madoff isn't really jewish

 i am sure that the title of this post caught your attention. oh and while i am at it rabashkin isn't really frum and neither are any of the other people who are otherwise shomer mitzvot but were convicted of ponzi schemes as of late.
gimme a break. every time i hear about a frum person involved in a major crime i hear people try to rationalize it by saying "well they weren't really frum" oh really? i disagree. i think that they were frum otherwise. i think that they did something very wrong, but they were actually shomer shabbos otherwise. to be devil's advocate, just because someone does an averah, no matter how large or small it does not blot out all of the mitzvot that they otherwise did do. i am not justifying their crimes, but just because they did a crime does not erase any good that they might have done in their lives.
the other reason i resent it when people like to wax poetically about how these frum people who were involved in embezzlement weren't really frum is because if they weren't caught they wouldnt be saying boo and because the rest of the world thinks these losers are frum. there has to be a better reaction than disassociation. i think that it would be best to say that they were frum and even frum people have nisyonos that they do not always pass and sometimes they give into their yetzer harah and do the wrong thing. they shouldn't do the wrong thing, but sometimes people do mess up big time- even frum people. we are given the laws of the torah because otherwise people would sin. DUH!!  if we were all so perfect just because we were keeping shabbos and kosher that we would not even think of being involved in fraud or an occasional ponzi scheme then "don't steal" would not be one of the ten commandments. HELLO.
instead of disassociating with the fraudsters as members of the tribe or fellow frummies perhaps learn to condemn the sin and try to make sure all of our coreligionists realize that fraud is not ok. we should try and figure out why this is happening in our community so it will stop .