You have a HUGE point here. That's how it started. But now it's groupthink keeping them in line. Why did so many of them go with Madoff? There is a need for Jews to "stay on the reservation" even against common logic and one's own instinct for true self-preservation and liberty. Doing what the group tells you to is one of the most powerful urges we have. Jews are very verbal and it is DIFFICULT to go against one's family and friends. Ask me.
I am curious what influence the Rabbi has in the community. Does he most often perpetuate the group-think? Does his sermon ever speak to secular considerations or just pass on lessons from Talmud? Are Conservative Jews ostracized in the community? Is there any hope that the most brilliant group of thinkers on earth might be encouraged to embrace Conservative politics?
Jewish names appear 127 times on the list of Nobel Prize Laureates, about 18 percent of the total. This is an astonishing percentage for a group of people who add up to 1/24th of 1 percent of the world's population.Why does this effort seem so difficult?