These include the preponderance of Jews in the news for links to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, tech billionaires accused of manipulating algorithms and social media for pure profit, Jews in top administrative positions in the Trump administration, and the very debatable and controversial issue of how Israel is conducting the war in Gaza.

Although few Jews in the news have been accused of committing a crime, the mention of Jewish names in association with anti-societal actions is enough to fuel new conspiracy theories and reawaken old canards. This includes Jewish control of the media, government, or even fake 9-11 conspiracies. Social media has popularized the term “the Epstein class” to describe wealthy men who engage in criminal behavior and don’t suffer any legal consequences.

Worse, this sad shanda development has no remedy. 

Major American Jewish organizations cannot combat these perceptions because they are too broad, or in some cases, undeniable.  No major Jewish organization would defend a sex offender, the negative impact of social media, or why there are so many Jews in the Trump administration are accused of self-profit.  On the shanda topic, the major organizations have huge budgets to defend traditional sources of antisemitism, but here they are powerless.

There is also the problem that if a major Jewish group criticizes a specific Jewish individual for a crime or an alleged bad association, it creates problems related to Jewish tradition.

No Public Shaming of Jews Allowed

Jews are not supposed to publicly criticize, defame, ridicule, or focus attention on another Jew’s infirmities, social situation, financial status, or shortcomings.

So, what happens when a person with a Jewish name violates a social norm or the law?  How should the broader Jewish community react to this violation of laws or public norms, and how should it affect the community?

With this, we enter the world of the shanda.  As the Chabad website says, the Yiddish word shanda translates as “shame” in English. If a religious or educated Jew commits a Shanda, they may be cited for “tzu shand” or “to shame.”

How shame is treated in the Jewish community is an ancient question with current applications. It is impossible to watch the news today without some mention of a Jewish figure who has broken a law, violated a norm, or supported a person, policy, or political party that other Jews vehemently oppose. This also makes it very difficult to write about this topic without using anyone’s name as an example of embarrassment.  One reason is that a person who commits a Shanda could quickly become another person’s hero in today’s contentious environment.

The other reason is political or cultural sensitivity. While researching this article, no Yeshiva responded to my requests for comments on this topic. Only one rabbi responded; he said any discussion of a shanda would only inflame anti-Semitism. This is a good observation, except that antisemitic acts are already at high levels, so maybe a debate on the topic could be beneficial to the community.

But I took the rabbi’s comments to heart. I worked to write an article about Jews who shame the community without including one name, pro or con, criminal or accused, regardless of political affiliation, in this article.

This is a challenge since we all have a list of Jews who have caused shame in the community.  Listing these names could even become a new parlor game, but the sad reality is that there is no shortage of people to include on the list.

A contemporary discussion on this topic also links us to our past.  We know Jewish culture and Hebrew law examine how negative, criminal, or anti-social acts create community shame and how these acts violate written law. We can start with the Talmud: “Three signs signify that a person has a Jewish essence: he is compassionate, ashamed of doing wrong, and seeks to do acts of kindness.” (Talmud, Yevamot 79a).

Shame and being ashamed are so human that they are the first sins mentioned in the Bible. “Adam and Eve felt healthy shame for disobeying G‑d’s commandment. After Cain killed Abel, Cain’s initial lack of shame was so problematic that he had to go through a long cleansing period to awaken him,” writes Miriam Adahan in her article “Shame and Emotional Turmoil” on The Jewish Woman.org.  Cain was off the hook from committing a Shanda because he wasn’t Jewish.  That would not be possible until Moses received the 15 Commandments (in the Mel Brooks version) or the Ten Commandments, as we all know them today.

After the Commandments were received at Mt. Sinai, the Jewish people were open for business.  They were supposed to be bound to the 613 commandments.  This set the framework for Jewish community standards in business, social and community relations, hygiene, and all forms of legal and ethical behavior towards other Jews and even their animals, for centuries.

Yet, while there are many commentaries on the shanda topic, how should Jews today react when one of their own violates the law or creates a situation that denigrates the larger community?

Repairing the Shanda Damage

Embarrassing the Jewish community creates problems inside and outside the community. In the words of Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post (May 17, 2011), “to be a shanda for the goyim’ is to confirm the most hurtful stereotypes, thereby doing damage twice: a Jew who dishonors Jews by not only doing something bad but doing something that confirms the worst fears of others about Jews in general.”  Worse, this makes a shanda “a disgrace before the nations.”

This shame has two sources: internal and external.  The social and business behaviors of Jews are scrutinized more closely than those of other ethnic groups, and like Hebrew National hot dogs, Jews are held to a higher standard.  After all, Jews are the chosen people and are instructed to be a “light for the nations.”  In this role, they represent Him and His will in the world. Transgressing the Torah or acting shamefully is bad enough, but to do so in public is a double Shanda,” according to Chabad.

So, while we all have a list of people to include on the Shanda list, we should focus on the opposite.  Despite the evident and hideous acts of abuse and crimes committed by some Jews in the news today, most Jews pursue goodness. This is behind the warning Shiviti Ha-Shem le-negdi tamid – “I’ve ever measured myself against the Lord” (Psalms 16:8).

If more Jews need a primer on good behavior, they should get a copy of Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers), a bestseller that has been around since 300 BCE to 200 CE.  There is also a newer version based on the teachings of Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, In the Paths of Our Fathers. (1994).

It’s hard to understand why some people have failed miserably in their public or private lives to become criminals and cause embarrassment to the Jewish community. Maybe modern society provides too many excuses, temptations, and opportunities for bad behavior.

However, most people have the chance to work harder to do more visible good deeds. This would be a modest effort that everyone can undertake to address the significant damage done to the Jewish community. I

Donating massive amounts of money to a political candidate is like gambling: You never know who will win, or if your bet will ever produce the intended results.

The latest is that Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol field leader, mocked the U.S. attorney in Minnesota, Daniel N. Rosen, an Orthodox Jew who observes Shabbat.  Bovino complained that he could not reach Rosen from Friday night to Saturday night.

In the podcast work, Ben Shapiro finally discovered that he was in the company of anti-Semitic right-wingers when he criticized Tucker Carlson, another right-wing talker, who had an interview with Nick Fuentes, the leader of the Proud Boys, and a leader of the Jan.6 Trump insurrection.

In the interview with Carlson, “Fuentes praised Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and claimed the ‘big challenge’ to unifying the country was “organized Jewry.” Carlson, a former Fox News host who retains a large following, said Republican Israel supporters suffer from a “brain virus,” according to a report in Politico.  He earlier said, “In a debate on Alex Jones’ InfoWars in May 2021, he said that Jews have no place in Western civilization because they are not Christian,” according to the American Jewish Committee.

What do these have in common?

First, the old saying, “When you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas,” is something right-wing Jews like Carlson, AIPAC, and the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) should remember.

Both are dividing the Jewish community over ridiculous claims that American Jews should become Republicans.  This is only valid if American Jews supported the Netanyahu government and its Gaza war policies 100%. This is also false.

The other fantasy Shapiro and the RJC promote is that MAGA-Trump’s policies are good for American Jews domestically, and that they reflect Jewish humanitarian values.  These are also false.

The wealthiest American Republican Jews, including members of the RJC, and the American-Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC) and its wealthy individual members, gave more money to Trump than to Elon Musk.

They also got much less than Musk received. Musk received hundreds of millions in favorable tax treatment, new business, and confidential files that he downloaded from the Social Security Administration and other federal agencies, which he can use or sell secretly. A report from Senator Elizabeth Warren listed over 100  special favors that Musk received from Trump during his first 100 days in office.

Compared to Musk, these wealthy Jewish donors may be left empty-handed when they audit what their hundreds of millions in donations to Trump and his MAGA backers gave them in return.

The results are dismal if the RJC, AIPAC, and other big donors compare their achievements to the policy goals specified on their websites and in direct mail.

There were a few successes in Trump’s first term—moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, the Abraham Accords, the destruction of Gaza—but otherwise, their hundreds of millions in contributions for Trump’s second term helped elect one of the most corrupt, erratic, anti-democratic presidents in history, who has subjected the country to his unstable sociopathic behavior.

So, what Jewish values–justice, compassion, community, and the importance of learning and tradition–and Israel-centric goals did these Republican Jewish groups bring into Trump’s chaotic administration?

Very little that was new, and certainly not many successes, considering the amount of money they donated.  If anything, some in the RJC should get favorable tax and estate planning benefits from Trump, but these would also apply to the wealthiest people in the US, Jews and non-Jews.

These Republican groups also divided the American Jewish community and cynically tried to convince the majority of American Jews (80% of whom are Democrats) that voting for MAGA Republicans would be in their best interest.  This proposal fell short.

Who Needs the RJC?

The story about the RJC represents a grossly misguided effort by some elitist, wealthy Jews to alienate the vast majority of their brethren who are Democrats.  Since World War I, 80% of American Jews have voted for Democrats for many valid reasons tied to shared values, compassion for the poor and immigrants, offering a social safety net, programs for the elderly and the poor, such as Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid, and an emphasis on equality for all citizens.

These are not Republican values.  Since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, Republicans have not advanced a single social welfare program that benefits all Americans or a disadvantaged group.

The RJC’s goals are mainstream conservative values, which have nothing to do with Jewish ethics and values. As the RJC website states, it favors national security, support for Israel, small government, low taxes, free enterprise, and energy dominance. As wealthy Republicans, the RJC seeks more advantageous tax breaks (especially the carried-interest loophole) and lower taxes, which are the unstated driving forces behind the group’s official purpose.  After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, the RJC invoked their dedication to Israel and fighting antisemitism as important goals.  However, Democrats already shared these goals.

The big problem is that none of the RJC’s issues are primarily “Jewish.”  If it weren’t for their large egos, its wealthy Republican contributors easily could have remained members of existing Republican groups. Since Republicans are not unquestioned supporters of Israel (remember James Baker in the Reagan and Bush administrations), these Jewish Republicans could have shifted their support to AIPAC if their primary concern was garnering more support for Israel.

But this situation didn’t seem to satisfy Republican Jews.  Instead, they felt the need “to sensitize Republican leadership in government and the Party to the concerns and issues of the Jewish community.”

This goal illustrates the cultural divide between the old-line Brahmin Yankee Republicans versus the grandchildren of former shtetl dwellers from Eastern Europe. It also grossly overstates their representation of “concerns and issues of the Jewish community” since there are so few Republican Jews, and the RJC does not represent the majority of American Jews. Despite this, the RJC was formed in 1985 without a clearly defined rationale for its existence.

Flash forward to Trump’s first and second presidential campaigns. To get Trump’s attention, the RJC and wealthy contributors showered Trump with money.  The combination of RJC and individual wealthy Republican Jews to both of Trump’s presidential campaigns (2025 and 2017) totaled about $500 million, according to public campaign files.  This included millions from Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, the RJC, AIPAC, and wealthy Jewish donors.

So, what did the Republican Jews get for their hundreds of millions in contributions?

Almost nothing.  Here are the specifics:

If They Wanted to Reduce Antisemitism, the RJC and Wealthy Donors Failed

Antisemitism has been around for at least 3,000 years, and the long-standing fundraising campaigns to “fight” antisemitism never took this into account.

As the New York Times points out,  “the United States is experiencing its worst surge of anti-Jewish hate in many decades. Antisemitic hate crimes more than doubled between 2021 and 2023, according to the F.B.I., and appear to have risen further in 2024. On a per capita basis, Jews face far greater risks of being victims of hate crimes than members of any other demographic groups.”

The engine behind this rise in hate crimes is due to Israel’s policies in Gaza, and the West Bank. These attacks may have been funded and coordinated by some Arab nations. Still, this increase would probably not have occurred if the Middle East wars had not inflamed these underlying animosities.

There will be a spike in anti-Semitism if the U.S. attacks Iran.  Many of the MAGA America First isolationists will see that as Israeli manipulation of Trump.  Nothing that any Jewish group will do can curtail this reaction.

Despite the Money, the RJC Is Not Shaping U.S. Mideast Policy

The RJC and Adelson thought their money would influence American foreign policy in the Middle East. This failed. Despite Miriam Adelson’s $100 million donation, which she believed would make her part of the State Department, she is watching events unfold as millions of average Americans in the Middle East do.

If the U.S. attacks Iran or sends troops, it will create havoc among MAGA supporters, many of whom are isolationists.  Consider Marjorie Taylor Greene, who said, “Anyone slobbering for the U.S. to become fully involved in the Israel/Iran war is not America First/MAGA.”  Then there are also Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, and others who chafe at the idea that Israel and “the Jewish lobby” are pressuring Trump to engage the Iranians militarily.

It’s doubtful and foolish to show a direct link between the foreign policy goals of the RJC and AIPAC, and their significant contributions, and a direct link to U.S. involvement in the Israeli war strategy. This situation also shows the significant differences between AIPAC and the RJC.

AIPAC contributes more money to individual Congressmen, while the RJC/Adelson is a huge contributor to Trump.  Since Trump is bypassing Congress in making any decision to attack Iran, the impact of individual Congress members is minimal. Instead, it appears Trump is deciding what to do himself, which is dangerous because he is unstable and surrounded by a few less-than-capable national security and defense advisors.

The RJC Money Did Not Change Trump’s Allegiances to Christian Nationalists

As The New York Times, said “The political right, including President Trump, deserves substantial blame. Yes, he has led a government crackdown against antisemitism on college campuses, and that crackdown has caused colleges to become more serious about addressing the problem. But Mr. Trump has also used the subject as a pretext for his broader campaign against the independence of higher education. The combination risks turning antisemitism into yet another partisan issue, encouraging opponents to dismiss it as one of his invented realities.

“Even worse, Mr. Trump had made it normal to hate, by using bigoted language about a range of groups, including immigrants, women, and trans Americans.”

Trump’s roots in right-wing, Christian nationalism are deeper than his ties to the American Jewish community, despite Trump’s theatrics and the wishful thinking of AIPAC, Jexit, and other fawning Jewish groups.

Consider the dinner Trump had with Nazi-sympathizing rapper Kanye West (known as Ye) and Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist and Holocaust denier who has praised Hitler. Plus, Trump supporters Kevin McCarthy, Paul Gosar, Marjory Taylor Greene, Elise Stefanik, and Matt Gaetz all endorsed white nationalists.

If the RJC and Other Big Donors Wanted Closer Ties Between Israel and the U.S., Their Money Had Little Impact

Trump and Netanyahu have had public political spats, and Israel has gone its own way in the wars in Gaza, the West Bank, Yemen, and Iran.  Israel has been allowed to wage these expansive wars as an extension of the long-standing agreement that Israel can defend itself.  This policy is unrelated to the billions in donations to Trump. Instead, they can be attributed to the decades of work of AIPAC, before it became a MAGA shill.

The RJC and AIPAC Raise the Toxic Dual Loyalty Issue

In a country divided by political animosity, driven by the most corrupt presidential administration in U.S. history, AIPAC, the RJC, JEXIT, wealthy Jews, and other conservative pro-Israel groups, have confused the national discussion over whether the Trump administration must support Israel and its current war aims, and also fight domestic Antisemitism.

This is the devil’s choice. The majority of American Jews disdain Netanyahu and Trump.  Polls in Israel find that 73% of Israelis want Netanyahu to resign. In the U.S., about 80% of American Jews are Democrats and oppose Trump’s policies.

Trump Fooled the Jews, Again

So, did Trump fool the wealthy Republican Jews?

It looks like he did, again.

Trump fed the big egos of wealthy people who, in turn, fed the enormous ego of a convicted felon and lifelong sociopath.

Call it one of the biggest political double-crosses in modern history, or just another lousy incident of political intrigue. Still, it looks like the RJC, and its billionaire Jewish donors, made a terrible bet. They wasted millions to put a felon and sociopath in office.  And what Trump does to give Israel what it wants (attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities) could never have been predicted.

Whatever Israel does in Iran, with or without the help of the U.S., it’s doubtful that any of the hundreds of millions from Republican Jewish donors will be cited as a contributing factor. These global events are outside the influence of a few influential U.S. billionaires.

Historians will agree that Trump will go down as the most corrupt president in U.S. history, who used wealthy, educated, otherwise civic-minded citizens as his accomplices. This proves that you cannot out-sociopath a lifelong sociopath. Plus, it shows that you don’t have to be brilliant to be rich.

The second Trump administration, unfortunately, has added many more Jews to the Shanda List, and this is a disgrace to the 80% of American Jews who are Democrats.

That’s the sad truth.  But as the Shanda List gets longer, it shows that there is no shortage of people who will do the bidding of a convicted criminal and sociopath for some twisted political or personal reason.

Since these Trump Jews are more visible than others who are part of Trump’s extremist core group of followers, the behavior of these Trump Jews may also be contributing to the rise in antisemitism.

For centuries, antisemitism has undoubtedly been the most discussed and studied issue facing the Jewish community worldwide.

However, discussions about this topic universally begin with the correct assumption that antisemitism’s origins—for whatever irrational and unfounded reasons–are outside the Jewish community.

However, in 21st-century America, many American Jews have achieved exceptional financial, professional, and social success. This achievement has allowed Jews to rise to some of the most elevated positions in society. For the most part, this overall success was achieved as American Jews maintained and embraced their religion, traditions, and, most importantly, their Talmudic code and practices even when they could not articulate them.

At the same time, the Jewish community has produced its numerically small share of high-profile criminals, abusers of the public trust, and violators of human rights that put them into a particular category inside the Jewish community.

Unfortunately, President Trump, in his first and second administrations, seems to have attracted men of low character and some criminals into his circle.  Unfortunately, many of these people are Jewish. We already have seen high-profile trials that involve David Pecker, Boris Epshtyn, Michael Cohen, and Allen Weiselberg.

This category of individuals and groups varies, but their common thread is that they are Jewish, evident to the Jewish community, and have engaged in behaviors that tarnish or damage the reputation of the broader Jewish community.

Shanda Promotes Community Cohesion

In its broadest sense, the Jewish community is the basis for the Jewish people.  This community has specific characteristics (a synagogue, Mikvah, cemetery, charitable organizations, schools, etc.), but the people in the community have a unique role.

According to the site My Jewish Learning, “With justice, a king sustains the earth, but a fraudulent (terumot) person destroys it.” (Proverbs 29) [What does this verse mean?] With the justice that the king does, he sustains the earth, but the fraudulent person destroys it.”

When Jews create an apparent disgrace to other Jews due to criminal, unethical, fraudulent, or immoral behavior, it has traditionally been termed a “Shanda.”

The Yiddish word “Shanda” is “Misbehavior by a particular Jew or Jewish group that leads to embarrassment among the broader Jewish community.” The process is derived from the mandate to ensure community purity, group identity, and follow the Torah.

Shanda derives its power to disgrace and taint the reputation of other Jews because the ethical, legal, or moral violations not only attract the attention of other Jews but, just as importantly, the attention of non-Jews looking for another excuse to ramp up their anti-Semitic rhetoric or attacks.

This is how the term “Shanda” was put into the context of  “shande far di goyim” or “shanda for the goyim” (embarrassment before/for the non-Jews).

This is a powerful concept. First, conduct among Jews is ideally governed by Halakhah, which is the “way” a Jew is directed to behave in every aspect of life, including civil, criminal, and religious law.  At the group or community level, “to be a Jew means first and foremost to belong to a group, the Jewish people.”

More authoritatively, Louis Finkelstein, in The Ways of Religion (1999) illustrated this by saying:

“Judaism considers every member of the faith responsible for the moral conduct of those neighbors over whom he can exert influence.”  Further, “the Jewish culture emphasizes not only personal adherence to Jewish law, but also a responsibility of all Jews to extend their influence to other Jews in hopes of guiding them to live within the laws. This is an important component of Judaism because it means that those who are affected by another’s bad acts share some (though not equal) responsibility for not influencing that person to live by the Torah.”

This sets the boundaries for individual and community behavior. Violating these laws or norms can trigger a community response. This is the context of “Shanda.”

Note: The Shanda List does not include violent criminals, such as those in the Purple Gang or Murder Inc. Those people were always considered outlaws in the Jewish community and essentially led separate lives. While these people were a Shanda, some still observed Jewish laws. One member of Murder Inc. would not kill people on Shabbos. On Yom Kippur, Jewish gangsters in New York would meet separately and hire a rabbi to lead the Yahrzeit service.

Community Standards Matter

Inside the Jewish community, the list of Jews earning the derisive term “Shanda” may also have contributed to a subtle, different form of antisemitism.

When Jews become critical of each other, it often happens in quiet conversations that are never publicly discussed. Most rabbis consider it a sacrilege to criticize other Jews in public since all Jewish souls, including those of criminals and even converts, are holy and have eternal positive value.

At the everyday level, Jews whose behavior exceeds the boundaries of U.S. laws and 2,000 years of Jewish and rabbinic teachings deserve the term” Shanda” since they are fueling a new form of antisemitism.

This source of antisemitism is not included in most studies about the origins of antisemitism that focus on Jew-hatred from non-Jews.

A New Dynamic in Antisemitism

The remarkable social ascent and professional achievement of Jews in America has never occurred in history.

Since the start of the 20^th century, America, without question, has been the new land of milk and honey for Jews. This steady rise in social and professional mobility witnessed periods of antisemitism in hiring and professional advancement. Still, since the end of World War II, widespread antisemitism has subsided, which allowed generations of American Jews to enter professions, make a living, and join social institutions that, 50 years earlier, barred their entrance.

But since the end of World War II, maybe America has been too good to the Jews.

The secure American Jewish lifestyle, free of organized hate and legal restrictions, naturally gravitated toward the dominant American consumer culture.

Pogroms and other horrors in Europe and Arab nations kept those Jewish communities cohesive, focused, and, to a greater degree, more observant than what we are seeing in America today. The pursuit of wealth and materialism in America has pushed Jews to more assimilation, accompanied by abandoning strong links or even a basic knowledge of traditional Talmudic values.

While there is a wide range of Jewish observance today, many sects would agree to the Jewish teachings from Chabad, the orthodox source of Talmudic knowledge, of the following:

“In the world of trust, the place we all go to after life on earth, what counts is the lasting impact we had on the world. The achievements of the soul, not the body, remain beyond the grave. The money we make, the holidays we go on, the food we eat, and the games we play are all the flowers that die with us. But the good deeds we do, the love we show to others, and the light we bring into the world, these are eternal.”

This is straightforward enough and shows the boundaries of expected Jewish behavior. However, these goals are violated in pursuing material wealth, power, and notoriety.

The Shonda List

The rise in antisemitism inside the U.S. may be fueled by the extreme behaviors of U.S. Jews, whose egregious acts are visible and reinforce old stereotypes.

These evident destructive behaviors also force Jews to re-examine whether the Jewish people are falling short of being a “light onto other nations” while serving as shining ethical and moral examples for other nations.

The people on this admittedly subjective Shonda list were chosen for a few reasons:

• They created a long-term, negative impact on the world or the U.S. based on the Chabad description above;
• They achieved national or international notoriety as Jews who conducted acts that harmed a larger group of innocent victims or profited from their errant behavior.

Here is this list that includes Jews who were either criminals or worked in the Trump I and Trump II administrations.  To their disgrace, some of these people have continued to disgrace the community in both Trump administrations. These people include:

Laura Loomer– Loomer is an extreme right-wing conspiracy promoter who said that the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were “an inside job.”  She is a Trump loyalist and made the news in April 2015 when she met with Trump and got senior military officers in the intelligence department fired because she said they were not Trump loyalists.  Trump believed her and fired the generals.  Loomer is so extreme that another Trump mental case, Marjorie Taylor Green, criticized and reprimanded her for posting a message saying that if Kamala Harris won the election, “the White House will smell like curry & White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center.” Greene called the post “extremely racist.”  Loomer and the shanda Dan Burros (see below) have much in common.

Dan Burros–According to the Jewish Currents, “Dan Burros was an American Nazi and Ku

Klux Klan leader, who committed suicide with a gun on Oct. 31, 1965, at age 28, after the fact that he was Jewish was exposed by the New York Times. Burros attended Hebrew school in Richmond Hill, Queens, and became a bar mitzva on March 4, 1950. He reportedly had an IQ of 154.” Burros was obviously a distraught man and the epitome of the self-hating Jew.

Pam Geller--Geller is an anti-Muslim, far-right political activist, blogger, and commentator. Geller promoted birther conspiracy theories about President Barack Obama, saying that he was born in Kenya and that he is a Muslim. Geller has run out of hateful messages, so she has fallen off the right-wing radar screen after enjoying her few months of fame.

Bernie Madoff and Ivan Boesky–These financial criminals fleeced thousands of investors. Madoff engineered the largest Ponzi scheme in history, worth about $64.8 billion. As an exceptional criminal, he was chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange. Madoff’s fraud started with his self-proclaimed interest in Jewish philanthropy. However, according to the New York Times, “it ultimately grew to encompass major charities like Hadassah and Yeshiva University. Boesky was one of the top arbitrage traders on Wall Street during the 1980s and served as the model for Gordon Gecko in the movie Wall Street. In 1986, he was convicted of insider trading and fined $100 million. He remained true to his roots. Boesky and his wife gave $2 million to the United Jewish Appeal Federation of Jewish Philanthropies. After Boesky was fined, he had The Jewish Theological Seminary take his name off of its new $20 million library in upper Manhattan, to which he had pledged more than $2 million, according to Business Insider.

Roy Cohn—Widely considered one of the most despicable Americans ever, Cohn worked to secure the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in the famous 1951 spy trials, worked with J. Edgar Hoover to prosecute and harass political opponents, and was the force behind Senator Joe McCarthy’s Anti-Communist witch hunt hearings of 1953-1954. Cohn, a closeted homosexual, persecuted other homosexuals for political gain. Cohn was Donald Trump’s biggest mentor and the man who taught Trump to lie, cheat, steal, and disregard laws.

Sam Bankman-Fried, his parents (Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried), and WeWork CEO and founder Adam Neumann. These are all fraudsters who cashed in on either crypto scams or the hype of converting a real estate company into a tech one. Neumann’s scam was that he fooled greedy investors who fell for the hype that renting a desk or an empty office was a rare, once-in-a-lifetime investment. The trick fooled the greedy investors who pushed this empty shell company to a valuation of $10 billion. In his trial, Bankman-Fried admitted he knew nothing about crypto and was not a trader. But he and his parents (Stanford law professors) took the money anyway.

Michael Cohen—An admitted Trump henchman who flipped to the other side after serving three years in jail, Cohen is now a public critic of Trump. However, his crimes enabled Trump to cover his crimes and fostered Trump’s shady business-political dealings. Teshuva is excellent, but it sometimes comes too late.

Henry Kissinger—widely considered a war criminal, is the former Secretary of State under President Richard Nixon, a Harvard professor, and one of the nation’s longest-serving diplomats. Kissinger endorsed and enacted policies that killed millions. Among the policies he advanced, He helped Nixon derail the Paris Peace Talks to allow the Vietnam War to continue. During this delay, about 20,000 US soldiers were killed. Kissinger also pushed for the illegal invasion of Cambodia and dictator Augusto Pinochet’s coup in Chile; he expanded the Viet Nam war into Laos and Cambodia (the destabilizing effects of which would pave the way for the rise of the Khmer Rouge and the death of up to two million people). He advocated the bombing of, in his own words, “anything that moves.”

1971 Kissinger backed Pakistan in its war against Bangladesh despite evidence of massacre and rape. In 1973, he orchestrated a military coup against Chile’s democratically elected Salvadore Allende regime and then installed the vicious Pinochet dictatorship. In 1975, as Secretary of State, he lent his tacit support to President Suharto of Indonesia, a despot responsible for the mass killings of hundreds of thousands in the deadly conquest of East Timor. Kissinger also proposed intervention in Cyprus and summed up his philosophy by saying: “The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer,” according to The Harvard Crimson. In the 2001 book The Trial of Henry Kissinger, Christopher Hitchens said Kissinger “deserves prosecution for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and offenses against common or customary or international law, including conspiracy to commit murder, kidnap, and torture.” He further calls him “a stupendous liar with a remarkable memory.”

Barre Seid, a 90-year-old Chicago industrialist, is probably the least-known member on the Shonda list. Seid made a contribution of $1 billion (yes, $1 billion) to fund a new group run by the extreme right-wing Federalist Society co-chair Leonard Leo. Leo is a solid backer of the right-wingers who support Trump.

Not much is known about Seid, but he was either gullible enough to give $1 billion to the right-wing Leo or else was fooled by Leo’s solicitation that his money would somehow be used to benefit Israel. In any case, Seid has bankrolled extreme right-wing causes for many decades since Leo’s Supreme Court judge selections will ensure they followed a right-wing orientation, including ending federal abortion rights. Seid’s contribution will also make it easier for Trump to pursue his far-right plan to take more authority over every part of the current federal government. Seid’s $1 billion contribution will fund right-wing causes for a few generations.

The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC)—As the only group on the Shonda list, the RJC is an example of wealthy Jews with outsized egos perpetuating their own “big lie.” Their lie is that Jews should embrace the Republican Party because, according to them, Democrats are allowing “antisemitism to flourish in their party.” There is no evidence of that, especially when the MAGA Republicans, which includes the RJC, traffic with white Christian nationalists and neo-Nazis, endorse candidates that support the Jan. 6 Trump insurrection, and who regularly use the name of George Soros as a synonym for anti-Semitic slurs.

The RJC was created to advance their own financial and social self-interests. There is no basis for the RJC’s historical fabrication that Republicans are “better” for American Jews  because 1.) there is no evidence Republicans have ever done anything special to earn the Jewish vote, and 2.) Trump and MAGA Republican policies are antithetical to the values and interests of most American Jews.

The RJC’s huge donations have also had no impact on the rise in anti-Semitic attacks. During the Trump administration (2016-2020), and at a time when RJC contributions were flowing at a record pace, the U.S. recorded 2,100 anti-Semitic attacks in 2019, which was the highest level of antisemitic incidents since the ADL started tracking them in 1979, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Paul Wolfowitz—As Deputy Defense Secretary under President George Bush, Wolfowitz pushed for the invasion of Iraq shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, even as it was evident Iraq had nothing to do with Osama Ben Laden. He also justified the invasion because Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Both pretexts were false, but Wolfowitz advanced them regardless. After the Iraq War (2003-2011) and the Afghanistan War (2001-2021), the occupations of both nations cost almost $4 trillion, killing nearly 3,000 Americans and between 50,000 and 600,000 Iraqis. In both wars, Wolfowitz pushed his neo-conservative policies that worked against the interests of average Americans. After his stint in the Defense Department, Wolfowitz became president of the World Bank but was forced to resign in 2007 after he arranged a pay raise for a particular female employee.

Sheldon and Miriam Adelson—Maybe this power couple is the best example of conflicted Jews. The late billionaire Adelson and his wife, both ardent pro-Israel conservatives, donated at least $200 million to Donald Trump in his presidential bid. In 2012, he donated $150 million to block the election of “socialist” and “anti-Israel” candidate Obama.  He also backed right-wing Republican Newt Gingrich for president in 2012. Adelson continued to make his vast MAGA donations despite the increase in anti-Semitic attacks and incidents nationwide. (Trump’s second largest contributor was Blackstone Group’s CEO Steven Schwarzman.)

As an egomaniac, Adelson was once a guest at a Washington reception and remarked to President George Bush, “You know, I am the richest Jew in the world.” It’s unclear what the Texan replied since he probably did not have many contacts with Jews growing up. (George Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush, did business with the Nazis.)

Since the Shanda List wants to be fair, Adelson has also been generous to Jewish causes. The Adelson Foundation gives $200 million annually to Jewish and Israeli motivations, the largest of any existing private foundation with that aim.^”   Adelson also donated over $65 million to Israeli universities and think tanks, $25 million to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, and hundreds of millions to educational and cultural exchange programs, according to the Washington Post. Still, the bad outweighs the good.

Merrick Garland—Meek and mild-mannered, Garland is a study in prognostication and delay that helped Trump almost topple the U.S. government. Garland is a judicial “traditionalist” whose judicial philosophy is essentially “don’t rock the boat.” Garland waited over a year to pursue the top leaders in the insurrection. His inexcusable delay will be examined in years to come as a reason why the U.S. judicial and legal system contributes to systemic injustice. Garland made a list because he had the power to act but looked askance when he had the legal authority to preserve the U.S. political system. According to an investigative report by The Washington Post, the “Department of Justice delayed plans to investigate Donald Trump and his associates’ links to Jan. 6 and attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Historians will examine Garland’s record and find that his unnecessary delays jeopardized U.S. democracy.

The Sackler Family—Drugs kill, and the Sackler family knew this but did nothing as they made billions selling their highly addictive OxyContin. At one time, the drug killed about 100 people a day in America and created millions of addicts.  After a protracted legal battle, the Sackler family received complete immunity from civil suits and agreed to pay  $6 billion to fund opioid addiction programs. The Sackler family is another example of evil people who can do good things. The Sackler family is a significant donor to Harvard, the Smithsonian, and the Metropolitan Museum, and behind research facilities and professorships at MIT, Columbia, Cornell, and Stanford.

Jerrod Kushner and Charles Kushner—Trump’s son-in-law was a prime Trump enabler and shady financial actor who received $2 billion from the Saudi government for delivering services that no one can explain. Kusher benefitted from being Trump’s son-in-law, and his Orthodox beliefs violated every commonly accepted rabbinic teaching. Jerrod’s father, Charles, also has no class. Charles was convicted of tax evasion and witness tampering. As a convicted felon, he was also disbarred in three states. He later received a federal pardon issued by Donald Trump in 2020. As part of the crime, when Charles discovered his brother-in-law was cooperating with federal authorities, he “hired a prostitute to lure his brother-in-law, then arranged to have the encounter in a New Jersey motel room recorded with a hidden camera and the recording sent to his sister, the man’s wife,” according to the Chicago Tribune.

Then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called it “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes” he ever prosecuted as U.S. attorney. Nothing does if this event does not rank near the top of the Shanda List. All this helps explain why Jerrod has the background needed to be Trump’s son-in-law.

Monica Lewinsky and Leona Helmsley–These women rose to national attention and disgraced the Jewish community. One did it through abhorrent sexual behavior in the White House, and the other by personifying criminal tax evasion and engaging in tyrannical behavior toward others.

Dr. Laura Schlesinger—The controversial Dr. Laura makes the List because she has mixed her conservative social views on homosexuality, abortion, race relations, divorce, and other hot-button social issues under the umbrella of dispensing psychological advice.  At one time, she claimed she was Orthodox and provided advice based on biblical teachings to criticize homosexuality. But, later, she said she had abandoned the strict adherence to Jewish laws but was still Jewish.  Her popularity has waned over the year as she ventured from providing relationship advice to lecturing on conservative morality and right-wing politics. She has told her audience to beware of “indoctrination” in public schools, the dangers of abortion, and the dangers of extramarital affairs, even though she had at least two before she was divorced. Dr. Laura makes the List because of ethical hypocrisy and her public persona of taking the high moral ground without showing any empathy for her callers.

Stephen Miller—Near the top of the Shanda List is the despicable Miller, who has served in the Trump I and II administrations. He is now the White House Chief of Staff, and his main focus is deporting immigrants (legal and otherwise). The respected Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) credits the right-wing opportunist Miller with “shaping the racist and draconian immigration policies of President Trump, which include the zero-tolerance policy, also known as family separation, the Muslim ban and ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

According to a report in Vanity Fair, Miller has also “purged” government agencies of civil servants who are not entirely loyal to his extremist agenda, And that’s just for starters. Miller was also promoted. As a White House spokesman, Miller also made false claims regarding widespread electoral fraud. Emails from November 2019 showed he had promoted articles from white nationalist publications.

Miller, whose grandparents emigrated to the U.S. in 1903 to escape pogroms in Belarus. Miller must have forgotten that because he became the chief immigrant hate-monger in the MAGA Trump administration, even after Trump lost the election. The SPLC said Miller capitalized and profited from the intended use of fearmongering and xenophobia. He also implemented policies that demonize immigrants, regardless of their immigration status, in an apparent effort to halt all forms of immigration to the United States. Miller is a Shonda poster boy.

Alan Greenspan—Greenspan served 14 years as the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board (from 1987 to 2006) and was called the world’s greatest economist and the stabilizer of the world economy. But he also had another agenda. Greenspan was a follower of Ayn Rand, who once called President John Kennedy’s social programs “The Fascist New Frontier.” His version of economics, “Greenomics,” is based on debt creation to fund selective growth accompanied by massive deficits.

During his tenure, Greenspan believed that taxes on the wealthy and any structure or regulation impeding corporate profits were detrimental to the economy. Despite his laissez-faire rhetoric, Greenspan bailed out Mexico, the Long Term Capital Management hedge fund, and intervened in the Asian debt crisis. The Congressional Budget Office found that one-third of the Bush tax cut, aided by Greenspan, benefited the top 1% of families with an average income of $1.2 million. Due to Greenspan’s policies, the number of Americans employed in manufacturing is at the same level as before the U.S. Civil War.

Greenspan made the Shanda List because he had the authority to benefit millions but did not. He was a legendary public servant with immense power who followed the Federal Reserve’s mandate of creating jobs, promoting economic growth, and containing inflation. But during his long tenure, he overwhelmingly tipped the scales in favor of the wealthy and powerful. He was like an army general agreeing to fight a war within prescribed ethical limits. Greenspan failed because his policies advanced the rich at the expense of average Americans.

Howard Lutnick—Lutnick, a lawyer and founder of the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald, is a major Trump donor and is now the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. He is a vocal Trump apologist and will say anything, however ridiculous, to praise Trump. Lutnick advocates for Trump’s tariffs and has said they will be good for average Americans and that there will not be a recession while Trump is in office. His predictions are widely discounted since he is not an economist but a Trump loyalist.

Mark Levin, Dave Portnoy, Andrew Brietbart (1969-2012), Boris Epshteyn—The Jewish equivalents of Father Coughlin, the anti-Semitic Roman Catholic priest who in the 1930s and 1940s used radio to push America-first, ant-Roosevelt, and anti-Semitic propaganda, these political, social media creations made millions pushing the right-win MAGA propaganda, including QAnon nonsense. Levin and Breitbart joined the right-wing media to profit and attack liberals, including other liberal Jews, while Epshteyn was a Trump advisor.

Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein—These wealthy, politically connected sexual predators showed the raw benefits of nepotism, political connections, and political corruption—each evaded prosecution because of their money. In Epstein’s case, even the source of his wealth remains a mystery, as does his death. Weinstein abused the outdated Hollywood casting couch selection system by enforcing total retaliation against any starlet who revealed his crimes.

Mark Zuckerberg—The  Facebook creator and one of the wealthiest men in the world (net worth: $102 billion) has built a worldwide network that failed to take the precautions and spend the money needed to prevent the dissemination of lies and propaganda. Under the guise of “free speech,” Facebook allows neo-Nazis, genocidal dictators, and hate-mongers worldwide free access to its communications site.

Facebook was involved in a number of scandals, including “scandals and accusations, including a psychological experiment conducted on 70,000 unconsenting Facebook users which examined how changes in the News Feed could impact their mental health,” according to Business Insider. During the 2016 presidential election, which saw Trump win, Facebook was accused of knowingly posting fake information and using keywords to sell ads to unsuspecting users. Still unrepentant, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity told The New York Times that it found “clear and deliberate attempts to covertly spread propaganda that were directly linked to the Myanmar military. That information was used to kill opponents. In 2019, the Federal Trade Commission fined Facebook $5 billion for privacy violations, the largest fine ever against a tech company.

And to show that Zuckerberg values profit over the company’s treatment of Jews, “neo-Nazi groups have been allowed to remain on Facebook because the social media giant found they did not violate its “community standards,” according to The Independent. Zuckerberg ranks high on the Shanda List for his greed and pursuit of profits at all costs.

Mark Levin and Ben Shapiro—People become podcasters when they cannot find a job in the real world. Levin is a popular podcaster because his extremist views appeal to Trump followers, who thrive on his tirades. Levin is a lawyer and entertainer.  His vehement attacks on Democrats are his trademark.  Ben Shapiro, who calls himself “the most popular Orthodox Jew in the world,” is a lawyer and libertarian. He is a more intellectual and reserved right-winger who has earned a following because he is less of an attack dog than other right-wing podcasters. The New Yorker, Haaretz, and Vox have described Shapiro as “right-wing”.

Lessons From the Shanda List

While only 2.2% of the adult U.S. population, Jews have achieved the extremes in modern society. At the positive end of this behavioral spectrum, Jews seek an ideal promoting a higher standard of conduct. This isn’t easy in contemporary American culture, with its focus on material and financial success, assimilation, and, in rare cases, political power. Each goal is open to corruption and ethical violations.

A few generations ago, community cohesions created a more visible boundary between acceptable and unacceptable Jewish behavior.

But the idea of the Shanda is still evident today. In one case from this Shanda List, Maurice Cohen, a Holocaust survivor and the father of Michael Cohen, Trump’s now-disgraced lawyer, told his son to testify against Trump because “he didn’t survive the Holocaust to have his name sullied by Trump.” This showed awareness of protecting his individual and the community’s reputation.

While many contemporary Jewish community behavioral boundaries have faded, the Shanda concept remains a normative community marker that deserves to be preserved and enforced.

It’s an open secret that there is a direct connection between Trump and white supremacists. It has been evident for years, dating back to Steve Bannon, Sebastian Gorka, Stephen Miller, and alt-right media, who all had access to Trump. The most prescient assessment of Trump was made by the Jewish Democratic Council of America  which said in 2019 that “the biggest threat to the security of American Jews today is, incredibly, the president of the United States.”

So if Trump has direct links to white supremacists, and Trump’s largest financial supporters are members of the Republican Jewish Coalition, why don’t the major national Jewish groups publicly tell the JRC that they have a role in fomenting antiSemitism and antiSemitic attacks?

No doubt this is a very sensitive issue since many of the major contributors are also generous contributors to these same national Jewish groups that are fighting antiSemitism. But the illogic of this situation demands to be addressed. Why fight antiSemitism on one hand, when the other hand is contributing to the man who is advancing, and benefitting, from the problem in the first place?

Are these national leaders at the ADL, AJC, and many others, afraid they will offend their large donors? Do they dispute the connection between Trump and the white supremacists? Is there a religious reason that you can’t criticize a fellow Jew in public? Or, do these national groups don’t want to jeopardize their 401c3 tax status, which means they must be non-partisan in their operations?

Maybe some of these apply, but it’s clear, the latest outrage is just one more attempt by Trump to communicate some gutter message to his political followers, and it has a direct antiSemitic message.

The Latest Outrage: The Red Triangle

The latest direct connection of white supremacists to Trump is his campaign’s use of the red triangle, a Nazi symbol, used by both Trump and Pence as part of an election communication on Facebook.

According to the US Holocaust Museum, the symbol of an “inverted red triangle badge printed with a black letter “I” [was] intended for use as a prisoner identification badge in Langenstein-Zwieberge concentration camp, a subcamp of Buchenwald in Germany. The red identified a political prisoner. The letter could indicate nationality; I may be for Italian. The inverted triangle would have been attached on the left breast of the uniform. The camp was liberated on April 11, by troops from the 399th Battalion, 8th Armored Division, and 83rd Infantry, which captured all the camp records intact. This badge was one of many found by Lt. Colonel Charles F. Ottoman, US Army, on April 22, 1945. It was used as evidence for Case No. 117 “Alleged atrocities at Zwieberge Malachit Concentration Camp” at the Subsequent Nuremberg War Crimes Trials held in Dachau in 1947.”

Time to Take a Side

Symbols are a powerful means of communication; they can be more powerful than words. But Trump’s use of the red triangle was not a mistake. It must be addressed by national Jewish organizations. They should not believe that this was an error, an oversight by some junior staffer or an emoji that should have been a smiley face. Those are all the pathetically insulting excuses being made to the American public. 

As described in this article. it’s time, and long overdue, that the leaders of the major national Jewish organizations have a very sensitive sit-down with the Republican Jewish Coalition and its board members.

The RJC does some very good pro-Israel work, both in the US and  Israel, and that is their valid stated goal. But their blind support of Trump may outweigh the good work they do on behalf of Israel compared to what is happening domestically.

Trump’s political campaign positions and his links to the alt-right cannot be ignored any longer. The national Jewish groups should tell RJC members that this is the time to choose a side. Do you want to address the links between Trump and the white supremacists or not?

Or, do you want to do what’s beneficial to the millions of other Jews who could suffer from verbal or physical attacks due to your support of Trump?

Or, do you want to ignore any more antiSemitic attacks that result in injuries or death to American Jews as part of your efforts to get Trump re-elected? The RJC cannot have it both ways.

It’s time for the RJC to decide which side they are on.