|
World Jewish News
New Jersey scandal less damaging to Jews than Madoff
01.08.2009
Every Sopranos fan has his own private collection of classic Soprano moments. One of my personal favorites is a scene in Episode 8 of the first season, where Dr. Jennifer Melfi, Tony Soprano's shrink, goes with her estranged husband, Richard LaPenna, and their teenage son, Jason, for a bit of group therapy with an older psychologist. Richard has been giving Melfi a rough time for treating a Mafia kingpin. More than anything else, he hates the bad name that a handful of mobsters are giving the entire Italian-American community.
Dr. Reis is nonplussed: After all, he also has his connections. One of his mother's uncles was apparently the "wheelman" for a notorious killer, Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, way back in the 1930s, he tells them with barely concealed pride. "Those were some tough Jews," he gloats. I just love that twist of genius in David Chase's script, where in a moment of cultural and moral relativism, the bespectacled Jewish doctor craves the dangerous and violent image that his Italian patients are so anxious to reject.
I remembered that scene last weekend when news of the New Jersey money-laundering arrests broke, and for a couple of days, the screen was filled with pictures of ultra-Orthodox men being led away for questioning by federal agents. Not since the days of the criminal partnership of Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano were Jews and the mob so publicly linked together.
But I doubt that 50 years from now, the ringleaders of the Halebi syndicate (if found guilty) will be viewed with anything approaching the affection that many Jews seem to have today for legends like Lansky, Lepke and Bugsy Siegel - if indeed anyone remembers them at all. At root, beneath all the killing, extortion and illegal gambling, there is something very appealingly American about those Jewish mobsters. Held back by their immigrant backgrounds and the social conventions of the period, they relied on their wits and warped sense of values to carve out their own place in American business and culture. They mixed with members of other religions, they strove to be a part, they got ahead.
Contrast that with some of the surprising comments posted on Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) web sites following the Halebi arrests. "Serves them right," wrote one commentator, "they only take care of their own." "We all know how much they despise other Jews who are not from their community, especially Ashkenazis," wrote another.
"They like to pass themselves off as philanthropists, but just try to fund-raise there without the proper introductions; you won't see a cent," recalled one yeshiva director. "I visited them and was left sleeping on a synagogue bench."
Normally, a Haredi who is arrested, whatever the charges, can rely at least on the instinctive support of the ultra-Orthodox community. Just look at the battlefield Jerusalem has become in recent weeks over the arrest of a mother suspected of starving her son. Sympathy is even more certain when the arrest has been carried out by goyim (non-Jews). So why are the Halebis held in such contempt?
Jealousy is of course a major reason. The small, business-minded, clannish community that originated in the Syrian town of Aleppo has a disproportionate number of millionaires and is unquestionably the richest religious Jewish community in the world. Another factor is their insularity and aloofness. Despite their dispersal over four continents, the Halebis still socialize, marry and worship mainly among themselves, in their own synagogues, community centers and neighborhoods. Many of the arrests took place in the seaside town of Deal because that is where New York's Halebi community vacation together. A Halebi from Brooklyn has a lot more in common with his distant relatives in Sao Paulo, Mexico City or Geneva than with his coreligionists living down the road.
Of course, these are huge generalizations. Not all Halebis keep solely to their own; indeed, not all Halebis are rich. Certainly the Israeli branch of this ancient community is much more outgoing. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that from the late 19th century onward, the more affluent families to leave Aleppo headed first for Cairo and thence to the Americas, while the poorer Halebim were much more likely to return to Zion.
But whatever the reality, the strong impression of a closed and suspicious group is one I have heard from many Jews who live alongside the Halebim in the United States and Latin America. Thus is is small wonder that neither the ultra-Orthodox community nor the mainstream Jewish community in the U.S. regard them as their brothers. Citizenship to them is a transitory thing, dictated mainly by financial necessity.
That is why the fears of yet another anti-Semitic backlash following the wave of arrests are particularly ridiculous. These are not the kind of Jews any American can expect to meet, and aside from a handful of died-in-the-wool Jew haters, few Americans will make the link between this secretive clan and the rest of American Jewry.
For those insecure community worthies who worry about the negative image created by a few Jewish crooks, the money laundering, bribery of local politicians and organ trafficking allegations feel almost like a death blow, coming hot on the heels of the Bernard Madoff case. But they need not worry: The effect will quickly wear off. No one really understands who these people are, how they did it and above all, who if anyone the victims were. And without these vital details, no story can capture the public's imagination.
That, of course, is very unlike the Madoff case. There, the newspapers, television channels and magazines have supplied us with every possible nugget of information regarding his lifestyle, social circle and the victims who lost millions through him. Good old Bernie is exactly the kind of Jew you can expect to meet - your bank manager or investment consultant, for example. That is the main reason why so many Jewish American spokespeople have rushed to excoriate him and constantly remind everyone that many of his victims were fellow Jews.
But even in Madoff's case, I don't think we should be worried for too long. American culture has a peculiar tendency to posthumously glamorize the nation's worst criminals. As the decades go by, notoriety turns into celebrity. The Jews and their criminals are no exception.
Fifty years from now, the Halebi money launderers will have long been forgotten. But people will be saying admiringly, "that Bernie Madoff, he was one clever Jew."
Источник: Haaretz
|
|
