Lucette Lagnado writing in Friday’s Wall Street Journal:

When the Big Spenders Fail, Who Will Save Jewish Charity?

The Madoff scandal has shaken the American Jewish community to its core — maiming institutions large and small, wiping out life savings and triggering soul-searching: How could one man deceive so many? And what does the affair say about American Jewish values?

The pain is being felt especially intensely in philanthropic circles, which may never fully recover.

David Suissa in The Huffington Post:

Madoff’s Redemption

If you’re an active member of the Jewish community — and perhaps even if you’re not — there’s almost no way to properly digest the Bernie Madoff scandal….

More than dry numbers, though, there’s the sadness we all feel for the tens of thousands of disadvantaged people — Jews and non-Jews — who will now suffer because the organizations that usually help them have been ruined, not to mention the many individuals and families who have lost their life’s savings overnight.

Then there’s the fear of the uncertain — what all this will mean for the future of fundraising and Jewish philanthropy in an already depressed economy…