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December 19, 2008 | 3:44 pm

JewishJournal.com is ‘not a Jew hating site per se’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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I really shouldn’t direct readers to the new blog from Martini “Kike” Leaf. But his most recent post is just too much It’s called the Bernie Madoff Blog, but really it’s just a forum for ranting against me and The Jewish Journal. A sampling:

Jew Haters are having a field day with the Madoff allegations. One Jew hating poster from a Jew Hating Web Site had the following to say:

In doing all this, Madoff soiled the very word, “Jew.”

“The greatest American Jewish crime since the Rosenbergs,” .... An exaggeration? The Rosenbergs were traitors to the nation’s defense, Madoff to our financial system. But Madoff, with his posturing involvement in Yeshiva University, makes the Jewish claim to ethical standards look like a bad joke. The saving grace is that, ... at least many of his victims are Jews.

For readers inclined to come to the defense of the supposedly soiled Jewish people,I have to reveal that I lied. The above quote was taken from an editorial in The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, not from a Jew Hating site per se. The Jewish Journal touts itself as the largest American Jewish publication outside of New York City. If that quote wasn’t bad enough, it is even worse that the above quote was from Mr. Rob Eshman, an editorial writer for the Jewish Journal.

I know. I was laughing out loud too.

Leaf, a real mensch, goes on to attack me again and say Rob is “delusional, presumptuous, and foolish for proclaiming anything about the word ‘Jew’” and attacks the Journal and other “Jewish” publications for suggesting that Madoff’s alleged crime says something negative about Jewish values. Oddly, I haven’t read anywhere but in the comments section here and on the white-wing blogs any denigration of Judaism and observance of the law. What I have seen is constructive introspection:

“The Jewish community better get serious about the cancer that’s growing inside it. The devastation on Wall Street carries a lot of Jewish names, from firms like Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers to individuals such as Bernard Madoff, whose $50 billion Ponzi scheme collapsed last week, and lawyer Marc Dreier, arrested Dec. 7 for defrauding investors of hundreds of millions of dollars,” Rabbi Shmuley Boteach writes.

“On the Internet, more and more people who don’t like us are beginning to connect the dots, pointing out that there are an awful lot of Jews who bear responsibility for Wall Street’s fall. But that’s not what bothers me. Anti-Semites will always find something to hate us for, and I’m way too busy to worry about what a bunch of bigots think anyway.

“Rather, what worries me is this: What if some of it is true? What if our community has become too obsessed with money? What if our values have become about wearing the most expensive Cartier watch and driving a souped-up Mercedes? What if a disproportionately large number of young Jews are running to work on Wall Street and never even considering jobs like teaching, the rabbinate or outreach because the compensation, comparatively, stinks?”

I’m not really sure what planet Leaf, who arrived here over the weekend, lives on. His comments wreak of not only Jewish supremacism but intra-Jewish exclusiveness He has said Madoff is getting lynch mobbed; has never heard of Rabbi David Wolpe and attaches air-quotes to religious title of Rabbi Elliot Dorff; and appears to think any argument can be won by citing statistics that suggest Jews have higher-than-average IQs. I don’t dispute that last point; I just don’t see how it’s relevant.

“The funny thing,” a friend said to me after reach Leaf’s comments, “is that his argument is almost exactly Hitler’s”

But I must tip my hat to Leaf. He outed me for the “Jew-hater” I really am. It took 20 months of covering the heart of LA Jewish life for somebody to realize I was not only a fraud but a cancer. Just reading the words I wrote, he knew, before even realizing I was Christian, that I was a Jew-hater. Bravo, Mr. Leaf.

Then again, Leaf seems to believe anyone with a Jewish perspective other than his wishes they had never been circumcised. Here he is berating a Jew he later refers to as Heil Heller:

“You are a self hating Jew. The gentiles can be Jew haters, that is all too common, but there is something even worse about a self hating Jew. You mean to say that the gentile auto execs are not as crooked as any other type of executives ? Or maybe the fact that Arafat stole billions from the Palestinians was just abberent non Jewish behavior? To say that Jews should be better than other people is in and of itself racist. Of course all religious people of any faith should be held to the higher standards religious people represent. Was the governor of Illinois Jewish, or the mayor of Detroit ? Get a Jewish backbone Mr. Heller and stop being so afraid of being Jewish.”

* Updated: That image is of our satirical Purim cover from this spring. Believe it or not, there are members in the community who refer to us as the “Jewish” Journal and the Not Jewish Journal. This is to be expected. Jews have sayings like “two Jews, three opinions” and “one Jew, two synagogues.” Inevitably, we can’t please everyone.

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I have to agree with Leaf’s comments. And what exactly is the point of reposting that blasphemous cover of the J-man and Jew-hating headlines again? You are only backing up Leaf’s assertion that the Journal is full of Jew haters as you probably know yourself.

Comment by Reality on 12/19/08 at 6:51 pm

Brad:
      I’m a zionist through and through. Going back to Camp Betar. AIPAC, the RJC, FIDF. More than I can name. I’m fairly observant and practically have chicken fat running through my veins. Having said that Madoff really is a cancer. And should do the right thing, and kill himself.  There is something wrong with our community,
million dollar bar mitzvahs, check book judaism running rampant. Something is wrong with the system both here and in Israel. and I fear for the future, I really do.

Comment by Bill Pearlman on 12/19/08 at 11:25 pm

Bill, what time does Shabbos start where you are, because your post says 7:25. Being fairly observant it must still be light outside. You have immersed yourself in so much Jewish culture, but have you also been around wealthy Gentiles ? They spend the same amount on their communions and parties. Thats been my experience. Of course, jews being more liberal, might have more immodest things going on, compared to Gentiles, such as expensive “dates” for the bar mitzvah boys.

Jews as a group are equal if not better than Gentiles according to every statistic available concerning criminal behavior. Although every group has room for improvement, Jews included.
You believe “Bad Jews” deserve to die. There are millions of people that agree with you and are dying to do that job for free. They are training right now.

Comment by Martini "Kike" Leaf on 12/20/08 at 2:18 am

Never said I was shomer shabbos, just fairly observant. Big difference. But I digress. This isn’t a Jewish-gentile comparison. Bernie Madoff did damage to his own people that is going to take YEARS to get over YEARS. And it wasn’t David Duke or louis Farrakhan who did it. It was “Uncle Bernie” board member of yeshiva university. I was reading that he wiped out the gift of life foundation. People, Jews, are going to DIE because of this man. So, yes, I was serious. He should do the right thing and put a bullet through his head. This isn’t a guy who is a victim of anti-semitism. This is a guy who preyed on other Jews to steal money.

Comment by bill Pearlman on 12/20/08 at 1:31 pm

Should he die before his trial, or after ? Or is a trial a little detail we really don’t need in order to mete out justice ?

I don’t think Jewish law allows execution under these circumstances, and as you know, Jewish Courts almost never executed anyone. As you also know, suicide is just about the worst crime one can commit under Jewish law, and the exceptions to that do not apply here (a woman about to be raped, bowing down to idols, being forced to murder others etc..)

In spite of what Madoff did or did not do, he probably knows better than anyone what is wrong with the SEC, and like great hackers, e.g. Mitnick, some of the damage can be undone or future damage prevented, by Madoff working with the system.
Madoff may have actually saved trillions of dollars by exposing the rot that this financial system is all about.

I have a strong suspicion that many people knew about Madoff for a long time, and were quietly working so as not to be the ones holding the bags when “the band stopped playing”. I have sseen that in Ponzi matters before. I also believe it is possible that the huge financial bailout was the result of key people already knowing about Madoff.
There are so many things we do not know yet. We only have the original complaint, which is very brief, and of course filled with Hearsay. The original charge, one count of misrepresentation, is something many traders are guilty of, and would seem to be an easy case to prove.

The trustee’s report will shed more light on available assets.
In the meantime, we Jews might potentially share some collective guilt if in fact it turns out that Ethel Rosenberg was not guilty as charged. She certainly did not deserve to be executed, and there is evidence that many in the Jewish community rushed to judgment and proudly displayed a lynch mob mentaility to prove to the gentile world that Jews were more law abiding Americans than Americans.

Comment by Martini "Kike" Leaf on 12/20/08 at 2:50 pm

The verona intercepts proved the Julius Rosenberg was a spy and I find it hard to believe that Ethel wasn’t a coconspirator. And speaking has somebody whose father had to dodge a million chinamen when he was drafted and sent to Korea and who believes that the North Koreans might not have moved without Russian support which might not have been forthcoming without the bomb. I find attempts to exonerate the Rosenbergs seriously noxious. But I digress. i don’t think for a minute that Madoff acted alone. And i hope they make him sing like a canary. And I’m fully cognizant of jewish law. But this isn’t some sort of Dreyfus case. He lived “large” took his victory laps. And stole from his own people. And yes, I don’t think that this is redeemable and the damage that he has caused, both here and in israel warrants the death penalty in my mind. Whether from the state or his own hand. But in the America of 2008/9 I don’t see that happening.

Comment by bill Pearlman on 12/20/08 at 3:13 pm

Another good post, Brad.  I’m more inclined to agree with Rob Eshman’s editorial than with Shmuley Boteach’s, but that’s not what I came to comment about. 

Mr. Leaf reminds me of a certain orthodox Los Angeles rabbi who shall remain nameless who threw all of his synagogue’s copies of the Jewish Journal into the trash can one week after learning that there was a dating advice column that was “too hot for shul,” or at least for his shul.  A few years later, this rabbi was fired from the synagogue allegedly for conduct that would definitely be described as “too hot” for his or any shul.

Comment by Guy Handelman on 12/20/08 at 3:23 pm

Re: Bill Pearlman’s comment: “I don’t think that this is redeemable and the damage that he has caused, both here and in israel warrants the death penalty in my mind. Whether from the state or his own hand. But in the America of 2008/9 I don’t see that happening.”

The problem with him getting appropriate punishment is that those who have the say are no less corrupt than he is, and if they punish him, others will be out to get them. There is too much corruption to do anything about it unfortunately but I hope I am wrong.

Comment by Reality on 12/20/08 at 11:44 pm

Well, I am a gentile and yes I see alot of jewish names in this madness on wall street, but then I see alot of names, period. Madloff should get the death penalty. We have to stop treating this type of crime as less offensive than murder. How many people’s lives will be ruined if not shortened because of the fraud he has perpetrated? This type of crime has never been treated as seriously as it should be.

Comment by Daniel Hearn on 12/21/08 at 9:45 am

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