Does anyone know the religious affiliation of Bernard Madoff?

I completely agree. And then add Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco, Bernie Ebbers of Worldcom, John Mack and Previously Phil Purcell of Morgan Stanley (yeah I said that) and Stan O'Neill of Merrill Lynch (I said that too), not to mention Walter Forbes from Cendant and Chainsaw Al Dunlap over at Sunbeam, plus the original Charles Ponzi himself and so many more too.

Jews are going to be more of the frauds on Wall Street because they're more of Wall Street... by far.

Don't be jealous...

oh great, now we know nyc10022's religion. Can't you just keep your own personal details to yourself, or do you really need to do anything for attention?

c'mon, this is silly. what about jerome kerviel of the whole socgen debacle? nic leeson of barings? what this guy did has nothing to do with his religious affiliation and everything to do with his ego, his greed, and ultimately his stupidity.

Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it.

Oh, my God... It even has a watermark.

vwear/tech_guy, thank you for adding so much to this discussion. You are the savior of mankind.

oh yeah, your comment about how it isn't bad by the numbers was really helpful. loser

vwear/tech_guy, thank you for adding so much to this discussion. You are the savior of mankind.

"Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it. "

lol.

But, back to the original point, are we really surprised about anti-semites in the mix?
And they always pop up when times are tough.

I'm sure the bigots in the deep south are using similar language right now...

When the Jews start getting blamed, that is a sign of a real economic and cultural crisis. Almost a bellwether.

absolutely.

End of German power (holocaust). End of Spanish power (the inquisition).
End of dutch power. The beginning of the medieval period (England expelled the jews).
And, of course, this was said in the 80s.

you are such a good smart boy nyc10022.

vwear/tech_guy, thank you for adding so much to this discussion. You are the savior of mankind.

hey stuttering EddieWilson, have you tried breathing into a paper bag?

West81st - solid American Psycho reference...much appreciated!

> Andrew Fastow of Enron

Remember, his boss who told him to do it was a gentile...

"According to Yeshiva University, "Bernard L. Madoff, a member of the University’ s Board of Trustees since 1996..."

so yes, he is jew. to their defense, the over representation of jews in finance and banking is not of their choice but due to old restrictions on professions they could work on imposed by racist countries like Spain. they were not allowed to get into "tasteful" professions, so lending and collecting debts were left to them while barred from other more accepted professions. anyway, i'm of catholic background, thanks god i'm not catholic nor christian anymore. and recognize that many of the stereotypes againts the jews come from racist stands of the non jew catholics.

jews were also much of the merchant class in europe, because they were not allowed to be anything else. apprenticeships were simply closed to them.

But, remember, we aren't just most of the bankers.
We're most of the laywers.
And most of the doctors.
and 15x the proportional representation at the ivy league schools that used to keep us out.

The only slant nowadays is jews are way overrepresented in anything prestigious.

my understanding is that they value academics more than others.

another thing, if from time to time you are asked to leave without any of your possessions, merchant and finance is about as mobile as a profession as you can have in my view.

Patrick,
f u

In another few posts, he'll be calling Obama the N word.

good points on both, and I think they are interrelated. You can kill or steal (which has happened time and time again to Jews) but you can't take away knowledge...

There is definitely an academic bent, both for the reasons stated and probably from the underpinnings of the religion itself - big on study of the scripture and debate on its meaning - but I also think its also part of a fight for survival.

It usually goes in cycles, you get first generation immigrants who work hard, then their kids go to good schools... then the 3rd generation get celicas on their 16th birthdays and go to state schools, and the drive starts falling off.

But, without fail there always seems to be a new wave of antisemitism to remind folks of their precarious positions, and the drive restarts.

it's not antiseminitism, it's xenophobia against latins, blacks, jews, whatever that is a minority. look at latins being killed in long island just for fun.

admin correct me if I'm wrong but that one an isolated incident involving a few white trash kids. you make it sound like latinos are hunted for sport on Long Island.

and I'm pretty sure every comment I've ever noticed posted by Patrick Bateman has something to do with Jews or calling people Jews etc. Didn't he say Rufus was a Jew from Brooklyn?

"it's not antiseminitism, it's xenophobia against latins, blacks, jews, whatever that is a minority. look at latins being killed in long island just for fun. "

I agree.. its part of a bigger stupidity in human nature.

But Jews are easy targets generally, because there usually considered "too successful" to deserve protection.

"Didn't he say Rufus was a Jew from Brooklyn?"

Probably the best thing ever said about him of late.

"The only slant nowadays is jews are way overrepresented in anything prestigious"

Not just nowadays, it's been that way for a long time, as long as they weren't oppressed & were free to chose a profession.

I will not tolerate racism. I'm not a huge Obama supporter, but one thing his victory shows us is that We Shall Overcome. So, FU, Patrick & crawl back under your rock.

Jews were also not allowed to work in old-world american industries, including banking. That was the reason they started the investment banks in the first place. They were unwelcome in banks as late as the '70s as well as in many other professions.

As to Madoff's affiliation... I read on Bloomberg that he was a prominent contributor to the Democratic party.

OP, the premise of your post is disgusting.

David_Duke, great response.

nyc10022, jews don't represent 'most' bankers, lawyers or doctors, it's just perceived that way, especially in the NYC area which has the largest jewish community outside of Israel (and we don't make up the majority here, despite what people think).

In fact, most of the bankers I've dealt with in business have been non-jews. And my RE attorney was Catholic.

Also, many people with jewish names aren't actually jewish, it was probably their grandfather or someone.

the israel lobby, interesting book; and to be fair, the jewish phenomenon, like a good black and white cookie mmmmm.

it's threads like these that would benefit from moderation

Reality: There's good & bad in every profession, race, religion, etc. People with hate in their heart project their hatred on others, but we know their projections are a reflection of their own self hatred.

"nyc10022, jews don't represent 'most' bankers, lawyers or doctors, it's just perceived that way, especially in the NYC area which has the largest jewish community outside of Israel (and we don't make up the majority here, despite what people think)."

Jews make up a larger share of those than any other religion... correct, I should have said most.

Also, given that jews are just 2% of the US population, you are talking more than 10x representation.

Studies show that the the most vocal antisemites in America, are self-hating Jews or their descendents...
Happy Hanukah, Patrick_Bateman!

"Also, given that jews are just 2% of the US population, you are talking more than 10x representation."
This ain't new info. So, nuh?

"Jews make up a larger share of those than any other religion"

nyc10022, do you mean a larger share of all non-Christian religions? And how do you derive your "10x representation" figure?

I know quite a lot of Catholics, Protestants and Eastern Orthodox (collectively "Christians") in financial services. There is also a growing number of Hindus and Muslims (originally from India & Pakistan), and you get those quant jocks who sit in a corner engineering exotic swaps - who knows what religion they are. And, really, who cares?

"And, really, who cares?"

Thank you, uptowngal. Lets not feed the racists trolls. I'm done.

Streeteasy,
Please step in and put an end to this before the NYPD bias unit closes down your site and subpeonas you for user names and addresses. This discussion has no place on your site.

This really is pretty offensive.

umm what happened here?

What religion is George Bush? oh yeah and what religion is Christopher Cox (the guy that let this all happen)?

> nyc10022, do you mean a larger share of all non-Christian religions? And how do you derive your "10x
> representation" figure?

No, bigger than catholics or protestants in the last survey I saw...

> And how do you derive your "10x representation" figure?

2% of population. 20%+ of doctors/lawyers...