D.C. deals with Madoff losses

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- If the economic downturn and plunging stock market weren't bad enough, a number of Jewish organizations in the Washington area were smacked in the face with even worse news this week: A portion of their endowments had vanished, victim of the $50 billion Ponzi scheme of Bernard Madoff.

The organizations had placed those endowments in a communal fund under the control of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. Known as the United Jewish Endowment Fund, the pooled fund had more than $10 million of the $125 million it held at the end of last month invested with Madoff's company. That means each organization was facing the loss of about 8 percent of any endowment money it was investing with the federation. A person close to the federation said up to 15 local agencies had investments with the fund, including Jewish community centers, day schools and synagogues.

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