BERNIE MADOFF, THANKS A LOT

If you don't live under a rock, you know about the swindle perpetrated by Bernie Madoff on hundreds of investors and a score of charitable foundations. The media has consistently identified Madoff as a Jew. That is sure to encourage, reinforce and exacerbate anti-Semitism in this country. Why is it that the media has never referred to Enron crook Ken Lay's religious affiliation or to Gov. Rod Blagojevich's ethnicity?

On December 3, 2008, Rabbi Marc Gellman sent a long open letter to Madoff, fiercely condemning the crook for the multitude of damages he had done with his ponzi scheme. Gellman has served as the Rabbi at Temple Beth Torah in Melville, New Yorlk since 1981. I have chosen to reproduce only a small portion of Gellman's open letter, the part that takes Madoff to task for fanning the flames of anti-Semitism. Here is that portion:

"One of the very worst things you did has to do with the Jews. You are responsible for reviving the 'Jew game.' I heard of the Jew game from a boy who became a man last Saturday. I asked him once if he had ever experienced anti-Semitism in school. That is when he looked at the floor and told me about the Jew game. The game, played by anti-Semitic kids in school, was one in which they would hide around a corner, throw a quarter down the hall, and then when somebody picked up the quarter, they'd run at the person, shouting, 'You're the Jew!'

You did not cause the anti-Semitic insults about Jews and money, but you caused them to be revived. Not since Julius Rosenberg spied for the Soviet Union has one person so damaged the image and the self-respect of American Jews. I am not comfortable with the fact that so many of the articles about you specifically identify your prominent place in the Jewish community.

Ken Lay of Enron shame was never identified as a 'prominent Protestant energy broker.' The most aggressive accusers of the governor of Illinois seldom describe him as 'the prominent Serbian-American governor of Illinois.' Yes, it is unfair that your Jewishness has become part of the storyline. But you just reminded the bigots who grew up playing the Jew game that it still strikes a familiar chord.

You wiped out Joe Lieberman's accomplishments. You revived ancient bigotry against our people. You gave credence to the horrid accusations about Jews being untrustworthy and greedy. One offensive paper has a column called 'Jews in the News,' which focuses on some Jewish criminal or other to remind their sickening readers of the legitimacy of anti-Semitism. You are not just one of the 'Jews in the news' they seek. You are the apotheosis of their hate-filled world. You have given the Jew-haters material for a decade of hate gardening. You single-handedly revived the Jew game. This is what you have done."

To that I want to add: Bernie Madoff, you sorry piece of shit, thanks a lot.