Madoff Strikes Again as Hadassah Coughs Up $45m

It’s an Ill Wind…

As I wrote two years ago of Bernie Madoff, it’s an ill wind that blows no good. We may be in a financial crisis with hardship all around, but at least Bernie Madoff defrauded the best of them.

Not only Elie Wiesel, who’s made a profession out of turning a blind eye to anything other than Jewish sufferings, with his incarceration in Nazi concentration camps as his bona fides (unlike survivors like Rudolf Vrba and Hajo Meyer). Wiesel’s crimes including trying to sabotage a conference on the Armenian genocide in Tel Aviv (this was before the deterioration in relations between Israel and Turkey).

However Madoff also seems to have defrauded quite a number of Zionist organisations too. Clearly this is a matter which should have been taken into account before sentencing.

It would appear that Hadassah not only lost money but also gained some. Such that it is now required to pay back $45 millions of its ill-gotten gains. What a pity that they didn’t have to cough up the whole $90 million they made!

And lest anyone feel sorry for a charity that proclaims it's merely humanitarian and philanthropic we should be aware that it's mainly the Jewish section of Israel that benefits from their activities. And worse, by taking on the burden of helping to provide for Israeli social services, hospitals etc. they allow the Israeli state to concentrate its expenditure on repression.

Tony Greenstein

JTA News Alert Dec. 9, 2010
Hadassah to pay back $45 million of Madoff gains

NEW YORK (JTA) -- Hadassah: The Women’s Zionist Organization of America will pay back $45 million of the money it made in the Bernard Madoff scam.

Hadassah President Nancy Falchuk in a letter Thursday told the organization’s supporters of the settlement reached by the group with the trustee of Madoff’s estate..

The organization, which began investing with Bernard Madoff Securities in 1988 with a $7 million gift, deposited a total of $40 million in its Madoff accounts, and by April 2007 had withdrawn $137 million. The last account statement showed approximately $90 million at the time the fraud was discovered.

The $45 million is half of what Hadassah earned unwittingly in the scam. Hadassah with the settlement avoids a lawsuit by the trustee, Irving Picard, who already has sued a number of individuals, organizations and foundations that made money in the Madoff fraud.

“As painful as it is, this settlement is in the best interest of Hadassah," Falchuk wrote in the letter. "It allows us to put this chapter behind us, and move forward with our critical life-affirming mission. A charitable mission praised by the trustee for its philanthropic value.”