Click to view attachment "The battered image of Hadassah, the American women's Zionist organization, may be harmed further by the disclosure earlier this month that its former chief financial officer was a mistress to Bernard Madoff - even as she sat on the committee that invested the charity's funds in Madoff's $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

But worse news may yet be in the offing. Beyond the millions the organization reported losing with Madoff, Hadassah - and possibly other charities - may be required under a federal law to give back millions of dollars taken out of Madoff accounts, even before his firm collapsed. . .

Hadassah, best known for building hospitals in Israel, reportedly withdrew more than $130 million over the lifetime of its Madoff account, based on its principal investment of $33 million, plus $7 million in Madoff funds that a French donor transferred to Hadassah.

. . .Bruce Bobbins, an external spokesperson for Yeshiva University, was unwilling to comment on whether YU had withdrawn more than the amount of its principal investment from its accounts with the Ascot Fund, a Madoff feeder fund. . . The Manhattan Jewish high school Ramaz, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity and the Riverdale Jewish day school SAR, all of which "lost" money in the Madoff scheme, were also unwilling to comment.

At Hadassah, questions now also swirl around Sheryl Weinstein, the charity's former chief financial officer, who announced that she had been having an affair with Madoff when Hadassah's investments were made."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1110418.html