Madoff Fallout Continues

There’s an interesting debate on Wikipedia about whether J. Ezra Merkin would have been worthy of an entry had he not made headlines in connection with steering clients to Bernard Madoff, allegedly while collecting $470 million in management fees. Described in the Wikipedia entry as a “money manager, financier and philanthropist,” Merkin now faces a civil suit filed by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in connection with the Madoff scandal. Before his name got linked with that of the king of all Ponzi schemes, it seems that Merkin -- in addition to being a graduate of Harvard Law School and a hedge fund manager – was merely the scion of a very rich family.

If the civil suit is all that he faces, he’s at risk of taking a substantial financial hit over and above whatever personal funds he himself lost by investing with Madoff. Unlike Madoff, he won’t be looking at any period of confinement. So the item in The New York Times about him declining the nomination to be chairman of The Fifth Avenue Synagogue, the Orthodox congregation founded by his father, was even more interesting than the Wikipedia debate. It must have been humbling for Merkin to have to decline the honorary post that would ordinarily follow his having been president.

A number of Jews are quoted, including a Brandeis professor who seems to have found his niche in producing sound bites about all matters Madoff related and the American Jewish community, as well as a Rabbi Kermaier, intent on not sounding critical of a guy and his family who can be assumed to have been major donors.

According to the Times story, “the congregation as a group lost more than $1 billion in the collapse of Mr. Madoff’s scheme.” Is it fair to assume to believe that both J. Ezra Merkin and the congregants used each other?

Presumably he was asked to serve as president because of his fund-raising capabilities rather than his good looks. The photo in The New York Times shows a chubby faced, bearded guy with wire-rimmed glasses. No doubt he delivered. But he also used the synagogue, described by the Brandeis professor as “probably the wealthiest Orthodox congregation in the world,” as his eager pool of prospects.

I’m not saying that Merkin and the congregants deserved each other. Nor am I taking glee in Merkin’s ultimate humiliation inside a house of worship. My own Jewish identity intact, I can’t help observing that those claiming the highest degree of piety have the greatest distance to fall.