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Baltimore Jewish Times Book Review of "Betrayal: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff".rss feedComments (0)

Betrayal: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff

September 4, 2009

Barbara Pash
Associate Editor

Andrew Kirtzman
Harper 2009, 307 pages (hardcover), $25.99

The prison door has hardly clanged shut on Bernard Madoff’s 150-year sentence and already six books have appeared on this ex-Wall Street wheeler-dealer. Andrew Kirtzman’s “Betrayal” follows Madoff from his middle-class New York Jewish childhood to the unraveling of a Ponzi scheme that cost investors over $65 billion.

As Mr. Kirtzman makes clear, Madoff could not have accomplished this feat alone. Feeder funds and individual agents (sometimes not identified as such to investors) funneled clients to him in wealthy bastions like Palm Beach, Greenwich, Conn. and London.

Clues to Madoff’s scheme abounded. Harry Markopolos, a Boston watchdog, repeatedly warned the federal Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Industry publications raised questions. Credit Suisse cautioned its clients. France’s Societe Generale declined to invest, as did individual investors like Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone.

But others chose to ignore the clues. Among them was Madoff’s wife, Ruth, sons Mark and Andy and brother Peter—all of whom worked in parts of Madoff’s operation and lived lavish lifestyles that Kirtzman exhaustively recounts.

The book is good at evoking the milieus in which Madoff operated, like Jewish Palm Beach. Kirtzman interviewed over 100 people, from Madoff’s childhood friends to his personal secretary and driver. But Kirtzman did not have access to Madoff or other key players. This is a serious omission and, as a result, the book tends to focus on the superficial.

For readers who want an easy-to-understand recap of events, “Betrayal” works. But for others, who have been following the Madoff case since inception and would like to see a detailed analysis, “Betrayal” barely gets beyond speculation, pat answers and information that’s already been reported.

Previous Book Reviews

Betrayal: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff
The Game of Opposites
Far From Zion: In Search of a Global Jewish Community
Remedies
Einstein on Israel and Zionism: His Provocative Ideas About the Middle East
The Increment
Dark Side of the Moon: Wernher von Braun, the Third Reich, and the Space Race
This Is Where I Leave You
Tales of the Ten Lost Tribes
I Shudder: And Other Reactions to Life, Death, and New Jersey
Barney Ross: The Life of a Jewish Fighter

2007 Jewish Book Award Finalists

Finalists for the 2007 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, administered the Jewish Book Council, have been announced. The $100,000 prize, the largest of its kind in the Jewish literary world, honors an emerging author in the field of Jewish literature who has written a book of exceptional literary merit that stimulates an interest in Jewish themes.

Finalists are: Ilana M. Blumberg for "Houses of Study: A Jewish Woman Among Books"; Eric L. Goldstein for "The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race and American Identity"; Lucette Lagnado for "The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World"; Michael Makovsky for "Churchill's Promised Land: Zionism and Statecraft"; and Haim Watzman for "A Crack in the Earth: A Journey Up Israel's Rift Valley."

The inaugural Rohr Prize, awarded in 2006, went to Tamar Yellin for "The Genizah at the House of Shepher.”

2006 Jewish Book Winners

The National Jewish Book Association announced its 2006 award winners and finalists in a variety of categories. The winners are:

Jewish Book of the Year:
"A Code of Jewish Ethics" by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
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American Jewish Studies:
Winner:
"Emma Lazarus" by Esther Schor
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Finalists:
"The Price of Whiteness" by Eric L. Goldstein
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"Crown Heights" by Edward Shapiro
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Anthologies and Collections
Winner:
"Writing a Modern Jewish History" by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
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Finalists:
"Scribblers on the Roof" by Melvin Jules Bukiet and David G. Roskies
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"Daughters of Sarah" by Eva Martin Santori
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Biography and Autobiography
Winner:
"The Lost" by Daniel Mendelsohn
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Finalists:
"This Has Happened" by Piera Sonnino and Ann Goldstein
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"A Family of Strangers" by Deborah Tall
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Children's and Young Adult Literature
Winner:
"The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak
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Finalists:
"Solomon and the Ant" by Sheldon Oberman and Peninnah Schram
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"Yellow Star" by Jennifer Roy
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Contemporary Jewish Life and Practice
Winner:
"Fragmented Families" by Ellen Sucov
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Finalists:
"The Jewish Book of Days" by Jill Hammer
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"Auschwitz" by Laurence Rees
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Eastern European Studies
Winner:
"Caviar and Ashes" by Marci Shore
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Finalists:
"Men of Silk" by Glenn Dynner
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"Fear" by Jan T. Gross
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Education and Jewish Identity
Winner:
"Building Jewish Roots" by Faydra Shapiro
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Finalist:
"Rethinking Synagogues" by Lawrence A. Hoffman
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Fiction
Winner:
"The World To Come" by Dara Horn
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Finalists:
"Accidents" by Yael Hedaya
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"Disobedience" by Naomi Alderman
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"Golden Country" by Jennifer Gilmore
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History
Winner:
"Becoming Eichmann" by David Cesarani
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Holocaust
Winner:
"The Enemy" by Jeffrey Hart
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Jewish Family Literature
Winner:
"Lilith's Ark" by Deborah Bodin Cohen
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Women's Studies
Winner:
"Why Aren't Jewish Women Circumcised?" by Shaya Cohen
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