Our Low Moment

There are some Jewish leaders who compare “Madoff-gate” to the Holocaust. Personally, I hate drawing any type of parallel about the worst event in the history of man to anything. To do so denigrates the memory of the 12 million who perished.

I do agree, however, when I hear people describe this current economic crisis as “the worst since the Great Depression.” I believe that Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, which made billions disappear, is the most despicable incident to happen to the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Sure, there have been tragic events in Israel’s 60-year statehood, but the feisty little nation always seems to come out victorious.

If the Holocaust was the nadir of the Jewish timeline, then the founding of Israel three years later was the zenith in 2,000 years, providing the tiniest bit of salvation for the horrific genocide. What good, if any, will come out of Madoff squandering billions of dollars from Jewish organizations and reinforcing the age-old stereotype of Jewish greed? What will bloom after Madoff forced several Jewish organizations to shut down, others to cut scholarships, and gave the world the wrong impression that Jews control international financial markets and are doing so illegally?

One local Jewish leader I spoke with was in despair over the devastation to Jewish groups such as Yeshiva University ($100 million gone) and Haddasah ($95 million evaporated).

He professed hope that this will be a turning point for the Jewish people to commit to teshuvah, to return to Jewish values. Those values include giving anonymously where the funds are most needed, not just for the sake of putting a family name on an edifice or a lobby. Those values include performing acts of great philanthropic kindness and difference, and not just accumulating vast sums of money to be the first to own the latest Gulfstream personal aircraft.

I had the same dream after 9/11. I thought that we finally valued firemen more than Britney Spears. I hoped our priorities would return to real heroes and away from the material ones based in Hollywood.

That lasted a full three months. I doubt that the Madoff affair will bring us back to reality for longer than it takes to get this economy back cranking again.

I’ve often used this column to challenge and cajole the Muslim world to take some responsibility and leadership in bringing Islam back to a peaceful, loving religion, and not let it continue to be hijacked by radical terrorists. Most of the Islamic world remains eerily silent as their fellow Muslims murder in the name of Allah in Gaza, Iraq and India.

It’s time to look at ourselves now and our values. It’s time our leadership stepped up and provided guidance for the Jewish people. There is no shortage of Jewish leadership. The question is, how we can learn from this? The question is, how do we stop, in the words of Shoshana S. Cardin, “worshipping the new god of green and gold?”

Over the weekend, I saw the movie “Seven Pounds,” which critics claim to be too depressing for this festive time of year. The film is about redemption and performing a huge self-sacrifice to make up for a terrible mistake. It’s the story of attempting teshuvah to make tikkun olam, repairing the world.

The Jews have this ability. We have done this, and many of us continue to do so. However, too many of us got caught up in the selfish greed sweeping the nation. Too many of us got complacent and forgot to question whether something was too good to be true. We suspended following the basic rules that all things material eventually must go down in value, because we were lulled into believing our houses would be worth more, our portfolios would increase in value every year, and that we could afford things that we really couldn’t.

For the vast majority, Jews continue to be law-abiding and stunning examples of how to make the world a better place. We can’t, however, allow the Jewish brand to be tarnished by the few who aren’t, just as the radical Muslims do for Islam.

Now is the time for the Jewish leadership to stand and speak up about the right way for Jews of the world. As one Jewish leader, Rahm Emanuel, recently said, “Don’t miss an opportunity to take advantage of a good crisis.”

Perhaps this will be the time we return to our core values and really do make something positive happen, as we did after our last low moment.