The Greater They Are, the Greater the Chilul HaShem

Rabbi Goldstein with the President at a National Day of Prayer event (NYP)

I am extremely disappointed. I cannot even begin tell you how much news of yet another money laundering scheme by a prominent Rav disturbs me. Because in this case the prominence achieved by this particular Rav involved a heroic act to save lives during a deadly antisemitic attack in his Shul. He lost 2 fingers doing that as he fought off the attacker. And was correctly hailed as a hero at the time. The reaction by the vast majority of Americans to an attack like that one is one of the reasons I am so confident that America is different. This happened just over a year ago.

Now - one year later - this hero has pled guilty to a multi-million dollar tax fraud scheme. From the New York Post: 

The longtime leader of a Southern California synagogue who was wounded in a deadly attack at the house of worship he founded pleaded guilty Tuesday to participating in a multimillion-dollar fraud that disguised charitable contributions for personal gain.

Goldstein, who founded Chabad of Poway near San Diego in 1986, collected $6.2 million in fake donations to the synagogue and affiliates and returned 90% to contributors with phony receipts, allowing them to deduct the full amount from their taxes, prosecutors said. Goldstein kept the remaining 10%, or $620,000, for himself.

Goldstein acknowledged concealing a fake donation of more than $1.1 million in late 2017 by purchasing about $1 million in gold coins and giving them to the phony donor. 

Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for fraud but prosecutors will recommend probation as part of a plea agreement. They noted his cooperation with investigators after federal agents raided his home and office in October 2018 and his widely praised response to the attack on the Chabad of Poway synagogue in April 2019. 

I am always dismayed - and get very angry when a prominent religious leader commits fraud. This is why I was so upset at a similar fraud several years ago by another prominent Chasidic Rav. It’s bad enough when any Jew - epscially a religious Jew - does something like this. When a prominent Rav does it, the Chilul HaShem is magnified. Topping that, is when someone who is a Rav and considered a hero willing to sacrifice his life gets caught doing it. 

That sends a terrible message to the world about Judaism. Which is that the most courageous and ethical people among us have no ethical issues with defrauding the government. I cannot image too many things being a greater Chilul HaShem than that. Not to mention that it  gives the antisemites of the world all the ‘proof’ they need about what devious cheats Jews are. Since even the best of us are like that.

The question is why? Why do some religious leaders think it’s OK to do this? Why does someone that is willing to sacrifice his own life to save others think that stealing from the government is OK? 

Can it be that Judaism actually teaches this?

The answer is of course not. All you have to do is look at how one of the biggest Poskim of the 20^th century behaved to see what Jewish ethics are really like. 

I’m not sure about the exact details of this story but there was an incident where Rav Moshe Feinstein was given a ride by one of his students. They somehow went through a toll gate without the driver paying the toll. R’ Moshe noticed that and made him go back and pay the toll. Even though no one was chasing them. There are numerous stories just like that about other Gedolim of the 20^th century - including R’ Yaakov Kamentsky, R’ Yosef Dov Soloveitchik,  R’ Ahron Soloveichik, and R’ Yitzchok Hutner – just to name a few. These are the people that both taught and exemplified the real ethics of the Torah.. Where the idea of cheating the government out of even a penny was considered an outrage! 

So why did this Rabbi and the one from years back feel it was OK to do it? I can only guess. I have said this before but I will say it again. I have to believe it has to do with a negative attitude about the non Jewish world drilled into them in a variety of ways.  An attitude stemming from centuries of antisemitic persecution in Europe where in many cases the only way Jews could survive was by skirting the law. Such as selling products on the black market. 

Not that this is OK even under those circumstances. But when you have no way to make a decent living because antisemitic government edicts prevent you from doing so, it is at least understandable. Much the same way an impoverished hungry child might swipe an apple off of a fruit stand.

In certain Chasidic circles and even some non Chasidic Charedi ones (but certainly not all of either of them -  by far) this is the attitude transmitted to their flock or their students. Either by way of derogatory terms for a non Jew. Or by talking about the inherent immorality of the outside world. Or by citing the legitimate antisemitic history of European governments - and the pogroms that resulted. Not to mention the ultimate pogrom, the Holocaust! 

They therefore see the non Jew as an inferior human being that may be taken advantage of - if they can get away with it. Especially if it is the government. Which they view as a big black hole where taxes are gobbled up and wasted on projects they do not approve of or could not care less about.

This attitude about Goyim in certain cirlces was exemplified by my oft mentioned case where – in a recording by a minor Chsadic Rebbe in Brooklyn, he called upon listeners to publicly treat Goyim with respect because we need to get along with them but that we must privately ‘HATE’ them. He is not alone in that kind of thinking. I heard a recorded lecture by a Yeshiva Rebbe (probably not Chasidic) saying the same thing to his class.

This does not mean that other segments of Orthodoxy don’t have their share of fraudsters. They do. But I do not recall any prominent non Chasidic or non Charedi rabbinic leader advocating it, condoning it, or explaining it away. What I do see is that they condemn it when it happens.

I’m glad that Rabbi Goldstien is going to be given probation. Because he actually was a hero when he needed to be. But the Chilul HaShem he created will not go away. And it will in fact sully the Kiddush HaShem he was responsible for last year. How sad is that!!!