World

Ponzi Watch

Madoff's victims: Moving on, yet mesmerized by the spectacle.

Jacob Berkman
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

New York

F

or Belle Faber, the sentencing of
Bernard Madoff felt surreal.
Television coverage of the
June 29 event was being projected on
a screen in the conference room of
the American Jewish Congress, one of
the Jewish nonprofits hit hardest by
Madoff's thievery. Faber, the organiza-
tion's development director for nearly
25 years, had retreated into her office to
watch CNN by herself.
The archival footage of Madoff
flickering across the screen showed
the person that had sat across from
Faber numerous times in the offices of
AJCongress, which Madoff once served
as a board member. Faber even knew
Madoff's wife, Ruth, and recently came
across an old note she wrote to the
Madoffs wishing them a good trip to
Florida.
Who could have known then what
Madoff was doing?
Still, Faber says, she doesn't wish
vengeance on Madoff, even though he
bilked his victims, including Faber's
organization, out of up to $65 billion. The
AJCongress lost $21 million — 90 percent
of its endowment — in Madoff's Ponzi
scheme, forcing the organization to lay off
25 staff members.
On June 29, a U.S. District Court judge
sentenced Madoff to 150 years in prison,
the maximum penalty for his crimes.
"I have left a legacy of shame,' Madoff
said in the Manhattan courtroom before
his sentencing. "This is something I will
live in for the rest of my life
Madoff's shame was little solace for
some of those he hurt.
"Mr. Madoff is not going to find any
sympathy from us," said Marc Stern, act-
ing co-executive director of AJCongress.
"There has been a 150-year sentence in
the case of a 71-year-old man. It is not in
practical terms very great, but in symbolic
terms it is very significant."
"It doesn't give us our $20 million back':
Stern went on. "That is inherent in these
sorts of processes. It is satisfaction mixed
with the reality that it does not undo the
harm that he did."

A18

July 16 • 2009

Bernard Madoff, second from right, is led into court.

For some charities decimated by
Madoff, things will never be the same.
The Robert I. Lappin Foundation, whose
entire $8 million in assets was wiped out
by Madoff's scheme,
was transformed by
the loss.
It used to fund
programs such as
Youth to Israel, which
sends kids from
Massachusetts on free
trips to Israel, out of
its own, once-deep
pockets; now the
foundation must raise
funds to survive. New
programs, like one
that would have sent
teachers to Israel, have
been put on hold, according to Deboah
Coltin, the foundation's executive director.
"If I was to sum it up, justice was served.
What else is there to say?" Coltin said. "The

Lappin Foundation has been able to pick
up and move on. We haven't been thinking
about it:'
One Madoff victim, Carla Hirschhorn,
who lost her entire
$7 million in sav-
ings in Madoff's
scheme, called her
life a "living hell."
She said her mother
is now dependent
on Social Security
and her daughter
works two jobs to
pay tuition.
Elie Wiesel, the
Holocaust survivor
and Nobel laureate
who saw most of
his fortune stolen
by Madoff — and who has been stump-
ing across the country talking about it
and trying to raise money — declined to
comment.

Madoff's shame was
little solace for some
of those he hurt ...
For some charities
decimated by Madoff
things will never be
the same.

So did Yeshiva University, one of the
nonprofits hit hardest by Madoff, having
lost $110 million in real and imagined
profits.
"It just doesn't benefit anyone to be
associated with this anymore," said one
observer close to the situation.
Faber said she often wondered if a
check made out to the AJCongress was
among the stack of checks for tens of mil-
lions of dollars that investigators found
in Madoff's desk after he was arrested —
because maybe, just maybe, Madoff would
have wanted to do right by the charities he
had devastated.
Watching coverage of the trial, Faber
said she felt the charity world she had
known was gone.
"We will never see in the future the
kind of beneficence we have always seen
because of what happened," Faber said.
"He has changed the whole fabric of the
Jewish community, especially when it
comes to organizations like ours."

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