My aunt used to tell me that the Ten Commandments were only meant for how Jews behaved towards other Jews; that the Goyim were fair game. At the time I thought she was pulling my leg.
The accused swindler managed money for numerous Jewish charities and wealthy Jews who are reeling from their monetary losses as well as a sense of betrayal that a fellow Jew could have harmed so many people.
"We're still shellshocked," said Rabbi Joshua Hammerman, religious leader of Temple Beth El in Stamford, Connecticut, which describes itself as an Egalitarian Conservative Jewish congregation. "I am sure every synagogue is dealing with it in some way."
Since Madoff's arrest last month, Hammerman's synagogue and other Jewish groups have struggled with how to assess the scandal and what it means for Jews.
Hammerman, who said his synagogue had not itself lost money in the scandal, but has publicly called for Madoff to be excommunicated. He wrote in a letter to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations that he thinks Madoff represents "something rotten that must be exorcised from our culture and from our midst."
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