New Voices magazine (Spring 2009) looks at Jews and Money, and the features on the theme include an interview with J.J. Goldberg, the former editor of the Forward and now the paper’s editorial director. The interview is titled “Why it matters that Madoff is Jewish.”

Why does it matter that Madoff is Jewish? According to Goldberg, it “matters because he operated through a network of Jewish associations. His Jewish communal involvement was part of his scheme. In a larger sense, [it matters] because of the long association of Jews and Wall Street and finance. It figures into anti-Semitic mythology. His being Jewish is relevant in some way that I think most people can’t put their finger on. It’s relevant because his story seems to be a fairy tale come true. It’s exactly what everybody has in the back of their minds. Jews and polite gentiles don’t want to talk about it because it reinforces anti-Semitic stereotypes. Stereotypes are exaggerations of truth, frequently unfair but very rarely unfounded.”

Madoff has been sent to prison for two million years; but federal authorities are still interested in other figures who might have been in cahoots with the overthrown king of the Ponzi scheme, according to a Bloomberg story today.

Only Madoff’s accountant, David Friehling, has been charged so far in connection with the Madoff fraud.

Daniel Richman, a professor at Columbia Law School in New York and an ex-federal prosecutor, tells Bloomberg: “Investigators’ first focus will be on whether those around him either from the start or over time had actual knowledge of the fraud. Investigators are at least skeptical of the claims of those around him that at no point did they know of the fraud or its dimensions.”

“I know there’s been a lot of talk about the fact that when I’m sworn in, I’ll be the 60th member of the Democratic caucus; but that’s not how I see it,” said Franken. “The way I see it, I’m not going to Washington to be the 60th Democratic senator, I’m going to Washington to be the second senator from the state of Minnesota.”

Asked about his phone conversation earlier in the afternoon with Norm Coleman, the former Republican senator who lost to Franken by 312 votes — out of 2.9 million votes cast across the state, Franken said, “It was a very gracious call.” Coleman, according to Franken, advised the new senator that “this is going to be the best job you’ll ever have.”

Franken said that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told him that he will serve on the Health, Education and Pensions Committee; and the Judiciary, Indian Affairs, and Aging committees.

It is expected that Franken will be sworn in early next week, after the Fourth of July holiday.

— Mordecai Specktor

***

Update / July 1, 2009

In a JTA story about Franken’s victory in the Minnesota Senate race, Eric Fingerhut points out that with “Coleman’s defeat and the decision by Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter to join the Democratic caucus, the Senate now has no Jewish Republican members. The House of Representatives has one Jewish GOPer, Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia.

He adds: “More specifically, for the first time in decades, a moderate GOP Jewish voice — embodied over the years not only by Specter but also Rudy Boschwitz of Minnesota, Warren Rudman of New Hampshire and the late Jacob Javits of New York — will be absent from the Senate.”

Fingerhut called the American Jewish World yesterday, asking about Franken’s views on Israel. His article quotes some relevant statements by Franken from Erin Elliott’s AJW story in our Feb. 1, 2008 edition.

Nearly eight months after the 2008 elections, the Minnesota Supreme Court issued a ruling in Minnesota’s contested U.S. Senate election, which upholds Al Franken’s razor-thin major of victory, and apparently clears the way for him to take the vacant Senate seat in Washington, D.C.

The court decision, which rejected former Republican Sen. Norm Coleman’s contention that local election officials and a lower court wrongly denied him victory in the Senate race, now moves the matter to the office of Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

At the end of their 32-page decision, five Supreme Court justices “affirm the decision of the trial court that Al Franken received the highest number of votes legally cast and is entitled under Minn. 32 Stat. § 204C.40 (2008) to receive the certificate of election as United States Senator from the State of Minnesota.”

The state’s high court, “In the Matter of the Contest of General Election held on November 4, 2008, for the purpose of electing a United States Senator from the State of Minnesota,” found:

1. Appellants did not establish that, by requiring proof that statutory absentee voting standards were satisfied before counting a rejected absentee ballot, the trial court‟s decision constituted a post-election change in standards that violates substantive due process.

2. Appellants did not prove that either the trial court or local election officials violated the constitutional guarantee of equal protection.

3. The trial court did not abuse its discretion when it excluded additional evidence.

4. Inspection of ballots under Minn. Stat. § 209.06 (2008) is available only on a showing that the requesting party cannot properly be prepared for trial without an inspection. Because appellants made no such showing here, the trial court did not err in denying inspection.

5. The trial court did not err when it included in the final election tally the election day returns of a precinct in which some ballots were lost before the manual recount.

Both Coleman and Franken were scheduled to hold press conferences on Tuesday afternoon.

Noah Kunin, reporter for the Uptake.org, during a phone call to the Web site’s live stream, said that he was ejected from the press conference to be held in Coleman’s backyard.

— Mordecai Specktor

***

Updates / 6.30.09

Norm Coleman has conceded the Senate race to Al Franken. “The Court has spoken,” the former senator told reporters after he read a brief statement at his home in St. Paul’s Crocus Hill neighborhood.

***

Here is Coleman’s statement:

“Ours is a government of laws, not men and women.  The Supreme Court of Minnesota has spoken and I respect its decision and will abide by the result.  It’s time for Minnesota to come together under the leaders it has chosen and move forward. I join all Minnesotans in congratulating our newest United States Senator – Al Franken.

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In a New York City courtroom today, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin sentenced Wall Street insider Bernard Madoff to 150 years in prison, following his March 12 guilty plea for a Ponzi scheme that may have raked in $65 billion over more than two decades, according to Bloomberg.com.

The financial news service reported:

“I don’t ask for any forgiveness,” Madoff, 71, told Chin. He said he deceived his brothers, his two sons and his wife. The courtroom burst into applause as Chin imposed the sentence, which is about six times longer than those meted out to the chief executives of WorldCom Inc. and Enron Corp.

The Boston Globe’s Web site reported:

“I cannot offer an excuse for my behavior,” said Madoff. “I will have to live with the pain and torment for the rest of my life.”

In handing down the sentence, US District Judge Denny Chin said, “The message must be sent that Mr. Madoff’s crimes were extraordinarily evil.”

The Twin Cities was a geographic center of the Madoff scam, and the American Jewish World reported details of the fraudulent dealing in a number of stories — including here and here. Madoff drew investors from the predominantly Jewish membership of the local Oak Ridge and Hillcrest country clubs.

Hundreds of families and charitable trusts were wiped out in the Madoff scam; and the Wall Street Journal reported today that “the court-appointed trustee of the defunct Madoff firm, attorney Irving Picard, has recovered just $1.2 billion of the $13.2 billion in estimated net losses suffered by investors since December 1995.”

The Wall Street Journal story explained:

While eligible victims may get payments of up to $500,000 from the Securities Investor Protection Corp., set up to compensate investors for theft or proven unauthorized trading in brokerage accounts, the rest of their losses will be partially recouped from whatever assets Mr. Picard manages to gather in the liquidation process.

On Friday [June 26], Mr. Madoff’s wife, Ruth, agreed to a settlement with prosecutors in which she relinquished all the assets she shared with her husband. Mrs. Madoff will keep $2.5 million….

Mrs. Madoff gave up tens of millions in cash and securities as well as her $7.5 million interest in a New York City apartment and a $7 million Montauk, N.Y., property, and jewelry insured at more than $2.6 million. The agreement covers scores of items, including two fur coats valued at $48,500, $18,000 in linens and bedding, and $8,500 in silverware.

— Mordecai Specktor

As the Guthrie Theater’s unprecedented celebration of his work comes to a close, the playwright talks with the American Jewish World

By MORDECAI SPECKTOR

Renowned playwright Tony Kushner returned briefly to Minneapolis last weekend. He wanted to see another performance of Caroline, or Change, before the end of its run at the Guthrie Theater (5-1-09 AJW). Kushner wrote the book and lyrics for the show, and Jeanine Tesori wrote the music.

“I love this production and I’m eager to see it once more,” he told the Jewish World last week, during a phone interview from his office in New York City.

The Kushner Celebration, which saw the playwright’s productions on all three of the Guthrie’s stages in May and June, is drawing to a close. Kushner’s new play, The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures — which had its world premiere on May 22 at the Guthrie — will have its final performances this weekend (5-29-09 AJW).

“I’ll be doing a lot of rewrites before it comes to New York [next spring],” said Kushner, who mentioned that he has been rewriting the play, which was commissioned by the Guthrie, since its opening night.

“It certainly plays better now than it did on opening night,” Kushner said, and added, “A couple of scenes have been fairly extensively rewritten.”

The controversial gay, Jewish, socialist playwright, who was raised by classical musicians in Lake Charles, La., is known for works that reflect on modern historical events; his epic play Angels in America is subtitled A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.

In his June 8 talk at the Guthrie, part of the theater’s Global Voices series, Kushner discussed his vision of theater as an attempt to portray the “doubleness of life,” reality and illusion, which we must apprehend if we are “to live in history, and not be the fools of history.” In discussing the origins of Angels in America, Kushner called this viewpoint the “antithesis of Reaganism,” which presented the symbols of patriotism as reality. According to Kushner, the “Reagan counterrevolution” was a “terrifying” new political and social experiment that sought to dismantle the governmental social safety net at the same time as a “biological catastrophe,” AIDS, was cutting a swath through an “unprotected and persecuted minority.”

Keep reading →

By MORDECAI SPECKTOR

Samuel L. Kaplan, a prominent Minneapolis lawyer and influential DFL Party activist, has been nominated as U.S. ambassador to Morocco by President Barack Obama. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Kaplan, 72, will become one of the few American Jews to serve as envoys to Arab nations.

Kaplan and his wife, Sylvia, were early backers of the late Paul Wellstone, a Carleton College professor who engineered one of the great upsets in Minnesota political history by defeating the incumbent Republican U.S. senator, Rudy Boschwitz, in 1990. The Kaplans also supported the candidacy of Keith Ellison, who won the Fifth District DFL primary in 2006 and went on to become the first Muslim ever to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Geri Joseph, a member of the Minneapolis Jewish community who served as the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands during the Carter administration, told the Jewish World this week that she recently had lunch with the Kaplans.

“We talked about what some of the challenges can be… but by and large I think they’re both going to do great. They’re both quite excited about it,” said Joseph, who served as an ambassador from 1978-1981.

Joseph acknowledged that a posting to Morocco, a moderate Muslim country (with a Jewish community numbering about 5,000), will be different than representing the U.S. in Europe. “That area of the world, not necessarily Morocco, is still pretty troubled,” commented Joseph, who added that Kaplan will “have plenty to do.”

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In the aftermath of the fatal shooting at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, local shuls and agencies reassess threats to safety

By STEVEN ROSENBAUM

The recent shootings at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and the thwarted attempt to bomb synagogues in the Bronx, N.Y., have left many thinking about the security of other Jewish institutions around the country.

The Minnesota Jewish community is no exception. Jewish organizations and institutions, as well as law enforcement authorities throughout the community, are taking stock of their safety and security plans.

According to Anthony Sussman, director of communications and community security at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas (JCRC), there is a program in place for the safety of the local community.

“We have a program called Safeguarding Our Community, and through that program we work with local, state and federal law enforcement and safety security and other organizations to develop and implement monitoring, prevention, response and education programs for the community,” Sussman told the AJW.

Sussman says that it is important for community members to remain vigilant because the Jewish community is often at the center of controversial issues.

“Being aware of your surroundings and reporting suspicious activity is vital to the safety of the community,” Sussman said.

Minneapolis Police Department spokesman Sgt. Jesse Garcia echoed that advice. He also said that police patrols around synagogues and Jewish offices have been stepped up after the recent events in New York and Washington, D.C.

The St. Louis Park Police Department also intensified patrols of Jewish institutions immediately following the East Coast attacks, according to Jamie Zwilling, the department’s public information officer.

“The important thing would be to say is that we don’t believe… there is any specific threat relating to the incident in Washington, D.C.,” Zwilling said. “That said, we always want to make sure that the community is safe. That means safe feeling and actually being safe from any type of threat. We’re going to do what we can to protect our residents.”

Keep reading →

Socalled (a.k.a. Josh Dolgin), the mixmaster from Montreal, has created an amazing music video for “(Rock The) Belz,” from the album Ghettoblaster (JDub Records). The four-and-a-half minute puppet piece — featuring Socalled, folk legend Theodore Bikel and rapper Sans Pression — was directed by Kaveh Nabatian and produced by Sach Baylin-Stern. You can find more Socalled music and videos on MySpace. (You should check out everyone’s favorite Socalled tune, ”You Are Never Alone,” along with the supremely weird video version.) Socalled — who recorded The Socalled Seder (”a hip hop Haggadah”) a few years ago — also plays with trombonist Fred Wesley (formerly of the James Brown band) and klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer in a group called Abraham, Inc. — Mordecai Specktor