New Jersey Rabbis and Politicians – and Crime

July 27, 2009 · Filed Under Baum's Blog 

I have been wanting to blog about the scandal in New Jersey for the last couple of days.  Which scandal in New Jersey?  Oh, the one where rabbis, mayors, and several others were charged with corruption and money laundering.

But, there has been a problem with my blog plan: I haven’t known what I wanted to say about this topic.

Clearly, on the most basic level I wanted to say: “what is wrong with this picture?!?!?!”  Do people really do such terrible things (and think they can get away with it?)?  The crimes which have been committed are truly awful.  And, it really bothers me that some of the criminals are rabbis and politicians.  Maybe that shouldn’t matter; after all, I should have the same expectations of human values for everyone regardless of their profession.

The fact that politicians can be elected by their constituents and then commit crimes suggests to me that it is hard to trust any public servant. Clearly, one can attain a high post without playing by the rules (sometimes not playing by the rules even helps one to the top).  It is not the first time something like this has happened, and it most certainly (sadly) won’t be the last.  But, it still comes as a shock each time.  Maybe I am naïve?

As for the rabbis, I’m not sure if I’m embarrassed for us as a group; obviously the actions of one rabbi should not reflect on the rest of us.  However, I can’t make sense of these rabbis, who happen to be Orthodox.  Yes, Orthodox, as in they adhere to Jewish laws which prevent turning on the lights on Shabbat or mixing milk and meat.  Theoretically, being Orthodox means that every aspect of their life is committed to being a good Jew.  But how can they rationalize their involvement in this crime?  How can they consider themselves good Jews while engaging in criminal acts?  In their minds, is it that God cares that they don’t eat shrimp but God doesn’t care if they launder money?

One of the rabbis (Rabbi Saul Kassin) even excommunicated his daughter because she married a gentile.  Apparently, in his eyes, you can’t marry a non-Jew but you can scam people and the government out of a lot of money.  That’s a bizarre ethical system.

So, I guess my main conclusion is: I hate it that moments like this make me feel so disappointed in people.

I guess one glimmer of hope is that maybe the arrest of Levy Izhak Rosenbaum (who conspired to buy a kidney for $10,000 that he would sell for $160,000) will raise awareness about trafficking in human body parts.  There’s a great opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal about the dire organ shortage, and the need to provide incentives for organ donors and penalties for organ brokers. Wouldn’t it be nice if something good came from something so terrible?

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11 Responses to “New Jersey Rabbis and Politicians – and Crime”

  1. Dave Kerpen Says:
    July 27th, 2009 at 10:04 pm

    It’s a very sad situation. I like your analysis. I used to hold certain professionals (elected leaders, for instance) to higher ethical standards, but my own brief foree into politics crushed that pretty quickly.
    People are all human, and we all make mistakes- some much worse than others, of course- like the Jersey crew’s mistakes.

  2. David Schwartz Says:
    July 28th, 2009 at 12:08 am

    I grew up in Deal and lived 2 doors down from Rabbi Nahaim who was arrested. They have huge families and need lots of money to keep their standard of living up. Living in Deal is kind of like living in Indian Hill here in Cincinnati. There are multi-million $$ houses on the beach. You know they are required by their religion to have as many children as they can produce.

    The pressure to make money must be huge. When an opportunity to make some easy money comes by it must be hard to resist. The mind will rationalize it. Orthodox rabbi’s are used to rationalizing just about everything they do. :(

  3. Peter Schogol Says:
    July 28th, 2009 at 1:15 am

    I’m wondering what the Syrian Jewish community in New Jersey thinks of their rabbis? Do they expect them to have mastered their yetzer hara — their acquisitive impulse, to be perfumed with sanctity and beyond reproach? Or is it only we religious liberals who invest our rabbis with an aura of unimpeachable wisdom and morality?

    We have become Protestantized in our attitude towards the rabbinate. We forget that a rabbi is a teacher of and from tradition and not (outside of Hasidism) inherently a spiritual director. Yet owing to American religion we have evolved the rabbinate into a Jewish clergy certified in couple counseling and Clinical Pastoral Education. A rabbi has become, perforce, a Jewish minister.

    We expect perfect piety of our ministers. Do we expect it of our teachers? Should we?

    I may be disappointed but I’m not surprised at the rabbis caught in the money-laundering scandal. They have in fact restored my faith that a rabbi is, when all is said and done, a human being for better or worse.

  4. LGreyhawke Says:
    July 28th, 2009 at 8:22 am

    The “moral”of that story is QUESTION AUTHORITY!
    Unquestioned authority whether it is a Rabbi, Priest, teacher, police officer or politician, is fertile ground for the fruits of abuse.

    Many people are blind to the potential of abuse simply because someone is wearing a badge or collar. One can show respect and deference to anothers position without yielding your sense of right and wrong. I suspect Rabbi Kassin’s daughter knew he was a poor excuse for a Rabbi long before the rest of us became aware of his fractured ethics. Pity though… I had three people come up to me at work (I work at a Catholic institution) and make a point of mentioning the “Rabbi gone bad”. After the priest issue, I guess misery loves company.

  5. Maskil Says:
    July 29th, 2009 at 5:04 am

    I have to say that, in my observation the obsessive-compulsive observance that is characteristic of the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox communities appears to pretty much go hand-in-hand with a lack of common decency, ethics and morals. It seems as if – consciously or unconsciously – those with an Orthodox mindset see the one as a substitute for the other. I’ve come to expect to see corruption wherever black hats and coats are part of the dress code.

  6. LGreyhawke Says:
    July 29th, 2009 at 8:11 am

    I was reading Joseph Telushkin’s Jewish Literacy last night. When a religious Jew acts dishonorably this is known as khillul ha-Shem (desecration of God’s name). While many on this site may be agnostic or atheist, we can assume that the Orthodox rabbis were not. According to Telushkin, khillul ha-Shem is one of the few sins that is unforgivable because it can cause people to doubt their belief in God and to feel alienated from God. Even if the person repents, it is felt they cannot undo the damage. An Orthodox rabbi would be aware of this I should think. While I’m sure they enjoyed the money and benefits of their little adventure, I would be willing to wager that the fruit has turned mighty bitter at this point! Shame on them. (By the way the ethics series by Joseph Telushkin is a terrific read!)

  7. Peter Schogol Says:
    July 29th, 2009 at 2:29 pm

    I’m not in the business of trashing Orthodox Jews (some of my best friends, and all that), but if one is of a mind to stretch definitions (Bill Clinton explaining the opportunities available to a man with a cigar), perhaps swindling can be repackaged as kosher and therefore not a desecration of God’s name?

  8. Alex Says:
    July 29th, 2009 at 4:18 pm

    All the comments are insightful but miss one important point. Constant studying of Torah and Talmud has endowed our orthodox brethren with knowledge akin to the apple in the garden. In effect, they know too much and can turn this knowledge to their advantage. They will say it brings them closer to God. Maybe. But for some it enhances their rationales for venality. Whether or not this makes them more or less human is irrelevant. What it does make them is a caricature of Bernie Madoff with a slick coating of spirituality. If there was a god and it was me I would run these guys out of the tribe and convert them to be Mormons.

  9. David Says:
    July 30th, 2009 at 8:57 pm

    These rabbi’s and Madoff have fallen into the negative stereo type that anti-semites like to perpetuate. The damage continues to be done by these news reports. I read on the net (take it for what it is worth) that over 40% of the U.S. population blames the Jews for the financial crises. I have detected a higher level of anti-Semitic attitudes on the web boards and blogs in the last 6 months. Particularly on those inhabited by fundamentalist christians.

  10. Peter Schogol Says:
    July 31st, 2009 at 6:34 pm

    David, what on earth have you been reading? I live in the South in the Bible Belt and I work for law enforcement which down here is very Christian and conservative and I’ve never heard anyone say any such a thing.

  11. marcie Says:
    August 1st, 2009 at 7:48 pm

    My experience in Israel a (large) number of years ago was that the Orthodox were the most hypocritical of all! Soldiers and street vendors would openly come on to any girls , but the Orthodox would only hit on the non-Jewish looking ones- I guess figuring that “goys” wouldn’t know any better… As I don’t “look Jewish” I found this happening a lot- imagine their shock when I told them off in Hebrew!!

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