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Betrayal in air at Palm Beach club
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-19 08:01

To get accepted as a member at the Palm Beach Country Club - founded by Jews during the 1950s when the other clubs in this exclusive resort town were restricted - you have to be more than rich. You have to be a real mensch, a person of character.

And the way to prove that is to show that you contribute a fortune every year to charity.

Bernard Madoff passed that test long ago, something his fellow members have suddenly come to regret.

Prosecutors say Madoff preyed on club members, scamming them for millions of dollars and betraying the trust that is so valued inside the walls of the exclusive club.

Ninety-five-year-old Carl J. Shapiro, who thought of Madoff as a son and vouched for him with many fellow club members, told the Palm Beach Daily News that the revelations of Madoff's trickery were like "a knife in the heart".

"I think people felt that way, that he was part of the family. That's even worse," says Richard Bernstein, who has insured the assets of several club members. "A lot of people knew him for a long time. They didn't just meet him yesterday."

Even by the princely standards of this barrier island resort, the reported $300,000 initiation fee at the Palm Beach Country Club is phenomenal. But people like Madoff can't just buy their way in.

They must also prove themselves worthy.

Before a prospective member is admitted, they must demonstrate a history of annual charitable giving of at least the amount of that membership fee, says Palm Beach accountant Richard Rampell, who has many clients and friends at the club. And a substantial portion of that giving has to have been to Jewish charities, he says.

"And, believe me, there are people there that can do that with ease," the Palm Beach man says. "And that's sort of the common thread, common denominator for these people. They have to be philanthropic before they'll let them in."

At one time, Wall Street money man Madoff had been considered worthy of membership. His $19 million foundation gave to various Jewish and civic causes in New York and elsewhere.

In the end, the many millions allegedly swindled from country club members are a small fraction of the overall total. But the closeness of this community and the damage done to its charitable work make the betrayal here all the more shocking.

Situated on the Atlantic Ocean and sequestered behind high, immaculately trimmed hedges, the Palm Beach Country Club is a place born out of anti-Semitic prejudice.

The resort was built in 1916 by the Florida East Coast Co on the site of a former gun club. It quickly became one of the most popular venues in Palm Beach.

Families with names like Whitney, Peabody and Hutton came to enjoy the ocean breezes and play the challenging 18-hole, Donald Ross-designed golf course.

Despite their wealth and accomplishments, the area's Jewish residents were not welcome at these "Christian" establishments. So in 1952, a group of investors purchased the club for a reported $1 million and redesigned the clubhouse with a slate roof and stucco exterior punctuated by rows of stately arched windows.

Among the founding members was Ukrainian-born cigar mogul Samuel Paley, father of media magnate William S. Paley. Turned down at other clubs, Irish Catholic Joseph Kennedy exacted a "gleeful revenge", according to one author, when the club took him in.

Country clubs are famous as places where large business deals are worked out with a handshake on the sixth tee. Because of its history, Rampell says this kind of "country club investing" was especially prevalent along Ocean Boulevard.

Agencies

(China Daily 12/19/2008 page16)