The Better Jewish Business Bureau.

Even if you are not a business person, chances are you’ve heard of the Better Business Bureau. The B.B.B. is designed to let people know which businesses are “Kosher” and which are “Traif” through rankings and comments. It may be time we invent a Jewish version and in particular a sports division. A few weeks ago, member of the Tribe Nevin Shapiro got the University of Miami into a little bit of trouble. Nevin is what is known as a “booster.” In college football it is against the rules to pay its players and the way these universities get around these regulations is to bring in a “friend of program”, a.k.a. a booster. Boosters will give players money, cars, houses fur coats etc. in return for hanging around athletes and reliving the youth of their college days. Nevin, who in addition to his work as a booster was involved in a, you guessed it a Ponzi scheme. Shapiro’s work at Miami was so disastrous the N.C.A.A. is contemplating giving the University of Miami football program the “death penalty” which means the program will not exist in any capacity. The “death penalty” has not been given out in college football in over 30 years and if given out it would severally damaged lives of young college kids at the University of Miami. Another member of the tribe and another Ponzi scheme artist, Bernie Madoff had his damage of sports as well. In addition to stealing millions of dollars from thousands of people he stole from a Major League Baseball team. The New York Mets are owned by the Wilpon family and they invested millions of dollars into Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, including putting in money from deferred contracts of Mets’ players. The Wilpon’s also encouraged others to invest as well. After Madoff got busted, the Mets were in financial ruin and it will take them several years to recover, if they recover at all. This season they are 4th place in the National League East, a division which only has 5 teams. It was only 5 years ago they were one game away from playing in the World Series. Another member of the Tribe who gave us “nachas” last week was Mr. Mike Jacobs. A player in the Colorado Rockies baseball organization, Jacobs tested positive for H.G.H. (human growth hormone) an illegal offense in baseball. In addition to the embarrassment Mike cause the Jewish people, he was suspended for 50 games. As all us good Jews know, we are supposed to be “a light unto the nations.” There is an old African proverb which says if there is no enemy inside of us the enemy outside can do us no harm. Many times when anti-Semitism happens people tend to get angry at anti Semites, but if we truly listen to the Torah we know the power if with us and not with the anti-Semites. Although I am not the one to judge Shapiro, Madoff and Jacobs as far as why they did what they did, I do have a right so say what they did was wrong and it continues to cause problems for the Jewish people; it makes us look really bad. In a perfect world Shapiro, Madoff and Jacobs would not do these types of actions but we are not living the world of the Messiach. Thus I would like to propose a “Better Jewish Business Bureau.” Now as a 20 something year old man I do not have the ability, at least as of now, to set this up, but it would go something like this. A group of let’s say 15 people would sit on a committee and anytime someone thought something suspicious was being done by a member of the Tribe, they would pass a note to the Better Jewish Business Bureau and they would check out the claim. Now why would this make a difference? There is no way in the world you could convince me at some point in time someone did not see something regarding Shapiro’s boosting, Madoff’s scheming or Jacob’s steroid use. However, the people who did see

something may have been too scared to talk; due to fear or retribution or fear of being considered an outcast. Remember it’s very taboo in certain sects of Jewish culture to call the police on a Jew and many Rabbinical opinions consider it assur. Thus we must establish the Better Jewish Business Bureau, to ensure our fellow members of the Tribe are doing things honestly and with integrity so people are not cheated, the Jews do not look bad and to ensure sports are not effected in anything but a positive manner.