Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 62, No. 5, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 31, 2008 Page: 5 of 23
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TEXAS JEWISH POST #SINCE 1947
OPINION
January 31,2008 I 5
From here to affinity:
holding the Orthodox to a higher standard
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
I just learned a new term: "af-
finity" fraud. It came up in a story
about a lawsuit in Lakewood, the
central New Jersey township with
a booming Orthodox community
According to the Jan. 17 article in
the Daily Business Review, New
Jersey developer Eliyahu Wein-
stein is alleged to have defrauded
Miami investor — and fellow Or-
thodox Jew — Harvey D. Wolinetz
out of some $78.5 million in loans
and investments.
"Affinity" investment fraud,
according to the article, is when
someone "preys on members of
identifiable groups, such as re-
ligious or ethnic communities,
seniors or professional groups."
Wolinetz' trust was "founded on
the fact that both men come from
the same Orthodox Jewish com-
munity," according to his law-
suit against Weinstein. "Instead,
Weinstein exploited Mr. Wolinetz'
trust by defrauding him."
Weinstein's lawyer said he is
confident that the allegations will
not stand up in court.
Whatever the truth, it's an
unpleasant story and awful fod-
der for those inclined to bash the
Orthodox. And when I say those
inclined to bash the Orthodox, I
mean non-Orthodox Jews. I can't
tell you how many conversations
I've had with fellow Jews who want
to share stories of Orthodox gone
wild.
When they do, I have a stan-
dard reply: "Every group has its
no-goodniks and shouldn't be
judged on their behavior. Even re-
ligious people can be fallible, trou-
bled or conniving, but no more so
than the general population. And
you seem happy to ignore the ex-
ceptional commitment to charity
and mutual support that is infi-
nitely more emblematic of Ortho-
dox communities."
I'm not sure how much of an
impact my little speech has, since
there are bigger forces than logic
or fair play at work here. For many
Jews, the Orthodox represent the
past, and their stubborn adher-
ence to tradition is a rebuke to
those who have abandoned it.
Nothing expiates a secular per-
son's sense of guilt faster than see-
ing an Orthodox Jew show up on
the crime blotter. (Call it affinity
Schadenfreude.)
At the same time, Americans'
disdain for sanctimony is as old as
"Elmer Gantry." Despite the best
efforts of the New Atheists, the
most potent charge you can level
at believers is not that they are ir-
rational or intolerant, but that they
are hypocritical. Conservatives get
it wrong when they call the "lib-
eral" media anti-religious for the
salacious way they cover religious
scandals. In fact, the media are
never so happy as when they can
play the role of defender of the
faith. "Troubling news tonight,
Jim," says the reporter, standing in
front of St. Somewhere. "A priest
who pledged to uphold the word of
God is instead in custody for...."
For the same reason, a newspa-
per is more likely to identify the
religion of an Orthodox Jew than
his non-Orthodox coreligionist.
Take The New York Times' cover-
age of Martin Tankleff, the Long
Island man whose conviction was
overturned 17 years after he was
imprisoned for the murder of his
parents. Everyone in this sad story
is Jewish, including a shadowy
businessman who called himself
the Bagel King of Long Island, but
the word "Jewish" barely comes
up in the coverage.
That's because the Orthodox
are in many ways Judaism's stan-
dard-bearers — and as a result, all
Jews feel implicated when a guy in
a yarmulke does the perp walk.
That's how I felt after reading an
investigative piece in northern
New Jersey's Bergen Record about
the various Jewish-run "chari-
ties" that seek used-car donations
to "Help Children in Need." One,
The Outreach Center, turns out to
be a Brooklyn synagogue, and sev-
eral of the charities it says it sup-
ports say they haven't received any
payments since 2002.
At the very least, the article
paints a disturbing picture of Jew-
ish institutions raising money for
their own purposes while playing
on the sympathies of donors who
think they are helping kids of all
faiths (and certainly aren't inter-
ested in supporting a religious in-
stitution's particularistic agenda).
Is it unfair for folks like me
to expect more of those who are
so visible in their embrace of the
mitzvot? Not entirely. "In a way,
this is a kind of tribute to Ortho-
doxy," wrote Rabbi Emanuel Feld-
man, discussing similar scrutiny
in the wake of the Jack Abramoff
scandal. "It is a recognition that
Orthodoxy has a higher standard,
and anyone who would stand un-
der its umbrella is held — I think
rightfully — to this higher stan-
dard."
Feldman, the former editor of
the Modern Orthodox journal
Tradition, reminded his fellow
Orthodox Jews of the concept of
hilul HaShem, the desecration of
the Holy Name.
"This means that every Jew is
responsible that the good Name of
the God of Israel be preserved; he
or she is bidden to behave in such a
way that the good Name of God —
which he represents — not be sul-
lied, and that, on the contrary, it be
sanctified," wrote Feldman. "The
more pious the Jew, the greater his
responsibility in this regard."
That doesn't at all excuse the
Orthodox-bashers. They're also
"preying on members of identifi-
able groups, such as religious or
ethnic communities." And there's
a name for that too: anti-Semi-
tism.
Andrew Silow-Carroll is editor in chief of the
New Jersey Jewish News. He blogsat http://
njjewishnews.com/justasc/.
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Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 62, No. 5, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 31, 2008, newspaper, January 31, 2008; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth188174/m1/5/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .