Mr Zukerman – despite being a teacher for 37 years - obviously has much to learn. Comparing the story of Bernie Madoff’s conviction (which, BTW, we don’t recall taking over the entire front cover of the AJN) and the case of Rabbi Engel - who has never been convicted of anything (and very possibly may never be) shows that he simply doesn’t get it.
That is without even considering the fact that while the Engel case involves some tens of thousands of dollars, with Madoff it is tens of billions.
Zukerman’s comments also indicate that he has already found Rabbi Engel to be guilty - even before he has spent a single day in court. Nice.
But our main question to him and “HD” is, where were you when a number of leading figures in the Australian Jewish community were charged, convicted and even imprisoned for crimes involving not thousands, but millions of dollars?
We can’t recall ever hearing your concerns about the AJN’s “role to report the news”.
Or are you too happy with the AJN’s policy that it is only imperative “to report the news“ when it is negative about rabbis and other religious Jews,but not when regarding rich mates and family members of AJN staff and management?
Yes, there is no comparison in the magnitude of the crimes of Madoff and Rabbi Engel. There is also no comparison in the motivations of the two men. While Madoff was an international high flyer living the life of royal luxury filling his own coffers for his own self aggrandizement and profit, Rabbi Engel was a humble Rabbi trying to keep his institutions open for the purpose of teaching Judaism to kids. If it is found that Rabbi Engel is guilty then he should face the consequences, but he may in fact be innnocent. At this point we can only say Rabbi Engel is accussed while Madoff is in fact a convicted criminal. In my view, if Rabbi Engel is found guilty, then he is more of a fool than a criminal for doing something so dumb just to keep his school open, it surely could not be worth the price. If he is guilty then it is another example of a well meaning frum Rabbi who lacks the sophistication and saavy in finacnes and the laws of our society and gets himself in over his head. Some of these Rabbis really need to get educated about business, but that does not make him a criminal on par with Madoff and anyone who says so is either prejudice against frummies or ignorant.
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