The New Jerusalem
COLD, HARD FACTS and FIGURES:
ZIONIST POWER IN AMERICA TODAY— ACCORDING TO JEWISH SOURCES
AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE . . .
ZIONIST POWER IN AMERICA TODAY— ACCORDING TO JEWISH SOURCES
AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE . . .
In the pages which follow will be found a wide-ranging variety of quotations taken verbatim from an equally wide variety of sources, almost all of whom are Jewish writers, researchers, reporters and academics. In the handful of instances in which these quotations are not from Jewish sources, per se, the materials are nonetheless from what might loosely be described as “pro-Jewish” or “pro-Zionist” sources. None of the sources can be described as “anti-Semitic” in any way, shape or form—not even by the august Anti-Defamation League!
The quotations are all clearly cited with footnotes [in this section we have integrated footnotes into the text in square brackets using italics at the end of each citation for clarity] and are direct and unabbreviated, unless clearly noted by ellipses. The [section captions] appearing before each quotation are summary words selected by this author/editor for descriptive purposes and for subdividing the diverse areas of Jewish and Zionist power and influence that are being discussed. Please note that these [captions] are not part of the actual quotation itself and should not be cited as such by researchers and writers who use this volume as a reference work.
We believe that this assembly of quotations is the most hard-hitting and informative conglomeration of such material—taken from recently published works—that has ever been assembled in the modern era and, beyond any question, the most concise and complete overview of the wealth and power of Those Who Reign Supreme in The New Jerusalem.
There is to be found a great deal of material on this subject matter if one looks in the right places, but in the pages of this work you will find it all tightly bound together in one place, a handy reference for those who dare to delve into one of the most controversial subjects of our time: Zionist power in America.
And so we begin . . .
JEWISH FINANCIERS PROFITED UNDER REAGAN
The first area in which Jews become important in the Republican regime of the 1980s was economic policy. Although Jews play a major role in the liberal political camp, during the 1980s a small group of Jewish bankers and financiers become important allies of the Reagan administration and key agents in its economic and fiscal programs. Jews presided over the great expansion of liquidity—money and credit—that fueled the economic boom and expansion of equity values of the Reagan era. The Reagan administration had come into office praising the virtues of free market competition and unfettered capitalism and promising to restore national prosperity by lowering taxes, reducing government interference in the economy, and curbing burdensome government regulation of business. Jewish financiers played a critical role in helping the administration to fulfill its pledges. In turn, the administration, for a time, protected these financiers from attack by their corporate and political foes. [Benjamin Ginsberg, The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State, p. 189]
‘A MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE’
In implementing its policies, the [Reagan] administration found itself in a de facto alliance with a small, but powerful, group of Jewish bankers and financiers. This group of individuals created or perfected the new financial instruments that, taken together, served the administration’s interests by expanding the supply of credit during the 1980s that, in turn, fueled the great bull market of that era.
For example, Jewish financiers and traders perfected the stock index futures that greatly increased liquidity in the financial system by allowing for highly leveraged securities transactions. ... Such Jewish financiers as Saul Steinberg, Victor Posner, Carl Icahn, Nelson Pelz, the Belzberg family, Sir James Goldsmith, and others were among the leaders in hostile takeover efforts.
Of the major actors in the area of corporate takeovers, only two—T. Boone Pickens and Cincinnati-based Carl Lindner—were not Jews. Jewish arbitrageurs—Ivan Boesky came to be the most famous—became major factors in the acquisition of huge blocks of stock, easing the way for takeover attempts.
Jews pioneered program trading that, among other things, permitted corporations to generate excess revenues in their pension funds that could then be employed for other corporate purposes.
During the 1980s, the Reagan administration and the Jewish financiers enjoyed a perfect marriage of convenience. The administration was concerned with promoting economic growth and enhancing prosperity among its upscale constituents, even if this came at the expense of blue-collar workers and corporate managers whose firms were absorbed or simply put out of business.
For their part, the Jewish financiers saw an unprecedented opportunity to acquire wealth and power with the blessing and protection of the federal government. [Benjamin Ginsberg, The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State, p. 192]
JEWISH FINANCIERS' JUNK BONDS
As outsiders, on the margins of the banking and securities industries, Jews were better able to see and make use of the new opportunities made available by the financial deregulation and permissive climate of the Reagan era. Whereas traditional investment bankers would offer advice and financial assistance to clients involved in mergers and acquisitions, the Jewish upstarts were willing to participate in such acquisitions themselves. The parvenu Jews saw the incredible possibilities inherent in the junk bonds that established firms disdained. The Jews honed the art of risk arbitrage, another field snubbed by WASP Wall Street. Jewish newcomers and a few of their non-Jewish allies saw the possibility of using junk bonds to finance hostile takeover attempts.
In their endeavors, the Jewish financiers enjoyed the blessing and protection of the Reagan administration. The administration courted the financiers and protected them from a hostile Congress. [Benjamin Ginsberg, The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State, p. 193]
‘VIRTUALLY ALL THE TAKEOVER SPECIALISTS’
The activities of the Jewish financiers, of course, particularly their involvement in the wave of corporate takeovers that took place between 1985 and 1986 when nearly one-fourth of the corporations that had been listed in the Fortune 500 disappeared, provoked intense criticism from a number of quarters.
...
Many of Reagan’s opponents in the Democratic Party and the liberal media understood that it was the de facto alliance between the administration and the Jewish financiers that made sufficient money and credit available to fuel economic expansion despite the huge budget deficits that would otherwise have diminished the availability of capital to private concerns. ... It apparently did not go unnoticed in executive suites across the country that virtually all the takeover specialists and their financial backers were Jews. [Benjamin Ginsberg, The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State, pp. 194-197]
‘BEDOUINS ON JETS’
Syrian Jews, who have clustered in Brooklyn, New York, have also emerged as major force in the sportswear industry, particularly blue jeans lines such as Jordache and Gitano. In many ways, these newcomers constitute, if anything, a throwback to an even earlier tradition of transnational Jewish businessmen. Products of a community under constant siege, they travel the world like Bedouins on jets, with few loyalties beyond their immediate family operations. [Joel Kotkin, Tribes, p. 51]
CALIFORNIA, HERE THEY COME . . .
... [T]he Jewish community in both Greater Los Angeles and California, which more than doubled during the 1970s and 1980s, continues to grow in power and size, attracting Jews from other parts of the United States, as well as [Jews from Iran, Israel and Russa]. By 1990 the Jewish population in Los Angeles—which in 1920 had fewer Jewish residents than Buffalo, New York—had expanded by over 150,000 to some 600,000, making it the second largest center for the Diaspora [Jewish world outside Israel] after New York. [Joel Kotkin, Tribes, p. 61]
MEDIA: ‘A DISPROPORTIONATE INFLUENCE’
Although not in control of the media and the arts, as some anti-Semites suggest, Jews clearly possess a disproportionate influence in movies, publishing, advertising and theater. In the media, according to one survey in the 1970s, one quarter of the leading figures were Jewish, more than ten times their percentage in the general population. [Joel Kotkin, Tribes, p. 61]
‘THE REAL POWER IN HOLLYWOOD’
Jewish power in Hollywood no longer centers on those who own the studios but on the assorted agents, independent producers and writers who increasingly dominate the industry, including promoters such as Arnon Milchan, Michael Ovitz and David Geffen, a former [talent] agent and record producer whom Forbes in 1990 identified as “the richest man in Hollywood”. Traditional Jewish skills in selling, marketing, assembling the various “elements” needed for mounting a production remain critical. ... Margo Bernay, a craft union business agent whose family first started commuting to Hollywood from the old Jewish neighborhoods of East Los Angeles in the 1930s, observes: “If you look at the real power in this town it’s the agents, the producers; it’s not with the studios. In the old days the studios owned the talent; now the talent owns the studios. So that’s where the Jews are, where the creativity is, the talent, the glamour, the power. It’s the sechel [reason] side of the business, the mentality. It’s the part of the business that doesn’t have boundaries that you get in big corporations—it gives you the space Jews have been brought up to push for.” [Joel Kotkin, Tribes, pp. 61-62]
THE NEW JEWISH IMMIGRATION INVASION
... Despite repeated predictions of its demographic demise, the American Jewish community has continued to expand; between 1970 and 1990—in the face of rising rates of intermarriage and a low birthrate—the number of self-defined Jews in America grew by 300,000. This small population growth has come about in part due to large-scale immigration from Diaspora communities in Iran and South Africa. Most important, however, has been emigration from the Soviet Union, totaling over 250,000; as of 1991, an additional 100,000 with visas await their turn to leave.
Reasons behind this preference for the hated galut, or exile, vary. For some, presence of relatives in the United States, with by far the largest community of Russian Jews’ descendants, made all the difference.
Another factor is frankly economic; America, where Jews are the wealthiest of all major ethnic groups, generally offers a far better field of opportunity for the largely well-educated Soviet Jews than does tiny Israel. Certainly those who have come, despite the usual problems of adjustment, have done reasonably well. Within a few years, according to one recent nationwide survey, the average Soviet Jewish family [in America] earns more annually than the average American one. [Joel Kotkin, Tribes, p. 63]
ISRAELIS FIND NEW ‘LAND OF MILK AND HONEY’
Given their success in America, few American Jews have migrated outside the confines of the United States. Yet, the Jewish Bedouin tradition lives on in other members of the tribe, most notably and ironically the Israelis. Rather than becoming the “sons of the land” celebrated by the earlier Zionists, as many as 800,000 Israelis—products of a small, relatively poor and war torn country—have sought better opportunities elsewhere. In some years, particularly before the mass migration from Russia, the number of outbound Israelis has actually exceeded the number of immigrants.
Although present in countries as distinct as Finland and Singapore, their favored place to settle has been the United States, with as many as a half-million concentrated in major colonies in New York and Los Angeles. In comparison, total American Jewish immigration to Israel during the four decades after 1948 has numbered no higher than 60,000, less than half the number of Israelis who legally applied for full American immigrant status between 1970 and 1987. [Joel Kotkin, Tribes, pp. 63-64]
SILICON VALLEY: THE NEW PROMISED LAND
... The “wandering Israelis” of today, for example, have achieved positions within the more elite ranks of technical and other professional workers. Engineers alone account for nearly 20 percent of the total, with an estimated 13,000 laboring as scientists, engineers and other professionals in California’s high-technology industries alone, a population roughly one-third the size of Israel’s native-born technical work force. [Joel Kotkin, Tribes, p. 64-65]
JEWISH FINANCE: ‘AN INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR’
While there is no real evidence of an international conspiracy of Jewish bankers, some Jews in banking have conspired. The money game holds a fascination for Jews that some might say is equivalent to sex to the French, food to the Chinese, and power to the politicians. And since the Diaspora scattered Jewish communities, their financial concerns have always had an international flavor. But some Jews have overstepped the bounds of morality and law in the realm of international banking. [Gerald Krefetz, Jews and Money: The Myths and the Reality, p. 101]
ART: ‘A STRONG JEWISH FLAVOR’
... Jewish art? Not long ago, the phrase would have been a contradiction in terms. In 99.9 percent of the Jewish experience there was no high art. Folk art yes, decorative and ornamental, but serious work in the Western sense, no. Today the picture is completely changed, and Jews enjoy every phase of the art world: as artists, dealers, collectors, critics, curators, consultants and patrons. In fact, the contemporary art scene has a strong Jewish flavor. In some circles, the wheelers and dealers are referred to as the Jewish Mafia since they command power, prestige, and most of all, money. And, as with the family capo, influence is dispensed adroitly: artists who lived through years of neglect are turned into overnight successes; successes are guillotined so swiftly that they may not know they’ve been decapitated. [Gerald Krefetz, Jews and Money: The Myths and the Reality, p. 140]
‘MY SON, THE . . .’
... In the United States there are approximately 30,000 Jewish physicians, nearly fourteen percent of all physicians in private practice. [Gerald Krefetz, Jews and Money: The Myths and the Reality, p. 167]
Of the five hundred thousand attorneys, it is estimated that over twenty percent of them are Jews, nearly ten times the representation that might be expected. In 1939 it was estimated that over half the attorneys practicing in New York City were Jews. By now the proportion is even greater: perhaps three out of five lawyers are Jews.
The last survey of the New York City bar found sixty percent of the city’s 25,000 attorneys to be Jewish, eighteen percent Catholic and eighteen percent Protestant. Most of the Jewish lawyers— roughly seventy percent of them— are from Eastern
European heritages. [Gerald Krefetz, Jews and Money: The Myths and the Reality, p. 185] ... Today 15 percent of the 740,000 lawyers in the United States are Jewish.
Jewish representation is seven times greater than in the general population. In elite legal circles, the concentration is even more striking. Forty percent of partners in the leading law firms in New York and Washington are Jewish. Jews hold two of the nine seats (22 percent) on the Supreme Court. [Steven Silbiger, The Jewish Phenomenon, p. 62]
The American Medical Association estimates that there are now 684,000 doctors in the United States. Jewish physicians total about 100,000, or 15 percent. Like lawyers, this number is seven times higher than the Jews’ share of the general population. Nine percent of 1988 medical school applications came from Jews. [Steven Silbiger, The Jewish Phenomenon, p. 65]
At least 20 percent of the faculty at America’s leading universities are Jews, with over 25 percent in the prestige medical schools, 38 percent for similar law schools, rising even higher at Harvard, where half the law faculty is Jewish. Today Jews are 20 percent of the nation’s doctors and lawyers. [Lenni Brenner, Jews in America Today, p. 62]
CITY DWELLERS . . .
Before World War II, the majority of Jews lived in Europe, twice as many as the number that lived in the United States. After the Holocaust, twice as many Jews lived in the United States as in Europe. Of the 14.4 million Jews in the world ... America accounts for 5,9000,000 or forty-one percent of world Jewry. Jews in the United States make up 2.7% of the population. ... Nearly 60% of the Jews in the nation live in the northeast, though the area’s relative share appears to have declined recently. The north-central region contains 11.9% of the Jewish population, the south, 15.8% and the west, 14.3%. In terms of national averages, Jews are over-represented in the northeast, under-represented in the north-central region and the south, and almost par for the population in the west.
To put it another way, Judaism is an urban, or increasingly suburban, religion. Over 77% of the Jewish population live within the fourteen largest cities or county agglomerations. Almost all the rest of American Jews live in cities or towns. There are relatively few rural Jews. [Gerald Krefetz, Jews and Money: The Myths and the Reality, p. 241-242]
‘THE BEST EDUCATED’
In the postwar era, America’s Jews became the best educated of any major American ethnic or religious group. By the mid-1970s, according to Father Andrew M. Greeley’s study Ethnicity, Denomination, and Inequality (1976), Jews averaged fourteen years of education. This was a half-year more than Episcopalians, the American religious group with the highest social standing.
While less than one-half of Americans went on to college, more than 80 percent of Jews did so, and, as indicated by the statistics from Harvard, Princeton and Yale, Jews were more likely to attend elite institutions. In 1971, for example, Jews made up 17 percent of the students at private universities. [Edward S. Shapiro, A Time For Healing: American Jewry Since World War II, p. 100]
JEWISH PROFESSORS ‘FAR SURPASSED’ GENTILES
In 1940, only 2 percent of America’s professors were Jews. By the 1970s they were 10 percent.
The postwar Jewish presence in academia was notable not only for its high proportion but also for its distinctive profile. Jewish academicians congregated in the most intellectually demanding fields—fields that emphasized abstract and theoretical reasoning—and at the most prestigious institutions.
They were over-represented in anthropology, economics, history, mathematics, physics and sociology, and under-represented in agriculture, education, home economics, journalism, library science, nursing, and physical education.
Electrical engineering, the most theoretical branch of engineering, had a greater proportion of Jews than mechanical, civil or chemical engineering. Medicine was a high-status profession, and Jews were disproportionately represented in biochemistry, bacteriology, physiology, psychology, and other academic fields allied to medicine.
By every possible criteria, Everett Carl Ladd, Jr. and Seymour Martin Lipset wrote in 1975, Jewish academicians had “far surpassed their Gentile colleagues”. At this time, Jews were one-fifth of the faculty at elite universities and one-quarter of the faculty of the Ivy League. They constituted an even higher proportion of Ivy League professors under the age of thirty-five and of faculty at the elite medical and law schools. In 1968, 38% of the faculty at America’s elite law schools were Jews. [Edward S. Shapiro, A Time For Healing: American Jewry Since World War II, pp. 100-101]
ONE-QUARTER OF THE RICHEST AMERICANS; 30% OF ALL BILLIONAIRES ARE JEWISH.
Beginning in the early 1980s, Forbes magazine published an annual compilation of the four hundred richest Americans. Strictly based on their percentage of the general population, there should have been about twelve Jews on this list. Instead, there were over one hundred. Jews, who constituted less than 3 percent of the American people, made up over one-quarter of the richest Americans. They were over-represented by a factor of nine. By contrast, ethnic groups that greatly outnumbered Jews— Italians, Hispanics, blacks, and eastern Europeans— had few representatives on the list. The higher the category of assets listed by Forbes, the greater the percentage of Jews. Over 30 percent of American billionaires were Jewish. The same phenomenon was also found in Canada, where the three most prominent business families were all Jewish —the Belzbergs of Vancouver, the Bronfmans of Montreal, and the Reichmanns of Toronto. It was possible that Forbes even underestimated the number of America’s super-rich Jews, since many of them had become wealthy in real estate, the most difficult of fields to gauge assets and the easiest in which to hide wealth. An even more impressive list appeared in the [July 22] 1986 issue of Financial World. It numbered the one hundred Wall Street executives —investment bankers, money managers, arbitrageurs, buyout specialists,
speculators, commodities traders, and brokers— who had earned at least $3 million in 1985. The list began with Ivan Boesky, who supposedly made $100 million ... Boesky’s earnings were dwarfed by the $500 million Michael Milken earned in a following year ... Milken and Boesky were Jewish, as were half of the people mentioned by the Financial World. Wall Street’s Jewish heavy hitters included George Soros ($93.5 million), Asher Edelman ($25 million), Morton Davis ($25 million), and Michael Steinhardt ($20 million). [Edward S. Shapiro, A Time For Healing: American Jewry Since World War II, p. 117]
REAL ESTATE MAJOR SOURCE OF JEWISH WEALTH
Jewish fortunes were to be found in many areas. Russell Berrie manufactured teddy bears, Paul Kalmanovitz owned breweries, and Arthur Sackler published medical magazines. But in no field were Jewish entrepreneurial talents more evident than real estate. Perhaps half the Jews on the Forbes list made their fortunes in real estate, particularly in New York City. “The Jew runs to real estate as soon as he can save up enough for a deposit to clinch the bargain,” Jacob A. Riis had written in How the Other Half Lives (1890). Except for a few Gentile interlopers ... the most successful New York real estate developers were Jews. They included Laurence and Preston Tisch, Leonard Stern, Samuel LeFrak, and Sol Goldman. Other cities had their own Jewish real estate barons: Jerry Moore in Houston, A. Alfred Taubman in Detroit, Walter Shorenstein in San Francisco, Guilford Glazer in Los Angeles, Melvin and Herbert Simon in Indianapolis, Monte and Alfred Goldman in Oklahoma City, Frank Morgan and Sherman Dreiseszun in Kansas City, Mortimer Zuckerman and Harold Brown in Boston, Stephen Muss in Miami, Harry Weinberg in Baltimore, Neil Bluhm and Judd Malkin in Chicago, and Charles E. Smith in Washington. [Edward S. Shapiro, A Time For Healing: American Jewry Since World War II, p. 120]
REAL ESTATE BILLIONAIRES
Of the 1999 “Forbes 400” list of wealthiest Americans, 23 percent were Jewish, and of those, 20 percent created their wealth in real estate. ... Jewish Forbes 400 members in 1999 with real estate fortunes include:
• Robert Pritzker $5.5 billion
• Thomas Pritzker $5.5 billion
• Marvin Davis $3.5 billion
• Leonard Stern $2.4 billion
• Robert Tisch $2.3 billion
• Lawrence Tisch $2.1 billion
• Samuel LeFrak $2 billion
• Sam Zell $1.8 billion
• Fisher family $1.3 billion
• Durst family $1.3 billion
• Mortimer Zuckerman $1.2 billion
• Carl Berg $950 million
• Alfred Taubman $860 million
• Sheldon Solow $800 million
• Guilford Glazer $700 million
[Steven Silbiger, The Jewish Phenomenon, p. 72]
JEWS OVER 11% OF ‘AMERICAN ELITE’
On the basis of income and education, Jews by the 1980s were in the upper strata of American society and had moved into positions of political, economic and social power.
Beginning in the 1960s, Jews had headed some of the most important branches of the federal government, including the Federal Reserve System and the labor, commerce, state, and treasury departments ... The social system was sufficiently open to enable Jews to become an important part of the American elite.
According to the analysis of the American Leadership Study’s data by sociologists Richard D. Alba and Gwen Moore, Jews comprised over 11 percent of the American elite. ... [Edward S. Shapiro, A Time For Healing: American Jewry Since World War II, pp. 122-123]
Washington, D.C. was a special case. The postwar expansion of the federal government resulted in an increase in metropolitan Washington’s Jewish population from less than twenty thousand in 1945 to one hundred sixty-five thousand four decades later. [Edward S. Shapiro, A Time For Healing: American Jewry Since World War II, p. 134]
JEWS ‘CREATED’ SO-CALLED MAFIA
It was the Jews, by and large, not the Italians, who created what later was called the Mafia. In the 1920s the Italians began to replace the Jews in the New York organized crime industry ... Jews were also prominent in the gambling trade and developed Las Vegas in the 1940s. [Norman F. Cantor, The Sacred Chain: The History of the Jews, p. 389]
‘VIOLENCE AND SEX’ ON TV ‘UNDER JEWISH AEGIS’
The content of Hollywood film and network TV under Jewish aegis in the 1980s differed significantly from the programmatic texture of the movies and radio networks that the Jewish film and broadcasting magnates of the previous generation had disseminated.
There was now virtual abandonment of the puritanical strictures derived from mainline Protestant culture. Now there was almost unlimited concession to market demands and common depiction of violence and sex in films and on television.
The Jewish entertainment entrepreneurs were now usually much better educated than their predecessors but the products they offered were frequently more vulgar in content, presented, however, [with] the greatest technical skill imaginable. [Norman F. Cantor, The Sacred Chain: The History of the Jews, p. 401]
‘DOMINANT ROLE’ BY JEWS IN ‘NEW LEFT CULTURE’
Jewish academics and other intellectuals played the dominant role in the fashioning of the New Left culture of the 1960s and 1970s. Sometimes, as in the influential writings of the historical sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein, this New Left theory was only a modestly updated version of mainline Marxist-Leninism. More often it was a blend of the imaginative cultural Marxism of Benjamin, Adorno and the Frankfurt School of the 1930s with the more radical side of the Freudian tradition. The leader in this direction was Herbert Marcuse, a product of the Frankfurt School and the highly visible guru of the Jewish-sponsored Brandeis University in the 1950s and 1960s. [Norman F. Cantor, The Sacred Chain: The History of the Jews, p. 402]
THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT
The highly successful American feminist movement of the 1970s and 1980s involved Jewish leadership as well. Jewish women had played no role in the first American feminist movement in the first three decades of the twentieth century. It was different this time around. Perhaps the two most prominent personalities in the women’s movement, Gloria Steinem and Betty Freidan, were Jewish. A third leading feminist theorist, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, was half-Jewish. The author of the all-time best-selling novel, translated into twenty-seven languages, celebrating feminine sexuality, was an upper-middle-class, New York Jewish woman, Erica Jong. [Norman F. Cantor, The Sacred Chain: The History of the Jews, p. 402]
JEWS ON WALL STREET ‘SKIRT LIMITS OF THE LAW’
Jewish investment bankers played a major, perhaps predominant role in the frenetic Wall Street speculative ventures of the 1980s. In “the Predator’s Ball” of the 1980s, as a best-selling journalistic account of these fiscal ventures termed it, the Jewish dance card was full, although when a Gentile novelist, Michael Thomas, made the Jewish presence in Wall Street speculative ventures a prominent theme in a novel, he was denounced in the New York Times Book Review for anti-Semitism. [Norman F. Cantor, The Sacred Chain: The History of the Jews, p. 403] [In the 1980s] the skill of some Jewish billionaires in skirting the limits of the law but somehow emerging unscathed, with the aid of high-priced New York Jewish attorneys and a compliant press, was remarkable. [Norman F. Cantor, The Sacred Chain: TheHistory of the Jews, p. 404]
BUYING INTO PROFESSIONAL SPORTS
Jewish billionaires in the 1990s demonstrated that they had arrived at the pinnacle of social prowess and cultural importance by buying professional sports teams, hitherto the proud preserve of WASP and Irish magnates. By 1993 the New York football Giants, the most honored name in professional sports, two other National Football League teams, and two of the major league baseball franchises were in Jewish hands.
One of these Jewish owners carried so much weight with the other owners that he
engineered the firing of the baseball commissioner and took over as acting commissioner, representing the owners before a congressional committee.
In the 1930s American Jews had thought they were doing well when they produced a
couple of boxing champions. The Jews did not have to show their sweaty bodies anymore; they owned the teams. [Norman F. Cantor, The Sacred Chain: The History of the Jews, p. 405]
THE POWER OF THE PRESS
As in Berlin and Vienna before Hitler, the Jewish role in publishing was an important one. By 1950 Jewish families owned two of the three most influential newspapers in the United States, the New York Times and the Washington Post. Furthermore, both families were directly involved in the daily operation of the papers and in setting their editorial policies. [Norman F. Cantor, The Sacred Chain: The History of the Jews, p. 405]
‘THE POWER OF THE WORD’
It is true that Jews are represented in the media business in numbers far out of proportion to their share of the population. Studies have shown that while Jews make up little more than 5 percent of the working press nationwide —hardly more than their share of the population— they make up one fourth or more of the writers, editors, and producers in America’s “elite media”, including network news divisions, the top newsweeklies and the four leading daily papers (New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal). In the fast-evolving world of media mega-corporations, Jews are even more numerous.
In an October 1994 Vanity Fair feature profiling the kingpins of the new media elite, titled “The New Establishment”, just under half of the two-dozen entrepreneurs profiled were Jews. In the view of the magazine’s editors, these are America’s true power elite, “men and women from the entertainment, communications and computer industries, whose ambitions and influence have made America the one true superpower of the Information Age”.
And in a few key sectors of the media, notably among Hollywood studio executives, Jews are so numerically dominant that calling these businesses Jewish-controlled is little more than a statistical observation.
“If there is Jewish power, it’s the power of the word, the power of Jewish columnists and Jewish opinion makers,” says Eugene Fisher, director of Catholic-Jewish relations at the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, and one of the Jewish community’s staunchest defenders in religious Christian circles. “The Jewish community is a very literate community, and it has a lot to say. And if you can shape opinion, you can shape events.” [J.J. Goldberg. Jewish Power: Inside the American Jewish Establishment, p. 280]
MEDIA CLOUT MEANS POLITICAL INFLUENCE
For all of the rank anti-Semitism lurking in the Jewish-conspiracy theories, the notion of Jewish influence in the media is not necessarily anti-Semitic in and of itself. The awkward fact is that, indeed, “the Jews invented Hollywood,” as historian Neal Gabler put it in the unfortunate subtitle of his 1988 historical study, An Empire of Their Own. The movie camera was invented by non-Jews, but the Hollywood dream factory was created by a handful of immigrant Jewish entrepreneurs. They saw the motion picture’s potential as a storytelling device, and they built the studios, distribution systems, and movie theaters to promote it nationwide.
These few ... turned a technological curiosity into a multibillion-dollar industry.
A generation later, a young group of Jewish entrepreneurs did the same thing with the radio transmitter, the microphone, and the television camera. ...
Hollywood at the end of the twentieth century is still an industry with a pronounced ethnic tinge. Virtually all the senior executives at the major studios are Jews. Writers, producers, and to a lesser degree directors are disproportionately Jewish—one recent study showed the figure as high as 59 percent among top-grossing films.
The combined weight of so many Jews in one of America’s most lucrative and important industries gives the Jews of Hollywood a great deal of political power. ... But the same could be said, to a much greater degree, of other industries with significant concentrations of Jews: Wall Street, New York real estate, or the garment industry.
In each of those industries, Jews make up a significant bloc—an important minority on Wall Street, near majorities in clothing and commercial real estate—and have translated their clout into a visible presence on the political scene. [J.J. Goldberg. Jewish Power: Inside the American Jewish Establishment, pp. 286-288]
‘BETTER OFF’ THAN ‘MOST OTHER’ GROUPS
... If the stereotype of Jews as uniformly wealthy is wide of the mark, they are nonetheless better off on average than members of most other ethnic and religious groups. In 1984, for example, fewer than one American Jewish family in six had an income of less than $20,000, compared to one in two among non-Hispanic whites.
At the other end of the income pyramid, 41 percent of Jewish households had incomes of $50,000 or more—four times the proportion among non-Hispanic Whites.
One reason for this differential is that Jews are better educated than other Americans. Three Jewish men in five are college graduates—nearly three times the proportion among non-Hispanic whites; one in three have graduate or professional degrees—three and a half times the proportion in the population at large.
Much the same disparities exist among Jewish and non-Jewish women: the former are twice as likely as the latter to have college degrees and four times as likely to have graduate or professional degrees. Today, moreover, college attendance is almost universal among young Jews. A 1980 national survey of male and female high school students found that 83 percent of the Jewish students planned to go to college and fully half expected to go on to graduate or professional schools; among white non-Jewish students, half were planning on college and fewer than one-fifth expected to go to graduate or professional schools.
The difference is qualitative as well as quantitative. Jews not only receive more schooling, they get a better education ... Since the 1950s or 1960s, when Ivy League institutions shifted to meritocratic admissions policies, Jews have made up about a third of the undergraduate student population and about the same in law and medicine. [Charles E. Silberman, A Certain People, pp. 118-119]
WHO DOMINATES ‘THE AMERICAN ELITE’?
According to a study of the ethnic and racial backgrounds of people listed in the 1974-75 edition of Who’s Who in America, Jews were two and a half times more likely to be included than members of the population at large.
Relative to population, moreover, there were more than twice as many Jews as there were people of English heritage, the group that once dominated the American elite. The change over the preceding half-century was striking: in 1924-25, people of English descent were nearly two and half times as likely to be listed as American Jews ... In a 1971-72 analysis of a much smaller group of leaders in some eight fields of endeavor, the sociologists Richard D. Alba and Gwen Moore found an even greater concentration.
Of the 545 people studied, 11.3 percent were Jews—four times their proportion in the population as a whole ... The phenomenon is not limited to the United States. Jews make up about one percent of the population of Great Britain, but 6 to 10 percent of the British elite; in Australia, where Jews are 0.5 percent of the population, they constitute 5 percent of the elite. ...
The Jewish representation among successful entrepreneurs is considerably higher than among corporate chief executives: some 23 percent of the people on the Forbes 1984 list of the four hundred richest Americans were Jews. ... The precise proportion varies somewhat from year to year. In 1982, the first year the Forbes 400 was published, 105 of the group, or 26 percent, were Jews. The number dropped to 98 (25 percent) in 1983, when a stock market boom catapulted a number of newcomers onto the list, and 93 (23 percent) in 1984. [Charles E. Silberman, A Certain People, pp. 143-144]
AMERICA’S ‘ACADEMIC ELITE’
Whatever the precise proportion (and one person’s elite is another’s coterie) there can be no doubt that Jews play a large role in American intellectual life.
In 1975, for example, Jews constituted 10 percent of all faculty members but 20 percent of those teaching at elite universities; nearly half of the Jewish professors—compared to 24 percent of Episcopal and 17 percent of Catholic professors—were teaching at the top-ranked institutions.Jewish professors are also far more likely to publish articles in scholarly journals than their non-Jewish peers; thus Jews make up 24 percent of the academic elite—those who have published twenty or more articles. [Charles E. Silberman, A Certain People, p. 144]
‘PROFESSORS AT ELITE SCHOOLS’
The wave of Jewish college academics is a relatively recent one. In 1940, only 2 percent of American professors were Jewish. By 1970 the number had increased fivefold, to 10 percent. Restrictive quotas from the first half of the century had ended, and a new generation of Jews was being educated in larger numbers.
By the 90s, Jews made up 35 percent of professors at elite schools—and a Jew has now served as president of nearly every elite institution, including Harvard, Yale, Penn, Columbia, Princeton, MIT and the University of Chicago. [Steven Silbiger, The Jewish Phenomenon, p. 92]
JEWISH PROFESSORS BETTER PAID
Because Jews in general attend more prestigious institutions and choose positions in the professional schools of law, medicine, science and business, their compensation is well above the average professor’s. [Steven Silbiger, The Jewish Phenomenon, p. 93]
KEY DECISION MAKING’ IN TV NEWS; NEARLY ONE-THIRD OF THE ‘MEDIA ELITE’
All told, the once-scruffy vocation [of journalism] has become an intellectually exciting, reasonably well-paid, prestigious profession in which Jews play an increasingly important role. In 1982, for example, Jews made up a little less than 6 percent of the national press corps as a whole but 25 to 30 percent of the “media elite”—those working for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal; for Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report; and for the news divisions of CBS, NBC, ABC, and the Public Broadcasting System and its leading stations. (A 1971 study put the number of Jews in the media elite at 25 percent.) When one looks at the key decision-making positions, the Jewish role appears to be even larger. [Charles E. Silberman, A Certain People, pp.152-153]
‘INFLUENTIAL’ IN ‘MANAGEMENT OF TV NEWS’
Jews are equally influential, if less well known, in the management of television news. It is the network correspondents, of course, who have become household names, among them Jews ... The greatest concentration of Jews, however, is at the producer level—and it is the producers who decide which stories will go on the air, and how long, and in what order they will run. In 1982, before a shift in assignments, the executive producers of all three evening newscasts were Jewish, as were the executive producers of CBS’s 60 Minutes and ABC’s 20/20.
And Jews are almost equally prominent at the “senior producer” and “broadcast producer” levels as well as in senior management. [Charles E. Silberman, A Certain People, pp.153-154]
‘BOOKS BY OR ABOUT JEWS’
[The Oct. 18, 1992 reviews section of The Washington Post] is full of books by or about Jews: on sports and the American Jewish experience; a biography of Bill Graham, a Holocaust survivor and leading rock & roll impresario; the story of an upper-class New York family infected by anti-Semitism; a South African woman’s group portrait of her set of Jewish friends; a Jewish couple’s volume on foreign investments in America, analyzing problems of multiple loyalties and foreign influence; parallel issues in assimilation; and a Jewish author’s book on politics in higher education, discussing multiculturalism in terms drawn from the integration of Jews into American society
PRO-ISRAEL COLUMNISTS AND COMMENTATORS
Writing on MSNBC.com on April 2, 2003, Jewish-American writer Eric Alterman provided a fascinating overview of the preponderance of pro-Israel commentary that appears amongst columnists and commentators in the American media, not all of whom (obviously) are Jewish, but who —in most cases— workfor media outlets that, in many cases, are either owned outright by Jewish financial interests or which are heavily influenced by the Jewish community. The list provided by Alterman follows, although a considerably smaller list of other columnists who are critical of Israel—including such obvious names as Pat Buchanan—has not been included. Please note that the prefatory descriptive material preceding the various lists of names is Alterman’s terminology, although we have noted those columnists who are not known to be Jewish by rendering their proper names in italics. In brackets we have also added additional material of our own, that is clearly noted as an editorial insertion.
Columnists and Commentators Who Can Be Counted Upon to Support Israel Reflexively and Without Qualification:
• George Will, The Washington Post, Newsweek and ABC News
• William Safire, The New York Times
• A.M. Rosenthal, The New York Daily News, formerly Executive Editor of and later columnist for, The New York Times
• Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, PBS, Time, and The Weekly Standard, formerly of The New Republic
• Michael Kelly, The Washington Post, The Atlantic Monthly, National Journal, and MSNBC.com, formerly of The New Republic and The New Yorker [Now deceased—killed during the Iraq war.—Ed.]
• Lally Weymouth, The Washington Post, Newsweek [Note: Ms. Weymouth is half-Jewish, being the daughter of late Washington Post Company chief Katharine Meyer Graham and her non-Jewish (and, ironically, reportedly anti-Semitic) husband, the late Philip Graham—Ed.]
• Martin Peretz, The New Republic
• Daniel Pipes, The New York Post [Note: Pipes has reportedly claimed to not be Jewish, but many sources say otherwise.—Ed.]
• Andrea Peyser, The New York Post
• Dick Morris, The New York Post
• Lawrence Kaplan, The New Republic
• William Bennett, CNN
• William Kristol, The Washington Post, The Weekly Standard, Fox News, formerly of ABC News
• Robert Kagan, The Washington Post and The Weekly Standard
• Mortimer Zuckerman, US News and World Report [Zuckerman recently served as Chairman of Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations—Ed.]
• David Gelernter, The Weekly Standard
• John Podhoretz, The New York Post and The Weekly Standard
• Mona Charen, The Washington Times
• Morton Kondracke, Roll Call, Fox News, formerly of The McLaughlin Group, The New Republic and PBS
• Fred Barnes, The Weekly Standard, Fox News, formerly of The New Republic, The McLaughlin Group, and The Baltimore Sun
• Sid Zion, The New York Post, The New York Daily News
• Yossi Klein Halevi, The New Republic
• Norman Podhoretz, Commentary
• Jonah Goldberg, National Review
• Laura Ingraham, CNN, formerly of MSNBC and CBS News
• Jeff Jacoby, The Boston Globe
• Rich Lowry, National Review
• Andrew Sullivan, The New Republic
• Seth Lipsky, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Sun, formerly of the Jewish Forward
• Irving Kristol, The Public Interest, The National Interest and The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page
• Allan Keyes, MSNBC, WorldNetDaily.com
• Brit Hume, Fox News
• John Leo, US News and World Report
• Robert Bartley, The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page
• John Fund, The Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal, formerly of The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page [Ethnic origins unknown—Ed.]
• Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page,
• Ben Wattenberg, The Washington Times, PBS
• Tony Snow, The Washington Times and Fox News
• Lawrence Kudlow, National Review and CNBC
• Alan Dershowitz, The Boston Herald, The Washington Times
• David Horowitz, Frontpage.com
• Jacob Heilbrun, The Los Angeles Times
• Thomas Sowell, The Washington Times
• Frank Gaffney Jr,, The Washington Times [Note: Gaffney’s ethnic antecedents are unknown, although there have been rumors that he was born to a gentile family but converted to Judaism.—Ed.]
• Emmett Tyrell, The American Spectator and The New York Sun
• Cal Thomas, The Washington Times
• Oliver North, The Washington Times and Fox News, formerly of MSNBC
• Michael Ledeen, Jewish World Review
• William F. Buckley, National Review
[Note: Although Buckley is widely recognized as an “Irish Catholic” and is known as a devout Catholic, his Roman Catholic antecedents are not, as widely believed, from his Scotch-Irish father’s side, but, instead from his mother’s side. Although Buckley’s mother was born to a German Catholic family based in New Orleans named Steiner, the late Chicago Tribune columnist, Walter Trohan, privately told intimates that it was his understanding that the Steiner family was originally Jewish and converted to Roman Catholicism, as did many Jewish families in New Orleans during the 18th and 19th centuries. This may well be the first time that Trohan’s revelation may have ever been committed to print. However, for expediency’s sake, we will list Buckley here as being “non-Jewish”, his reported ancestry notwithstanding—Ed.]
• Bill O’Reilly, Fox News
• Paul Greenberg, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
• L. Brent Bozell, The Washington Times
• Todd Lindberg, The Washington Times
• Michael Barone, US News and World Report and The McLaughlin Group
• Ann Coulter, Human Events
• Linda Chavez, Creators Syndicate [Note: Although Ms. Chavez was raised a Roman Catholic, her husband is Jewish and it has been rumored that she is a convert herself to Judaism.—Ed.]
• Cathy Young, Reason Magazine [Note: Ms. Young’s ethnic heritage is unknown to the editor.— Ed.]
• Uri Dan, New York Post
• Dr. Laura Schlessinger, radio host
• Rush Limbaugh, radio host
Publications That, For Reasons of Owner or Editorship, Can Be Counted Upon to Support Israel Reflexively and Without Qualification:
• The New Republic (Martin Peretz, Michael Steinhardt, Roger Hertog, Owners)
• Commentary (American Jewish Committee, Owner)
• US News and World Report (Mortimer Zuckerman, Owner)
• The New York Daily News (Mortimer Zuckerman, Owner)
• The New York Post (Rupert Murdoch, Owner)
[Note: Murdoch is of at least partial Jewish descent.—Ed.)
• The Weekly Standard (Rupert Murdoch, Owner)
• The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page (Peter Kann, Editor)
[Note: Alterman included The Atlantic Monthly in this list but since the magazine was sold by pro-Israel zealot Mortimer Zuckerman, its hard-line bias in favor of Israel seems to have softened.—Ed.]
Columnists Likely to Criticize Both Israel and the Palestinians, But View Themselves to be Supporters of Israel, and Ultimately, Would Support Israeli Security Over Palestinian Rights:
• Thomas Friedman, The New York Times
• Richard Cohen, The Washington Post and New York Daily News
• Avishai Margolit, The New York Review of Books
• David Remnick, The New Yorker
• Eric Alterman, The Nation and MSNBC.com
• The New York Times Editorial Board
• The Washington Post Editorial Board
Clearly, Alterman’s lists are very instructive indeed, demonstrating beyond any question that—when it comes to the issue of the media’s reportage of the Middle East question—a predominant Jewish and pro-Israel bias is in place.
The names on Alterman’s lists are virtually the “cream of the crop” of the elite media in America. Anyone who would suggest that there is not a pro-Israel bias on the part of the elite media commentators is speaking from an agenda and therefore to be dismissed.
Needless to say, not all of the names on Alterman’s lists are Jewish by any means, so it cannot be suggested that “Only Jewish columnists are pro-Israel.” In fact, there are many non-Jewish writers who have adopted a slavish, pro-Israel stance and, if truth be told, it’s been quite good for their careers.
And that, of course, might well be the best explanation as to why otherwise intelligent and balanced folks suddenly seem to lose all common sense on the sole issue of Israel. In short, promoting Israel is a lucrative business—even if the results are often bad for America!
THE JOE LIEBERMAN EFFECT (IN THE 2000 ELECTION) JEWISH CAMPAIGN MONEY ‘HIDDEN FROM PUBLIC’
No one knows for sure how much of the Democratic Party’s money comes from Jewish contributors (“We don’t even have statistics like that,” the Democratic National Committee says), but estimates from knowledgeable sources—none willing to speak on the record—start at 30 percent and go up from there.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Jews account for more than one-third of the DNC’s largest individual donors ($100,000 and above), based on reports released by the Federal Election Commission [in August 2000] . . .
If anecdotal evidence is to be believed, the DNC could take in $5 to $30 million (up to 75 percent more than Jews have given in previous election cycles) above its anticipated fund-raising goal of at least $130 million. An additional $30 million would equal almost the entire sum the Democrats spent on advertising this summer [of the year 2000].
In a tight race where Republicans enjoy a slight financial edge, extra Democratic money could make a difference, probably more of a difference than even the most dramatic swing by Jewish voters ....
Potentially more significant is the way the Connecticut senator’s selection is turning fund-raisers for Jewish causes into fund-raisers for Gore-Lieberman ... Will the Jewish community’s remarkable financial effort on the Democratic ticket’s behalf make a difference? Not, it hardly needs saying, in the way Pat Buchanan might imagine.
Gore and Lieberman’s Jewish donors are not trying to make the ticket beholden to “Jewish interests”, whatever those are. They disagree among themselves on many questions of policy, and their support is more an act of communal pride than an investment in future behavior. But the donations could affect the election nonetheless.
And so, in an odd historical footnote, the most important electoral effect of Joe Lieberman’s selection may remain largely hidden from a public that seems otherwise obsessed with his candidacy’s every detail.
KEEPING JEWISH AFFLUENCE A SECRET
Max Geltman, a reactionary identified with the ational Review, revealed in his book, The Confrontation, that: “It’s by now an open secret that in 1957 the American Jewish Committee interceded with the Bureau of the Census in Washington and besought it not to ask questions about income related to national groupings in the 1960 census, for fear that the comparatively high income levels of the Jewish minority would lead to anti-Semitic outrages. The Bureau complied.”
‘THE RICHEST ETHNIC GROUPING’
If [the Jews] are 2.54 percent of the population, they take in approximately 5 percent of the national income. Jews are almost 7 percent of the country’s middle and upper classes, taken together. In 1972, almost 900,000 Jewish families out of two million were middle and upper class, while only 13.5 million out of 53 million American families were so classified.
According to [Gerald Krefetz, writing in Jews and Money], 43 percent of all Jews earned $16,000 plus, in contrast to only 25.5 percent of all Americans.
And while only a little under 5 percent of the Jewish population is in millionaire families, Jews constituted a fluctuating 23-26 percent of the 400 richest Americans between 1982 and 1985, and perhaps more of the taxpaying millionaire population, which was estimated at 574,342 in 1980.
There is no doubt that, on average, American Jewry is the richest ethnic or religious grouping in the country. According to the June 1984 American Demographics, the average annual Jewish household income is $23,300, compared to $21,700 for Episcopalians.
Presbyterians received $20,500, religiously unaffiliated took in $17,600, Catholics made $17,400, Methodists $17,000, Lutherans averaged $16,300. White fundamentalists and Southern Baptists earned a piddling $14,000 plus. Statistics show that Jews have been earning more than Episcopalians and Presbyterians, the archetypal WASPS, since the late 1960s ...
No longer a pariah elite, the modern American Jewish rich are the full partners of their Christian equivalents.
A WHO’S WHO OF THE JEWISH ELITE ...
What follows is list of wealthy American Jews, the sources of their wealth, and the estimated wealth (in 1986 dollars) as assembled by Jewish-American writer Lenni Brenner, based in part on the famous Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans. A more up-to-date listing (based on 2004 figures) follows later in these pages, but this listing itself is instructive:
• Leonard Abramson, U.S. Health Care Systems, Inc., $140 million;
• Charles, Herbert & Herbert A. Allen, stock market and real estate, $549 million;
• Walter Annenberg, TV Guide, publishing, $850 million;
• Enid Annenberg Haupt, $180 million;
• Esther Annenberg Simon, $180 million;
• Jeannette Annenberg Hooker, $180 million;
• Lita Annenberg Hazen, $180 million;
• Evelyn Annenberg Hall, $180 million;
• Edmund Ansin, Sunbeam TV Corp., $200 million;
• Ted Arison, Carnival cruises, real estate, casinos, $300 million;
• Robert Arnow, Jack & Alan Weiler share $450 million in real estate;
• Arthur Belfer, Peruvian oil, New York real estate, $475 million;
• Belz family of Memphis, Tennessee, real estate, $250
• Charles Benenson, real estate, $200 million;
• Blaustein family, $850 million;
• Paul Block and William Block, publishing, $300 million;
• Neil Bluhm, real estate/Chicago, $300 million;
• Judd Malkin, real estate/Chicago, $300 million;
• Ivan Boesky, $150 million;
• Edgar Bronfman, $665 million;
• Edward and Sherman Cohen, real estate and construction, $330 million;
• Seymour Cohn, $550 million;
• Henry and Lester Crown, $1.1 billion;
• Morton Davidowitz, (a.k.a. Morton Davis) D. H. Blair brokerage, $200 million;
• Leonard Davis, Colonial Penn Group, insurance, $230 million;
• Marvin Davis, Davis Oil Company, “still a billionaire” according to Forbes in 1985;
• C. Douglas Dillon, $150 million;
• Richard Dinner, In-Law of Swig family (San Francisco real estate), total family wealth: $450 million;
• Sherman Dreiseszun & Frank Morgan, Kansas City real estate, banks, shopping malls, $300 million;
• David, Roy and Seymour Durst, real estate, $550 million;
• Jane Engelhard, widow of “platinum king”, $365 million;
• Harold Farb, Houston real estate, $150 million;
• Larry and Zachary Fisher, New York real estate, $600 million;
• Max Fisher, U.S. and Israeli oil and petrochemical interests, $225 million;
• Michel Fribourg, controls 20% of world grain trade, $700 million;
• Alfred and Monte Goldman, real estate, father invented the shopping cart, $400 million;
• Sol Goldman, formerly New York’s biggest landlord, $450 million;
• Katharine Graham, Washington Post publishing empire, $350 million;
• Pincus Green and Marc Rich, commodities traders, $200 million each;
• Haas family, heirs to Levi Strauss empire, $775 million;
• Armand Hammer, $150 million;
• Leon Hess, Hess Oil, $360 million;
• Horvitz family, Florida real estate, cable television, $250 million;
• Peter Kalikow, real estate, $375 million;
• Paul Kalmanovitz, Falstaff and Pabst beers, real estate, $250 million;
• Howard Kaskel, real estate, $250 million;
• Edwin Marion Kauffman, Marion Labs, Kansas City Royals, $190 million;
• George Kozmetsky, Teledyne and other investments, $175 million;
• Carl and George Landegger, paper mills, $250 million;
• Leonard and Ronald Lauder, Heirs to Estee Lauder cosmetics, $700 million;
• Norman Lear, television producer, $175 million;
• Sam LeFrak, America’s largest apartment landlord, $800 million;
• Leon Levine, Family Dollar stores, $315 million;
• Leonard Litwin, real estate, $200 million;
• John Loeb, Shearson Lehman/American Express, $150 million;
• Robert Lurie, real estate, New York Giants baseball, $200 million;
• Mack family, construction demolition, $250 million;
• Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel, Premier Industrial Corp., $260 million;
• Leonard Marx, real estate, $300 million;
• Bernard Mendik, real estate, $180 million;
• Dominique de Menil, daughter of Conrad Schlumberger, $200 million;
• Sy Syms, Cut-rate clothing, $210 million;
• Paul and Seymour Millstein, real estate, $275 million;
• Stephen Muss, real estate, $200 million;
• S. I. Newhouse, media empire, $2.2 billion;
• Robert Olnick, real estate, $200 million;
• Max Palevsky, computers. $200 million;
• William Paley Family, CBS television fortune, $290 million;
• Jack Parker, real estate, clothing manufacturing, $300 million;
• Milton Petrie, Petrie Stores, shopping centers, $585 million;
• Victor Posner, Sharon Steel, National Can, $250 million;
• Sol Price, Merchandizer, $200 million;
• Pritzker Family, Hyatt Hotels, $1.5 billion;
• Pulitzer Family, St. Louis Post Dispatch fortune, $475 million;
• Resnick Family, real estate, construction, $250 million;
• Meshulum Riklis, Rapid American Corporation, $150 million;
• Rose Family, real estate, $250 million;
• Rosenwald Family, Sears & Roebuck fortune, $300 million;
• Jack and Lewis Rudin, real estate, $700 million;
• Arthur Sackler, medical publishing, advertising, $175 million;
• Schnitzer Family, steel, shipping, real estate, $250 million;
• Shapiro Family, cones, cups, disposable paper goods, $350 million (shared among 70 family members);
• Peter Sharp, real estate, $250 million;
• Leonard Shoen, U-Haul, $300 million;
• Walter Shorenstein, real estate, $300 million;
• Lawrence Silverstein, Chair New York Real Estate Board, $180 million [plus a double insurance payout from World Trade Center buildings collapse];
• Herbert and Melvin Simon, shopping centers, $385 million combined;
• Norton Simon, industrialist, $200 million;
• Sheldow Solow, real estate, $250 million;
• Stanley Stahl, real estate; $250 million;
• Ray Stark, motion pictures, $150 million;
• Saul Steinberg, financier/Reliance Insurance, $400 million;
• Leonard Stern, Hartz Mountain pet food, $550 million;
• Stone Family, Stone Container Co., $200 million;
• Sulzberger Family, New York Times media empire, $450 million;
• Swig family, real estate, $300 million;
• Sydney Taper, First Charter Financial Corporation, $300 million;
• Laszlo Tauber, real estate, (U.S. government’s largest landlord), $300 million;
• A. Alfred Taubman, real estate, fast food, $600 million;
• Lawrence and Preston Tisch, Loews Corporation, CBS, Bulova watches, Combined worth: $1.7 billion;
• Lew Wasserman, MCA talent agency, $220 million;
• Weiler Family, real estate, $240 million;
• Harry Weinberg, real estate, securities, bus company, $550 million;
• Leslie Wexner, owns 2,500 specialty clothing stores, family worth $1 billion;
• Lawrence Wien, real estate, $150 million;
• Wirtz Family, real estate, liquor distributorships, Chicago Black Hawks, Bulls, 350 million;
• Wolfson Family, movie theaters, television stations, $240 million;
• William Ziff Family, Ziff-Davis publishers, $650 million;
• Ezra Khedouri, Zilkha Investment Banking, Colt firearms, $150 million;
• William Zimmerman, Pic-n-Save bargain stores, $150 million;
• Mortimer Zuckerman, real estate, publishing, U.S. News & World Report, New York Daily News, $200 million.
Obviously, as we’ve noted, the names and dollar amounts are constantly subject to change, and later in these pages [next issue] we take a more up-to-date look (as of the Forbes 400 list for the year 2004) at those among the Zionist elite who have made the list of America’s —and indeed the world’s— wealthiest. What, of course, the Forbes 400 list does not include are those families and individuals who fall below the top 400 in ranking, and it should be pointed out that such a listing—of the top 1,000 richest, for example—would be quite revealing.
And since Forbes does not list the names in rank order, but only in alphabetical order, it is often hard to determine, at first glance, how predominant Jewish names —or Irish or Italian names for that matter— appear in the list.
Nonetheless, the Forbes rankings are most instructive and demonstrate beyond any question that Zionist families have achieved immense wealth in America today.
Although we hear much about “hate crimes” and “the rise of anti-Semitism” and how horrible were the crimes against the Jewish people in the past, that same media which tells us of all of this does not seem eager to point out that the Jewish people in America have riches beyond most people’s wildest imagination. But let us proceed . . .
WHAT JEWISH LEADERS BELIEVE . . .
The most important study of the younger [Jewish community activists] leadership is Brandeis professor Jonathan Woocher’s “The ‘Civil Judaism’ of Communal Leaders”, in the 1981 American Jewish Year Book. He looked at 309 middle and upper middle-class participants in leadership development programs of the United Jewish Appeal and the community federations. According to the professor . . . “[N]early 65 percent deny that Jewish values are basically the same as those of all religions, and more than three-quarters acknowledge a ‘special’ Jewish responsibility to work for justice in the world ...
“Nearly 60 percent ... view the Jewish contribution to modern civilization as greater than that of any other people ... 70 percent ... claim that they feel more emotion listening to ‘Hatikvah’ (Israel’s anthem) than to ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ ... a majority reject the proposition that an American Jew owes his/her primary loyalty to the United States.
“Further, while all but a handful ... are glad to be Americans, only 54 percent are strongly so, compared with 86 percent who strongly assert that they are glad to be Jews ... 63 percent ... explicitly affirm that Jews are the chosen people (and only 18 percent actually disagree).”
POLITICAL INFLUENCE EXCEEDS NUMBERS
... [T]he Jews being the richest grouping in the country, it is only to be expected that, as Will Maslow, general counsel of the American Jewish Congress has written [in The Structure and Functioning of the American Jewish Community]:
“The percentage of Jews ... who involve themselves in party affairs as policy-makers and fund-raisers, is probably higher than that of any other racial, religious or ethnic group. The result is that Jews play a role in the political life of the country whose significance far transcends their proportion of the total population.”
JEWS IN THE U.S. SENATE
Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.); Norm Coleman (R-Minn.); Russ Feingold (D-Wis.); Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.); Herb Kohl (D-Wis.); Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.); Carl Levin (D-Mich.); Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.); Arlen Specter (R-Pa.); Ron Wyden (D-Ore.); Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.)
JEWS IN THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.); Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.); Howard Berman (D-Calif.); Eric Cantor (R-Va.); Ben Cardin (D-Maryland); Susan Davis (D-Calif.); Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.); Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.);Bob Filner (D-Calif.); Barney Frank (D-Mass.); Jane Harman (D-Ca.); Steve Israel (D-N.Y.); Tom Lantos (D-Calif.);Sander Levin (D-Mich.); Nita Lowey(D-N.Y.); Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.); Steve Rothman(D-N.J.); Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.); Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.); Adam Schiff (D-Calif.); Debbie WassermanSchulz (D-Fla.); Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.); BradSherman (D-Calif.); Henry Waxman (D-Calif.);Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.); Robert Wexler (D-Fla.)
VOTING POWER NEARLY TWICE THE NUMBERS
Jews are 10.6 percent of New York State’s population. They are 5.9 percent of New Jersey with 100,000 in Bergen County and another 95,000 in Essex County. Jews are 4.8 percent of the District of Columbia. They are 4.7 percent of Florida, with 225,000 in Miami alone. They are 4.6 percent of Maryland with 100,000 in Montgomery and Prince Georges County and 92,000 in Baltimore, 4.3 percent of Massachusetts with 170,000 Jews in Boston.
They may be only 3.2 percent of Californians, but there are 500,870 Jews in the Los Angeles area and 75,000 Jews are roughly 10 percent of San Francisco. There are 295,000 Jews in metropolitan Philadelphia and 253,000 in greater Chicago.
As the Jews are the most educated stratum of the electorate, they vote in greater proportions than any other ethnic or religious grouping. Ninety-two percent of all Jews vote in national elections compared to only 54 percent of the people as a whole. Jews may only be 10.6 percent of New York State, but they are between 16 percent and 20 percent of the voters. More important, they were 30 percent of the voters in the April 1984 New York State Democratic primary, when they made up an estimated 41 percent of Mondale’s vote. They are customarily nearly 50 percent of the Democratic primary voters in mayoral contests.
JEWS ‘MAGNIFY THEIR VOTING POWER’
Although Jews are a small minority, they exercise their right to vote and thus magnify their voting power. About 80 percent of eligible Jews in the United States are registered to vote, compared to about 50 percent of all voting-age adults. In addition, registered Jews are twice as likely to vote. Combining the two multiplies Jewish voting power by a factor of three. Furthermore, 81 percent of Jews live in only nine states, making them a significant political bloc, especially on the national level. In presidential elections, those nine states cast 202 of the 535 votes in the Electoral College. Thus, the Jewish population could provide the swing vote in any close presidential election.
JEWISH POPULATION CONCENTRATION AND PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL ELECTORATE
% of Jews % of Electorate
New York 9.0 18.3
New Jersey 5.5 9.9
Florida 4.7 8.2
Massachusetts 4.5 8.3
Maryland 4.3 8.1
Connecticut 3.0 6.2
California 3.0 6.2
Pennsylvania 2.7 4.9
Illinois 2.3 3.9
JEWISH POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEES (PACS)
What follows is an illustrative, but by no means complete, list of political action committees (PACs) operating as part of the American Jewish sphere of influence today. Virtually all of them have names which are quite innocuous and which do not reflect either their Jewish or pro-Israel bias. In fact, most (if not all) of these PACs are geared toward the election of pro-Israel candidates, and their combined influence points toward an amazing conglomeration of both financial and political power.
While, initially, it may seem a terrible waste of the printed page to list this seemingly unending listing of names, which, on their face, mean very little, bear in mind that these PACs—so broadly based across America—have long had the capacity to work together in order to elect candidates of their choosing. Of course, they all say that they are “independent” of one another, but anyone who believes that will believe anything!
National PAC (Washington, DC); Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs (Illinois); Citizens Organized Political Action Committee (California); Desert Caucus (Arizona); Delaware Valley PAC (Pennsylvania); 24th Congressional District of California PAC; Hudson Valley PAC (New York); Capital of Texas Committee; East Midwood PAC (New York); Balpac (Illinois); Connecticut Good Government PAC; City PAC (Illinois); Gold Coast PAC (Florida); Elections Committee of the County of Orange (California); South Bay Citizens for Good Government (California); Icepac (New York); Topac (Illinois); Long Island PAC (New York); Government Action Committee (Texas); Kings County PAC (New York); Ocean State PAC (Rhode Island); Tennesseans for Better Government; Americans for a Better Congress (Illinois); South Carolinians for Representative Government; Silver State PAC (Nevada); For Integrity in Government (Texas); Badger PAC (Wisconsin); South Florida Caucus; Suffolk PAC (New York); Young Americans PAC (California); Seattle PAC (Washington State); Fund for Freedom (Washington, DC); Chaipac (Missouri); Walters Construction Management Political Committee (Colorado); Garden PAC (New Jersey); Northern New Jersey PAC (New Jersey); Americans for Better Citizenship (New York); AG PAC (Iowa); South Texas Area PAC; Northeast Penn PAC; Heritage PAC (Massachusetts); Chipac/An Illinois Not for Profit Organization; Mississippians for Responsive Government; Florida Congressional Committee; St.Louisans for Better Government; Roundtable PAC (New York); San Franciscans for Good Government; Americans for Good Government (Alabama); National Action Committee (Florida); National Bipartisan PAC (Washington, DC); Hollywood Women’s Political Committee; Mid-Manhattan PAC; Citizens Concerned for the National Interest (Illinois); Arizona Politically Interested Citizens; Mopac (Michigan); Garden State PAC (New Jersey); Pacific PAC (California); Massachusetts Congressional Campaign Committee; Congressional Action Committee of Texas; Multi-Issue PAC (Illinois); Louisianans for American Security PAC; Women’s Pro-Israel National PAC (Washington, DC); Georgia Citizens for Good Government; Committee for 18 (Colorado); Chicagoans for a Better Congress (Illinois); San Diego Community PAC (California); Heartland PAC (Washington, DC); Tx PAC (Texas); To Protect Our Heritage (Illinois); St. Louis PAC; Sacramento Area Good Government Association; Religion and Tolerance Committee (Washington, D.C.); Adler Group, Inc. PAC (Florida); RRD and B Good Government Committee (Washington, D.C.); Baypac (Florida); Maryland Association for Concerned Citizens; Campaign for America (New Jersey); Five Towns PAC (New York); Cap PAC (Washington, DC); Lower Westchester PAC (New York); Freedom Now (California); Southwest Political Action Caucus (New Mexico); Barbary Coast (California); State Pac (New York); Pennsylvania PAC; Wilamette PAC (Oregon); South-Brook PAC (New York); Mobilization PAC (New York)
And believe it or not, but this list isn’t even complete! But it is certainly a representative sampling which demonstrates how the Zionists have cleverly disguised their PACs under innocuous names. PACs come and go, but the Jewish-oriented PACs have proven among the most durable and the irony is that such politically-influential organizations actually emerged after the Watergate scandal during the period when “reform” was very much in the air.
In fact, as we can see from the burgeoning influence of such PACs, the effect of the post-Watergate “reforms” was the effective institution of Jewish political power on the American scene, perhaps in a fashion as it had never been seen before.
ISRAELI IMMIGRANTS AND ORGANIZED CRIME
Between 1950-79, 96,504 Israeli citizens received legal immigrant status here. An estimated 23,000 are estimated to be illegals. Native-born Israelis have been the majority since 1966, and about 75 percent since 1978. The emigre stream increases by about 10 percent each year. A little fewer than one out of 50 Jews in America are now ex-Israelis.
Three-quarters live in New York, New Jersey, Illinois or California, with most living in areas with high concentrations of Jews. More than 70 percent are professionals and white-collar employees, but about 5 percent are in services, notably as taxi drivers, and sometimes owners of fleets.
The high visibility of these has given the public the illusion that the bulk of the migrants are lower class. There is one element, however, that has deeply prejudiced many Jews against them. The April 29, 1984 Jerusalem Post reported that a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee study estimates that “approximately 1,000 individuals” are involved “in a myriad of organized criminal activities.”
Their activities are growing in New York, California and elsewhere, and include “insurance frauds, fictitious billing, bankruptcy fraud, extortion, narcotics deals, illegal immigration and homicide ... these Israelis are heavily involved in the importation and distribution of narcotics, especially cocaine and heroin.”
JEWS AND THE COMMUNIST PARTY USA
There is no exact figure, but certainly the Jewish proportion of the Communist Party of USA exceeded that of any other ethnic community. An educated estimate would be that between 40 and 50 percent of the party was Jewish between the late 1930s and mid-1940s.
JEWISH WOMEN TOP NON-JEWISH WOMEN
[A] 1990 study found that 78 percent of Jewish males twenty-five and older had at least some college education, compared to only 42 percent of all white males: 65 percent of Jewish men graduated, compared to 57 percent of all white males; 32 percent did some graduate work, compared to only 11 percent of all white males. Jewish women have also had a great educational advantage over non-Jews, with a 60 percent college attendance record compared to 34 percent of all white females. That might explain why so many Jewish women were among the pioneers of the feminist movement. ... According to the April 1999 issue of Biography magazine, 50 percent of the “25 Most Powerful Women” were either Jewish or had Jewish parents
Chapter 7:
AMERICA’S WEALTHIEST AND MOST POWERFUL JEWISH FAMILIES:
THOSE WHO REIGN SUPREME
The information that follows is based largely on profiles of roughly 180 specifically named (and many of them inter-connected) Jewish families that appeared in a “special tribute issue” (dated 1997-1998, Vol. 21, No. 10) of the New York-based Avenue magazine—a “society” journal with little circulation outside the realm of those who thrive on reading about the fashions and foibles of the power elite. That special issue, titled “Portraits of Family Achievement in the American Jewish Community”, highlighted the names and ventures of American Jewish families, focusing on those who have been active in the Jewish community and its multiple philanthropic and political enterprises.
Now, please note that there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of Jewish community organizations, foundations and other entities, based both locally and nationally. So although there are a handful of Jewish groups such as the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of B’nai B’rith that frequently appear in the mainstream media, largely in the context of “political” news, there are many more such entities that are rarely ever mentioned except in Jewish community newspapers which, of course, are not “everyday” reading for the average American.
And as far as the term “philanthropic” —as used here— is concerned, the term is used quite loosely, for truth be told, many —if not most— of the Jewish families are largely philanthropic only toward specifically Jewish charities, although there are exceptions.
The Avenue list —as rendered here— does not reference many of the multiple charities, both here in the United States (both Jewish and non-Jewish in orientation) and in Israel, that the named families have funded to much applause. Only where one particular family is closely associated with a particular “cause” have we included that information.
Note, too, that most of the named families seem —based on the Avenue report— to have established one closely held family foundation or another, utilizing those foundations to support a variety of causes. Most —but not all— of those causes are Jewish in nature and, quite often, connected to the state of Israel and various agencies and institutions in that country.
Thus, needless to say—with perhaps only a handful of exceptions—the names listed here constitute the “wealthiest of the wealthy” (and therefore most powerful) among the American Jewish elite, but this is not to suggest that the names that appear here do indeed constitute a formal list of “the richest Jews in America”. Far from it!
There are many other quite well-to-do enterprisers, so to speak, of Jewish origin who do not make the headlines. There are many wealthy Jewish crime figures, for example, who prefer a low profile and who do not seek to publicize themselves or their donations to Jewish philanthropies. And, in that regard, it’s highly unlikely that Avenue magazine would be quite so prepared to laud the “accomplishments” of a Jewish crime figure. So, as a consequence, the list compiled by Avenue is certainly incomplete in that regard. And in all fairness to the multiple numbers of American Jewish millionaires —and perhaps billionaires— who have not been honored by Avenue’s list of “family achievement”, and who are not necessarily involved in criminal misdeeds, it should be noted that many of those achievers have accumulated a great deal of wealth but have not sought public acclaim, recognition in society magazines or honors from their own Jewish community.
So, again, there are certainly many, many more American Jewish fortunes that have gone unmentioned in the list compiled by Avenue. But the list that Avenue did compile is extensive and certainly as far as being a record of the major players—finance-wise—in Jewish “high society” the Avenue list is a valuable assembly. (This author, frankly, has never seen anything so complete.) It is probably safe to say that although Jewish names do make up a considerable portion of the annual Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest families in America, a secondary list of what one might loosely call “the Forbes 800”—that is, a list including the second group of 400 wealthy families following the initial wealthiest 400—would undoubtedly include virtually all of the names that appear on the Avenue magazine list that has been summarized in these pages.
So although there is a great deal of Jewish wealth accumulated at the very top, there is an even greater accumulation in the much wider “middle ground” of wealthy American families. Now, in regard to the list, note this: you will not find Henry Kissinger, for example, on the list. Certainly wealthy, by any estimation, and certainly Jewish, and certainly powerful, Kissinger’s wealth and power has always come as a result of his having moved in the sphere of wealthy and powerful people. Kissinger is a political figure and, as such, is actually nothing more than a well-paid functionary of the American Jewish elite and the other elites with whom they interact for common gain.
Kissingers’s fame and “accomplishments” are a creation of the Jewish-controlled media, in many respects, but unlike many of those who do appear on the Avenue list, he is not one of the media’s owners, per se. And that may be just enough of a distinction for Kissinger not to be included. Although Kissinger serves on many corporate boards —including media entities, by the way— he has always been more of a public figure (who happens to be Jewish) who acts as a henchman and facilitator for the real powers behind the scenes rather than being a genuine “mover and shaker” on his own. Without the patronage of powerful sponsors, Kissinger would be nothing more than just another quaint and colorful Jewish academic, of which there are many.
In addition, for the reader’s consideration, there’s another factor that might be considered: Henry Kissinger’s rise to fame came in the sphere of the Rockefeller family which (while perhaps originally of Jewish origin) has always had its own various agendas in a variety of arenas, and not always necessarily in sync with Jewish interests per se.
As far as the Rockefeller family is concerned, it should be noted that there is no solid information in the public arena indicating that they are of Jewish extraction, although there has been much speculation and rumor for over a century. Contrary to widespread perception, the often-touted “proof” that “the Rockefellers are Jewish” is not proof at all. The rumor about the Rockefellers being Jewish stems from the fact that author Stephen Birmingham—in his 1971 Harper & Row book, The Grandees, a profile of the history of America’s Sephardic Jewish elite (descended from Spanish and Portugese Jewish families)—mentioned that the name “Rockefeller” can be found in a rare 1960 genealogical study, Americans of Jewish Descent by Malcolm H. Stern.
Although some sources jumped on that information and began circulating the story that this was “proof” that the Rockefellers are of Jewish descent, a close and careful read of the entire book will demonstrate that the Rockefellers who do have Jewish blood in their veins stem from the line of Godfrey Rockefeller, who married one Helen Gratz, who was Jewish. Their family members and heirs, by the way, were raised in the Episcopal Church and have had little —if anything— to do with Jewish or Israeli affairs.
Godfrey Rockefeller, in fact, was from a separate line of the Rockefeller family, descended from one of the brothers of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., and was a second cousin to the famed Rockefeller brothers—Nelson, David, Laurence, and John D. III. Thus, any traces of Jewish blood in Godfrey’s heirs cannot be ascribed to the better-known branch of the Rockefeller family. It is no great pleasure for this writer to sink the popular myth that “the Rockefellers are Jewish”that has been widely circulated by many well-meaning people, but the facts about the origin of this rumor speak for themselves. This, of course, is not to suggest that there is not any Jewish blood in the veins of the “famous” Rockefeller brothers, but any charges to that effect should be based on facts, not misinterpretation of a passing reference in a book.
As far as the Roosevelt family is concerned, there has been widely published information suggesting that the Roosevelt family did have Jewish forebears, that the original family name was “Rossocampo”, a name borne by Sephardic Jews who were among those expelled from Spain in 1620.
The name, it is said, was ultimately changed as various family branches settled elsewhere in Europe. Descendants of the Dutch-based members of the family —evidently named Rosenvelt— emigrated to the United States and ultimately the name evolved into the name “Roosevelt” that we know today. In the meantime, within several generations, there was inter-marriage with non-Jews and by the time Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt —cousins later to become husband and wife— were wealthy young members of the American elite, the family had shed its Jewish religious practices.
During the Roosevelt era, a widely-circulated Roosevelt family genealogical chart, which was circulated both in Europe and the United States, purported to claim that the original family name was “van Rosenvelt” and subsequently changed to “Rosenvelt” and that another Jewish family strain —namely that of the “Samuels” line— was introduced into the ensuing Roosevelt bloodline. However exciting this information may have been at the time to many of FDR’s critics, the provenance of this information is murky at best, however much many may have wanted to believe it.
Yet, for perhaps a more immediate source of data in regard to possible Jewish heritage in the Roosevelt family —according to a Jewish source— we may turn to the February 5, 1982 issue of The London Jewish Chronicle which featured an article
entitled “FDR ‘had Jewish great grandmother’”. The article, by Leon Hadar, read as follows:
The late American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had a Jewish great-grandmother, it was stated last week by Mr. Philip Slomovitz, the editor of The Detroit Jewish News, who released a letter sent to him 45 years ago by the late Rabbi Dr. Steven Wise, a former chairman of the World Jewish Congress.
In his letter, Rabbi Wise described a luncheon his wife had with Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, the late president’s wife (and a distant cousin of his) who said: “Often cousin Alice and I say that the brains in the Roosevelt family come from our Jewish great-grandmother,” whose name was Esther Levy. The letter added that Mrs. Roosevelt had told [MCP: Mrs. Wise] that “whenever mention is made of our Jewish great-grandmother by cousin Alice or myself, Franklin’s mother gets very angry and says, “You know that is not so. Why do you say it?” According to Rabbi Wise, Mrs. Roosevelt also told his wife, “You must make no use of this. I think it is best to let the matter lie down now.”
In a separate letter to Mr. Slomovitz, Franklin Roosevelt, the hundredth anniversary of whose birth is being celebrated this year, wrote that his ancestors “may have been Jews, Catholics or Protestants”. Rabbi Wise, who was very close to President Roosevelt, marked his letter to Mr. Slomovitz “strictly private and confidential”.
The editor observed that confidence until last week, when the letter was published in a book containing a number of his columns. One of the ironies of this discovery is that the Nazis portrayed Roosevelt as Jewish, calling him the “Jew Rosenfeld”.
So … although the Nazis may have indeed been right —but perhaps not basing their information on information known only to the Roosevelts themselves— at the same time it should be pointed out that both Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt were known to make private anti-Jewish utterances even though they were evidently of Jewish extraction.
Despite this, needless to say, both became icons in the Jewish world-view. However, this phenomenon has seemed to fade during the last years of the 20th century and the opening years of the 21st as aggressive Jewish writers are now contending that FDR—despite his bloody worldwide war against Hitler— “didn’t do enough to stop the Holocaust”.
In any case, it should be noted for the record that this author does recall reading, many years ago, in American Heritage magazine that a researcher had found information suggesting that FDR’s maternal forebears in the Delano family were of Jewish origin, an interesting detail considering that FDR’s mother was herself known to make anti-Jewish remarks. The author would be pleased if some researcher might be able to locate this valuable historical tidbit from the expansive archives of American Heritage — unless it has been relegated to the Orwellian Memory Hole.
There will always be rumors about notable persons and families having “Jewish blood” but the names that appear in the summary that follows are undoubtedly Jewish and proud of it.
They do constitute an American elite all their own and they are certainly among the very richest and most powerful Jewish families in America today.
This list is, of course, by no means complete and comprehensive but hopefully a valuable reference.
And please note that, unless otherwise specifically noted, the descriptive material which appears in quotation marks in the list that follows is a DIRECT quotation from the “special tribute issue—1997/1998” of Avenue magazine, featuring Jewish power elite families.
Here then are America’s most powerful Jewish families—some you’ve heard about and many that you will now meet for the first time. They are truly the “new elite”: Those Who Reign Supreme in America—The New Jerusalem. . . .
ABESS. Miami, Florida. Control the City National Bank of Florida. Members include Leonard Abess and Allan Abess, Jr.
ALTHEIM. New York City. Philip and Barbara Altheim control Forest Electric, a subsidiary of EMCOR and the largest electric construction company in the world. Sons and daughters include Marc, Jill and Gary.
ANNENBERG. Philadelphia. Long headed by the late Walter Annenberg, who served as U.S. Ambassador to England, appointed by Richard Nixon. Triangle Publications empire. Published TV Guide and Philadelphia Inquirer.
ARISON. Miami. Israeli-born Theodore “Ted” Arison founded the Carnival Cruise Lines. Ted’s son Micky now controls the family empire which includes the cruise line, hotels, resorts and Miami Heat basketball team. Ted Arison returned to Israel.
ARNOW-WEILER. Boston. Russian-born Jack Weiler partnered with Benjamin Swig in commercial development, grabbing more than seven million square feet. Daughter Joan and husband Robert Arnow and their son David now rule the empire. They have a son, Noah.
BARNETT. Fort Worth, Texas. Operated Hilton Hotels in Israel. Louis Barnett and his wife Madlyn (nee Brachman: See BRACHMAN) have son Eliot who is involved in shopping center development. Family also involved in real estate, pharmaceuticals and oil. Family funds Barnett Institute of Biotechnology at Northeastern University.
BELFER. New York. Refugees from Poland, Arthur and Rochelle Belfer founded the family now headed by Robert Belfer and daughters Selma Ruben and Anita Saltz. Arthur Belfer was involved in oil and natural gas which later evolved into the infamous Enron corporation. Son Robert was on Enron executive committee but escaped mediaattention.
BELZ. Memphis. Belz Enterprises and the Peabody Hotel (Memphis) Group are part of the family’s holdings established by Philip Belz who dabbled in real estate and management. His son Jack Belz and wife Marilyn maintain the family’s affairs. Their daughter Jan, married to Andrew Groveman, is coming into her own, active in Soviet Jewish emigration.
BELZBERG. Canada-New York-Israel. Sam Belzberg heads Gibralter Capital corporation. Wife: Frances. Daughter Wendy (an editor at the influential Jewish newspaper, Forward, is married to Strauss Zelnick, head of BMG Records. Daughter Lisa is married to Matthew Bronfman (See BRONFMAN). The family [members] are original financial backers of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Their former rabbi, Marvin Heir, left Canada to go to Los Angeles where Heir set up the Center.
BENARD-CUTLER. Boston. Along with his partners —Sheldon Adelson, Irwin Chafetz and Dr. Jordan Shapiro— Ted Benard-Cutler runs the Interface Group, developer of Comdex, a global trade show for computers and communications industries. Comdex was sold to the Japanese Softbank Corporation in 1995. Benard-Cutler and Chafetz now are heading GWV International which sets up tour packages for New England. Benard-Cutler and his wife Joan have sons Joel and Robert and daughter Ellen Colmas.
BERNHEIM. New York. Stockbroker Leonard Bernheim was outshone socially by his wife Elinor Kridel Bernheim who was active in New York Jewish affairs. Their sons Charles and Leonard are following in their mother’s footsteps.
BINSWANGER. Philadelphia. Isidore Binswanger was founder of Maimonides College, the first rabbinical college on American shores. Son Frank established a giant international real estate company with 20 offices throughout the U.S. and Canada. Also active in Japan and elsewhere in Asia and Europe. Frank Jr. and John Binswanger are active in the family company. Son Robert heads the graduate school of education at Dartmouth.
BLACK. New York. Leon Black is a former managing director of Drexel Burnham Lambert and now president of Apollo Advisors LP and its affiliate Lion Advisor, LP. Wife Debra is prominent in Jewish affairs.
BLAUSTEIN. Baltimore. Louis Blaustein started off as a kerosene peddler, branching out to found American Oil Company (AMOCO). Son and heir Jacob was once called “the titular head of the American Jewish community” and was a major player in the early years of the United Nations. Sisters Fanny Thalheimer and Ruth Rosenberg. Other family members include David Hirschhorn, Barbara Hirschhorn, Mary Jane Blaustein, Arthur Roswell, Elizabeth Roswell, Jeanne Blaustein Borko, Susan Blaustein Berlow.
BLOCK. New York. Alexander Block founded Block Drugs that came to manufacture Polident, Nytol and Sensodyne. His son Leonard, grandson Thomas, and granddaughter Peggy Danziger (wife of Richard Danziger) are active in the family’s corporation.
BLOOMBERG. New York. Elected mayor of New York City in 2001, Michael Bloomberg started out at Salomon Brothers and went on to establish a multimedia empire providing stories to newspapers and a 24-hour direct satellite television network.
BLUMENTHAL. Charlotte, North Carolina. Herman Blumenthal heads the Radiator Specialty Company than produces some 4,000 automotive products. With wife Anita, has three sons Alan, Philip and Samuel who are active in family’s corporate and “philanthropic” affairs.
BRACHMAN. Fort Worth. Family founder Leon Brachman launched chemical manufacturing business and branched out to set up Computerized Business Systems, designing programs for small businesses. Son Marshall is associated with the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington. Daughter Wendy lives in Israel. Family member Madlyn married into Barnett family of Ft. Worth (See BARNETT).
BRAMAN. Miami. Norman Braman started off in Philadelphia where he established the Keystone Discount Stores (38 locations). He and wife Irma retired to Miami where he operates a chain of automobile dealerships. A former owner of the Philadelphia Eagles team.
BROAD. Los Angeles. Eli Broad founded SunAmerica, Inc., a financial services firm. A co-owner of the Sacramento Kings and well known as a collector of contemporary art.
BUTTENWIESER. New York. The late Benjamin Buttenwieser was a partner in the Kuhn-Loeb banking empire and served as assistant U.S. high commissioner in Germany following World War II. His wife, Helen, was a member of the Lehman Brothers banking family. Their son Lawrence is a partner at the New York law firm of Rosenman & Colin. Son Peter was a high school principal in Philadelphia and is connected to the activities of the (non-Jewish) Ford and Danforth foundations. Son Paul is a psychiatrist and novelist in Belmont, Massachusetts.
CARDIN.The wealth of Israeli-born Shoshana Cardin’s late husband, real estate tycoon Jerome Cardin, made it possible for her to rise to high prominence in the American Jewish community as the first female president of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and as chair of the United Israel Appeal. His daughter Nina is one of the first women admitted as a Conservative rabbi. Son Sandy Cardin runs the Schusterman Foundation in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
CARTER. Victor Carter is said to have “specialized in the turnaround of ailing companies” but is best known for heading the United Way, City of Hope and Israel Bonds. His wife Andrea has been involved in—of all things—the Country Music Commission.
CHANIN. New York. Irwin and Henry Chanin, brothers, were major real estate developers in early 20th century New York. Irwin’s son, Marcy, and wife Leona Feifer Chanin (senior vice president of the American Jewish Congress) have children: two of whom are attorneys, James Chanin of Oakland California and Ann Glazer of Los Angeles. Another daughter, Nancy Sneider, resides in Boca Raton, Florida. Irwin’s son, Paul Chanin, is based in Aspen, Colorado, where the family foundation operates. He runs the famous Pinon’s restaurant as a sideline.
COHEN. New Orleans. Rosalie Palter Cohen, daughter of Universal Furniture founder Leon Palter, has been a major player in the powerful Jewish community in the Crescent City.
CONE. A large Southern Jewish family (descended from 13 original children of Herman Cone) which gained its wealth through the Cone Mills, the largest manufacturer of denim in the world.
CORWIN. Los Angeles. Bruce C. Corwin is president of the Metropolitan Theatres Corporation which owns movie theaters and popcorn concessions. Funders of “conservative” Pepperdine University in fashionable Malibu.
CROWN. Chicago. The late Henry Crown was closely connected to organized crime in Chicago and built up a major real estate empire based in the Material Service Corp. a building supply firm. In 1959 the family gained control of major defense contractor General Dynamics. The Crown family were major players in helping finance Israel’s secret nuclear arms development program. Son Lester now heads the family. Son Dan operates Crown theaters.
CUMMINGS. Chicago. Nathan Cummings founded the food production conglomerate best known for “Sara Lee” products. His three children and ten grandchildren are maintaining the family foundation.
DAVIDSON. Detroit. William Davidson took over his uncle’s windshield business which evolved into Guardian Industries, the fifth largest glass manufacturer in the world. Owner of the Detroit Pistons team. The Davidson-funded William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan’s School of Business Administration has been interfering in the newly developing economies of Eastern Europe.
DEUTSCH. Santa Monica. Carl Deutsch operates the family’s real estate and management services.
DURST. New York. Joseph Durst and his three sons, Seymour, David and Royal, and
grandchildren Douglas, Robert, Jonathan and Joshua have developed large areas of Third Avenue and New York’s West Side.
EISNER. Los Angeles. Michael Eisner engineered the merger between Capital Cities, owner of ABC and other properties. Took over Walt Disney Company in 1984. The grandson of the co-founder of the American Safety Razor Co.
EPPLER. Cleveland-Palm Beach. German-born Heinz Eppler took over Miller-Whol and expanded the company to 420 women’s apparel stores sold in 1984 to Petrie Stores Corporation. Son David is based in Washington, D.C.
EVERETT. Described as “successful private investors”, Henry and Edith Everett are active in a variety of Jewish philanthropies. Son David is also active in Jewish affairs.
FEINBERG. Chicago. Rueben Feinberg is president of Jefferson State Bank in Chicago.
FELDBERG. Boston. Sumner and Stanley Feinberg, cousins, founded the T.J. Maxx stores (with more than 500 outlets), Hit or Miss stores (with 500 outlets) and the Chadwick’s catalog operation.
FELDMAN. Dallas. The late Jacob “Jake” Feldman founded Commercial Metals, a major New York stock exchange company. His son and heir Robert has been active in the Dallas Jewish community.
FEUERSTEIN. Westport, Connecticut-Newport Beach, California-Los Angeles-New York City. Heirs of Aaron Feurstein of the Malden Mills textile empire which produced Polartec fabric from the recycling of plastic bottles. Aaron’s brother, Moses, was a leading figure in U.S. Orthodox Judaism. Moses’s son, Morty, leads the Orthodox community in Vancouver, Canada.
FISHER. New York. Founded by Zachary and Lawrence Fisher, this is a major New York real estate development family.
MAX FISHER.Detroit. A major oil industrialist and top-level player in Republican Party affairs, Max Fisher maintained long-standing business ties to Israel and to Israeli intelligence. Once described by the National Police Gazette (December 1974) as one of the powerful “mystery men” who told Michigan-based Republican politician Gerald Ford (later U.S. president) “what to do and when to do it”. (In Final Judgment, this author’s study of the JFK assassination conspiracy, we outlined the Ford-Fisher connection —and Fisher’s ties to Israeli intelligence— in light of Ford’s role on the Warren Commission which ostensibly “investigated” the JFK assassination, but which effectively functioned as a cover-up of the long-secret Israeli link to the president’s murder.)
FRIEDMAN. Mill Valley, California. Eleanor Friedman—one of several heirs to the Levi Strauss billions—and her husband, Jonathan Cohen, are founders of the New Israel Fund, which is considered one of the “liberal” foundations advancing left-wing causes in Israel, including women’s rights, religious pluralism and better relations with native Palestinian Christians and Muslims.
GERBER. Chicago. Max Gerber established the Gerber Plumbing Fixtures Company which is now controlled by daughter Harriet Gerber Lewis and her children, Alan and Ila.
GIDWITZ. Chicago. Gerald Gidwitz chairs Helene Curtis, the personal-care products company. His son Ronald is president of the firm, which was acquired by Unilever in 1996. The family also owns Continental Materials Corporation, producers of heating and cooling equipment.
GODCHAUX. New Orleans. Heirs to Godchaux Sugar, once Louisiana’s largest sugar producer, and to the famous Godchaux’s department store of New Orleans. Family members are spread throughout the United States.
GOLD. Los Angeles. Stanley Gold heads Shamrock Holdings, a diversified investment company associated with the Disney heirs. A major investor in Koor Industries, Israel’s largest industrial company. Gold has son Charles and daughter Jennifer.
GOLDSMITH. New York. Several children of stock broker Horace Goldsmith’s wife Grace —James, William and Thomas Slaughter— control the foundation established with Goldsmith’s largess. Richard and Robert Menschel —both Goldman Sachs bankers who are cousins— are also involved in the family’s enterprises.
GOLDENBERG. Philadelphia. Heirs to confectionery and candy bar fortune which
produces the Goldenberg Peanut Chew —the firm’s only product. Family members include Carl and Ed and David.
GOTTSTEIN. Alaska. Barney Gottstein. Heads Anchorage-based Carr-Gottstein Foods, the largest Alaska-based company, involved in supermarkets, wholesale groceries and real estate. Served as national vice president of the Israeli lobby group, AIPAC, and on the Democratic National Committee. Son Robert has been working closely with pro-Israel Christian evangelist Pat Robertson in promoting Jewish causes.
GRASS. Scranton, Pennsylvania. Alex Grass took the Thrift Discount Center of small Keystone City state big time and established more than 2,700 Rite Aid Pharmacies in 23 states, with subsidiaries including Auto Palace auto parts, Concord Custom Cleaners, Encore Books and Sera-Tec Biologicals. Served as chairman of Israel’s Hebrew University. Children include sons Martin and Roger.
ALAN GREENBERG. New York. Alan “Ace” Greenberg chaired Bear Stearns and has been active in numerous Jewish causes.
MAURICE GREENBERG. New York. Known as “Hank” Greenberg, this insurance
baron took over American International Group (AIG) and has been active in the Far East. Plays a prominent role in the influential Council on Foreign Relations. Children include Jeffrey, Evan, Lawrence “Scott”, and daughter Cathleen.
GRUSS. New York. Joseph Gruss was active in oil and gas exploration in Texas, Oklahoma and Wyoming and founded Gruss & Company, involved in oil and gas mergers and acquisitions. Daughter Evelyn’s husband, Kenneth Lipper, an attorney, is an investment banker and former New York City deputy mayor for finance. His son Martin is involved in horse racing.
GUMENICK. Miami. Nathan Gumenick built and owned 10,000 apartments and 500 houses in Miami, the first high-rise apartment developer in the Jewish retirement mecca. He was among the major supporters of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in its developmental period. Son Jerome is active in the Jewish community in Richmond, Virginia.
HAAS. The combined members of this immensely wealthy family are the heirs to the Levi-Strauss garment fortune. Altogether the combined wealth of the various members of the family places them beyond any question in the highest ranks of the nation’s wealthiest families.
HALPERN. Sam Halpern and his brother Arie —Polish-born immigrants who came to America— have been heavily involved in construction of resort hotels in Israel. Evidently the Halperns accumulated their wealth in the black market in the Soviet Union and later in the construction industry in the United States.
HASSENFELD. New York-Rhode Island. Heirs to the Hasbro toy manufacturing empire (producer of Mr. Potato Head and GI Joe), the world’s largest toy company. Family members include Alan and Harold.
HASTEN. Indianapolis, Indiana. Hart and Mark Hasten developed a chain of 1,500 convalescent centers and have been involved in banking and real estate, including the family holding company, Hasten Bancshares, Inc. Hart is close to the Likud bloc in Israel.
HECHINGER/ENGLAND. Washington, D.C. Spawned from the Hechinger hardware store chain in the nation’s capital region, founded by John Hechinger and Ross Hechinger. Richard England married into the Hechinger family. His son Richard has served on the executive committee of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
GOTTESFELD HELLER. Fanya Gottesfeld Heller, widow of investor Joseph Heller, claims her fame by virtue of not only her husband’s largess, which she distributes to Jewish causes, but also as a result of having written a widely touted memoir of her years as a Ukraine-born “Holocaust survivor”.
HEYMAN. New York-Connecticut. Sam Heyman and his wife Ronnie (both graduates of Yale and Harvard) won their riches through Sam’s involvement with the GAF Corporation, a major building materials and chemicals manufacturing company. In 1991 Sam spun off the chemicals division which is now a publicly-traded corporation known as International Specialty Products. Mrs. Heyman (nee Feuerstein: See FEUERSTEIN) was a law school classmate of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
HOCHBERG. New York and Chicago. Heirs of Joseph Hochberg who ran Children’s Bargaintown USA. Son Larry is chairman of Sportmart, a sporting goods chain.
HOFFMAN. Dallas, Texas. Edmund Hoffman made his fortune as the leading (Dallas-based) Coca-Cola bottler and distributor in Southwest Texas. Son Richard is a well-known physician in Colorado. Son Robert was one of the founders of the National Lampoon humor magazine.
JESSELSON. New York. Michael, Daniel and Benjamin are the heirs of Ludwig Jesselson, who had risen to become CEO of the Philipp Brothers firm, one of the world’s largest markets of more than 150 raw materials including steel, crude oil, chemicals and cement. The firm was later acquired by Salomon Brothers, Inc., the international banking house.
KAPLAN. New York. Stanley Kaplan is the “educational” wizard who spawned the popular SAT-training courses that high school students use to study for the college entrance examinations. Stanley says he is particularly concerned with grooming “leaders” in the Black and Hispanic communities, which means —to grassroots Black and Hispanic leaders— grooming Black and Hispanic figures who will do the bidding of America’s Jewish elite.
KEKST. New York. Gershon Kekst is the head of the corporate and financial communications firm, Kekst and Company. Has son, David, and wife Carol.
KLINGENSTEIN. New York. Heirs of Dr. Percy Klingenstein who was chief of surgery of the Third General Hospital of the United States Army, include Frederick Klingenstein, an investment banker, and John Klingenstein.
KRAFT. Boston. An owner of the New England Patriots, Robert Kraft made his fortune as founder of International Forest Products, one of the largest privately held paper and packaging companies in the country.
KRAVIS. Tulsa. The family fortune was spawned by Raymond Kravis, an oil and gas consultant who included Joseph P. Kennedy and the Rockefeller-controlled Chase Bank among his clients. His sons Henry and George teamed up with their cousin, George Roberts, and brought international fame and fortune to their firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company in the leveraged buyout racket of the 1980s. They acquired some 36 companies including RJR Nabisco. The Kohlberg-Kravis team were closely identified with Republican politics during the era.
KRIPKE. Omaha. Talk about good connections! Myer Kripke was a rabbi in Omaha, Nebraska whose wife, Dorothy, wrote children’s books. The wife of legendary (non-Jewish) Omaha-based billionaire investor Warren Buffet liked Mrs. Kripke’s books, and the two women became friends. As a result, the Kripkes were invited to become “modest investors” in Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway company and made a bundle. Son Paul is a philosophy professor at Yale.
LAUDER. New York. Leonard and Ronald Lauder are the heirs to the Estee Lauder cosmetics fortune. Ronald also served as U.S. ambassador to Austria and as president of the Jewish National Fund and made a bid for mayor of New York on the Republican ticket in 1989.
THOMAS H. LEE. Boston. A leveraged buyout operator, Thomas H. Lee, made a mint when he sold his Snapple soft drink company to Quaker Oats. Now, like all Jewish boys made good, he’s a philanthropist.
LEHMAN. Skokie, Illinois. Not to be confused with the German-Jewish “Our Crowd”
international banking family of New York, this Lehman family —headed by Kenneth Lehman— made their money through a family business, Fel-Pro Incorporated, an automotive supply manufacturer. To his credit, Lehman is no slave driver. His company offers vast benefits to its employees and all manner of financial gifts and scholarships.
LENDER. Connecticut. Marvin and Murray Lender are bagel tycoons. They sold their frozen bagel enterprise to Kraft Foods in 1984 and are now devoting their wealth to Jewish causes.
LEVENTHAL & SIDMAN. Boston. Partners in Beacon Properties, the largest real estate investment trust in the United States, Edwin Sidman and Alan Leventhal took their company public in 1994 and have expanded their interests on a national scale. Leventhal has been closely associated with the political endeavors of Bill Clinton.
LEVIN. New York. Gerald Levin, who rose to become CEO of the Bronfman family-controlled Time Warner empire, started out as a lieutenant of Lewis Strauss, the Jewish chief of the Atomic Energy Commission. Although there’s nothing in the public record to suggest it, it’s a good bet that Levin and Strauss had a hand in “helping” Israel achieve atomic weapons. Today Levin is a member of the Rockefeller-funded Council on Foreign Relations. A major media figure indeed.
LEVINSON. New York. Morris Levinson’s widow, Barbara, has become a leading Jewish community figure through the distribution of the largess of Morris’s wealth accumulated as a food and cosmetics conglomerate that merged with Nabisco. Morris was also a founder of the Center for Democratic Studies which has been described as “the first ‘think’ tank”. Son Adam is based in Tallahassee, Florida but active in Jewish affairs nationwide. Son Joshua is a professor at Hebrew University. Daughter Judy is married to one John Oppenheimer.
LEVY. Dallas, Texas. Irving, Milton and Lester Levy—brothers—control the NCH Corp., which produces and distributes maintenance products to hotels, government agencies and industrial corporations. Their four sons are also in the family business.
LEON LEVY. New York. A leader of America’s Sephardic Jewish elite (commemorated by Stephen Birmingham in his book, The Grandees, Leon Levy made a fortune as CEO of Urban Substructures, Inc. which was involved in the construction and engineering of many leading properties in New York City. Levy also served as chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Children include Mark, Mimi, Judy and Janet. His wife Elsi is a professional musician.
LIPPERT. New York. Albert and Felice Lippert made their millions helping millions of people lose weight. Teaming up with Jean Nidetch, a stout Jewish homemaker who had set up dieting support groups, they formed Weight Watchers International and sold the thriving enterprise to Heinz foods in 1978. Sons Keith and Randy.
LIST. New York. Albert List made a success in distributing appliances and then branched out and grabbed control of Hudson Coal Company, assembling a conglomerate that included the RKO theater chain.
LOEB. New York. The late Carl Morris Loeb made his millions with American Metal Co. and later went on to found Loeb Rhoades (which is now Shearson Lehman/American Express). Carl’s son John married the daughter of Arthur Lehman of the Lehman Brothers banking house. John Loeb has two sons, Arthur and John Jr. (who was a U.S. ambassador to Denmark), and his daughter Ann was married to Edgar Bronfman and produced Edgar Bronfman, Jr. This intermarriage of Jewish family fortunes illustrates the manner in which the Jewish elite have kept their wealth “in the tribe”, so to speak. Incidentally, this Loeb family is not to be confused with the Loeb family of the Kuhn Loeb banking empire—another major Jewish fortune altogether.
LOWENBERG. San Francisco. Holocaust survivor William Lowenberg, head of the Lowenberg Corporation, is a major San Francisco real estate developer. Son David carries on the family name and involvement in Jewish affairs.
MACK. New York. H. Bert Mack started out in demolition and was responsible for major operations at the sites where the United Nations, the New York World’s Fair and the Triboro Bridge were built. The Mack Company is now a major real estate developer. Sons include Earl, Bill, David and Fred.
MANDEL. Cleveland. Morton, Jack and Joseph Mandel launched Premier Industrial Corporation which is today a major player in the production of rare electronic products. They merged Premier with Farnell Electronics, a British firm, to form Premier Farnell PLC.
MARCUS. Dallas. This is the family of the famed Nieman-Marcus Department Store. Although the company was sold in 1969, Stanley Marcus remained on the board for several years. He also served as chairman of the American Retail Federation.
BERNARD MARCUS. Atlanta. The Home Depot home supply empire —the largest in the country— is the brainchild of Bernard Marcus whose children, Fred, Morris and Suzanne are the heirs to the fortune.
MERKIN. New York. Hermann Merkin set up the Merkin & Co. investment banking firm that includes his son Sol and his son-in-law Andrew Mendes. Daughter Daphne has been a New York Times columnist and a novelist.
MEYERHOFF. Baltimore. Construction and shopping center tycoon Harvey Meyerhoff was first chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and also chairman of the United Way. His son Joseph Meyerhoff II is a major Baltimore figure as are his daughters Terry Rubenstein and Zoh Hieronimus, a radio talk show host of some repute.
MEYERSON. Dallas. Mort Meyerson’s claim to fame is his association with Ross Perot, and is said to be Perot’s “right hand man” serving as president of Electronic Data Systems and then as CEO of Perot Systems Corporation.
MILKEN. New York-Los Angeles. The infamous Milken brothers —Michael and Lowell— came to prominence in the financial trading scandals in the 1980s but they nonetheless remain major figures in the worldwide Jewish community and particularly respected among “conservatives” who admire Milken-style piracy and hyper-capitalism.
MILLSTEIN. New York. Ira Millstein is a partner in the influential New York law firm of Weil Gotshal & Menges and has taught at the Yale School of Management and the New York University School of Law. He has served on numerous government commissions and on the National Association of Corporate Directors.
MILSTEIN. New York. The Circle Floor Company, founded by Morris Milstein, laid the floors in Rockefeller Center and the United Nations, but Morris’s sons Seymour and Paul developed the family firm, Milstein Properties, into a major real estate enterprise, owning hotels, offices and apartments. They also controlled the international United Brands empire for a period and in 1986 bought the Emigrant Savings Bank. Family members Howard and Edward control Douglas Elliman, a building management and brokerage concern, and the Liberty Cable Television Company.
MUSHER. New York. Sidney Musher was a pharmaceuticals executive who was a major player in opening the American market for Israeli products. His sons David and Daniel are doctors.
NAGEL. Los Angeles. The Nagel Construction Company funds the affairs of Jack and Gitta Nagal —both Holocaust survivors. Their children include Ronnie, David, Careena —based in Los Angeles. Daughter Esther lives in Englewood, New Jersey.
NASH. New York. With his partner, Leon Levy (See LEON LEVY), Jack Nash was a founder of the hotly successful private money fund, Odyssey Partners. His son-in-law is investor George Rohr. Jack’s wife, Helen, is the sophisticated author of kosher cookbooks.
NASHER. Dallas. Another of the elite Jewish rulers of Texas, Raymond Nasher was a major mall developer, including the famous North Park, among his success stories.
OFFIT. New York. A former manager at Solomon Brothers, Morris Offit went on to launch his own investment bank, Offitbank, and his own investment advisory firm, Offit Associates.
PEARLE. Dallas. Dr. Stanley Pearle, an optometrist, made his fortune in the famous Pearle Vision Centers, the world’s largest eyeglass dealers.
PECK. New York. Stephen and Judith Stern Peck are Jewish socialites of the highest order. Stephen has been chairman of the board of famed Mt. Sinai Hospital and Judith has been chair of the board of the United Jewish Appeal-Federation. Their daughter-in-law, Stephanie Rein, and their son, Emmanuel, are also big names in New York Jewish affairs.
PERELMAN. New York. Born in Philadelphia, the heir to Belmont Industries, a metal fabricating enterprise that became a holding company for several other businesses in the region, Ronald Perelman now controls more than 44 companies through the MacAndrew & Forbes empire. Among his holdings are his best known, Revlon, the cosmetics giant, the Coleman Co. (which makes camping equipment), California Federal Bank, and Consolidated Cigar (which produces multiple cigar brands). His son Steven is involved in the family’s business affairs. POLK. Chicago. Sam and Sol Polk created the Polk Brothers department stores which were a major force in the Chicago metropolitan area until they closed up in 1992, but the family remains wealthy. Family members include Howard Polk, a stockbroker, Roberta Lewis and Bruce Bachmann, a real estate executive.
PRITZKER. Chicago. Hyatt hotels, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Continental and Braniff Airlines, McCall’s magazine, and the Ticketmaster entertainment octopus have all been part of the Pritzker family’s gigantic fortune. The family founder Nicholas was an immigrant from Kiev who established a law firm that he used to launch the climb to wealth and power. His sons Harry, Jack and Abraham and the latter’s sons, Jay, Robert and Donald, have been the “big” names in the family. Their Marmon Group “specializes in buying and restructuring troubled companies”.
RATNER. Cleveland-New York. The Ratner family’s Cleveland-based Buckeye Material Company evolved into Forest City Enterprises (now Forest City Ratner Companies), which is a major real estate developer in their hometown and in New York. They were involved in the 42nd Street redevelopment. Family members include Charles, James, Ronald, Albert, Leonard and Max, who was the founder of the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce. Mark Ratner is a professor of chemistry at Northwestern University.
REDSTONE. New York. Born “Rothstein”, Sumner Redstone took over his father’s movie theater chain and expanded it to nearly 900 affiliates. In 1987 he orchestrated the leveraged buyout of Viacom, Inc., which is one of the major global media enterprises, controlling Paramount Studios, Blockbuster Video, Simon & Schuster, Nickelodeon and MTV. His daughter Shari Redstone is increasingly involved in her father’s empire.
RESNICK. New York. Jack and Pearl Resnick and their son Burton have made a vast fortune in New York real estate, dealing in office property purchase and renovation. Daughter Marilyn is married to Stanley Katz and active in Jewish affairs both in the U.S. and Israel.
RIFKIND.New York. A well-known attorney and a partner in the well-known elite firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, Simon Rifkind was an “advisor” to General Dwight Eisenhower on issues such as the disposition of uprooted Holocaust survivors and was a major player in lobbying on behalf of the formation of Israel. His son Robert, a partner in the equally elite law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, was president of the American Jewish Committee.
ROSE. New York. Born in Jerusalem, David Rose came to New York and set up a wide-ranging and powerful real estate firm, Rose Associates, that has built, owned and/or managed properties in New York as well as Washington, D.C., Boston, Florida and Connecticut. His sons Frederick, Daniel and Elihu and grandchildren Adam and Jonathan are now in charge of the Rose empire’s affairs.
ROSENWALD. Chicago-New Orleans. Julius Rosenwald made his fortune by grabbing control of Sears & Roebuck, the catalog giant. His son Lessing, however, upset many in the American Jewish community by being a major supporter of anti-Zionist causes. Daughter Edith, who was a major supporter of “civil rights” causes in the South, operating out of a fabulous mansion in New Orleans modeled after “Tara” in Gone With the Wind, married into the Stern family. Her family ran the WDSU media empire in New Orleans and were close personal friends of Clay Shaw, prosecuted by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, for involvement in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. (See Final Judgment by this author, Michael Collins Piper, for further details about the strange role of the Stern family in the affairs surrounding Shaw and accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.) The family is quite large and remains active in real estate and cable television.
RUDIN. New York. Jack and Lewis Rudin and their children, including sons William and Eric, are the rulers of Rudin Management which operates New York-based office and residential buildings.
SAFRA. NewYork-Monte Carlo. Although Syrian-born Jew Edmond Safra died several years in Monte Carlo in a mysterious fire (with allegations of involvement by Russian Jewish organized crime in his death), there is no mystery about the fact that his global banking empire, based in the Republic New York Corp. and the Swiss-based Trade Development (which merged with American Express), were quite powerful in the shadowy world of international finance. The family empire is now controlled by his brothers Joseph and Moise and their heirs.
SAUL. New York. Joseph Saul founded the Brooks Fashion chain which he sold to great profit in 1984. He is now churning his profits into many Jewish causes, Israeli interests in particular.
SAUNDERS. Boston. The Saunders Real Estate Corp. of Donald Saunders owns the Park Plaza hotel in Boston, along with a host of other commercial properties in the Bay State. His daughters Lisa and Pamela are seen as heirs to the fortune. Saunders is married to actress Liv Ullman.
SCHEUER.New York. A gas and coal company and New York real estate provided the foundation for this family’s wealth. One family member, James, served in Congress. Walter is an investment manager and documentary producer. Steven is a media critic. Amy is a psychotherapist. Richard has chaired the board of governors of Hebrew Union College and finances archeological digs in Palestine.
SCHOTTENSTEIN. Columbus, Ohio. This retail and real estate empire is known for Schottenstein Stores Corporation, Value City Department Stores, Value City Furniture and American Eagle Outfitters. Jay Schottenstein is now head of the family’s empire.
SCHUSTERMAN. Tulsa, Oklahoma. Charles Schusterman heads up Samson Investment Company, the largest independent gas producer, headquartered in Oklahoma. Daughter Stacy is involved in the family business. Son Jay lives in Colorado. Son Hal lives in Israel.
SELIG. Atlanta. Heir to Ben Massell, a real estate developer, S. Stephen Selig is a major Atlanta developer in his own right, through Selig Enterprises. His daughter is Mindy Selig Shoulberg, a major player in the city’s Jewish community.
SILVERSTEIN. New York. The son of a real estate broker who rose to become a major high-rise office building developer, Larry Silverstein is probably best known today as the Jewish operator who gained control of the leases of the World Trade Center shortly before the 9-11 tragedy, a subject that has been covered in some detail by AmericanFree Press, the national populist newsweekly based in Washington, D.C. Rumors connecting Silverstein to both the CIA and organized crime activities have circulated for some time.
SIMON. Indianapolis. One of the five biggest shopping mall empires in the country —the second largest, in fact— is the basis of the fortune of brothers Melvin and Howard Simon who developed 62 malls and 55 shopping centers. In 1996 their holdings grew even larger when they merged with the (non-Jewish) DeBartolo Realty Corp. Mel co-owns the Pacers basketball team and has produced “trash” films such as Porky’s. His son David, who had been an investment banker at CS First Boston and Wasserstein, Perella, is now assuming a role in the family business which includes the famous Mall of America in Minneapolis, at one time certainly the largest mall in America.
SKIRBALL. Los Angeles. Jack Skirball was a rabbi, a real estate developer and a film producer —three professions of interest to all good Jewish boys, it seems. His wealthy family remains active in Jewish affairs in California.
SLIFKA. New York. The Halcyon/Alan B. Slifka Management Company provides this family the money they need to remain active in Jewish affairs in New York.
CHARLES E. SMITH. Washington, D.C. Don’t be fooled by the name. He’s Jewish and he was one of the biggest real estate developers in Washington, D.C. Robert Smith and brother-in-law Robert Kogod now run the empire which includes the Crystal City apartment complex in Arlington, Virginia, and Skyline City in Virginia.
RICHARD SMITH. Boston. Based in New England, the General Cinema movie chain expanded to take control of Neiman-Marcus (the Dallas-based department store) along with Harcourt Brace Publishing (now Harcourt General). General Cinema is now known as GC Cos. Robert Smith, son of Richard, has taken over the family’s affairs. The family is described as “very low profile”.
SONNABEND. Boston. Robert, Paul and Stephanie Sonnabend are the principals in the Sonesta International Hotels Corporation. They have some 19 properties, including in Cairo, Egypt.
SPERTUS. Chicago. Picture-framemanufacturing — through Metalcraft Corporation (later Intercraft Industries Corporation) — made the family fortune.
SPIELBERG. Los Angeles. Everyone knows the name of Stephen Spielberg, the movie legend responsible for a wide array of popular films, not to mention Schindler’s List. His primary company is Dreamworks SKG. Amblin Entertainment is another part of the Spielberg empire.
MARY ANN STEIN. Indianapolis. Mary Ann Stein, heir to bankers and businessmen, is active in liberal causes to the point that she become president of the New Israel Fund, an organization devoted to promoting “liberalism” in Israeli society, a cause that inflames hard-line Zionists to a certain extent, considering the New Israel Fund’s friendly gestures toward native Palestinians. (See also FRIEDMAN.)
SAM STEIN. Jacksonville, Florida. Sam Stein started the Steinmart Store in Mississippi and his son Jay developed a chain of 150 stores specializing in “upscale off-price merchandise” in 21 states. Jay’s wife Cynthia is an art teacher active in Jewish affairs in Jacksonville.
STEINBERG. New York. Saul Steinberg made a fortune through Leasco, a computer leasing firm, and then went big time with Reliance Insurance, which he purchased in 1968. His brother Robert and brother-in-law Bruce Sokoloff were heavily involved in family affairs. His daughter Laura is married to Jonathan Tisch of the powerful Tisch media empire (See TISCH.) His son Jonathan is owner of Financial Data which publishes Individual Investor magazine.
STEINHARDT. New York. Hedge-fund manager/tycoon Michael Steinhardt has a “passion”, it is said: that being “Jewish continuity”. Even though he “an avowed atheist” according to Avenue magazine, Steinhardt is still “yet one of America’s biggest supporters of Jewish and Israel causes”. He is a financier behind Forward, the influential New York-based Jewish weekly.
STERN & LINDENBAUM. New York. Heir to the Hartz Mountain (pet supplies) fortune, Leonard Stern owns the “liberal” Village Voice newspaper and is engaged in a variety of real estate ventures. His son Emanuel operates the SoHo Grand Hotel and is married into the influential Peck family (See PECK). The wealth of Leonard’s stepmother, Ghity Amiel Lindenbaum, also contributes to the family fortune.
STONE. Cleveland. Irving, Morris and Harry Stone were heirs to the American Greetings (card) Corporation. The cartoon figure “Ziggy” is one of their contributions to popular culture.
STONEMAN. Boston. Samuel Stoneman was vice chairman of the board of General Cinema Corporation. His daughters are Jane Stein and Elizabeth Deknatel. They run the family’s foundation.
AARON STRAUS. Baltimore. The family fortune was based on the nationwide Reliable Stores Corporation. They are major contributors to “good” causes in the Baltimore region.
NATHAN & OSCAR STRAUS. New York. Heirs to the R. H. Macy and Abraham & Straus department store fortunes. Oscar Straus II and Oscar Straus III are key family figures today.
STRAUSS. Dallas. Former Democratic Party National Chairman and U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Robert Strauss is a high-powered lawyer with the firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld. The son of Charles, a merchant, Robert Strauss was a key player in the rise of Lyndon Johnson to the presidency. His brother Ted’s wife Annette formerly served as mayor of Dallas.
STRELITZ. Norfolk, Virginia. The Haynes home furnishing chain, based in Virginia, is the source of this family’s wealth. E. J. Strelitz is CEO of the company.
SWIG. San Francisco. This family owns the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco and other Fairmonts across the country. The Plaza Hotel is one of their crown jewels. Benjamin Swig and his son Melvin opened up the first shopping mall in the United States. Ben was partnered with Jack Weiler (See ARNOW-WEILER) in the commercial real estate business. Ben’s brother Richard, and Ben’s sons Kent, Robert and Steven, are involved in family foundation activities along with an in-law, Richard Dinner.
SYMS. New York. Sy Syms, head of the Syms Corp., which has a chain of 40 stores selling designer labels at discount prices, has brought his son Robert and daughter Marcy into the family business. Marcy has been a vice president of the American Jewish Congress. The family has also branched out into real estate.
TAUBER. Detroit. Joel Tauber made his fortune in manufacturing: Key Fasteners, Key Plastics (automotive parts) Keywell Corporation (scrap metal) and Complex Tooling & Molding (computer parts). Son Brian is involved in the family business. Daughter Ellen Horing is a money manager in New York. Another daughter, Julie McMahon, works with disadvantaged children.
TAUBMAN. New York. Developer of major shopping malls nationwide, Taubman had early business dealings with Max Fisher of Detroit (See MAX FISHER) and has been closely associated with Leslie Wexner (See WEXNER) of The Limited stores. Taubman was involved in the purchase and sale of the Irvine Ranch in Southern California. Taubman bought the Sotheby’s auction house and ended up being sentenced to a year in jail for price fixing. Vanity Fair reported in late 2002 that Taubman was a popular figure among his fellow inmates. His sons William and Robert are big players in the family empire.
TISCH. New York. Leading supporters of Israel, best known today for their control of the CBS broadcasting empire, Lawrence and Preston Tisch were among the most powerful Jews in America, although Lawrence recently died. Loews, CAN Financial, Lorillard and Bulova are all part of the Tisch empire. Lawrence had sons James, Daniel, Tom and Andrew, the latter involved in the executive committee of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Preston, who owns the Giants team, served as postmaster general of the United States. His son Steve is a filmmaker and his son Jonathan is the president of Loew’s hotels.
TISHMAN. New York. This construction family includes David, Norman, Paul, Louis and Alex. Numerous family members are highly active in Jewish affairs. Nina Tishman Alexander and her husband Richard Alexander and Bruce Diker, another family heir, are among the family members engaged in a variety of causes.
WASSERMAN. Los Angeles. The late Lou Wasserman, longtime head of MCA, the entertainment conglomerate, was —along with his partner, Jules Stein— a sponsor of the rise to fame (in films and in politics) of Ronald Reagan. He has been called the “king” of Hollywood.
WEILL. New York. As chairman and CEO of the Travelers Group, Sanford Weill is one of America’s wealthiest Jewish tycoons. His son Marc is ensconced at Travelers. His daughter Jessica Bibliowicz runs Smith Barney Mutual Funds.
WEINBERG. Baltimore-Hawaii. Harry Weinberg started off in the transit business in Baltimore and then branched out to Hawaii where he became a major player in the real estate business during the 1950s when air tourism to the islands boomed.
WEINER. New York. Chairman and CEO of Republic National Bank of New York and Republic New York Corporation—founded by Edmond Safra (See SAFRA) —Walter Weiner was a founding partner of Kronish, Lieb, Weiner & Hellman. His sons are John and Tom.
WEXNER. New York-Columbus, Ohio . Leslie Wexner owns it all: The Limited, Express, Lerners, Victoria’s Secret, Henry Bendel, Abercrombie & Fitch, Bath and Body Works, and Lane Bryant. He is particularly concerned with educating future Jewish leaders.
WINIK. NewYork. Elaine Winik was the first female president of the United Jewish Appeal-Federation and chair of the United Jewish Appeal. Her daughter Penny Goldsmith is a major figure in AIPAC and in the ADL. The Winik fortune was made in the production of handbags.
WINTER. Milwaukee. Elmer Winter started Manpower, the temporary employment agency that has 1,000 offices in some 32 countries. He’s also been active in expanding business between the United States and Israel and served as national director of the American Jewish Committee.
WOLFENSOHN. New York. Born in Australia and trained as a merchant banker in London, James Wolfensohn became an executive partner at Salomon Brothers in New York. In 1995 he was appointed head of the World Bank —truly a one-man Jewish powerhouse.
WOLFSON. Miami. The Wolfson-Meyer Theater Company became Wometco and in 1984 was acquired by Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Company after having established itself as a pioneer in motion picture and television broadcasting in the 1920s. The investment firms Wolfson Initiative Corporation and the Novecentro Corporation are parts of the family empire. Family members include Louis III and Mitchell. The best known Wolfson was the infamous Louis who became entangled in an unpleasant scandal involving former U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas who was taking money from the Wolfson family foundation.
ZABAN. Atlanta. Based on a janitorial supply firm, Mandle Zaban and his brother Sam and his son Erwin established Zep Manufacturing that ultimately evolved into National Service Industries, now ruled by Erwin who has been a director of the Anti-Defamation League.
ZALE. Texas. Morris Zale established one of the world’s largest jewelry chains, but the company was sold in 1987. Heirs David, Marjory, Stanley and Janet are active in Jewish affairs. The two sons still work in the jewelry business.
ZARROW. Tulsa, Oklahoma. Henry and Jack Zarrow produce oil rigging parts and supplies through the Sooner Pipe and Supply Corporation.
ZILKHA. Truly a “global” Jewish family, the Zilkhas are heirs to the international Banque Zilkha which had been the largest privately-owned commercial bank in—get this—the Arab world. After the founding of Israel, the Baghdad-based French-speaking family moved west. Family chief Ezra has son Elias and daughters Donna Zilkha Krisel and BettinaLouise. Major players in the small Sephardic Jewish elite in America and active in Israel. They have also branched out into arms manufacturing.
ZIMMERMAN. Boston-Atlanta-Palm Beach. Harriet Morse Zimmerman, the daughter of a Boston shoe manufacturer, was a vice president of AIPAC and once arrogantly bragged that “the biggest donor to Israel in the world is the U.S. Congress.” Her son Robert is active in Westport, Connecticut. Her daughter Claire Marx and her son-in-law, Mark O’Leary, are also heavily involved in Jewish affairs.
So there we have it—a grand overview of what are undoubtedly the most powerful Jewish families in America. By no means, as we have said, is the list complete. There are many other names that could be added to the list, usually “lesser fry” (so to speak) in some of the smaller cities and locales around the country. In addition, there are an increasing number of powerful and wealthy foreign Jewish families —from Israel, Iran, Russia and elsewhere— establishing their positions on American shores.
Although it would be convenient, for literary sake, to be able to say that there are “200” or “300” or “400” particular families—in the style of some fanciful and contrived conspiracy-minded works or even in the style of Forbes and Fortune magazine, this would betray reality. What we have assembled here, in easy-to-read format, based on a thoroughly “respectable” and sympathetic source, is a perfectly accept able accounting of the vast array of wealth and power assembled in relatively few hands, a few families whose faces and names are largely unknown to the American (or world) public as a whole.
But rest assured that they are powerful and that persons behind the scenes (and those in political office) know very well who these elite power brokers are. They are, as we have said, able to make American presidents and politicians, and they are able to break them. They are truly Those Who Reign Supreme in America—the New Jerusalem.
And now, before we proceed into an in-depth examination of very specific facts and figures about the vast wealth and power of the Zionist elite, let us take one more brief digression and examine a particularly well-known American entrepreneur who — while not Jewish (so far as is known)— does, in fact, owe his rise to fame and wealth due to his behind-the-scenes support from some of the most powerful Zionist families in the United States today. We refer to the one and only Donald Trump.
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Les responsables de la crise démasqués par eurydile
'The New Babylon - Those Who Reign Supreme : A Panoramic Overview of the Historical, Religous and Economic Origins of the New World Order. Inside the Rothschild Empire - The New Pharisees', by Michael Collins Piper (2009)