Madoff and the Economic Downturn Double Pain for Jewish Groups
May 22, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
The combined effects of the economic downturn and the Bernard Madoff scandal are forcing Boston-area Jewish charities to downsize, merge, or close outright, The Boston Globe reports.
The umbrella organization Combined Jewish Philanthropies has laid off a tenth of its work force and preliminarily approved a 15-percent cut in grants next year. Individual charities have closed offices, cut staff members, and even mulled merging with non-Jewish groups as a result of declining endowments, reduced government aid, and the disproportionate impact of the Madoff fraud on Jewish philanthropy.
“The American Jewish community has probably lost 30 percent of its wealth, and we have no idea how to cut the costs of the Jewish community by 30 percent,” said Jonathan Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University.
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