Loose Change: The Jewish newspapers outline damage from Madoff scandal

This is all initial reportage, but many of the country’s Jewish newspapers are reporting that the local federations and Jewish institutions have not take direct hits due to direct investment with Bernard Madoff. We  will all see what happens in coming weeks when individual donors and investors in Madoff realize their losses.

• Jews in Minnesota lost millions, according to the American Jewish World.  One unnamed family lost $26 million that they invested with Madoff, and another family is out $10 million, says the paper. And one leading philanthropist in Minnesota, Harold Roitenberg, told the Jewish World this week that he lost “millions” that he had invested with Madoff over the past 25 years. It has been estimated that some $300 million were lost in Minnesota in total, where Madoff recruited at the Oak Ridge and the Hillcrest Country Club in St. Paul.
• The Washington Jewish Week reports the details of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington’s exposure to Madoff, which could cost the federation up to $10 million off of its $125 million endowment. The story also includes a list of the Jewish institutions that had their endowments invested with the federation’s United Jewish Endowment Fund, which lost $10 million.
• The Forward has a very useful list that details much of the Jewish losses in the Madoff scandal.  As well as a first person account of an encounter with Madoff’s wife, Ruth.
• The Jewish Journal of Boston North has an exclusive with Robert Lappin, whose foundation was wiped out by Madoff.
• The L.A. Jewish Journal chronicles the Madoff losses in Los Angeles, where the Jewish Community Foundation, which manages the endowments of some of the biggest Jewish social service agencies in town, had $18 million of its common-investment pool in Madoff’s fund, and Steven Spielberg’s Wunderkinder Foundation and individuals such as DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg have also lost fortunes. And the staff have started a solid blog about the Madoff mess called Swindler’s List.
• “In the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, the collapse of Bernard Madoff’s alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme is cutting a trail of destruction through the Jewish world and forcing a re-evaluation of the Old Boys network that funds countless Jewish groups, writes the New York Jewish Week.
• The Milwaukee Jewish Federation says it is safe, according to the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle.
• The Jewish Federation of Metrowest New Jersey and other federations in the state were not invested with Madoff, according to the New Jersey Jewish News. But the paper says that Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s foundation, which lost all of its $12.8 million, gave contributions to 15 Jewish institutions. The largest contribution, $352,000, went to the Metrowest federation.
• The Jewish federation in Baltimore, major institutions in the city, and the country’s largest Jewish foundation, the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, were not invested with Madoff, according to the Baltimore Jewish Times.
• In its initial survey of northern New Jersey, the Jewish Standard found that the UJA of Northern New Jersey had no money invested in Madoff, nor did one of the country’s largest Jewish foundations, the Teaneck-based Russell Berrie Foundation.
• The Denver-based Jewish Community Foundation, told the Intermountain Jewish News this week that the organization has no money invested with Bernard Madoff in any of his various investment funds.
• Local federations in the San Francisco area were not invested with Madoff, according to j.  In an unrelated story, the CEO of the East Bay federation resigned.
• The Barness foundation in Phoenix is closing due to the recession, according to the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix, but the closure does not appear Madoff related. And Local non-profits are feeling the squeeze because of the recession.