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Comments (0)A former chief financial officer at Hadassah is claiming that she had an affair with Bernard Madoff.
Sheryl Weinstein reportedly makes the claim in her book “Madoff’s Other Secret: Love, Money, Bernie, and Me,” which is set to be published Aug. 25 by St. Martin’s Press.
Weinstein, an accountant, has said previously that she lost her family’s savings by investing with Madoff and claimed to have first met the confessed swindler when working at Hadassah. The Jewish women’s organization has said that it invested $40 million with Madoff from 1988 to 1997.
By the time federal authorities exposed the Ponzi scheme last year, Hadassah believed the value of the portfolio had grown to $90 million, not including $130 million that it had pulled out over the years.
Both Weinstein and Hadassah have said that the first $7 million the organization invested with Madoff in 1988 came from a donor who insisted the money be handled that way. Hadassah invested another $33 million with Madoff by 1996, the year before Weinstein left the organization.
Hadassah continued to maintain a portfolio with Madoff after Weinstein’s departure, but never put additional money into the account, according to the organization.
Weinstein served on the Hadassah committee that decided to invest with Madoff, but a spokesperson for the organization said she was one of many members on the committee.
According to the spokesperson, the organization did not know of the alleged affair during Weinstein’s tenure at the organization, and her departure was unrelated to Madoff.
Hadassah is “moving on” from Madoff, the spokesperson said, noting that the organization recently received a $1 million gift and is close to securing two more.
U.S. Jewish leaders urged Egypt’s president to take the lead in encouraging other Arab nations to make conciliatory gestures to Israel.
U.S. Jews Press Mubarak
Hosni Mubarak is in Washington this week to meet with President Obama and advance plans to revive the peace process.
Mubarak met Monday morning with an array of leaders from Jewish groups who told him that conciliatory measures from Arab nations, including allowing Israeli overflights and expanding business ties, would help Israel make concessions. Arab states and the Palestinians first want Israel to commit to a settlement freeze.
“He said he believes that Israel has to do its share,” said one participant who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was off the record. “I hope we delivered the message that, not that we disagree with that, but that the Israeli public needs to see a changing wind blowing in the Arab world that would create a better context for hard decisions.”
The meeting also covered expanding ties between Israel and Egypt and presenting a united front against Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program.
Egypt’s role in attempting to broker the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held captive in the Gaza Strip since 2006, was discussed as well.
Terror Cell Member Gets 6-Year Prison Term
The last member of a terrorist cell planning to attack Jewish targets in Los Angeles and military bases was sentenced to nearly six years in prison.
Hammad Riaz Samana, a member of the Jami’yyat Ul-Islam Is-Shaheeh group founded in a prison, was given a 70-month sentence Monday, the Orange County Register reported.
His sentence was shorter than his three fellow cell members because he had a smaller role in the plot and he suffered from mental health issues, according to U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney.
The cell had plans to attack synagogues, the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles and El Al Airlines at the Los Angeles International Airport, as well as military bases. The group robbed 11 gas stations to fund the plot. The men were arrested and charged in 2005.
University, Jewish Studies Prof Settle Dispute
The University of Cincinnati and a tenured professor of modern Jewish history settled their dispute.
The university has withdrawn its charges of misusing university funds for research and travel against Mark Raider following mediation, Raider said in a letter to supporters, and will not pursue further disciplinary action.
Raider will drop a lawsuit against the university and keep his tenured full professor status while moving from the Judaic studies department to the history department.
Raider was removed as head of the Judaic studies department and from his endowed chair in the spring. The dean of the university’s McMicken College also had moved to fire Raider despite a vote against dismissal by the university grievance committee panel in March.
At the time, Jewish studies scholars from the United States and Israel accused the university of being hostile not only to Raider but also the field of Jewish studies.
An Ohio District Court judge, Arthur Spiegel, served as the mediator.