Christmas came early for anti-Semites

Roswell Christmas Card

Like I said Friday, in allegedly stealing from Jews, Bernard Madoff gave a real gift to anti-Semites. That much was evident from many of the comments my posts have received. On LAWeekly.com, Steven Mikulan writes that the white-wing blogs have been downright giddy:

Over at the neo-naz Stormfront.org, Celtic Welsh Warrior noted that the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity was among the Jewish organizations allegedly damaged by Madoff:

“Ouch, the pain, the suffering. Jews robbing Jews. Dumb race.
Celebrate Christmas, celebrate being White. Drive a stake into the heart of the Jew Devil with Christmas Season.”

Cheery, I know. These are the same hatemongers who buy Kevin MacDonald’s books and sing his praises.

Keeping up with that Christmas theme Bradley Burston writes in Haaretz:

For the true anti-Semite, Christmas came early this year.

The anti-Semite’s new Santa is Bernard Madoff. The answer to every Jew-hater’s wish list. The Aryan Nation at its most delusional couldn’t have come up with anything to rival this:

The former chairman of Nasdaq turns out, also, to be treasurer of the board of trustees at Yeshiva University and chairman of the university’s business school. Rich beyond human comprehension, he handles fortunes for others, buying and selling in a trading empire that skirts investment banks and other possible sources of regulation. He redefines avarice, knowingly and personally bilking charities and retirees in the most classic of con games.

Even better, for those obsessed with the idea that Jews control finance, entertainment and the media, is the idea that Madoff’s greed was uncontrollable enough that he targeted fellow Jews, even Holocaust survivors, some of them his own friends, as well as Israeli companies who insured Jews, including Holocaust survivors.

The beauty part, for the anti-Semite: Madoff’s machinations, which could have been put to use for the sake of humanity, have directly harmed Jewish welfare and charity institutions.

He has managed to harm contemporary Jewry in ways anti-Semites could only dream about.

Click here for the rest. To be clear, though, Burston confuses losses at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles ($6.4 million) with those made by the Jewish Community Foundation ($25.5 million on paper; $18 million in original investments).

For my part, I’ve been shocked not that the largest investor fraud in U.S. history has brought out the crazies, but how just mainstream some of them seem to be. Having only experienced anti-Semitism in its most mild forms, I often forget how deep-rooted these prejudices are. As a friend wrote on my Facebook wall:

“Jews and money is a time-honored bigot flashpoint. I know people in the world really believe this. I believe these people are fine upstanding citizens and are just like you and me. Well liked, polite. But behind the anonymity that Internet comment boards provide, they can let their true beliefs out that they keep inside in polite company and they don’t have to couch their words. They can be as bad as they wanna be.”