"Ezra Merkin, a money manager and leading member of New York's Modern Orthodox Jewish community, has been accused of channeling $2.4 billion of clients' money into Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme...without their permission, in exchange for $470 million in fees [for himself]... Known as 'the Rabbi' within the wealthy Modern Orthodox community, Mr Merkin gave Madoff access to a lucrative number of charities, schools and wealthy synagogue members. Mr Merkin is the president of the Fifth Avenue synagogue - the richest of its kind in America." -- London Times

"Associates branded him as arrogant, secretive and intensely private, while also saying he's a scholar who loves the Talmud, abstract art and the Yankees. Giving away money almost as fast as he made it, Merkin joined several boards, including Carnegie Hall; Ramaz School, which lost $6 million to Madoff; Yeshiva University, which lost $14 million, and the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, which lost $3.5 million.

He accumulated enough wealth to win entrance to 740 Park Ave., an 18-story retreat for Bouviers, Bronfmans, Rockefellers and other so-called masters of the universe. It boasts 31 duplex apartments and has been dubbed the "most lusted-after address in the world." -- New York Daily News

"Madoff has very close and long-standing business ties to the directors and owners of two of Israel's largest banks, which were privatized in the 1990s: Bank Leumi and Israel Discount Bank. The IDB, at least, has a long history of money-laundering and illegal money transfers. Jacob Ezra Merkin, who funneled hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars to Madoff's fund, is part owner of Bank Leumi. These relationships strongly suggest that Madoff's scheme was a massive theft being disguised as a Ponzi scheme in which fellow high-level Zionists played key roles." -- Christopher Bollyn

"Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! " -- Psalms 73