‘Uncle Bernie’ And the Jews

While not Jewish myself, I have an admiration for the Jewish work ethic as delineated on the second page. Maybe it is because I grew up in a predominately Jewish area on Long Island. As a kid, I delivered their papers and I mowed their lawns. They taught me the meaning of making a buck and I haven't forgotten it. Personally, I can't see the point of golfing either; it seems so trivial. I mean if you need exercise, talk a walk!

The Madoff case presents an excellent learning experience for new investors looking to build wealth in the stock market, or should I say, the auction sale? Both are very similar.

Instead of attending the auction sale yourself, give the money to Mr. Madoff, as he is the ???auctioneer??? e.g. NASDAQ, (without the auctioneer, the auction cannot happen. Uh-oh, we???re screwed!) Now, through this process, he has excellent insiders leverage, and ability to manipulate the entire auction and get his customers the best deal on everything offered. No wonder so many people wanted to be an acquaintance of his!

Auctioning aside, I wonder how many of Mr. Madoff???s clients took out multiple low interest loans or liens in real estate, and invested with Mr. Madoff for much higher returns?

Before I moved back in with my parents, the Jewish neighbors down the hall had some excellent advice for me while I was crawling down the stairs on my way to work: ???Nobody works here.???

While Boca Raton might be less milk and honey and more gin and tonic, isn't a prosperous and relatively easy lifestyle just what the elder "tribal leaders" would have wanted for their future offspring? Mr. Epstein writes as if he were a despondent university student jealous of his wealthier friends, who's only perceived recourse is to bemoan the assimilation of the chosen people into the upper reaches of the American socioeconomic scale--how dare they choose anglo-saxon sounding names for their children! I hope Mr. Epstein's saddle is comfortable up there.

Tyler, Mackenzie, Hunter and Kelly are all celebrated in the pages of the NY Observer. The world is their shellfish. They are an odd lot, to be sure, and it looks like Ivanka Trump is looking to join their ranks.

I'm smirking on the sidelines, being neither well-off nor Jewish.

A judge within the last hour declined to jail Mr. Madoff. The man will be forgiven seventy times seven times. Where is the outrage?

Isn't there a serious problem with the blatant advocacy of tribalism implicit in this article? Why does the author think it is such a wonderful thing if Jews ARE "a people apart" from other people? If a group (ANY group) goes to great trouble to BE apart from others, the members of that group have no legitimate complaint if the others thus excluded TREAT them as aliens, as a people apart, as "others".

Perhaps BEING separate from other people was the only way to preserve the moral values of Judaism, especially in the most turbulent days of Middle East history, under waves of invasion by Assyrians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, and/or amidst the lands of OTHER tribal peoples... Arabs, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Edomites, whatever. Judaism, however, is no longer under violent assault and threat of compulsion in much of the world (in Europe, America or Australia, for example)...and in those places, especially, the practices and teachings (as those concerning what is ritually "unclean") by which Jews distance themselves intentionally from the rest of the population in which they live, while they may act to conserve a particularly Jewish cultural identity, that intentionally separate cultural identity has its price. If its advocates don't like the price, it is for them to evaluate the continuing value of this intentional separation.

I have read the full article after posting an earlier comment (i.e. postnow @..) upon reading first page and mistakenly believing it was the full article, due to format. In consequence I do not believe my statement about Joe Epstein being possibly self -hating anti-semite is correct and for this I apologize. However that being said, the article has still veered off the mark in a number of areas, and I still take issue with reference to Bernie Madoff as "Uncle Bernie" , an epithet which should not apply to a betrayer of Jewish principles. Further referring to Episcopalians in " ..lives like an Episcopalians" is unfair to both Jews and Episcopalians. This brings me to my core gripe with the article : it paints in strokes too broad containing its own pet biases. The implied death knoll for the American Jew is premature and the condemnation of golf playing Jews or those who have acquired their wealth through inheritance (which he depicts in an excessively extensive manner) too hasty. There is no rational cultural incompatibility with taking up golf or for that matter bicycling, skiing etc by Jews simply because this was not done by parents or grandparents (My Dad in fact liked soccer in his day which has enjoyed renewal two generations later). Taking on some of one's immediate American or otherwise national recreational /pastimes actually makes for a more diverse Judaism as long as one remains true to the central religious and normative pursuits. In fact talmudic teaching contains an element of "the body is temple to the nefesh (soul) " so that in actuality such activities represent a sound synthesis. As far as naming is concerned Mr. Epstein a bit behind the times (currency of ancient biblical names) . Hopefully he may get up to speed here and in many of his characterizations both for sake of himself and his readers.

Articles like this really bust my chops. When Enron and World.com went down did their bad guys become a christian stereotype? Is George Bush's legacy a christian stereotype? You know, maybe Made-off is just a really sleazy guy regardless of his religious background. Epstein and Newsweek are the ones pushing the Jewish sterotype angle, makes me wonder who the bigots really are? Shame on Epstein for his race centric whining, shame on Newsweek for their decreasing standards of reporting. For the love of all that is still good in this world, give it a rest.

The world has learned of many cheats ,but the likes of Bernie Madoff are at best a rarity.Institutions,such as Citi Group and SHBC are not easy to make prey.

The world has learned of many cheats ,but the likes of Bernie Madoff are at best a rarity.Institutions,such as Citi Group and SHBC are not easy to make prey.

Why not write a critique comparing gentile, Walter Noel and his sons-in- laws who were not Jewish to Jewish, Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744???1812) and his sons, who developed a finance house and spread his empire by installing each of his five sons in European cities to conduct business? The brothers helped co-ordinate activities across the continent, and the family developed a network of agents, shippers and couriers to transport gold and information across Europe. The Rothschild family banking businesses pioneered international high finance during the industrialisation of Europe and were instrumental in supporting railway systems across the world and in complex government financing for projects such as the Suez Canal. After amassing huge fortunes, the name Rothschild became synonymous with banking and great wealth.
All Noel's boys did, was make sure every country in South America, Europe, and Asia which had a wealthy banking institution and a rich citizen or two were "in like flint" with Bernie Madoff. These cocky guys took easy street, and not one of these gentiles did their due-diligence homework for their gentile/ arab clients! However, they got great commisions from the likes of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority for their father in law's Fairfield Greenwich Group.
So the Arabs ended up in the same boat as the Jewish charities! Greed is an equal opportunity deadly sin, didn't ya know?
So, Joe the geek, you are a feckless Jew who didn't quite complete this article with the proper facts. You are most likely very physically uncoordinated with neither an interest in a healthy existence/cardio strengthening nor longevity.
Living in a warm climate on a golf course, thanking god everyday, you still have the abillity at age 86 to play 18 holes of golf 3 times a week in the middle of January is a mitzvah from god, himself. "ahlavi" as we say!
while you are freezing your atrophying kishkas off ( from lack of use) in Manhattan, no doubt going to your weekly shrink appointment and wondering why your joyless life is filled with such inner emptiness, my father is smiling! He's the 86 year old golfer, and deserves to spend his hard-earned money (from Depression era destitution) living a healthy life thanks to a daily dose of vitamin d (sunshine)!
Every day is a bonus day for him and his pals who deserve to enjoy the hobbies they have developed over the years. More than anyone can say for you. Better you should spend the money you spend on a shrink on golf lessons.
Sad to say, Mr. Epstein... you are not a mensch, rather a Jewish Embarassment!

"Mackenzie Rosenthal"
Boca Raton, Fl.

p.s. Ben and Charles, please rebut this creepy jew!!

ATTEN: BEN STEIN AND CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER

Don't you guys contribute to this rag, which allowed this "'envious" social critic and self-hating Jew to malign an entire ethnic segment of society?
Respondez-vous s'il vous plait.!! ASAP!!!

I see that this uncouth wordsmith replete with platitudes, but omitting any reference to the Jews in the 'Hamptons, is notorious for his stereotyping of modern attitudes. Yet, he managed for a time to make his way as editor of the American Scholar, and wrote a book on "Snobbery" in Berkeley and in Manhattan:
AT LEAST HE CAN BE AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY BASHER....

Jul 18, 2002 | Snobbery is a very complicated behavior.

"In Berkeley, Calif., where I used to live, snobbery was political; those of us who sent our kids to public school and brought our own mugs to the coffee shop felt mildly superior to private school parents who tolerated single-serve containers. On the Upper East Side of New York, site of my current digs, snobbery is about places and things; every restaurant, every dog breed, every pair of shoes has a precise snob quotient. In the American South, snobbery still revolves around your ancestors; a Southern friend recalls grown-ups trying to place her by asking, "Sugar, who's your daddy?" In New England, reverse snobbery is the order of the day; celebrities summering on Martha's Vineyard like nothing more than going to the town dump and scavenging, then bragging about their finds at catered cocktail parties. (Within hearing of the wait staff, for whom cruising the dump is a lifestyle necessity, not a lark.)"

Snobbery: The American Version

By Joseph Epstein Houghton Mifflin 288 pages

This jerk is exactly like Madoff, a self-absorbed grandiose, envious narcissist who lacks empathy, and requires constant admiration! Who cleared this article for publication? Must have been a non-Jew, maybe a Hamas leader, with a "mens rea". Timely you might say...

"Mackenzie Rosenthal"

En tant que Français, je suis toujours aussi surpris et étonné par votre façon de lire le monde sous l'angle des communautés. C'est une réalité que notre idéal républicain tente d'exorciser... pour le meilleur. Créer un espace, fictif peut être, en tout cas public, commun, où les citoyens soient égaux. C'est ce que porte notre culture laïque, une république "une et indivisible". C'est un idéal, qui permet de conjurer les haines, en attendant que les temps du manque, de l'incertitude et de la frustration reviennent. "Faites que jamais ne revienne, le temps du sang et de la haine" (Barbara).

What's with the sarcasm about names? In the 1930s and 1940s, Hymen became Hal, Rivka became Rebecca and Aaron became Harry. The Greenbergs became the Greenes and the Moscovits became the Marks family. There is nothing new about anglicizing names. I'm sure the grandparents weren't too thrilled when Reuben Kaminsky became Robert Kaye back in the day. There's noting particular to this generation about giving popular, anglicized names to their children. In fact, there's nothing particularly Jewish about it. Just ask Dame Ilyena Vasilievna Mironov, aka Helen Mirren. Many non-Jews anglicanized their Russian, Polish and Italian names. Even the Irish changed Seamus to James and Padraig to Pat. Then those guys went and named their kids Robin, Dawn and Jennifer.

If you want to name your son Schmuel, go right ahead. It won't stand out in Crown Heights, but in public schools In Nevada, Oklahoma or even Long Island, your kid's name is going to sound odder than Brett Mendelson.

Please remember that Arabic, like Hebrew, is a Semitic language. We all trace our roots back to Abraham, and I'm sure you might find that outside of politics, non-Jews have a lot in common with their Jewish counterparts.

What a wandering article that really should have been entitled "Jewish Assimilation into America." How did what promised to be a trouncing of Madoff and his betrayal of his Jewish brothers become a social commentary on how Jews are Wasp-ifying themselves. This piece is an inside job of Jew-bashing.

DON'T DRAG WE EPISCOPALIANS INTO THIS! WE HAVE OUR OWN PROBLEMS!!

Madoff's investment firm hired hundred of people to do phony reporting to investors. therefore quite a number of those high paid employees could be indicted and spend time in jail as previously done in Enron only a few years ago. Why the Fed, or SEC allow such questionable business to exist by not demanding to know the asset of the company ?

"Co-religionists"? Madoff's "god" is himself. Jews in America don't need anything but their Creator's approval.