 70; Headed Institutional Broker,” New York Times, 25 Aug. 2001.

33 See www.nytimes.com/2001/08/25/business/boyd-l-jefferies-dies-at-70-headed-institutional-broker.html. Madoff delivered a eulogy for Norman Levy in 2005 but this was apparently unrecorded; Seal, 4.

34 Glater.

35 Berkowitz, 1–23; idem, “Rags and Riches, or Bogeymen of the Bourse: Antisemitism and the Abstract Economy in England, the United States, France, and Central Europe, 1720–1900,” in Ilana Y. Zinguer and Sam W. Bloom, eds., Inclusion and Exclusion: Perspectives on Jews from the Enlightenment to the Dreyfus Affair (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 267–74.

36 Michael Berkowitz, “Unmasking Counterhistory: An Introductory Exploration of Criminality and the Jewish Question,” in Peter Becker and Richard F. Wetzell, eds., The Criminal and His Scientists: The History of Criminology in International Perspective (New York: The German Historical Institute and Cambridge University Press, 2006), 61–84.

37 Ginsberg, Benjamin, The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993)Google Scholar.

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39 See Katcher, Leo, The Big Bankroll: The Life and Times of Arnold Rothstein (New York: Da Capo, 1994; first published 1958), 164–90Google Scholar, 194–212. Markopolos, probably correctly, feared that blowing the whistle on Madoff might have led to him suffering physical harm; see Diana Henriques, “Witness on Madoff Tells of Fear of Safety,” New York Times, 4 Feb. 2009.

40 On Marc Rich see Ammann, Daniel, The King of Oil: The Secret Lives of Marc Rich (New York: St. Martins, 2010)Google Scholar; review in Haaretz by Ruth Schuster.

41 Bower, Tom, Maxwell: The Final Verdict (New York: HarperCollins, 2008)Google Scholar.

42 See www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/business/15cook.html. See also the characterization of Ernest Saunders in Guinness, Jonathan, Requiem for a Family Business (London: Pan Books, 1997)Google Scholar.

43 Alison Leigh Cowan, “A Madoff Cookbook Has a Secret, Too,” New York Times, 15 Jan. 2009.

44 He said little, if anything. Quotes from Madoff in the press rarely exceed a single, simple line. “Bernie was quiet, not a storyteller, not a conversationalist … I often thought he was perhaps bored. He was just Bernie, pleasant and polite.” Carmen Dell'Orefice, quoted in Seal, “Madoff's World,” 2; cf. 14. Being There (1979, dir. Hal Ashby), was based on the 1971 novel by Jerzy Kosinski.

45 Claudio Gatti and Diana B. Henriques, “JP Morgan Exited Madoff-Linked Funds Last Fall,” New York Times, 29 Jan. 2009.

46 Cowan.

47 Madoff, Ruth and Schoenheimer, Idee, The Great Chefs of America Cook Kosher: Over 175 Recipes from America's Greatest Restaurants (New York: Vital Media Enterprises, 1996)Google Scholar. The book was, in fact, entirely written by Karen MacNeil, given credit as “editor’ of the book; see Cowan. Possibly because of the NYT article, MacNeil is now listed as an “author.”

48 Miles Goslett, “I Just Can't Live with that Camera – It's Not Square … Inside the Bizarre World of £30bn Pyramid Schemester Bernie Madoff,” Daily Mail, 3 Jan. 2009, 4 (internet edn); Bill Condie, “Madoff, the Mayfair Greasy Spoon and Boots Face Cream,” in Daily Mail, 5 Jan. 2009.

49 Michael Skakun and Ken Libo, “Sconces and Scrapbooks: A Visit to the Madoffs: First Person,” in Forward, 4 June 2010, on line at www.forward.com/articles/14756.

50 Seal, 5.