Recent American Jewish Malefactors and Jewish Reactions

Recent American Jewish Malefactors and Jewish Reactions – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, David Berkowitz (“Son of Sam”), Jonathan Pollard, Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken, Sackler Family, Bernie Madoff, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, Sam Bankman-Fried

During the last 75 years a number of Jews have played extremely high-profile negative roles in different areas of American life. This is quite a “hall of fame/infamy”: a Soviet spy, an Israeli spy, two senior Wall Street stock manipulators, the greatest Ponzi schemer of all time, a massive cryptocurrency fraudster, a family of pharma-criminals, two sexual predators, and not forgetting the serial killer. Some of them participated prominently in Jewish philanthropy, others were only marginally Jewish. All were unmistakably of Jewish origin and their exposures prompted soul-searching and attempts by Jewish individuals and communal organizations to disassociate from them and assert their non-representativeness. A survey of published fiction and non-fiction on “Jews and Crime/Espionage” could hardly launder them out of the picture. We begin with a 2024 article which attempts to analyze the connections between a few cases. We then move on to examinations of individual ones:

4.3.1 Andrew Silow-Carroll (JTA) on “Jewish Backlash Fatigue”

Silow-Carroll, Andrew, “Exhausted by the Israel discourse? Blame backlash fatigue”, published by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on May 26, 2024 and on the same day in The Jerusalem Post under the title, “Jews have experienced many backlashes, and they are tired”. [Silow-Carroll argues that many Jews’ heightened sensitivity to criticism surrounding Israel in 2024 is best understood not as simple defensiveness but as the product of “backlash fatigue”—a historically rooted expectation that Jewish actions, whether by individuals or institutions, will provoke collective blame and antisemitic reactions.

The essay begins with the death of financier Ivan Boesky, whose 1987 insider-trading conviction reminded the author of an earlier era when Jewish leaders feared that the crimes of prominent Jews would damage the standing of all Jews. Boesky’s scandal followed closely on the arrest of Jonathan Pollard, whose espionage for Israel reinforced concerns about accusations of Jewish “dual loyalty.” Although public-opinion polling at the time found little evidence that ordinary Americans blamed Jews collectively, Jewish organizations nonetheless braced for an antisemitic backlash.

Silow-Carroll identifies this reaction with the traditional Yiddish concept of “a shanda fur di goyim” (“a shame before the gentiles”), reflecting a longstanding anxiety that the misconduct of one Jew can endanger an entire minority community. He notes that similar fears resurfaced after Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, although the internet and social media amplified antisemitic commentary far beyond anything seen during the Boesky era.

The author contends that after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack and the ensuing Gaza war, the scale of anti-Jewish hostility has changed dramatically. Jews have experienced exclusion on university campuses, harassment in cultural institutions, threats against synagogues, vandalism of Jewish businesses, and growing social pressure simply for expressing sympathy toward Israel. In this environment, ordinary political disagreements are perceived through the lens of accumulated vulnerability.

Against this background, Silow-Carroll discusses the controversy over a Washington Post investigation describing a WhatsApp group of wealthy pro-Israel donors who coordinated advocacy efforts and communicated with New York City officials during the Columbia University protests. The Anti-Defamation League condemned the article for employing language that echoed classic antisemitic tropes about secretive Jewish financial and political influence. At the same time, Silow-Carroll acknowledges the tension this creates: organizations such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee openly and legitimately seek to influence American policy, making it difficult to distinguish between legitimate reporting on political lobbying and narratives that reinforce antisemitic stereotypes.

The essay concludes that Jews today are not merely reacting to isolated incidents but to a cumulative history of anticipated and experienced backlash. Even lawful and conventional forms of political participation may now feel fraught because Jews fear they will be interpreted as evidence of conspiratorial power. If Jews appear unusually defensive in contemporary debates over Israel, Silow-Carroll argues, it is because decades of recurring episodes—from Boesky and Pollard to Madoff and the post–October 7 climate—have produced a condition he calls “backlash fatigue.”

This essay is noteworthy because it explicitly links the historical cases of Ivan Boesky, Jonathan Pollard, and Bernie Madoff to the enduring Jewish concern that the misconduct of prominent Jewish individuals can fuel collective stereotyping and antisemitic narratives. It thus provides a contemporary reflection on the relationship between Jewish criminality, espionage, public perception, and communal identity. – ChatGPT]

4.3.2 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

The Rosenberg case illuminates not only Soviet espionage but also the deep divisions within American Jewish life over Communism, loyalty, antisemitism, and the politics of the early Cold War. Few episodes generated as much sustained debate within American Jewish organizations and among Jewish intellectuals as the arrest, trial, and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

Sol Stern (1935–2025) played a significant, though often overlooked role in changing the historiography of the Rosenberg case. [Disclosure: Sol Stern was a close personal friend of mine for over 50 years. He had a sterling reputation for fearless integrity and honesty and disregard of political correctness in his long journalism career, beginning with his membership on the editorial board of Ramparts magazine, the iconic American New Left publication. He made the case for Israel on the American Left throughout his life. His position on the Rosenbergs was thus typical. He is sorely missed.- SS] Here is the watershed article which broke the firm consensus on the American Left that the Rosenbergs were innocent:

Stern, Sol and Ronald Radosh,”The Hidden Rosenberg Case”, The New Republic, June 23, 1979, pp. 13–19. Stern and Radosh had begun as members of the democratic anti-Stalinist left who were skeptical of the government’s case. After examining FBI files obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, interviewing numerous participants, and reviewing unpublished evidence, they reached several striking conclusions:

• Julius Rosenberg had indeed headed an important Soviet espionage network.
• The traditional left-wing claim that Julius was completely innocent could no longer be sustained.
• The prosecution greatly exaggerated Ethel Rosenberg’s role, using her as leverage against Julius.
• The trial itself was marred by prosecutorial excesses and misleading testimony, particularly from David and Ruth Greenglass.

Their position therefore differed both from the government’s original presentation and from the innocence campaign:

• Julius was guilty.
• Ethel’s involvement was much more limited.
• The death sentence was unjustified.

Stern continued researching the Rosenbergs but stepped back from the long process of turning it into a detailed book in order to pursue other projects. He conducted interviews, collected documentary evidence, and publicly defended the book’s conclusions. Radosh later credited Stern with helping uncover much of the evidence that became the basis for the book, as follows:

Ronald Radosh, and Joyce Milton, (The Rosenberg File [hc, Henry Holt & Co., 1983] 978-003049036 [Revised 2nd ed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997] 978-0300072051 [978-0300072051 - Still regarded as the single most influential historical study. Drawing on FBI files and later supplemented by Soviet archival evidence, Radosh and Milton conclude that Julius Rosenberg unquestionably directed an espionage network, while Ethel’s legal guilt was much weaker than that presented at trial. Initially controversial, many of its principal conclusions have been strengthened by later archival discoveries. The original 1983 edition was heavily based on FBI files obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The 1997 Yale University Press edition expanded on the original text by adding a substantial new introduction to address groundbreaking Cold War intelligence that came to light after the fall of the Soviet Union. This 1997 update explicitly incorporates:

• The Venona Papers: Newly declassified U.S. Army signals intelligence decodes that explicitly detailed Soviet espionage in America.
• Soviet Memoirs: Newly available personal accounts and archives from Soviet leaders, including Nikita Khrushchev and Vyacheslav Molotov.
• Documentary Evidence: Material featured in a March 1997 Discovery Channel documentary regarding the espionage ring. The authors used these multi-sourced corroborations to argue that the newly revealed intelligence confirmed the primary conclusions of their 1983 research—namely, that Julius Rosenberg was an active agent in a Soviet spy ring.

Schneir, Walter & Miriam, (Invitation to an Inquest [hc, Doubleday, 1965] B0006D7GHQ [pb, Pantheon Books, 1983] 978-0394714967 [This book provides the classic defense of the Rosenbergs. The Schneirs argued that both were victims of Cold War hysteria and judicial misconduct. The release of decrypted Soviet intelligence files (the Venona project) and KGB archives significantly changed the landscape of the Rosenberg case. Walter Schneir spent over a decade conducting new research—traveling to Moscow and Prague—to cross-reference these newly unsealed files. Walter passed away in 2009 before the text was fully prepared for print. Miriam completed the work, providing a preface and an afterword to this final volume. Unlike their initial 1965 thesis which argued complete innocence, this final piece provides details of how Julius Rosenberg was indeed a courier operating a Soviet World War II spy ring, though still confirming that the specific “atomic secrets” frame-up charges used to execute the couple were deeply flawed. Details of the greatly revised new edition:

Schneir, Walter & Miriam, (Final Verdict: What Really Happened in the Rosenberg Case [hc, Melville House Publishing, 2010] 978-1935554165 [pb, Melville House, 2011] 978-1935554165

Additional significant works on the Rosenberg case:

Sebba Anne, (Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy [hc, St. Martin’s Press, 2021]) 978-1250198631 [pb, Griffin, 2022] 978-1250198648 [The best modern biography of Ethel. Sebba argues that Ethel knew of Julius’s activities but that the evidence presented against her at trial was deeply flawed and insufficient to justify execution. She also emphasizes sexism and antisemitism in shaping public perceptions.]

Haynes, John Earl, Harvey Klehr & Alexander Vassiliev, (Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America [hc, Yale UP, 2009]) 978-0300123906 [pb, Yale UP, 2010] 978-0300164381 [Uses KGB archives to reconstruct Soviet espionage networks and places Julius Rosenberg firmly within them.]

Fineberg, Rabbi S. Andhil, (The Rosenberg Case: Fact and Fiction [hc, Oceana Publications for the American Jewish Committee, 1953]) B0000CIQPL [One of the earliest Jewish responses. Fineberg argued that Communist organizations deliberately exploited accusations of antisemitism and maintained that the evidence justified conviction. The pamphlet reflected the official position of the American Jewish Committee.]

Dawidowicz, Lucy, “’Anti-Semitism’ and the Rosenberg Case: The Latest Communist Propaganda Trap”, Commentary, July 1952 (Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 41–45) [Dawidowicz argued that the Communist Party and front organizations like the National Committee to Secure Justice in the Rosenberg Case deliberately fabricated claims of government anti-Semitism to manipulate the American Jewish community. She demonstrated that early communist reporting completely ignored the issue of anti-Semitism, only weaponizing it later as a “trap” to drum up financial and emotional support from mainstream Jewish liberals.

Dawidowicz, Lucy, “The Rosenberg Case: ‘Hate-America’ Weapon”, The New Leader, December 22, 1952 (Vol. 35, No. 51, p. 13) [ Published on the eve of 1953, this article focused on the geopolitical dimensions of the case. Dawidowicz explained how the Soviet bloc was using the impending executions of the Rosenbergs to paint the United States as a fascist state on the global stage. She strongly condemned the Rosenbergs as unrepentant Soviet spies, asserting that their loyalty belonged entirely to the USSR rather than the United States or the Jewish people.

Garber, Marjorie & Rebecca Walkowitz, eds., (Secret Agents: The Rosenberg Case, McCarthyism and Fifties America [hc, Routledge, 1995] 978-0415911191 [pb, Routledge, 1995] 978-0415911207 [A collection of essays by literary scholars, historians, and cultural critics exploring the Rosenberg affair’s influence on American intellectual life.]

Carmichael, Virginia, (Framing History: The Rosenberg Story and the Cold War [hc, U. of Minnesota Press, 1993]) 978-0816620418 [pb, U. of Minnesota Press, 1993] 978-0816620425 [Examines how the Rosenbergs became political and cultural symbols through film, literature, journalism, and public memory.]

Meeropol, Michael & Robert, (We Are Your Sons: The Legacy of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg [hc, Houghton Mifflin, 1975] 978-0395205525 [pb, Ballantine Books, 1976] B001ZQZ4EA [Contains memoirs, historical documents, and essays by the Rosenbergs’ two sons, who were adopted and raised by Abel and Anne Meeropol.]

Fiction Based on Rosenberg Case:

Doctorow, E.L., (The Book of Daniel [hc, Random House, 1971] 978-0394462714 [pb, Random House, 2007] 978-0812978179 . See entry on Doctorow in the companion bibliography on U.S. Jewish crime fiction .

Coover, Robert, The Public Burning [hc, Viking Press,1977] 978-0670582006 [pb, Grove Press, 1998] 978-0802135278 [The novel reimagines the three fateful days in 1953 that culminated with the execution of alleged atomic spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Vice-President Richard Nixon - the voraciously ambitious bad boy of the Eisenhower regime - is the dominant narrator in an enormous cast that includes Betty Crocker, Joe McCarthy, the Marx Brothers, Walter Winchell, Uncle Sam, his adversary The Phantom, and Time magazine incarnated as the National Poet Laureate. All of these and thousands more converge in Times Square for the carnivalesque auto-da-fé at which the Rosenbergs are put to death. And not a person present escapes implication in Cold War America’s ruthless “public burning.” – Amazon]

Films – see entries in companion Filmography (chronologically by year of film’s release)

Judgment: The Trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (1974) (see p. 514)

The Unquiet Death of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (1974) (see p. 514)

Daniel (1983) (see p. 516)

Heir to an Execution: A Granddaughter’s Story (2004) (see p. 521)

The Rosenbergs: Atomic Spies (2025) (see p. 537)

4.3.3 Jonathan Pollard

Film: See note on Pollard (2022 Docuseries) in the companion Filmography.

Significant standalone books on the Pollard case:

Blitzer, Wolf, (Territory of Lies: The Exclusive Story of Jonathan Jay Pollard — The American Who Spied on His Country for Israel and How He Was Betrayed [hc, HarperCollins, 1989] 978-0060159726. The first major book on the case; Blitzer (then Washington correspondent for The Jerusalem Post, later CNN) was the first journalist to interview Pollard in prison.

Goldenberg, Elliott, (The Hunting Horse: The Truth Behind the Jonathan Pollard Spy Case (hc, Prometheus Books, 2000)) 978-1573928540 [Goldenberg argues that Pollard’s sentence was not due to the severity of the damage he inflicted on the security of the United States, contrary to assertions by the Justice Department and the Pentagon. His greatest crime, Goldenberg insists, was that Pollard inadvertently stumbled upon and threatened to expose secret dealings between President Reagan’s most-trusted advisors and Saddam Hussein. Pollard, realizing how much of a threat this might mean to Israeli security, took it upon himself to pass on vital information regarding these U.S.-Iraqi dealings to Israel. – Amazon]

Olive, Ronald J., (Capturing Jonathan Pollard: How One of the Most Notorious Spies in American History Was Brought to Justice) [hc, Naval Institute Press, 2006] 978-1591146520 [pb, Naval Institute Press, 2009] 978-1591146476 Written by the Naval Investigative Service counterintelligence agent who led Pollard’s interrogation and obtained his confession — an insider law-enforcement account, notably less sympathetic than Blitzer’s, and explicit in describing this as a corrective to advocacy-driven accounts.

Also worth knowing about, though less prominent as full standalone treatments:

Oren, Michael, (Ally: My Journey Across the America-Israel Divide [hc, Random House, 2015] 978-0812996418 [pb, Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2016] 978-0812986426 - contains a substantial section on Pollard and communal reaction.

Al-Abed, Lutfi, “From Dreyfus to Pollard”, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July 23, 1987. [Anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-AIPAC advocates were active in linking the anxiety over the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg trial directly to the 1985 arrest of Jonathan Pollard. This piece outlines how Pollard’s espionage for America’s ally, Israel, triggered the modern pinnacle of “dual loyalty” anxieties, testing the domestic confidence and security of the American Jewish community more severely than any event since the 1950s Red Scare. It goes further by recalling the Dreyfus Affair (France, 1894) as another milestone in concerns about Jewish divided loyalties and potential for treason. It concludes that the Pollard scandal would “signal the beginning of the end of the Zionist dream” by eroding the Western public opinion and external material support that Israel relies upon.]

Two prominent articles, by Seymour Hersh and Robert Friedman among others, document that Jonathan Pollard received between $45,000 and $50,000 in direct cash and gifts during his 18 months of espionage, alongside promises of an additional $300,000 to $540,000 stashed in a secret Swiss bank account:

Hersh, Seymour, “The Traitor: The case against |Jonathan Pollard”, The New Yorker, January 11, 1999): - meticulously details Pollard’s chronic debt, financial crises, and expensive lifestyle prior to spying. Hersh outlines how Pollard’s Israeli handlers agreed to a monthly salary that grew to $2,500 ($1,500 initially), plus cash handouts for luxury hotels, upscale meals, and jewelry. Hersh quotes Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles S. Leeper pointing out that Pollard stood to make an additional $540,000 over the projected life of the spy ring.

Friedman, Robert I., “The Secret Agent”, The New York Review of Books, October 26, 1989): This comprehensive look at the operation provides deep context on how Israeli intelligence rewarded Pollard and his wife, Anne Henderson-Pollard. Friedman documents that the couple received tens of thousands of dollars in cash, a diamond-and-sapphire engagement ring, five-star European hotel suites, and were promised $300,000 over ten years in a Swiss bank account.

Leibovitz, Liel, “National Insecurity: The Case for Jonathan Pollard”, Tablet Magazine, November 16, 2010. Describes Pollard as “the suburban American Jewish dream turned nightmare: a good, middle-class, high-achieving boy turned traitor,” and separately notes that NY Times columnist William Safire warned after Pollard’s sentencing that the case would encourage antisemites who charge Jews with dual loyalty or fifth-column allegiance.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/national-insecurity A later article about Pollard in the Jerusalem Post (January 23, 2026) stated: “Richard Cohen, then a columnist for The Washington Post, called the Pollard case a ‘nightmare-come-true for American Jews. In Pollard, the Israelis created an anti-Semitic stereotype — an American Jew of confused loyalties who sold out his country.’”

Mirsky, Yehudah, “The Multiple Loyalties of American Jews”, My Jewish Learning, 70 Faces Media. Page last modified April 11, 2018.
URL: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-multiple-loyalties-of-american-jews/ [The essay opens from the observation that “dual loyalty” as a charge against American Jews had, at time of writing, become more current and credible than at any point in the previous fifty years, crediting Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer’s March 2006 essay “The Israel Lobby” as catalyst. Mirsky writes that the Pollard case hangs over all such discussions, and that as a committed Jew who served in the U.S. government, he finds it hard to justify Pollard’s actions even though the sentence seems excessive by comparison to other offenders. Mirsky is a rabbi, historian, and professor at Brandeis University; he previously worked in the U.S. State Department, which is relevant context for the essay’s vantage point.]

There is a striking contrast of Pollard’s case with Madoff’s — where affinity-fraud framing at least generated sympathy for Jewish victims — and even with Weinstein, where the debate was mostly about whether his identity mattered at all. With Pollard, mainstream Jewish organizations initially ran away from the case. As the Forward’s retrospective put it, the arrest sent shock waves through the community, and a former chairman of the Conference of Presidents recalled a pointed reluctance among organized Jewish groups to stand up on Pollard’s behalf, driven by concerns about antisemitism and dual loyalty, so most groups refrained from getting involved.

Polling captured just how widespread the anxiety was: a 1987 New York Times poll found 61% of American Jews felt anger and embarrassment over the case, while 54% believed it would trigger a rise in antisemitism.

Some prominent voices went further, actively repudiating him. Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch stated plainly that while he was a proud Jew, he was also an American citizen and would not condone the actions of a traitor to the United States, adding there was no excuse for Pollard to take $150,000 from Israel or hand over American codes. Former Israeli ambassador Michael Oren recounted an even sharper version: a senior National Security Council official told him that as an American Jew, he believed Pollard should get out of prison — in a coffin.

The later shift: organizational advocacy without full grassroots buy-in

Over subsequent decades, something unusual happened: the organized Jewish establishment’s position gradually diverged from broader Jewish public sentiment. Going back to 1989, the Central Conference of American Rabbis called on the entire Reform movement to support Pollard, and by the 1990s a wide range of Jewish leaders — including Rabbi Norman Lamm of Yeshiva University — were urging clemency, with some framing him as a “political prisoner” or victim of antisemitism. By his 2015 release, groups like Hadassah, B’nai B’rith, the Conference of Presidents, and the Union for Reform Judaism had all called for his release, and the Conference of Presidents issued a unified statement welcoming it.

But this elite consensus never fully reflected the base: a former chairman noted that despite the appearance of longstanding unified support, the community had in fact been pointedly slow to embrace Pollard’s cause, only lobbying in earnest over roughly the final decade. Critics writing in Jewish Currents and similar outlets argued that most American Jews had actually recoiled from Pollard’s actions even as certain organizations embraced him for reasons they hadn’t adequately explained, suggesting an institutional/grassroots gap rather than genuine consensus.

The Israeli-vs-American Jewish divide

Pollard also became a flashpoint exposing a rift between Israeli and diaspora Jewish self-understanding, more than any of the other cases did. Commentary in JNS argued that Israelis by and large celebrated the Pollards’ return, while American Jews bristled at both the arrest and at Israeli enthusiasm for him — with one analyst suggesting American Jews resented Pollard because his case reminded them of their own vulnerability, undercutting the idea that America was a full “promised land” free of the old exilic anxieties. That same piece argued the community’s harsh reaction wasn’t blindness to the antisemitic overtones of his sentencing, but the opposite — they were acutely aware of that dynamic and specifically feared it.

Academic sourcing adds one more layer: the Pollard case is credited with helping end the traditional silence of American Jewish leaders on criticizing Israel publicly, a shift that became fully visible with the first intifada in 1987 — suggesting the case reshaped not just how Jews saw an individual traitor, but how comfortable American Jewish leadership felt pushing back on Israel itself.

Where this leaves him relative to the others

If Boesky, Milken, and Madoff triggered shanda anxiety (shame before non-Jews) and Weinstein triggered a fight over whether identity was even relevant, Pollard triggered something closer to institutional panic about loyalty and belonging — a fear that was, by most accounts in this reporting, taken far more seriously and organized around (via calculated public silence, then later calculated public advocacy) than any instinct to defend him on the merits. He doesn’t fit the “Jewish criminal, communal embarrassment” pattern of the others so much as a distinct pattern: “Jewish traitor to America, existential threat to communal standing,” which is arguably why the reaction was so much more calculated and split, rather than simply defensive or ashamed. – Claude]

Various articles and advocacy pieces about Pollard referred to in above account

Ain, Stewart. “How Jonathan Pollard Freedom Crusade United American Jews,” The Forward, July 29, 2015. https://forward.com/news/318074/how-jonathan-pollard-freedom-crusade-became-a-jewish-cause/

Tablet Magazine (staff), “American Jews Disagree on Jonathan Pollard’s Possible Release,” Tablet Magazine, April 4, 2014. https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/pollards-potential-release-divides-u-s-jews

American Council for Judaism (staff), “What the Case of Jonathan Pollard Tells Us about Zionism’s Worldview,” American Council for Judaism, n.d. (referencing Pollard’s Nov. 2015 release). https://acjna.org/articles/what-the-case-of-jonathan-pollard-tells-us-about-zionisms-worldview/

Jewish Currents (staff/uncredited), “Jonathan Pollard: He’s No Victim,” Jewish Currents, August 21, 2021. https://jewishcurrents.org/jonathan-pollard-hes-no-victim

Unpacked (staff), “Did Jonathan Pollard Safeguard Israel or Betray America?” Unpacked Media, June 13, 2022 (citing journalist Caroline Glick). https://unpacked.media/did-jonathan-pollard-safeguard-israel-or-betray-america/

[Author, likely Caroline Glick], “Pollard and the great Jewish divide,” JNS.org, January 3, 2021. https://www.jns.org/pollard-and-the-great-jewish-divide/

My Jewish Learning (staff), “Jonathan Pollard,” My Jewish Learning, n.d. (citing a 1987 New York Times poll). https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/jonathan-pollard/

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (staff), “Jonathan Pollard, Occupation and Ethnic Cleansing: Where Zionism Has Led,” February 16, 2023. https://www.wrmea.org/israel-palestine/jonathan-pollard-occupation-and-ethnic-cleansing-where-zionism-has-led.html

Pollard in Israel - Postscript: Since moving to Israel, Pollard has adopted controversial positions on dual loyalty and Israeli political issues, appearing occasionally in the Israeli press.

In a March 25, 2021 interview with the Israeli daily Israel Hayom, shortly after settling in Israel following the end of his parole, Jonathan Pollard said: “The bottom line on this charge of dual loyalty is, I’m sorry, we’re Jews, and if we’re Jews, we will always have dual loyalty”. This controversial quote was picked up and reported by multiple outlets:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA). “Jonathan Pollard says Jews ‘will always have dual loyalty’ and would counsel young Jews to consider spying for Israel.” March 25, 2021.
https://www.jta.org/quick-reads/jonathan-pollard-says-jews-will-always-have-dual-loyalty-and-would-counsel-young-jews-to-consider-spying-for-israel

The Times of Israel. “Pollard claims Jews ‘will always have dual loyalty,’ whether they know it or not.” March 25, 2021.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-blunt-interview-pollard-claims-jews-will-always-have-dual-loyalty/

Intermountain Jewish News (IJN), Editorial Staff. “Pollard’s Dual Loyalty.” Intermountain Jewish News, April 1, 2021. A sharply critical editorial arguing that Pollard’s own words show he “is not a Jewish hero,” and that his framing of every society outside Israel as one where Jews are “considered unreliable” ignores the freedom American Jews have historically enjoyed. https://www.ijn.com/pollards-dual-loyalty/ Ijn

Jerusalem Post. “Pollard: Jews ‘will always have dual loyalty’ & should consider spying for Israel.” March 26, 2021.
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/pollard-jews-will-always-have-dual-loyalty-and-should-consider-spying-for-israel-663285

On Sept. 15, 2022 (Times of Israel) he said the West Bank town of Huwara “must be destroyed, but without killing people” and that Israel’s enemies “only understand decisive retaliation” (following terrorist attacks there).

March 6, 2023— (Times of Israel), Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir intervened after Pollard was found by the Israeli Police not to meet the criteria for owning a weapon.

Louis, Ari (interviewer). “Jonathan Pollard sat down for first ever long-form interview in English since his release from prison.” The Nation of Israel (Substack), May 22, 2023.
https://thenationofisrael.substack.com/p/jonathan-pollard-sat-down-for-first/comments

September 21, 2025 (Jerusalem Post Magazine) “Is Israel ready for Jonathan Pollard? Ex-spy outlines 10-point plan for Knesset run.” Pollard called for a government declaration that the Oslo Accords are “officially dead,” argued the PLO never actually ratified the agreement, and called for “eliminating the PA kinetically,” including closing Palestinian refugee camps he called “terrorist training centers.”

November 20, 2025 (The Jerusalem Post) “US antisemitism led Jonathan Pollard to spy for Israel.” Drawing on a Maariv interview. Pollard described being bullied as the only Jewish student at his Galveston, Texas school, carrying a knife at age 11, and said his father advised him, “If many are against you, kick one so hard that the rest will not return to you.”
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-874568 The Washington Post

Separately: November 20, 2025 (Times of Israel/NYT) “US Ambassador to Israel Huckabee hosted ex-spy Jonathan Pollard for meeting at US embassy,”— reporting that the CIA’s Israel station chief was “alarmed” at the meeting and that the White House was not informed of it beforehand.

December 22, 2025 (Times of Israel) “Former spy Jonathan Pollard: Israel sent a man to convince me to kill myself.” In an Army Radio interview, Pollard claimed he was told years ago by someone “sent by the Israeli government” that he should commit suicide to “close the door” on his case. He also said he opposes any foreign military presence in Israel, calling the US-led Civil-Military Coordination Center in Kiryat Gat a “threat” to Israeli sovereignty.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/former-spy-jonathan-pollard-israel-sent-a-man-to-convince-me-to-kill-myself/ Wikipedia

May 7, 2026 (NPR) - Estrin, Daniel. “Ex-spy who sold U.S. secrets to Israel says he’s sorry, and will run for parliament.” Pollard told NPR, “I made a mistake, I didn’t think about the consequences. And 30 years later, here I am trying to leave a better legacy.” He said the October 7, 2023 attack was a turning point, adding, “I also had assumed that my abandonment and betrayal by the Israeli government was the exception to the rule. When October 7 happened, I suddenly realized that the entire country had been betrayed and abandoned.” He directly blamed Prime Minister Netanyahu, saying Netanyahu “has never taken any share of the blame for the disaster that fell upon us on that day” and has made “a series of horrific blunders” since.
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/07/nx-s1-5812527/former-u-s-analyst-once-jailed-for-spying-for-israel-to-run-for-israeli-parliament Ex-spy who sold U.S. secrets to Israel says he’s sorry, and will run for parliament | NPR & Houston Public Media +2

May 2026 (Ynet News) “Jonathan Pollard, once jailed in US for spying, says he will enter Israeli politics.”. He said he will run alongside Nissim Louk, father of Shani Louk, a victim of the Nova music festival massacre, and that he supports a “full transfer” of Gaza’s population. https://www.ynetnews.com/article/b12quric11l Ynetnews

Rosenberg-Pollard Link?

Goldberg, J.J., Jewish Power: Inside the American Jewish Establishment [hc. Addison-Wesley, 1996] 978-0201622423 [pb, Basic Books, 1997] 978-0201327984 [Probably the most important book on this question. Goldberg discusses both the Rosenberg and Pollard affairs as crises in American Jewish identity. He argues that:

• the Rosenberg case raised fears that Jews would be associated with international Communism;
• the Pollard affair revived fears that Jews would be suspected of putting Israel before the United States;
• American Jewish organizations responded in both cases by emphasizing the overwhelming patriotism of American Jews and distancing themselves from the accused.]

Krauthammer, Charles, “Pollard and the Jews”, The Washington Post, March 20, 1987 [Written only months after Pollard’s arrest, Krauthammer argued that American Jews feared Pollard would become what the Rosenbergs had once been: a symbol allegedly proving Jewish disloyalty. He rejected that inference as a revival of an old antisemitic trope.]

4.3.4 Ivan Boesky

Salkin, Jeffrey, “Ivan Boesky was not good for the Jews”, Religion News Service, May 22, 2024 - The word is ‘shanda.’ Ivan Boesky embodied it. [- Jeffrey Salkin uses the death of convicted insider trader Ivan Boesky as an occasion to reflect on the relationship between Jewish identity, ethics, and public reputation. He argues that while Boesky’s crimes were personal, they also became, in the public imagination, a source of embarrassment (shanda) for the Jewish community.

Salkin begins by recalling Boesky’s spectacular rise and fall. A pioneer of risk arbitrage, Boesky amassed immense wealth through insider trading before pleading guilty in 1987, paying a $100 million penalty, and serving prison time. His story inspired the fictional Gordon Gekko in the film Wall Street.

The author criticizes The New York Times obituary for emphasizing Boesky’s Jewish background, questioning whether it was necessary to identify his father as “a Jewish immigrant from Russia” or to recount Boesky’s theatrical helicopter arrival at an extravagant Jewish bar mitzvah celebration. In Salkin’s view, such details reinforce longstanding stereotypes about Jews, wealth, and ostentation at a time when antisemitism has sharply increased following the October 7, 2023 attacks and the ensuing Israel-Hamas war.

At the same time, Salkin insists that Boesky’s case is legitimately a Jewish story—not because Jews are uniquely implicated in financial wrongdoing, but because Judaism places extraordinary emphasis on ethical business conduct. He notes that while the Torah contains only a few dozen dietary laws, it contains well over one hundred commandments governing economic justice, honesty, and fair dealing. Rabbinic tradition similarly teaches that true piety requires scrupulous integrity in commerce.

The article argues that the 1980s insider trading scandals, involving Boesky as well as other prominent Jewish financiers such as Dennis Levine and Michael Milken, exposed failures within the organized Jewish community to hold influential members morally accountable. According to Salkin, these scandals highlighted a troubling gap between Jewish ethical ideals and the behavior of some highly visible Jewish leaders.

Boesky’s prominence in Jewish communal life made the disgrace particularly painful. Before his conviction, he served on the boards of major Jewish institutions, including the UJA-Federation of New York, the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), Yeshiva University, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council. Salkin notes that the JTS library had once borne Boesky’s name, but after the scandal Boesky himself requested that his name be removed—an act the author interprets as evidence that Boesky recognized the shame (busha) his actions had brought upon both himself and the Jewish community.

The essay concludes with a reflection drawn from the Talmud. Salkin imagines Boesky facing the ultimate divine judgment, where the first and most important question would not concern ritual observance but whether he had conducted his business honestly and faithfully according to Jewish ethical principles. The author ends by extending condolences to Boesky’s family while reaffirming that Judaism ultimately measures a person’s character less by wealth or ritual than by integrity in financial and moral conduct. – ChatGPT]

4.3.5 Ivan Boesky & Michael Milken

These two are almost always covered together, since their cases were intertwined (Boesky’s plea deal implicated Milken).

Stewart, James B., Den of Thieves [hc, Simon & Schuster, 1991]) 978-0671638023 [pb, Simon & Schuster, 1992]) 978-0671792275 (the classic, Pulitzer-winning account) shows for the first time how four of the eighties’ biggest names on Wall Street—Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky, Martin Siegel, and Dennis Levine—created the greatest insider-trading ring in financial history.

Bruck, Connie, (The Predators’ Ball: The Inside Story of Drexel Burnham and the Rise of the Junk Bond Raiders [hc, Amer. Law/Simon & Schuster, 1988] B000GWK4I0 [pb, Simon & Schuster, 2020] 978-1982144265 - recounts the rise of Michael Milken, his firm Drexel Burnham Lambert, and the leveraged buyout boom they helped fuel in the 1980s Wikipedia

Stein, Benjamin J., (A License to Steal: The Untold Story of Michael Milken and the Conspiracy to Bilk the Nation [hc, Simon & Schuster, 1992] 978-0671742720 – reveals the full scope of the damage that Milken’s junk-bond empire inflicted o n the U.S. economy Publishers Weekly

Kornbluth, Jesse, (Highly Confident: The Crime and Punishment of Michael Milken [hc, William Morrow, 1992] 978-0688109370 - an authorized, more sympathetic account — worth noting it was bought and paid for by Milken himself, according to some reviewers, so read with that in mind) [all the above from Claude]

Sandler Richard V., (Witness to a Prosecution: The Myth of Michael Milken [hc, Forbes Books, 2023] 979-8887501338 [For a completely counter-mainstream perspective, this book was written by Milken’s personal defense attorney who was by his side daily during the federal investigations. Utilizing actual court transcripts, Sandler argues that ambitious federal prosecutors and headline-hungry journalists systematically demonized and over-prosecuted an innocent financial innovator to boost their own political careers.]

See also: note on the movie “Wall Street” (1987) in the companion Filmography.

4.3.6 Bernie Madoff

Films: The companion Filmography includes three movies about Madoff, listed below with the name of the actor portraying Madoff):

Madoff (2016 – Richard Dreyfuss - with Ben Dreyfuss, Richard’s son, playing the younger Bernie in flashbacks) (see p. 528)

The Wizard of Lies (2017 – Robert De Niro) (see p. 529)

Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street (2023 - Grant Lowenstein played the younger Bernie in flashbacks; Joseph Scotto played the adult Bernie) (see p. 536)

In addition, two commercial films made in the years following the Madoff affair featured characters with different names, but openly based on Madoff and his activities:

Tower Heist (2011) – starring Alan Alda; and

Blue Jasmine (2013) – directed by Woody Allen and starring Alec Baldwin.

See above in this bibliography: Note on the films made about Meyer Lansky, compared to those made about Madoff.

.

Books and Articles:

Behar, Richard (Madoff: The Final Word [hc, Avid Reader Press, 2024]) 978-1476726892 [pb] 978-1476726908

Brown, Hannah, “Scammer of the Tribe: Bernie Madoff ripped off Jewish organizations around world”, The Jerusalem Post, April 15, 2021 [Published after Madoff’s death in prison, this retrospective provides a comprehensive global accounting of the “philanthropic tsunami” that hit the Jewish community. The article tracks how Madoff embedded himself in elite country clubs to court wealthy Jewish donors, board members, and massive institutional endowments. It profiles the collapse and severe crippling of major international organizations, showing how a single bad actor exploited religious and cultural solidarity to bypass traditional financial oversight and institutional due diligence. Here are excerpts from the article, with emphasis on specific organizations and individuals added. This case is extraordinary in its scale and in the high-profile Jewishness of both the perpetrator – Madoff was a prominent figure in Jewish philanthropy – and many of its victims. See also “Why Were So Many Madoff Victims Jewish?” - The trust people tend to feel toward others in the same ethnic, racial, and political groups makes them easy targets for scammers. - by Harold A. Pollack (article paywall-restricted) in The Atlantic, Feb. 8, 2016.]

Bernie Madoff, who died on Wednesday at 82 while serving a 150-year sentence for running the largest Ponzi scheme in history, didn’t prey only on the super-rich. He also scammed dozens of Jewish organizations in the US and charities in Israel, several of which were forced to close down because they lost everything. Many others had to make severe cutbacks.

His December 11, 2008, arrest, which came just after the subprime mortgage financial crisis in America, revealed the extent of his scheme that had such a devastating effect around the world: 37,000 victims in 136 countries.

Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, which supports hospitals and other institutions in Israel, said it lost $90 million that it had invested with Madoff; in 2010, WZO pledged to pay back $45 million of the money that it had made earlier with the financier.Former Hadassah CFO Sheryl Weinstein claimed to have had a long-term affair with Madoff and wrote a book about it in 2009: Madoff’s Other Secret: Love, Money, Bernie and Me (see below). She spoke witheringly about Madoff at his sentencing hearing, calling him “a beast” and urging the judge to give him a harsh sentence, which he did.

Madoff’s scorched-earth policy burned scores of organizations, among them Yeshiva University, where Madoff served as the treasurer of the Board of Trustees and which lost over $100 million; the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles with losses of $25.5 million; and Washington’s Jewish Federation, which was bilked of $10 million. The Ramaz day school in New York lost over $5 million, while the American Jewish Congress found that about two-thirds of its nearly $17 million endowment was gone.

Nothing was sacred: Madoff reportedly scammed Elie Wiesel’s charitable foundation out of over $36 million. The Wall Street Journal reported that Steven Spielberg’s charity, the Wunderkinder Foundation, invested nearly 70% of its money with Madoff, most of which was lost. And Fred Wilpon, the Jewish owner of the New York Mets, was forced to pay $162 million in restitution, eventually forcing him to sell the team.

No group was apparently too small to steal from, either. The American branch of Elem, an Israeli organization that helps youth in distress, lost $850,000 it invested with him, according to The New York Times, as did Yad Sarah, the Israeli medical equipment charity, which reported losses of $1.5 million. According to various reports, the Technion lost about $6 million.The Robert I. Lappin Foundation in Massachusetts announced it would close after losing about $8 million – all it had. The Chais Family Foundation, which gave over $10 million each year to Jewish causes in Israel, the former Soviet Union and eastern Europe, also had to shut down. Detailed lists of the Jewish and Israeli organizations and individual victimized by Madoff are available on the internet. Thanks to the “clawback” mechanisms, some of them eventually received partial restitution of their losses of capital, provided they had not over the years withdrawn more than they originally invested (as was the case with Hadassah, for example). In some cases, restitution reached the level of 90%, but spread out over 9-16 years.

Campbell. Jim, (Madoff Talks: Uncovering the Untold Story Behind the Most Notorious Ponzi Scheme in History [hc, McGraw Hill, 2021]) 978-1260456172 [See related film]

Chernow, Ron, “Madoff and His Models.” The New Yorker, Vol. 85, No. 5 (cover date March 23, 2009), pp. 32–37. [Written only months after the collapse of Bernie Madoff’s investment empire, Ron Chernow’s essay places the scandal in the long history of Ponzi schemes rather than treating it as an unprecedented event. He argues that Madoff was less an entirely new kind of criminal than the most sophisticated practitioner of a fraud with deep historical roots.

Chernow begins by examining the original Ponzi operator, Charles Ponzi, and then compares him with earlier confidence men such as Ivar Kreuger. These figures all exploited investors’ willingness to believe in effortless wealth while relying on a continual flow of new money to satisfy earlier investors. Madoff, Chernow argues, perfected rather than invented the model.

The article explains that Madoff’s greatest innovation was psychological rather than financial. Unlike Charles Ponzi, who openly solicited investors with extravagant promises, Madoff cultivated exclusivity. He limited access to his fund, accepted clients only through trusted intermediaries, and projected an image of modest, steady success rather than spectacular profits. Annual returns of roughly 8–12 percent appeared plausible, encouraging wealthy and financially sophisticated investors to believe they had discovered an unusually prudent investment manager rather than an impossible miracle.

Chernow also explores the social dynamics that enabled the fraud. Madoff built extraordinary credibility through his legitimate market-making business, his service as chairman of the NASDAQ, and his extensive philanthropy. Within affluent Jewish circles in New York, Palm Beach, and elsewhere, introductions to Madoff became prized social currency, and many investors viewed him as a trusted insider. Chernow observes that Madoff “victimized his own community (in his case, Jewish),” although his clientele eventually expanded far beyond it to include major banks, hedge funds, universities, charities, and international investors.

A substantial portion of the essay examines Madoff’s personality. Chernow rejects simplistic portrayals of him as merely a financial genius or a cartoon villain, instead suggesting that, like many legendary swindlers, Madoff gradually came to believe his own mythology. His obsessive secrecy, insistence that clients never question his methods, and carefully controlled office environment all served to insulate the fraud from scrutiny while reinforcing his aura of authority.

Chernow concludes that the Madoff scandal reveals enduring weaknesses in human nature rather than simply failures of financial regulation. Greed alone does not explain the scheme’s longevity; equally important were trust, prestige, social conformity, and the desire to belong to an exclusive financial elite. These characteristics have sustained confidence schemes from Charles Ponzi’s era to the present, making Madoff’s crime both historically familiar and uniquely devastating.

Although this is primarily a historical analysis of financial fraud, Chernow directly addresses Madoff’s prominence within segments of the American Jewish community and explains how ethnic, familial, and philanthropic networks helped establish the trust on which the fraud depended. At the same time, he makes clear that Madoff’s victims ultimately extended far beyond Jewish circles and that the mechanisms of the fraud were universal rather than specifically Jewish. As such, the essay is one of the best concise historical analyses of Madoff and provides important context for understanding the relationship between Jewish communal networks and one of the largest white-collar crimes in history. – ChatGPT]

Eren, Colleen P., (Bernie Madoff and the Crisis: The Public Trial of Capitalism [hc, Stanford UP, 2017]) 978-0804795586 [pb, Stanford UP, 2017] 978-1503602724 [Bernie Madoff’s arrest could not have come at a more darkly poetic moment. Economic upheaval had plunged America into a horrid recession. Then, on December 11, 2008, Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme came to light. A father turned in by his sons; a son who took his own life; another son dying and estranged from his father; a woman at the center of a storm—Madoff’s story was a media magnet, voraciously consumed by a justice-seeking public. Bernie Madoff and the Crisis goes beyond purely investigative accounts to examine how and why Madoff became the epicenter of public fury and titillation. Rooting her argument in critical sociology, Colleen P. Eren analyzes media coverage of this landmark case alongside original interviews with dozens of journalists and editors involved in the reportage, the SEC Director of Public Affairs, and Bernie Madoff himself. Turning the mirror back onto society, Eren locates Madoff within a broader reckoning about free market capitalism. She argues that our ideological and cultural tendencies to attribute blame to individuals—be they regulators, victims, or “monsters” like Madoff—distracts us from more systemic critiques. Bernie Madoff and the Crisis offers fresh insight into the 2008 crisis, whether we have come to terms with it, and what we have yet to gain from the case of the century. – Amazon]

Fishman, Steve, “Bernie Madoff, Monster,” New York Magazine, cover story, late February 2009 (URL: nymag.com/news/businessfinance/54703/). [Summary: The article frames Ezra Merkin as almost a mirror image of Madoff: where Madoff was a striving outer-borough operator with a “whiff of Queens,” Merkin was an Upper East Side intellectual showman — quoting Hamlet, discoursing on Jewish law and Rothko (whose paintings he collected), and serving as chairman of GMAC. A fellow congregant called him “pious, prayerful, and profound.”

The piece traces this to Merkin’s upbringing as the son of Hermann Merkin, a wealthy but emotionally distant philanthropist who co-founded Fifth Avenue Synagogue. Despite the family’s wealth, the household enforced strict thrift, and Ezra — as the oldest son — carried outsized expectations. The article suggests this dynamic partly drove Ezra’s competitive pursuit of success in finance, philanthropy, and religious life, ultimately eclipsing his father’s fortune.

Crucially, the piece reports that it was Hermann, not Ezra, who first knew and admired Madoff — and that this paternal endorsement likely gave Ezra the confidence to funnel client money to him in the early 1990s. At his peak, Merkin earned an estimated $35 million a year simply for routing money to Madoff.

The article then details how Merkin brought a roster of prominent Jewish investors and institutions to Madoff — describing the list as “a kind of Jewish social register” — including Mort Zuckerman and Ira Rennert, along with more than 30 Jewish-affiliated charities, including Ramaz and Yeshiva University. On Yeshiva specifically: Merkin chaired the university’s investment committee from around 1994, directed $14.5 million of its endowment into his Ascot Fund (which he passed to Madoff), and collected fees on it — while a 2003 disclosure obtained by the magazine described Madoff only as Ascot’s “executing broker,” a characterization the article treats as misleading given what’s now known. The piece notes the added irony that Madoff himself sat on Yeshiva’s board. – Claude]

Ghert-Zand, Renee, “Shaped by ‘shanda’: Letty Cottin Pogrebin’s memoir on a life of shame and secrets,” The Times of Israel, Feb. 1, 2023. The article was an interview with Letty Cottin Pogrebin about her personal family memoir. In that interview, discussing the concept of shanda far di goyim, Pogrebin observes that this kind of shanda seems to be less of a deterrent against wrongdoing today than it was when Jews were less integrated into American society. She points to the #MeToo movement and how disproportionately many Jewish men were exposed — musicians, professors, heads of Jewish agencies, sociologists, authors — as well as Harvey Weinstein, saying she doesn’t know a Jew who wasn’t ashamed by that wave of exposure. She then adds that during the Madoff scandal, people were saying “thank heavens his victims were Jews,” because otherwise the community would have looked even worse in front of non-Jews. Direct link: https://www.timesofisrael.com/shaped-by-shanda-letty-cottin-pogrebins-memoir-on-a-life-of-shame-and-secrets/

Henriques, Diana B., (The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust [hc, Times Books, 2011]) 978-0805091342 [pb, 2012] 978-1250007438 [See related film]

Kirtzman, Andrew, (Betrayal: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff – A Page-Turning Financial Thriller About the King of the Swindlers [hc, Harper, 2009]) 978-0061870767 [pb, 2020] 978-0061870774

Ross, Brian, (The Madoff Chronicles: Inside the Secret World of Bernie and Ruth [hc, Hyperion, 2009]) 978-1401310295 [pb, Kingswell, 2016] 978-1484752692 [See related film]

Philologos (pseudonym for Hillel Halkin), “Before Madoff, or the Goyim, a Shande.” The Forward, August 19, 2009. Argues that Madoff’s Ponzi scheme is not merely a shande far di goyim but ḥillul ha-shem (desecration of God’s name) — a distinct and more serious Jewish category, unforgivable where a mere shande can be.

Weinstein, Sheryl, (Madoff’s Other Secret: Love, Money, Bernie, and Me [hc, St. Martin’s Press, 2009]) 978-0312618377 [Written by the former Chief Financial Officer of Hadassah (the Women’s Zionist Organization of America), this memoir offers a raw, firsthand look at Madoff’s personal exploitation of Jewish communal leaders. Weinstein details her secret multi-year romantic affair with Madoff alongside her decision to trust him with both her personal life savings and tens of millions of dollars in charitable institutional funds.

Bernie Madoff’s Jewish identity and his exploitation of the Jewish community are central to understanding how his multi-billion-dollar fraud survived for decades. The scandal is widely studied as one of the most catastrophic examples of affinity fraud in history—a crime where a fraudster weaponizes shared ethnic, religious, or cultural bonds to bypass standard financial scrutiny.

The “Jewish Circuit” and Social Networks

Madoff built his empire by embedding himself into elite Jewish social spaces. He targeted wealthy country clubs in Long Island and Palm Beach, Florida, cultivating an air of exclusive privilege. He intentionally made his funds difficult to get into, turning away prospective clients to create false scarcity. Because he was a prominent figure in Jewish philanthropy, investors felt a profound sense of tribal trust, believing he was quietly rewarding “his own” with stable, conservative returns. Madoff relied heavily on powerful institutional gatekeepers within the community. For instance, J. Ezra Merkin, a highly prominent leader in the Modern Orthodox community, operated feeder funds (like Ascot Partners) that steered $1.8 billion of communal, institutional, and private Jewish wealth directly into Madoff’s hands.

Impact on Jewish Non-Profits and Charities

The financial fallout decimated American Jewish philanthropy, forcing multiple organizations to temporarily close, slash operations, or dissolve entirely: The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity: The Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate lost his entire personal life savings and $15 million of his foundation’s assets to Madoff, a betrayal Wiesel publicly described as paralyzing. [1, 2]

• Hadassah: The Women’s Zionist Organization of America was heavily defrauded, suffering losses calculated in the tens of millions of dollars.
• The Lappin Foundation: Based in Massachusetts and dedicated to funding Jewish youth trips to Israel, this foundation was forced to temporarily freeze all operations after its entire asset base vanished overnight.
• High-Profile Foundations: Steven Spielberg’s Wunderkinder Foundation, the Chais Family Foundation, and the prominent Picower Foundation (run by major philanthropist Jeffry Picower) were all severely impacted or completely wiped out.
• Cultural and Artistic Responses to the Jewish Aspect

The intense communal trauma, embarrassment, and anger spawned specific artistic works exploring the scandal through a explicitly Jewish lens:

About Affinity Fraud:

KKC (a legal/whistleblower-attorney site, not a government source): Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto LLP., “Affinity Fraud & SEC Whistleblower Program.” KKC Frequently Asked Questions. Washington, DC: Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, updated February 11, 2026. https://kkc.com/frequently-asked-questions/affinity-fraud-sec-whistleblower/ [This page states: the largest affinity fraud case in history was Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities in 2008, a $50 billion fraud that targeted wealthy Jewish communities and organizations, including Yeshiva University, Maimonides School, Kehilath Jeshurun Synagogue, Ramaz, the SAR Academy, and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel’s foundation and personal savings.

Investor.gov

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of Investor Education and Advocacy. “Affinity Fraud.” Investor.gov Glossary. Washington, DC: U.S. SEC, n.d. https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/investing-basics/glossary/affinity-fraud

Notably, the actual Investor.gov glossary entry itself is quite brief and does not name Madoff specifically — it’s a general definition: affinity fraud refers to investment scams that prey upon members of identifiable groups, such as religious or ethnic communities, the elderly, or professional groups, and the fraudsters who promote affinity scams frequently are - or pretend to be - members of the group. They often enlist respected community or religious leaders from within the group to spread the word about the scheme, convincing those people that a fraudulent investment is legitimate and worthwhile, with many of those leaders becoming unwitting victims of the fraudster’s ruse. The Madoff-specific detail comes from secondary sources describing/paraphrasing SEC materials, not the glossary page verbatim. Investor.gov [Source of KKC and Investor.gov refs: Claude, which also refers to FBI files citing cases of affinity fraud among Amish, Mennonite, Christian evangelical and Muslim Shariah-compliant investment funds]

4.3.7 Sackler Family

Significant books about the Sackler family and the opioid scandal:

Keefe, Patrick Radden, (Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty [hc, Doubleday, 2021] 978-0385545686 [pb, Vintage Books, 2022] 978-1984899019 [The definitive and most acclaimed book on the opioid scandal and the Sackler family]

Other highly significant books on the epidemic include:

Barry Meier, (Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America’s Opioid Epidemic [hc, Random House, 2018]): 978-0525511106 [pb, Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2023] 978-1984801180 [See related film] [A pioneering investigative look at Purdue Pharma’s aggressive marketing of OxyContin.]

Macy, Beth, (Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America [hc, Random House, 2018] 978-0525511106 [pb, Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2023] 978-1984801180 [See related film] [Focuses heavily on the ground-level destruction of communities alongside corporate greed.]

Films, movies about the Sacklers and the scandal (listed in the companion Filmography):

The Crime of the Century (2021)

Dopesick (2021)

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022)

Painkiller (2023)

Pain Hustlers (2023)

The Jewish community’s coping mechanisms and reactions to the Sackler family’s role in the opioid crisis played out across individual moral reckoning, grassroots activism, and institutional reassessments of philanthropic ethics. Because the founders of Purdue Pharma were the children of Jewish immigrants, the scandal triggered significant internal community reflection.

The response divided into four primary areas:

1. Grassroots Activism and Individual Backlash

Individual Jewish artists and community members often led the charge against the family.

• Nan Goldin’s Leadership: Renowned Jewish artist and activist Nan Goldin, herself a recovering OxyContin addict, spearheaded the most influential grassroots movement against the family. Through her organization, P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now), she led highly visible die-ins and protests at major cultural institutions to force them to cut ties with Sackler funding.
• The “Jewish Drive” Moral Reckoning: Within Jewish media, rabbis and commentators grappled with the concept of Tikkun Olam (the Jewish drive to repair or change the world). Commentators noted that while early generations of the Sackler family used their medical ambitions to build society, later family members channelled that same drive into greed and corporate deception, creating a severe perversion of Jewish values.

2. The Rejection of Philanthropy by Cultural Institutions

Jewish cultural organizations had to navigate the ethics of “tainted money,” choosing to cut future ties while dealing with legacy spaces.

The Jewish Museum Berlin: In 2019, The Jewish Museum Berlin announced it would formally decline all future donations from the Sackler family trust.

• The Legacy Dilemma: The museum chose not to rename its “Sackler Staircase” (funded in 2002). A spokesperson stated that returning the money was structurally impossible and that renaming the staircase would be an “inappropriate attempt to disguise what happened,” since the museum had acted in good faith decades prior.
• Institutional Reckoning in Israel

The Sackler family was among the most prolific donors to Israeli scientific and medical academic circles, creating a protracted ethical battle.

• Tel Aviv University (TAU): The family’s name was deeply woven into the campus fabric, including the prominent Sackler Faculty of Medicine. For years, TAU resisted intense public pressure to remove the name, arguing that the initial donations were made 50 years prior and that they needed to wait for formal legal resolution in U.S. courts.
• The Name Removal: In June 2023, following the resolution of global lawsuits, Tel Aviv University officially removed the Sackler family name from its medical school. The university stated that the family “kindly agreed” to step down from the naming rights to allow the institution to raise new research funds without the burden of the scandal.
• 4. Direct Impact: Addressing Addiction Within Jewish Communities

The crisis forced Jewish communities to dismantle the myth that tight-knit religious or cultural circles were immune to substance abuse.

• Breaking the Stigma: The visible connection of a prominent Jewish family to the opioid supply chain accelerated conversations regarding addiction within Jewish communities. Communal organizations used the crisis to fund local recovery programs, run educational campaigns about prescription opioid dangers, and establish support networks tailored to Jewish cultural and religious environments.

4.3.8 Harvey Weinstein

Significant Books

Kantor, Jodi & Megan Twohey, (She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement [hc, Penguin Press, 2019] 978-0525560340 [pb, Penguin Books, 2020] 978-0525560364 [See related film] [Written by the New York Times journalists who broke the initial 2017 expose, this book reveals how they built their case against Weinstein. It provides deep insight into the complex web of secret settlements and non-disclosure agreements used to silence victims.The book touches on a fascinating “Jewish subplot”. Kantor (who is Jewish) notes that during her investigation, Weinstein actively tried to influence her by appealing to her “Jew to Jew”. He explicitly leaned on cultural tribalism, assuming it would override her reporting ethics—a manipulation tactics Kantor described as highly offensive.

Farrow, Ronan, (Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators [hc, Little, Brown & Co., 2019] 978-0316486637 [pb, Little, Brown Paperbacks, 2020] 978-0316486644 [ - details his parallel investigative reporting for The New Yorker. It reads like a corporate thriller, charting how Weinstein used a massive network of high-powered attorneys, media executives, and private intelligence to bury the story.. The book documents Weinstein’s hiring of Black Cube—a private investigative agency primarily staffed by former Mossad and Israeli intelligence agents—to track, manipulate, and gather dirt on journalists and accusers.

Auleta, Ken, (Hollywood Ending: Harvey Weinstein and the Culture of Silence [hc, Penguin Press, 2022] 978-1984878373 [This thorough biography digs into Weinstein’s early life, his psychological makeup, and his meteoric rise alongside his brother, Bob.Auletta explores the Weinsteins’ upbringing as working-class Jewish brothers in Queens, New York. It looks at their relationship with their parents, Max and Miriam (after whom they famously named their studio, Miramax), detailing how family dynamics and the specific post-war era shaped his aggressive, predatory ambition.

Articles Discussing His Jewish Background

When the story broke in late 2017, multiple publications directly debated the intersection of Weinstein’s Jewish identity and his behavior, sparking fierce media arguments.

Oppenheimer, Mark, “The Specifically Jewy Perviness of Harvey Weinstein”, Tablet Magazine, Oct. 9, 2017. [This is the most explicit—and controversial—article regarding his Jewish background. Oppenheimer drew parallels between Weinstein and characters from Philip Roth novels, arguing that Weinstein behaved like an archetype of a 20th-century secular Jewish-American male driven by “revenge fantasies on the Goyim”. The piece sparked intense backlash for validating anti-Semitic tropes. While Oppenheimer later issued an apology, the article remains a notable piece of media analysis from that era.

Cannon, Benjy, “Weinstein’s Assaults: Misogyny, Not Judaism”, Jewish Currents, Oct. 11, 2017. [Published as a direct rebuttal to the Tablet piece, this article argued that blaming Weinstein’s behavior on his Jewish heritage essentializes misogyny and dangerously flirts with anti-Semitic stereotypes. It emphasized that his crimes were an abuse of unchecked industry power, not religious or cultural upbringing.

Times of Israel Editorial, “Harvey Weinstein is not a Jewish issue”, Oct. 20, 2017 [This piece chronicled the community soul-searching that occurred in the wake of the scandal. It pointed out how white nationalist groups weaponized Weinstein’s heritage online. The author re-framed the entire conversation, asserting that predatory behavior is strictly a moral and legal issue rather than a cultural one.]

Reactions of Hollywood Peers: High-profile Jewish figures in Hollywood, including Jeffrey Katzenberg (who had previously praised Weinstein as a “nice Jewish boy” at a Simon Wiesenthal Center dinner), forcefully denounced him once the allegations came to light.

Initial Silence and Fear of Backlash: According to analyses by Jewish outlets like Moment Magazine, many mainstream Jewish communal leaders initially opted for silence. This was driven by apprehension that high-profile “Jewish villains” (such as Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, and Bernie Madoff) would trigger waves of antisemitism.

The Push for Institutional Reform: Once the #MeToo movement gained momentum, the focus shifted inward. Jewish organizations faced severe criticism for historically tolerating powerful donors and leaders who engaged in misconduct. This prompted major structural overhauls, leading groups like Hadassah and various Jewish federations to implement stricter workplace safety and anti-harassment policies.

Direct References to His Jewishness

Weinstein’s Self-Referencing: In a rambling public statement before his downfall, Weinstein explicitly referenced his upbringing, stating he would channel his anger into fighting the NRA and hosting a retirement party for its chief at the same venue where he had his Bar Mitzvah. Years prior, he also used an acceptance speech at a Simon Wiesenthal Center dinner to urge Jews to “kick these antisemites in the ass,” heavily leaning into his identity as a defender of the Jewish people.

Weaponization of Israeli Intelligence: Weinstein hired Black Cube, a private intelligence agency founded by former Mossad operatives, to track and gather intelligence on accusers like Rose McGowan and journalists investigating him. This connection was heavily criticized for intertwining Israeli state apparatuses with his personal cover-up.

Antisemitic Tropes: Watchdog groups like the American Jewish Committee (AJC) noted that antisemites weaponized Weinstein’s trial. They used his face to propagate age-old conspiracy theories regarding “Jewish sexual perversion” and Jewish manipulation of media and entertainment industries.

The published books, investigative memoirs, and cultural articles addressing the Harvey Weinstein affair and its intersection with Jewish identity range from mainstream journalistic exposés to highly controversial cultural critiques and institutional autopsies.

Brodner, Steve. “The Jewish Cabal Rings in 2013.” Tablet Magazine, January 2, 2013 [Satirical and cultural commentary tracking the intersections of Hollywood power, prominent Jewish figures, and media perception, later cited by media critics examining how the industry coddled figures like Weinstein.]

Rejecting the Jewish Framing and Condemning Tropes

These articles directly countered the narrative that Weinstein’s actions had any root in Jewish culture, emphasizing instead the universality of abuse of power, while warning against the rise of antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Glinter, Ezra, “There’s Nothing Especially Jewish About a Powerful Man Abusing His Power.” The Canadian Jewish News, October 11, 2017. [Written as a direct rebuttal to Oppenheimer’s Tablet essay. Glinter argued that tying sexual predation to Jewish identity was intellectually lazy and bigoted. He asserted that Weinstein’s actions reflected a universal culture of workplace misogyny and patriarchal power, completely detached from Jewish religious or cultural values.]

Kirschenbaum, Eli, “Harvey Weinstein is Not a Jewish Issue.” The Jewish Chronicle, October 13, 2017.[A UK-based editorial arguing that framing Weinstein through his ethnicity plays directly into the hands of bad actors. The piece emphasized that while the community must deal with Jewish abusers, the crime itself belongs to Hollywood’s systemic casting-couch culture, not Jewish lineage.

Institutional Self-Reflection and the #MeToo Movement

These pieces focused on the internal reckoning within Jewish communal organizations and non-profits, analyzing how “philanthropic blackmail” protected wealthy donors.

Rosenblatt, Gary, “The Jewish Community’s #MeToo Moment.” The New York Jewish Week, October 25, 2017.[A retrospective look at how Jewish non-profits, synagogues, and federations historically ignored whisper networks to keep mega-donors happy. It explicitly uses the Weinstein downfall as a warning shot to the Jewish institutional world.

Axelrod, Toby, “After Weinstein, Jewish Groups Confront Their Own Harassment Issues.” Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), November 14, 2017. [A journalistic review of the structural updates implemented by Jewish organizations globally. This report covers the rewrite of safety protocols, code of ethics policies, and how the community historically feared the “antisemitic fallout” of exposing powerful Jewish men.

There are numerous articles, books, and investigative reports that directly link the cases of Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein. Because both men were immensely powerful figures operating as serial sexual predators during the same era, commentators and journalists have connected them across several dimensions, including their personal overlapping networks, structural abuse tactics, and their impact on Jewish communal anxiety.

The connections are documented through several distinct lenses:

1. The Jewish Communal Reckoning (“Jewish Villains”)

Commentators within Jewish media have frequently linked Weinstein and Epstein (often alongside Bernie Madoff) to analyze a specific phenomenon: the communal panic over high-profile “Jewish villains” triggering antisemitism.

Joseph Berger, “Jewish Villains: Does Fighting Antisemitism Require Calling Out the Tribe’s Most Notorious Criminals?” Moment Magazine, March 9, 2026 ( - details how mainstream Jewish leadership initially responded to both the Weinstein and Epstein sex scandals with distinct silence. The piece argues that institutional leaders intentionally chose to observe silence, fearing that publicly addressing the Jewish identities of both men would fuel pre-existing antisemitic tropes. Berger asks whether openly repudiating notorious Jewish wrongdoers might actually be a better response to antisemitism.

Mitchell Abidor, “Good Jewish Boys Gone Bad”, Public Seminar, August 31, 2022. Abidor argues that Weinstein (Queens) and Epstein (Brooklyn) shared similar middle-class Jewish upbringings. Both grew up in socially conservative outer-borough Jewish neighborhoods. Both later used wealth and power to compensate for adolescent frustrations surrounding sexuality. Their predatory behavior represented a pathological abuse of power rather than anything inherent in Jewish culture.

2. Legal Documents and Victim Testimony

Unsealed court records and books written by victims’ legal counsel have explicitly linked the two men’s behaviors.

Edwards, Brad, Relentless Pursuit: My Fight for the Victims of Jeffrey Epstein [hc, Gallery Books, 20200 978-1982148133 [pb, Gallery Books, 2021] 978-1982148140 [Written by a prominent attorney for Epstein’s victims, this book reveals that Epstein and Weinstein eventually had a falling out. According to Edwards, Epstein actually accused Weinstein of being “a pig” after Weinstein allegedly attempted to sexually assault one of Epstein’s “favorite girls” at a home in France.

The Unsealed Epstein Files: Legal document unsealings heavily feature cross-references between the two. Court records show that the FBI received tips naming Weinstein alongside Epstein’s circle, and unsealed phone logs from Epstein’s townhouse explicitly show messages left by Harvey Weinstein, proving they maintained direct, professional lines of communication. Specifically mentioned in an Associated Press article on Jan. 24, 2024, regarding handwritten message logs seized during a 2005 police raid on Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion. Also in an article by Jack Dunn in Variety, January 31, 2026.

Summary of the Parallel

Ultimately, media coverage linking the two concludes that Weinstein and Epstein utilized identical playbooks: they weaponized structural power, relied on “whisper networks” to keep victims quiet, deployed aggressive legal intimidation, and left a Jewish community deeply anxious about how their public downfalls would be manipulated by bad actors.

Films (details in companion Filmography, in chronological order of year of release)

The Reckoning: Hollywood’s Worst-Kept Secret (2018) (see p. 530)

Citizen Harvey (2018) (see p. 530)

The Assistant (2019) (see p. 531)

Untouchable (2019) (see p. 531)

She Said (2022) (see p. 535)

FRONTLINE: Weinstein (2018 / Updated 2023) (see p. 537)

4.3.9 Jeffrey Epstein (1953-2019)

There is no single book regarded as the authoritative overview of Jeffrey Epstein in all his aspects. The following are essential reading:

Brown, Julie K., (Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story [hc, Dey Street Books, 2021]) 978-0063000582 [pb, HarperCollins, 2021] 978-0008388768 [Julie Brown is the Miami Herald investigative reporter whose series of articles, beginning in November, 2018 brought the Epstein case to wide public attention. The book expands on Epstein’s recruitment and abuse of teenage girls; the system under which victims were paid to recruit other girls; the Palm Beach police investigation; conflicts between police investigators and prosecutors; the role of Alexander Acosta’s federal prosecutor’s office; Epstein’s lawyers’ campaign to obtain unusually favorable treatment; the experiences of victims who attempted to seek justice; and the journalistic investigation that preceded Epstein’s 2019 arrest. She located or examined the cases of dozens of women—her newspaper describes more than sixty—who said Epstein had abused them. Her work is strongest on the victims, the Palm Beach investigation, and the failure of the criminal-justice system. Questions concerning the ultimate sources of Epstein’s wealth, possible intelligence connections, blackmail operations, and the conduct of every prominent associate remain incompletely resolved.

Edwards, Bradley J., with Brittany Henderson, (Relentless Pursuit: My Fight for the Victims of Jeffrey Epstein) – referenced in the immediately preceding section on Harvey Weinstein. This is the strongest firsthand legal history of the victims’ struggle. He began representing Epstein victims in 2008 and spent more than a decade pursuing civil claims, obtaining testimony, challenging the federal non-prosecution agreement, and resisting legal and personal pressure from Epstein and his attorneys. He represented more than twenty women during the period covered by the book.

The book is particularly authoritative concerning the civil litigation against Epstein; the Crime Victims’ Rights Act proceedings; Epstein’s use of aggressive litigation and surveillance; the collection of testimony from victims and witnesses; negotiations with Epstein’s attorneys; efforts to hold federal prosecutors accountable; and the legal campaign that continued after Epstein’s 2008 conviction.

Levine, Barry, (The Spider: Inside the Criminal Web of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell [hc, Crown, 2020]) 978-0593237182 [This provides the broadest journalistic reconstruction of Epstein’s personal and social network. Levine, formerly an executive editor at the National Enquirer, attempts a comprehensive narrative of Epstein’s rise, his relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell, his powerful acquaintances, his properties, and the operation surrounding the recruitment of young women and girls. The publisher describes it as an extensive account of Epstein’s life, death, and criminal network.It is useful for Epstein’s social connections; Maxwell’s role; Epstein’s residences and travel; former employees and associates; the larger environment in which Epstein operated; events surrounding the 2019 arrest and death. Some portions rely on anonymous sources, recollections, and material that cannot always be independently verified. It is valuable but should not be treated as equal in evidentiary weight to Brown’s documented investigation or Edwards’s legal record.]

Patterson, James, John Connolly, and Tim Malloy, (Filthy Rich: A Powerful Billionaire, the Sex Scandal That Undid Him, and All the Justice That Money Can Buy: The Shocking True Story of Jeffrey Epstein [hc, Little, Brown and Company, 2016] 978-0316274050 [See related film] [The most important substantial book published before Epstein’s 2019 arrest. The book draws on: Palm Beach police materials; statements and interviews involving victims; court and prosecution records; Epstein’s social and financial background; the negotiations that produced the 2008 plea arrangement. Its publication in 2016 is significant: it documented the seriousness of the case before the renewed federal prosecution and before Epstein became the subject of constant international coverage. It should be read as an important precursor rather than the definitive account.

Giuffre, Virginia Roberts, (Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice [hc, Knopf, 2025] 978-0593493120 [pb, Random House Large Print, 2025] 979-8217347599 [Giuffre became the most publicly recognizable Epstein survivor and a central accuser of Ghislaine Maxwell and Prince Andrew. Her memoir is authoritative regarding her own recruitment, experiences, perceptions, and later struggle for recognition and legal redress.It should be used as a firsthand source rather than as an impartial account of every contested allegation. As with all memoirs, individual recollection must be distinguished from independently documented findings. Nevertheless, no serious study of the human consequences of Epstein’s organization should omit Giuffre’s testimony. – ChatGPT]

Significant Articles

Farrow, Ronan, “How an Élite University Research Center Concealed Its Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein”, The New Yorker, September 6, 2019. [ - The definitive article on Epstein’s concealed relationship with the MIT Media Lab. Using internal emails and institutional documents, Farrow showed that senior personnel at the MIT Media Lab continued to deal with Epstein after his conviction and attempted to conceal or anonymize his donations and involvement. Employees reportedly used indirect language to keep Epstein’s name out of formal records. The reporting precipitated Joi Ito’s resignation and an independent institutional investigation. This article is especially important because it moves beyond Epstein’s immediate crimes to examine how prestigious institutions normalized, concealed, and benefited from their association with him.]

Enrich, David, “How Jeffrey Epstein Got Away With It,” The New York Times Magazine, July 13, 2021. [A major retrospective examination of the lawyers, bankers, prosecutors, advisers, fixers, and institutional relationships that helped Epstein evade full accountability. The article is especially useful for understanding Epstein not simply as an individual criminal but as someone sustained by an ecosystem of professional enablers and respected institutions. It complements Brown: Brown is strongest on victims and prosecutors, while Enrich pays greater attention to elite financial and professional networks. The article is also cited in reference literature as a major retrospective on the case.]

Rosman, Katherine, Matthew Goldstein, and others, Investigative reporting on Epstein’s finances and Leon Black, The New York Times, 2019–21. [The Times produced an important cluster of articles investigating: Epstein’s unusually opaque financial career; his relationship with Leslie Wexner; the extraordinary fees paid by Leon Black; transactions and tax advice; his relationships with bankers and wealth managers; the difficulty of identifying a conventional investment business commensurate with his claimed wealth. These articles are valuable because the origins and mechanisms of Epstein’s fortune remain one of the least satisfactorily explained parts of his biography. No single published book has yet resolved that question.]

Sherman, Gabriel, “The Talented Mr. Epstein”, New York, vol. 42, no. 6, February 9, 2009, pp. 20–27. [One of the most significant early post-conviction profiles. Sherman examined Epstein’s social ambitions, relationship with Leslie Wexner, financial mystique, and remarkable ability to retain elite connections. It must be read historically: it appeared before the full scale of Epstein’s conduct was publicly understood. Nevertheless, it is valuable evidence of how Epstein represented himself and how members of the financial and social establishment continued to regard him after his prosecution.]

Although there is no large scholarly literature devoted specifically to Jeffrey Epstein’s Jewishness, there is a substantial body of journalism examining (1) his Jewish background and philanthropy, (2) how Jewish organizations reacted to his crimes, and (3) concerns that the case was fueling antisemitic narratives.

The material falls into several categories:

1. Epstein’s Jewish identity and background

Most mainstream reporting notes that Epstein was born into a secular Jewish family in Brooklyn but was not known as an observant Jew. Rather than exploring his Jewish identity as such, journalists have focused on his strategic relationships with wealthy Jewish philanthropists and institutions. Among the better articles:

Amy Spiro, “Jeffrey Epstein’s History of Jewish Giving,” Jewish Insider, July 26, 2019. [This article is primarily an investigative survey rather than an opinion piece. Drawing on IRS filings made public after Epstein’s arrest, Spiro reconstructs nearly two decades of charitable giving by Epstein’s various foundations to Jewish organizations in the United States and Israel.

The article documents donations ranging from relatively modest gifts to local Jewish charities to substantial contributions—sometimes reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars—to major institutions including the Ramaz School, UJA-Federation of New York, Hillel, YIVO, the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, the Jewish National Fund, the American Jewish Committee, and numerous yeshivot and educational organizations. The article emphasizes that Epstein’s philanthropy continued even after his 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor, raising questions about institutional awareness and donor screening.

Rather than accusing the recipient organizations of misconduct, Spiro presents their responses to inquiries. Some institutions stated they had been unaware of the source of the funds or the extent of Epstein’s criminal history; others explained that the donations had been made years before his notoriety became widely known. Several organizations acknowledged that the revelations would lead them to review their gift-acceptance policies more carefully.

The article’s chief contribution is factual rather than interpretive. It establishes the scope of Epstein’s Jewish philanthropy and provides a documentary foundation for later debates about accepting or retaining gifts from morally compromised donors. It also demonstrates how deeply Epstein had embedded himself within respected philanthropic networks despite his criminal record.]

Andrew Lapin, “Checks, charities and conversion classes: What the Epstein files show about Jeffrey Epstein’s Jewish world,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency (also reprinted by The Forward), February 26, 2026. [ - revisits the subject following the release of previously undisclosed Justice Department files, using newly available emails and financial records to reconstruct Epstein’s extensive networking within Jewish communal life.

A central narrative concerns a Jewish dentist who attempted to encourage Epstein to reconnect with Judaism, introducing him to Jewish books, rabbis, and charitable giving. This episode serves as a window into Epstein’s efforts to cultivate relationships with Jewish professionals, educators, philanthropists, and religious institutions. The newly released documents suggest that Epstein consciously sought greater visibility within Jewish philanthropic circles and sometimes viewed charitable giving as part of a broader effort to rehabilitate his public image after his 2008 conviction.

Lapin also analyzes internal correspondence showing Epstein’s attempts to publicize his philanthropy, including efforts to gain recognition from Jewish philanthropic publications while minimizing references to his relationship with Leslie Wexner. The article documents donations to schools, yeshivot, Israel-related charities, Hillel, YIVO, Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, the Jewish National Fund, and numerous smaller organizations, many of which later stated they had been unaware of the circumstances surrounding the gifts.

Beyond philanthropy, Lapin explores the ethical dilemmas faced by individuals who interacted with Epstein before his crimes became widely known. The article also notes that renewed public attention to the files fueled antisemitic conspiracy theories, emphasizing that Epstein’s extensive Jewish connections reflected networking and philanthropy rather than evidence for claims of collective Jewish responsibility. In this respect, the article combines investigative reporting with reflection on how Jewish institutions continue to reckon with Epstein’s legacy years after his death.]

2. Jewish organizations confronting the Epstein scandal

Aiden Pink, “Jewish Charities Took Epstein’s Money For Years. So What Should They Do Now?”, The Forward, August 5, 2019 [Pink shifts the discussion from documenting donations to examining their ethical implications. The article asks what responsibilities Jewish communal institutions have after discovering they accepted contributions from a convicted sex offender whose wealth had become morally tainted. Rather than offering simple answers, Pink interviews historians of philanthropy, Jewish ethicists, rabbis, and nonprofit experts, including Thane Rosenbaum, Benjamin Soskis and Joan Harrington. They debate whether institutions should return Epstein’s money, redirect it to organizations assisting victims of sexual abuse, publicly acknowledge the donations, or retain the funds if they had already been spent on legitimate charitable purposes.

The article places the controversy within a broader history of philanthropy funded by ethically questionable fortunes, observing that Jewish organizations—like universities, museums, and hospitals—have often depended on wealthy donors whose business or personal conduct later proved controversial. Epstein therefore becomes a case study in a recurring dilemma rather than an isolated scandal.

Pink concludes that transparency, public accountability, and careful donor-vetting are more important than symbolic efforts to erase Epstein’s name. Jewish ethical concepts concerning repentance, restitution, and communal responsibility are explored, but the experts generally agree that no single religious principle resolves the problem completely. The article is therefore less about Epstein himself than about the moral responsibilities of nonprofit institutions.]

Aiden Pink, “Jeffrey Epstein Donated $50,000 To A Major Jewish Charity. They Still Haven’t Said Why”, The Forward, July 20, 2019 [Focuses specifically on UJA-Federation of New York; questions about donor vetting; and why donations continued to be accepted after Epstein’s 2008 conviction. It became one of the earliest investigations into Jewish institutional links.]

3. The Leslie Wexner connection

Much Jewish discussion centered not on Epstein himself but on his relationship with Ohio billionaire Leslie Wexner, one of the most influential Jewish philanthropists in America.

Ari Feldman, “Epstein Ties Trigger Debate Over Ethics Of Wexner Foundation’s Importance,” The Forward, July 31, 2019. [- examines the repercussions of Epstein’s long relationship with billionaire philanthropist Leslie Wexner and the resulting questions surrounding the Wexner Foundation, one of the most influential institutions in American Jewish leadership development.

The immediate catalyst is controversy within Jewish educational circles over whether students, rabbis, and nonprofit professionals should continue participating in Wexner-sponsored programs after Epstein’s connections became public. Feldman explores how the foundation’s enormous positive influence on Jewish communal life came into tension with revelations about Wexner’s financial and personal association with Epstein.

The article carefully distinguishes between Wexner himself, the foundation’s educational mission, and Epstein’s role. It notes that many alumni viewed the foundation’s fellowships and leadership programs as transformative experiences while simultaneously acknowledging the need to confront uncomfortable questions about the institution’s history and governance.

Rather than advocating abandonment of the Wexner Foundation, Feldman portrays an intense communal debate over whether morally compromised funding necessarily contaminates worthwhile educational institutions. The broader issue becomes how Jewish communal organizations should preserve valuable philanthropic work while honestly confronting troubling aspects of their benefactors’ histories.]

Postscript: The Wexner Foundation survived, after a lengthy process of establishing that Epstein had never had any actual role in its day-to-day management or educational activities. The Foundation took steps to distance itself from any connection to Epstein and also to establish an institutional framework independent of Leslie Wexner personally, though he continued his massive financial support.

4. Concern about antisemitic exploitation

Many Jewish writers worried less about Epstein’s Jewish birth than about the use of his case in antisemitic conspiracy theories. Coverage appeared in: Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The Forward, Anti-Defamation League statements, American Jewish Committee commentary and later analyses after release of additional Epstein documents in 2026.

Recent examples discuss how the release of the Epstein files reinvigorated conspiracy theories alleging collective Jewish culpability or Mossad control, arguments that many commentators identified as recycled antisemitic narratives rather than evidence-based conclusions.

Grace Gilson, “Latest Epstein Files Release Unleashes Wave of Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories on Social Media”, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, published in The Jerusalem Post, February 6, 2026

Sebastien Levi, “How the Epstein Affair Is Fueling a New Wave of Antisemitic Conspiracies”, The Jerusalem Post, February 25, 2026 [This opinion piece explains how extremists recycle classic myths such as: Jewish world control; Protocols of the Elders of Zion; claims of a Jewish global conspiracy - using Epstein as a contemporary hook.

Films: See companion Filmography for details on each.

Several prominent documentary films and multi-part docuseries investigate the Jeffrey Epstein case, focusing heavily on his massive wealth, political connections, and the powerful testimonies of his survivors.

Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich (2020) (see p. 533)

Surviving Jeffrey Epstein (2020) (see p. 533)

Epstein: Behind the Facade (2020) (see p. 533)

Ghislaine Maxwell: Filthy Rich (2022) (see p. 535)

Jeffrey Epstein: The Unredacted Story (2025) (see p. 538)

4.3.10 David Berkowitz (“Son of Sam”)

He was born in 1953 in Brooklyn, NY and adopted by Nathan and Pearl Berkowitz. He grew up in the Bronx and later Co-op City. Childhood acquaintances remembered him as intelligent but emotionally troubled. He frequently got into fights, engaged in fire-setting, and displayed aggressive behavior from an early age. He also experienced repeated bullying, including antisemitic taunts because he was Jewish. His adoptive mother, Pearl, died of breast cancer when he was fourteen, an event that friends and investigators later regarded as psychologically devastating. He served in the US army 1971-74 and received an honorable discharge. He then worked a succession of low-level jobs while becoming increasingly isolated. Between July 1976 and July 1977, Berkowitz carried out a series of shootings in New York City, killing six people and murdering seven, usually young couples sitting in parked cars.

He taunted police through letters, signing one of them “Son of Sam.” The nickname quickly became famous. He was arrested in August, 1977 and subsequently pleaded guilty to all charges. He was sentenced to six consecutive terms of 25 years to life and remains incarcerated in New York State. He no longer seeks release on parole.

Both his biological and adoptive parents were Jewish but his identification with Judaism was minimal. In prison he underwent a dramatic conversion to evangelical Christianity, which has been his defining identity since the late 1980s. He has written religious books, counseled fellow inmates and worked with prison ministry. Unlike the other cases under review, there was no extensive Jewish communal discussion of Berkowitz. His crimes were viewed as individual expressions of psychopathology, unrelated to anything or anyone Jewish. His later conversion to Christianity harmonized with that narrative.

Significant books about his case:

Klausner, Lawrence D., (Son of Sam: Based on the Authorized Transcription of the Tapes, Official Documents, and Diaries of David Berkowitz [hc, McGraw-Hill, 1980]) 978-0070350274 [Generally regarded as the closest thing to an authorized biography, though historians remain cautious because Berkowitz himself was often manipulative.]

Abrahamsen, David, (Confessions of Son of Sam [hc, Columbia UP, 1985]) 978-0231057608 [Written by the psychiatrist who interviewed Berkowitz.]

Terry, Maury, (The Ultimate Evil: An Investigation into America’s Most Dangerous Satanic Cult [hc, Grafton, 1988] 978-0246132987 [See related film] [Argues that Berkowitz did not act alone; the murders were connected to a satanic cult; and larger conspiracies linked various unsolved murders. Today most historians, criminologists, and law-enforcement officials regard Terry’s broader conspiracy theory as unproven, although it remains influential in popular culture. – ChatGPT]

The final conclusion is that his Jewish identity is essentially incidental to the crimes. The killings had no Jewish motivation, victims, or ideological dimension, and neither Berkowitz nor most commentators have interpreted the case through the lens of Jewish identity. Consequently, the scholarly literature on Berkowitz focuses almost entirely on criminal psychology, media sensationalism, and serial murder rather than on Judaism or the American Jewish experience.

Films: (for details see Filmography)

Summer of Sam (1999) (see p. 520)

Mindhunter - Netflix Series (2019) (see p. 530)

The Sons of Sam: A Descent Into Darkness (2021) (see p. 534)

Conversations with a Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes (2021) (see p. 534)

4.3.11 Sam Bankman-Fried

(born 1992 in Stanford, CA) His parents are two prominent professors in the Stanford U. Law School. Raised in an upper-middle-class Jewish academic milieu, attendance at elite schools, with minimal Jewish content. B.A. in physics and mathematics from M.I.T. (2014). Founded Alameda Research hedge fund (2017) to automate arbitrage trading in cryptocurrency. Co-founded FTX, a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange (2019). FTX grew rapidly due to aggressive celebrity marketing, sports stadium sponsorships, and its reputation as a safe, compliant entry point into crypto. At his peak in 2022, Bankman-Fried’s net worth was estimated at over $26 billion, making him one of the wealthiest people under 30 in the world. He publicly branded himself as a devout follower of “Effective Altruism” (EA)—a philosophical movement aimed at using data and reasoning to maximize human good. He claimed his primary motivation for accumulating vast wealth was a concept called “earn to give,” meaning he intended to donate the vast majority of his fortune to pandemic prevention, AI safety, and global poverty initiatives. He became one of the largest political megadonors in the United States, pouring tens of millions of dollars into political campaigns, primarily supporting Democratic candidates and pandemic preparedness PACs.

An investigative report by CoinDesk (Nov. 2022) revealed that Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund (Alameda) was secretly backed by billions of dollars worth of FTT—a speculative token created by FTX itself. This triggered a massive, multi-billion-dollar bank run. FTX lacked the liquid reserves to meet customer withdrawals and declared bankruptcy days later. Investigations revealed that Bankman-Fried had secretly altered FTX’s computer code to give Alameda an infinite line of credit, essentially using billions of dollars in regular FTX customer deposits to fund high-risk trades, venture capital investments, and real estate purchases. He was arrested in the Bahamas in December 2022 and extradited to the US. In November 2023, following a high-profile federal trial, a jury found him guilty on seven counts of fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering. In March 2024, Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison and ordered to forfeit over $11 billion. He had perpetrated one of the largest financial frauds in American history. – ChatGPT]

Significant books:

Lewis, Michael, (Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon [hc, W.W. Norton, 2023]) 978-1324074335 [pb, W.W. Norton, 2024] 978-1324105817 [- focuses heavily on Bankman-Fried’s psychological quirks, his unkempt public persona, and the internal chaos at the Bahamas headquarters. The book faced heavy criticism from journalists for being overly empathetic and soft on Bankman-Fried’s actual criminal actions.]

Morris, David Z., (Stealing the Future: Sam Bankman-Fried, Elite Fraud, and the Cult of Techno-Utopia [ [pb, Repeater, 2025] 978-1917516082 [Written by a cryptocurrency insider and veteran journalist who was part of the CoinDesk team that initially exposed FTX. It provides a highly accurate, technical breakdown of the actual math and data architecture used to siphon billions. It deeply explores how the “Effective Altruism” ideology was warped to justify elite fraud.]

Bennington, Ash & Artur Osiński, (Crypto Crackup: Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX, and SBF’s Weird Island Empire [hc, Post Hill Press, 2023] 979-8888454749 [pb, Post Hill Press, 2023] 979-8888451366 [A balanced, step-by-step journalistic history tailored for general readers. It traces his journey from traditional Wall Street trading to building the Alameda Research hedge fund and the subsequent FTX exchange. It explains how the final 10-day bank run played out transparently on social media.]

In essays exploring the trial’s fallout, writers noted that Bankman-Fried substituted traditional religious constraints with a hyper-rationalized, data-driven utilitarianism.

Scott Aaronson’s “Sam Bankman-Fried and the geometry of conscience” (Nov 13, 2022) and “The Tragedy of SBF” (Nov 6, 2023) on his blog Shtetl-Optimized, analyze the moral collapse of the FTX founder, critiquing his utilitarian, “earn to give” approach to Effective Altruism. Aaronson argues that rigid mathematical utilitarianism and the pursuit of extreme expected value can lead to moral bankruptcy, as demonstrated by the misuse of Effective Altruism principles in the FTX case. He contends that morality requires absolute constraints, rejecting the idea that human ethics can be reduced to a single metric or that high-risk fraud can be justified by potential future gains.

Aaronson wrestled with how a young man raised with intense progressive, academic ethics—and surrounded by brilliant peers from similar backgrounds—could completely untether himself from foundational honesty in the name of the “greater good”.

A core theme in Jewish religious commentary was the direct ideological conflict between Bankman-Fried’s Effective Altruism (EA) and classical Jewish law (Halakha). In EA’s “earn to give” framework, taking extreme risks with customer funds was seen as statistically acceptable if the potential payout could fund projects to save humanity. []

Rabbis and ethicists writing for outlets like the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) argued that classical Jewish charity (Tzedakah) strictly forbids systemic deception or risking innocent people’s livelihoods, regardless of the altruistic endpoint. They argued that Bankman-Fried’s worldview fell into the trap of “the ends justify the means,” a philosophy inherently incompatible with covenantal ethics.

Andrew Silow-Carroll,”The exhausting, never-ending job of debunking antisemitic conspiracy theories” (JTA, Nov. 22, 2022), reprinted in the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent) [- examines the immediate fallout of the FTX collapse and how the public unmasking of Sam Bankman-Fried triggered deep anxiety within the Jewish community. Silow-Carroll focuses on the “mental toll” of bracing for the inevitable rise in antisemitic tropes linking Jewish people to financial corruption, particularly after mainstream media began drawing direct comparisons between Bankman-Fried and Bernie Madoff. He critiques the unfair burden placed on the Jewish community, which is frequently forced to distance itself from or explain away the actions of individual bad actors, pointing out that similar multi-billion-dollar scandals involving non-Jewish figures rarely result in the collective profiling of an entire demographic.]

Other cultural analysts noted a bizarre dichotomy in how Bankman-Fried was covered. In secular financial publications, Bankman-Fried was framed strictly as a modern, quirky Silicon Valley anomaly—defined by his cargo shorts, beanbags, and video games. Jewish media critics pointed out that his casual demeanor, hyper-fixation on logic puzzles, and complete rejection of traditional corporate hierarchies actually mimicked a very specific, insular type of elite East Coast / California secular Jewish youth culture. By ignoring this, mainstream profiles missed how his entire public persona was calculated to project a familiar form of harmless, intellectual trustworthiness. [Google/AI]

While Jewish commentators noted the shamefulness of Bankman-Fried’s crimes, they also pointed out that unlike Madoff, who systematically targeted and devastated Jewish non-profits, synagogues, and families, Bankman-Fried’s fraud was global, institutional, and decentralized. He did not utilize an insular “affinity fraud” model. While Bankman-Fried did contribute to some Jewish organizations, his involvement was minimal and the contributions were clearly for PR purposes. This distance of his from Jewish or Israel affairs served as a type of consolation for some Jewish commentators.

Films: See Filmography for details.

RUIN: Money, Ego and Deception at FTX (Bloomberg Originals, 2023) (see p. 536)

The Collapse of FTX: Insiders Tell All (CNBC Digital, 2023) (see p. 536)

Downfall of the Crypto King (BBC / Fulwell 73, 2024) (see p. 537)

The Secret Story of FTX’s Rise and Ruin (Reveal / Mother Jones, 2026) (see p. 538)

The Altruists (Netflix, In Production/Upcoming- 2026-27) (see p. 538)