[Speaking of Aish HaTorah, here's an interesting list. We boldtype the names we believe to be Jewish (a few famous and influential non-Jews appear as honorees, etc. -- sycophant window dressing). Among the Jewish core below, Vadim Rabinovitch has been accused of being part of the Russian mafia, Charles Hurwitz is an infamous corporate enemy of environmentalists, Lowell Milken's "family foundation" is rooted in his brother's (convicted felon Michael Milken ) illegal billions, Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been under investigation in Russia for enormous corporate crimes and swindles, and on and on. Note too, per this network of Zionism, that Terry Semel, the head of Yahoo!, is also head of an Israeli business network.]
The Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah,
"International Chairman:
Harvey Hecker Frankel - Hecker & Schwartz.
European Chairmen:
Arthur Cohn - Switzerland; Producer
Dr. Ariel Muzicant - Austria; Managing Director, Colliers Columbus
Vadim Rabinovitch - Ukraine; President, All Ukrainian Jewish Congress Alexander Tesler - Germany; Lexan-Israel Princess Hotel
Mauricio Hatchwell Toledano - Spain; Chairman of the Board, Excem, S.A.
North American Chairmen:
Richard Horowitz Management Brokers
Charles E. Hurwitz Chairman & CEO, MAXXAM, Inc.
Howard Jonas Chairman, CEO & Treasurer, IDT Corp.
Art Klein Entrepreneur
Len Leader President, AOL Time Warner Ventures
Joe Weider Weider Health & Fitness
Latin American Chairman:
David Efron, Esq. Co-Chairmen
Co-chairmen:
Merv Adelson Chairman, East West Capital
Kirk Douglas Celebrity
Ron Meyer President and CEO, Universal Studios
Lowell Milken Chairman, The Milken Family Foundation
Leslie Moonves President & CEO, CBS Television Network
Terry Semel Chairman & CEO, Yahoo! Inc., Israel Mission and Business Ventures
Elliot Broidy,President, Broidy Capital
Ken Goldman, SVP Finance and Administration and CFO Siebel Systems, Inc.
Ira Greenstein President, IDT Corporation
Len Leader President, AOL Time Warner Investments, AOL Time Warner, Inc. Jon Medved General Partner, Israel Seed Partners
Richard Rosenbaum Managing Shareholder Greenberg Traurig, LLP
Honorary Chairpeople:
Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
Governor Mario Cuomo
Congressman Peter Deutsch
Senator Robert Dole
Speaker Newt Gingrich
The Honorable Rudy Giuliani, Former Mayor of New York
Steven Goldsmith Senior Domestic Policy Advisor to President Bush Congressman Jack Kemp
Ambassador Jeanne J. Kirkpatrick
Senator Joseph Lieberman
George Pataki Governor of New York Senator
Charles E. Schumer
Senator Arlen Specter
The Honorable Christine Todd Whitman EPA Administrator
Committee Members:
Chris Albrecht Chairman & CEO, Home Box Office
Marc Benioff Chairman, Salesforce.com
Dan Ciporin Chairman & CEO, DealTime, Inc.
Barbara and Marvin Davis Principal, The Davis Companies
Jonathan Dolgen Chairman , Viacom Entertainment Group
Michael Fuchs Chairman, Autobytel.com
Tsvi Gal CIO Warner Brothers Music
Dr. Elliot Hahn President & Director, Andrx Corporation
Alan Hassenfeld Chairman & CEO, Hasbro, Inc.
Robert Iger President, COO & Director Walt Disney Company
Sherry Lansing Chairman, Paramount Pictures
Abe Pollin Pollin Properties
Stewart Rahr President & CEO, Kinray Inc.
Sumner M. Redstone Chiarman & CEO Viacom, Inc.
Dr. Lindsay Rosenwald Chairman, Paramout Capital
Vidal Sassoon
Bud Selig Commission of Baseball
David Suissa Chairman, Suissa Miller
Jerry Weintraub Jerry Weintraub Productions Entertainment
Mel Brooks Director, Producer and Actor
Jack Canfield Author
Fran Drescher Actress
John Goldwyn Vice Chairman & Co-President, Paramount Pictures Corporation John Gray Author, Mars & Venus Institute
Goldie Hawn Actress
Florence Henderson Actress
Arthur Hiller Producer
Quincy Jones Musician
Felicia Farr Jalem Productions
Susan & Leonard Nimoy Rumbleseat Productions
Roberta Peters Actress
Rene Russo Actress
Susan Sarandon Actress
Sidney Sheldon Author
Jonathan Silverman,Actor
Neil Simon, Playwright
Tina Sinatra Author & Producer
Tiffany Theissen Actress
Noah Wyle Actor
King David Honorees:
Kirk Douglas, Actor
President Mikhail Gorbachev
Dr. Henry Kissinger
President Ronald Reagan
Steven Spielberg, Principal, Dreamworks SKG
Lady Margaret Thatcher
Theodor Herzl Honorees:
Senator Rudy Boschwitz
Secretary of Housing Henry Cisneros
Professor Alan Dershowitz, Harvard University
Senator Orrin Hatch
Senator John Kerry
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Chairman & CEO YUKOS Oil Company
Dr. Jeanne J. Kirkpatrick Leavey Professor, American Enterprise Institute
Harvey Mackay, Chairman & CEO, Mackay Envelope Corp.
Lowell Milken Michael Milken Chairman, Knowledge Universe, Inc.
The Honorable Tom Ridge,Secretary of Homeland Security
AM Rosenthal, New York Times
Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
Howard Schultz Chairman, Starbucks Corporation
Barry Sternlicht Chairman & CEO, Starwood Hotels & Resorts
Ted Turner Vice Chairman AOLTW
Sandy Weill Chairman & CEO Citigroup
[Rich Australian Jews struggle in their gilded ghetto war over who loves Israel best:]
Jewish rivals battle for bagel belt,
by Michael Bachelard, The Australian, September 20, 2004
"UP and down the palm-lined, beachfront of Beaconsfield Parade, Melbourne's young and beautiful parade in their cars, on bikes and blades, and on foot. From St Kilda in the south to Port Melbourne in the north, this is the home of the hip, the land of the latte. The Secret Life of Us made it famous, but for a decade before that St Kilda's gritty sex and drugs trade had been living in edgy symbiosis with a new, groovy, urban elite. Now Melbourne Ports, the federal electorate that covers the area, has more tertiary students, more single-occupant households and more gays and lesbians than most other electorates. But another factor sets it aside – it also has the highest or second-highest concentration of Jewish voters in Australia. The southeastern third of Melbourne Ports is the Jewish enclave of Caulfield, Balaclava and St Kilda East, known to locals as the "bagel belt". Labor's Michael Danby, the only Jew in parliament, and on the far Right in factional terms, has held the seat since 1998. Now he is under challenge by another member of the Jewish community, the Liberals' David Southwick, a 36-year-old businessman. It is the first time in Australia that two Jews have gone head to head for a federal electorate. A Labor seat since 1906, Melbourne Ports is held by Mr Danby with a margin of 5.7 per cent. But Mr Southwick believes, with some cause, that he is now within striking distance. Demographic changes are moving against Labor. Housing developments such as Docklands and Beacon Cove are occupied by wealthy singles and "third-agers", driving property values up and blue-collar dock workers out. Labor's primary vote has sunk to the size of the Liberals' and Mr Danby was elected in 2001 on Green and Democrats preferences after they won 20per cent between them. This is a tight contest. And so, last month, the overwrought politics of Israel were dragged heavily into play. "Danby lacks the moral courage and intestinal fortitude" to stand up to members of Labor who "condone apologists for Palestinian terror", Mr Southwick wrote in the August 6 issue of Australian Jewish News. "Michael Danby has had every opportunity to be the Jewish community's voice in Canberra. Sadly he has instead chosen to be Labor's voice in the Jewish community." Mr Danby hit back, informing readers of his service on a kibbutz in the Yom Kippur war and saying he had "the privilege of being the face of my community in parliament". Apart from Israel, private schools have been a burning issue in the bagel belt, where many parents send their children to high-fee Jewish schools. Mr Danby fought hard to have their needs recognised in Labor's anti-elite-school policy and appears to have succeeded, with Jewish schools exempted. But while the candidates slug it out over Jewish issues, their other constituents either do not care, or are hostile to such sectional attitudes, and are more concerned about gay marriage, uni fees and forests."
[How rich American Jews raise money for their real homeland?]
Exclusive Event Raises Funds to Support Student Scholarships at The Hebrew University,
Yahoo Financial News, September 18, 2004
"Tonight, American Friends of The Hebrew University (AFHU) premieres an exclusive fundraising event, "A Chocolate Affaire," at the infamous private "Bugsy Siegel Mansion" in Beverly Hills. Nearly 250 special guests have an opportunity to indulge in an extravagant evening of chocolate tasting and cocktails while enjoying the cool jazz of the renowned Billy Mitchell Group. The event raises much-needed funds to support student scholarships at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem through corporate and private sponsorships, silent and live auctions, plus an opportunity drawing. A mong the evening's distinguished guests are Emmy Award winning writers and acclaimed stage and film actors Renee Taylor and her husband, Joe Bologna, as well as feature film and television actor Eugene Byrd and daytime television's "Passions" cast member Cathy Jeneen Doe. Richard S. Ziman, president of Arden Realty, is this year's honorary chairman for A Chocolate Affaire. Western Region Scholarship chairperson, Renae Jacobs-Anson, along with her husband David Anson, DDS, Dr. Gerald Niznick and Drs. Joel Aronowitz and Fiona Chalom serve as event co-chairs for this inaugural scholarship fundraising event ... The evening's program features brief remarks and a check presentation by the Spiegel family, life long friends and supporters of The Hebrew University. An exciting live auction with once-in-a-lifetime opportunities include flying on a private jet to Las Vegas with first class accommodations at the Las Vegas Hilton; a Qantas Airways Australian getaway featuring two round trip Business class tickets to Sydney with a four-night stay at the beautiful Quay West Suites; an original oil painting by world renowned artist Suzanne Marie; an Adrienne Landau designed chocolate brown Rex knitted poncho donated by Edwards-Lowell, among other must-have luxury items. Adding even more excitement, Gordon Becker of Becker Time generously donated a 9.25-carat white gold diamond tennis bracelet for the opportunity drawing ... To make "A Chocolate Affaire" a most sumptuous experience, some of the most prestigious chocolatiers and vendors offer their best sweet and savory delights to guests. Beacon Restaurant, Canter's Deli, Diddy Riese, F. Gavina & Sons, Joseph Schmidt Confections, Kangaroo Gold Chocolates, Leonidas Belgian Chocolate, Luctor International/Van Gogh Vodka, Melfer's Macaroons, Don Sebastiani & Sons, See's Candy Shops, SerendipiTea, Teuscher Chocolates and Trader Joe's all provided generous tastes of their signature products. As a perfect culmination to the evening, each guest receives a beautiful gift bag created by It's In The Bag full of chocolate-themed products from Bar Method, Broadway Books, Chocolatier Magazine, Demeter Fragrance, Don Francisco Coffee Traders, The Good Home Co., Jillery, Primal Elements, Sol Chicks, Soul Scents and Van Gogh Vodk. Dedicated to education and The Hebrew University student scholarship campaign, major sponsors include ABM Industries, Arden Realty, The Rosalind and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, Milken Family Foundation, and a host of generous private donors and American Friends supporters. Additional support is being provided by Sharp Image Printing, Qantas Airways, Tourism New South Wales, Edward-Lowell and many generous others."
Reichmann International Appoints Barry Reichmann as CEO,
Yahoo Finance, October 20, 2004
"Mr. Paul Reichmann, Chairman and CEO of Reichmann International today announced the appointment of Mr. Barry Reichmann as President and Chief Executive Officer of Reichmann International effective January 1, 2005. Mr. Barry Reichmann will focus his efforts on redeploying the Reichmann family's capital and managing the family's interests in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Mexico. As Executive Chairman, Mr. Paul Reichmann will remain active in all significant transactions within the PR group of companies. Barry Reichmann has successfully devoted his attention over the past 10 years to building the Reichmann family's interests in the Health Care Industry with the largest investment in the sector having been Central Park Lodges/Retirement Residences REIT. The Reichmann and Kuhl families acquired Central Park Lodges (the predecessor entity to Retirement Residences REIT) in 1994 when it owned 25 Retirement & Nursing homes with assets of less than $200 million and equity of $15 million. Barry Reichmann, together with George Kuhl, has built Central Park Lodges/ Retirement Residences REIT over a 10 year period into one of the largest Canadian held public REITs. Retirement REIT today owns 206 Retirement and Nursing homes having total assets of $2.8 billion and equity of approximately $1 billion."
James Crown,
Sara Lee
"James S. Crown is a general partner with Chicago-based Henry Crown and Company. He became a member of Sara Lee Corporation’s board of directors in 1998 and serves as chair of the Audit Committee and is a member of the Executive and Finance Committee. Crown joined Henry Crown & Company in 1985, where he manages real estate, operating companies and security investments. Prior to that, he worked in positions of increasing responsibility for Salomon Brothers Inc., where he was responsible for a variety of advisory services. He was promoted to vice president of the Capital Markets Service Group in 1983. He is a member of the Illinois Bar Association. Crown also serves on the boards of Bank One Corporation and General Dynamics Corporation. He is a trustee of the University of Chicago, the Museum of Science and Industry and the Orchestral Association. Crown earned a bachelor of arts degree in political science from Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass. He also received a law degree from the Stanford Law School, where he was projects editor of the Stanford Law Review and a member of the Stanford Public Interest Law Foundation. Sara Lee Corporation is one of the world's leading branded consumer packaged goods companies, selling its products in nearly 200 countries."
J.P. Morgan's Dimon to Show Citigroup Who's Boss,
Bloomberg.com, July 1, 2004
"It was April 1, and [Jamie] Dimon, 48, chairman and chief executive officer of Chicago-based Bank One Corp., was speaking to local Bank One managers, their clients and supporters of the University of Tulsa's business school. ``I don't call it cost cutting; I call it waste cutting,'' Dimon said in his rapid, rat-a-tat style. ``At Bank One, we got rid of perks, cars, clubs, leases.'' Dimon will now have a chance to practice what he preaches on a much larger stage. Following today's scheduled completion of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.'s acquisition of Bank One, Dimon will take his place as the New York-based bank's president and chief operating officer. At $58 billion, the merger is the largest deal ever in the financial-services industry, eclipsing Travelers Group Inc.'s $36.4 billion purchase of Citicorp in 1998, which formed Citigroup Inc., and Bank of America Corp.'s $48.2 billion acquisition of FleetBoston Financial Corp. in April. For Dimon, a native New Yorker raised in a family of stockbrokers, the J.P. Morgan-Bank One marriage gives him a second chance at winning Wall Street glory. In 1982, Dimon began a 16-year tenure as apprentice, then partner, to Sanford Weill, now 71, the Brooklyn-born banker who built two empires: Shearson Loeb Rhoades Inc., which was sold to American Express Co. in 1981, and Citigroup, where Weill remains chairman of the board ... By the mid-1990s, Dimon was Weill's heir apparent, says Mary McDermott, 60, a retired Citigroup senior vice president who worked with Weill for 34 years and has known Dimon since 1982 ... Dimon's ascension was not to be. In November 1998, Weill asked Dimon to resign -- an act that, McDermott says, rocked the younger man and stunned Citigroup's executive suite. Jobless for almost 18 months, Dimon rebounded in March 2000 by landing Bank One's CEO post, succeeding acting CEO Verne Istock ... ``We were bruised, and he restored the value of the institution that had been evaporating,'' says James Crown, 51, the bank's top individual stockholder, with 8.8 million shares held on behalf of his family, and a Bank One director since 1998 ... In 1997, Dimon was hit with a new challenge: Jessica Bibliowicz, Weill's daughter and head of Smith Barney's mutual funds unit since 1994. Bibliowicz, then 37, was close to her father (``He's really my hero,'' she told Bloomberg News in August 1997) and eager to rise up the ranks. Given her father's position, most of her colleagues saw her ascension as inevitable; Dimon didn't ... Dimon passed over Bibliowicz when he named four new members to Smith Barney's 11-person planning committee in February 1997. Five months later, she quit and became president of John A. Levin & Co., a New York-based asset management firm."
Henry Crown and Company,
covered by Michaela Drapes, Hoover's
"Controlled by Chicago's Crown family, Henry Crown and Company is an investment firm that owns or has stakes in a motley yet gargantuan collection of business assets. These holdings include stakes in sports (the Chicago Bulls and the New York Yankees), home appliances (Maytag), building materials (Vulcan Materials), telephone systems (ALLTEL), and real estate (including apartments, skyscrapers, and resorts). The firm had a significant stake in General Dynamics, a top national defense contractor, until General Dynamics sold many of its business units after Henry Crown's death in 1990; it now holds an 8% stake. The Crown family, worth an estimated $3.6 billion, ranks #132 on Forbes list of world billionaires."
[Geffen, Tisch, Dell, Ziff, Rubin, etc. etc. etc. -- Jews all.]
The Next Warren Buffet? Financier Eddie Lampert turned once-bankrupt Kmart into a $3 billion cash cow. Will he build it into a new Berkshire Hathaway?,
By Robert Berner with Susann Rutledge, Business Week, November 22, 2004
"Security is tight at Eddie Lampert's office. That's no surprise: Last year he was kidnapped at gunpoint while leaving work and held for ransom for two days before talking his way free. In fact, there is no sign on the low-rise building in Greenwich, Conn., that his $9 billion private investment fund, ESL Investments Inc., is even there at all. There's also no sign on ESL's door upstairs -- and certainly no indication that the man sitting there might be the next Warren E. Buffett.If anyone is destined to inherit Buffett's perch as the leading investment wizard of his day, it just might be Edward S. Lampert. Since he started ESL in 1988 with a grubstake of $28 million, he has racked up Buffett-style returns averaging 29% a year. His top-drawer clients range from media mogul David Geffen and Dell Inc. (DELL ) founder Michael S. Dell to the Tisch family of Loews Corp. (LTR ) and the Ziff family publishing heirs. Only 42, Lampert has amassed a fortune estimated at nearly $2 billion. So focused is he on his goals that he was back at work negotiating a big deal two days after his kidnappers released him. Says Thomas J. Tisch, son of Loews's founder Laurence Tisch: "Eddie is one of the extraordinary investors of our age, if not the most extraordinary." Like the 74-year-old Buffett, Lampert has built his success on some of the least sexy investments around. He searches for companies that are seriously undervalued, and he'll even risk jumping into ones that are reeling from bad management or lousy strategies -- because the potential returns are far greater. Right now, ESL has stakes in a grab bag of retailers. It holds 14.6% of Sears, Roebuck & Co, whose stock soared 24% on Nov. 5 after real estate investment trust Vornado Realty Trust bought a 4.3% stake. It also owns a big chunk of the No. 1 auto-parts retailer, AutoZone Inc., and the biggest national chain of car dealers, AutoNation Inc., as well as a small stake in telecom giant MCI. The key to his ambitions, though, is a 53% stake in Kmart Holding Corp. If a fading textile maker in New Bedford, Mass., called Berkshire Hathaway Inc. provided the launchpad for Buffett, then Kmart might do the same for Lampert. Much like the textile mill when Buffett got hold of it, the once-bankrupt Kmart is now throwing off far more cash -- it has $3 billion on hand -- than it can use in the business. It also has $3.8 billion in accumulated tax credits, which can offset taxes on future income, and a fast-rising stock that is valuable in deal-making. Those advantages make Kmart a perfect vehicle for bankrolling big acquisitions ... From the start of his career, Lampert has sought out high-powered mentors. At various stages he worked with former Goldman Sachs & Co. head Robert E. Rubin, economics Nobelist James Tobin, and investor Richard Rainwater. Rubin, now at Citigroup, was taken by his self-assurance, independence, and discipline when Lampert worked for him at Goldman after graduating from Yale University ... Kmart is a classic example of how Lampert works. He got control of a $23 billion retail chain -- the nation's third-largest discounter, behind Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. -- for less than $1 billion in bankruptcy court. He emerged as the largest shareholder and became chairman 18 months ago as part of a reorganization in which virtually all of its debt was converted into shares. Lampert's goal is to keep Kmart humming so it can continue throwing off cash. Even if Kmart eventually fails, keeping it going as long as possible lets him extract top dollar for its valuable real estate by selling the stores over time ... So far, Lampert has been milking Kmart for cash. Although same-store sales continue to sink, the company has been in the black for the past three quarters because cash flow has surged ... Lampert is also angling to boost profits at a smaller, more focused Kmart. He has quietly consulted former Gap Inc. Chief Executive Millard Drexler on apparel strategy and hired two former Gap merchandising and design executives as a result. One of their first moves was to add four upmarket brands to Kmart's clothing lineup, which will widen margins. And Kmart is beefing up its consumer electronics selection, adding such brands as Sony ... And on Oct. 18 he named a new CEO, Aylwin Lewis, a PepsiCo Inc. veteran who's expected to sharpen the chain's operations and marketing ... It was Lampert's grandmother who sparked Lampert's interest in investing. She would watch Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street Week on TV religiously and invest in stocks such as Coca-Cola Co. that paid large dividends. From the age of about 10, his mother recalls, Eddie would sit at his grandmother's knee as she read stock quotes in the paper and they would talk about her investments. By the ninth grade, while he was watching sports on TV with his buddies, Lampert would also be reading corporate reports or finance textbooks, says Jonathan Cohen, Lampert's closest childhood friend. "He would mark things with a highlighter," says Cohen, who believes the death of Lampert's father must play some role in "his need for financial success."
[Older article: the three richest people in Florida are Jewish:]
Florida boasts 10 of world's richest,
by Robert Trigaux, St. Petersburg Times, February 28, 2003
"Who are these 10? In order of wealth:
1. Micky Arison, 53, Bal Harbour. Ranks 104th, down from 103rd last year, on Forbes list of the world's richest people. Net worth: $3.2-billion down from $3.6-billion. Father Ted Arison started Carnival Cruise Lines in 1972. Micky took over in 1979 after his father moved to Israel and turned Carnival into the world's largest cruise operator.
2. Daniel Abraham, 79, Palm Beach. Ranks 222nd, up from 234th last year. Net worth: $1.8-billion, unchanged. World War II veteran made fortune with Slim-Fast weight-loss-supplement maker. Sold business to Unilever for $2.3-billion in 2000.
3. Robert Rich Sr., 89, Palm Beach. Tied at 222nd, up from 277th last year. New to Florida list after relocating from New York. Net worth: $1.8-billion, up from $1.6-billion. Former milk company owner developed soybean-based whipping cream in 1940s, nondairy coffee creamer in 1960. Expanded into frozen foods, food services. A minor-league baseball team owner."
[We nominate Kermit the Frog to the list of "most powerful Jews." Of course we don't think he's particularly Jewish, but he's powerful and, so it seems, that's as good a criteria for "being Jewish" these days as any.]
Madonna named one of America's 'most powerful Jews',
Ananova
"Madonna has been named one of the most powerful Jewish Americans despite protestations from her spokeswoman that "Madonna is not Jewish." The 46-year-old popstar's enthusiasm for the Jewish mystic cult of Kabbalah has helped earn her 51st spot on the annual list of the most powerful and influential Jewish Americans in The Forward paper. J.J. Goldberg, editor of the Jewish weekly, defended its decision to include Madonna on the list saying, "She's a practitioner of the Kabbalah, so she's practicing Judaism for Christ's sake! Well, not really for Christ's sake, but she's probably the world's best known practitioner of Judaism right now." Madonna's publicist Liz Rosenberg repeatedly advised The Forward that "it wouldn't be appropriate to include her on such a list" because Madonna "is not Jewish," reports the New York Daily News. Madonna has become a devotee of Kabbalah telling promoters on her Reinvention tour that she would not play gigs on Friday nights because it was against her religion. She also is said to observe the Jewish sabbath, asked friends to call her Esther, her religious name, and has published a series of children's books based on Kabbalah stories."
[Edward Lampert appears to be Jewish. Alan Lacey, the CEO of Sears, also sports a common Jewish surname. Alwyn B. Lewis may also be Jewish.]
Kmart acquires Sears in $11 Billion Deal,
Earthlink (from Associated Press), November 17, 2004
"A resurgent Kmart, home of the blue light special, is buying the once-dominant Sears department store chain in a surprising $11 billion gamble it is counting on to help both better compete with Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers. Led by Kmart Holding Corp. chairman Edward Lampert, the new Sears Holdings Corp. would be the nation's third largest retailer. Both chains would survive, but several hundred stand-alone Kmarts throughout the country are expected to be transformed into Sears stores. The goal: A quick kick-start to sales away from Sears traditional base of shopping malls. Lampert and Sears chairman and CEO Alan Lacy, in announcing the deal on Wednesday, promised up to $500 million a year in savings within three years from store conversions, back-office job cuts, more efficient buying of goods and possible store closings ... Lampert, 42, was as an assistant to Robert Rubin at Goldman Sachs & Co. before leaving to form a hedge fund at the age of 25. He orchestrated the deal and will lead a new board that will be dominated by Kmart directors ... Lacy said he and Lampert have known each other for four years. The idea for a combined company first arose when they were in talks about Sears' purchase of 50 Kmart stores earlier this year, he said. The new company is expected to have $55 billion in annual revenues and 3,500 outlets. That will mean it will trail only Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Home Depot Inc. among the biggest U.S. retailers ... Lampert gained control of Kmart when the retailer emerged from bankruptcy in May 2003 through the conversion of his debt holdings into equity. In March, Kmart posted its first profitable quarter in three years' ... Lampert ... would not provide any details on possible layoffs, except to say, "There will be some head count changes that come out of this' ... Sears Holding also created the office of the chairmanship, which consists of Lampert, Lacy and Aylwin B. Lewis, who was named president of Sears Holding Corp., CEO of Sears Retail. Last month, Lewis, formerly an executive at restaurant operator Yum Brands Inc., was named chief executive and president of Kmart.
[Classical Jewish financial exploitation. When all the dust settles and lots of people get laid off and Kmart and Sears are going to Hell, it doesn't matter to the man at the top. Lampert's wallet still gets fatter.]
The big winner in Sears deal: Lampert,
by Herb Greenberg, CBS Marketwatch, November 17, 2004
"[T]he announcement that Sears will merge with Kmart appears to be little more than financial engineering and an attempt to merge the two worst retailers out of their problems. Historically, that has been a disastrous strategy in retail. Hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert, the biggest investor in Kmart and a large investor in Sears, instead compares the deal to the consolidation of financial companies in the 1990s. As a vote of confidence, he says his funds will take stock in the merger, not cash. This is the same Eddie Lampert who is featured on the cover of the current Business Week under the heading, "The Next Warren Buffett?" Lampert doesn't generally give interviews, which suggests he was conveniently made available for the story to set the stage for this deal. To be sure, if it was being done by anybody else analysts would have deemed it a disaster in the making. Let's not forget it comes on a day Kmart itself reported disappointing third-quarter earnings and a 12.8 percent slide in same-store sales. "At least with Kmart," says one longtime retail analyst and a skeptic on the deal, "there was a simple business model. Now he's going to make it more complicated. It's not the holding company model people were hoping for." That remains to be seen. The story had been that Lampert would use Kmart as his Berkshire Hathaway for other large holdings for his ESL partners, which include Footstar and Autozone ... No matter what happens this has clearly been a windfall for investors in Kmart and Sears, who may still see upside in the merged entity - at least until the deal closes. But the biggest winner by far at this point is Eddie Lampert, who as a hedge fund manager gets paid a management fee based on the realized and unrealized gains in his fund. As senior columnist at Minyanville.com and soon-to-be ex-hedge fund manager Jeff Macke says, "Eddie will personally have a much better Christmas than his stores."
Israeli Companies Increasingly Taking World Stage Says White & Case Lawyer. Latest round of Israeli-related deals handled by firm reflect sophisticated market,
Yahoo! News, November 18, 2004
"Despite continuing political unrest in the Middle East, Israeli companies are playing an increasingly larger role on the world stage, says a lawyer from White & Case who has been actively involved in Israeli-related transactions. "Israel has more companies listed on NASDAQ than any country outside North America. Israel is a large sophisticated market as represented by the growing number of Israeli-related deals White & Case has handled in the past year," said Joshua Kiernan, head of White & Case's Israel practice. Kiernan points to two capital market transactions on which White & Case advised that closed in the past week as examples of this emerging trend. The Firm advised Lehman Brothers, as sole book-running manager in the $108 million initial public offering of common stock and New York Stock Exchange listing of Ormat Technologies, Inc, which designs, deve lops, builds, owns and operates clean, environmentally friendly geothermal power plants and recovered energy- based plants. Ormat is a subsidiary of Ormat Industries, Ltd., an international power systems company that is listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. White & Case also represented Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers in a $125 million convertible bond offering by an Israeli technology company listed on NASDAQ and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange ... "The technology coming out of Israel is some of the most exciting in the world. For example, one of our clients, Given Imaging, just won recognition from The Wall Street Journal as the Biotech-Medical winner and overall winner of the Silver Medal for technology innovation in 2004 for its video camera contained in a swallowable, pill-shaped capsule. This makes it an exceedingly exciting market," said Kiernan ... Other Israeli-related deals on which the Firm advised include representing Merrill Lynch on a $150 million convertible bond offering by Makhteshim-Agan, the world's largest manufacturer of generic crop protection products; Citigroup on the SEC-registered IPO and NASDAQ listing of semiconductor company PowerDsine; and Frutarom, a specialty chemicals company, in its acquisition of the European food preparation business of IFF ... White & Case has a leading Israel practice based in London, New York and Palo Alto serving clients across a broad rang of practice areas, including capital markets, M&A, projects finance, intellectual property and tax.
Ostrich-farming Jews mark 120 years in rural South Africa,
by Michael Belling, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November 28, 2004
"The glimmer of gold once drew thousands of prospectors to the Western United States, and the promise of oil has attracted myriad entrepreneurs to the Middle East. But for Jews in the little town of Oudtshoorn, in the middle of the parched “Little Karoo” lands of South Africa, it’s another commodity that once fueled their success: ostrich feathers. During the three decades leading up to World War I, many Jews moved to this isolated town, located 270 miles from Cape Town, catching the height of the ostrich-feather boom. They were among the leading ostrich farmers supplying the sought-after plumes for feather boas and hats worn by fashion-conscious women in fin-de-siecle Europe. Several of the farmers built huge homes, known as “ostrich palaces.” Hundreds of community members and visitors from around the world gathered earlier this month to celebrate the Oudtshoorn Jewish community’s 120th anniversary ... Several speakers addressed the town’s long Orthodox tradition, a tradition that has maintained since its original immigrants arrived from Kelm and Shavel, two small towns in Lithuania. The revelers packed a local synagogue to the rafters last Friday night and Saturday. At the Friday-night service, many of the men wore ostrich-leather yarmulkes, fashioned especially for the occasion. The magnificently embroidered curtain adorning the shul’s ark was donated in 1984 by the Oudtshoorn town council to mark the congregation’s centenary. One tribute followed another during the weekend of celebration and commemoration. Speakers included South Africa’s Chief Rabbi-elect Warren Goldstein; the former chairman of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency and of the World Jewish Congress, Mendel Kaplan; the chairman of the African Jewish Congress; Mervyn Smith, and Bagraim ... When Jews in Oudtshoorn were involved in the ostrich business, the feather trade was the fourth largest industry in the country — after gold, diamonds and wool. The community flourished in what became known as the “little Jerusalem of Africa.” At its height, it was among the largest Jewish centers in South Africa, with an estimated 600 families, most of them observant Jews ...Today, only 16 Jewish families remain in the town, many of them still involved in the ostrich industry ... Longtime Jewish leader Philip Krawitz said it was a “remarkable community. They stood up, not just as Jews, but as observant Jews, as Zionists, and were welcomed as such by the entire Oudtshoorn community.”
Who's who of the Anglo rich. The who's who of Israel's richest English-speaking immigrants [in Israel],
by Yehezekel Laing, Jerusalem Post (Israel), November 19, 2004
"As the old joke goes: "Want to know how to make a small fortune in Israel? Come with a big one." But what was once the butt of a joke has some laughing all the way to the bank. According to US investment bank Merrill Lynch, the number of Israeli millionaires grew by 20 percent in 2003 and now exceeds 6,000. Among those, there is a fair representation of wealthy Anglo olim. In fact, two of the country's five wealthiest citizens, including its wealthiest, are English-speaking immigrants. In order to keep track of who has the most toys, The Jerusalem Post has compiled its own list of the wealthiest Anglo olim ... Almost half of the people on the list have made their fortunes here. But the other half of the well-heeled olim came to Israel wealthy and have used their wealth to invest heavily in the country. The list includes three billionaires, four worth hundreds of millions and the rest worth dozens.
1. Shari Arison, $4.6b.
Arison, 47, originally from Miami, is not only the wealthiest olah in Israel, she's its wealthiest citizen. According to Forbes Magazine, Arison is the 94th richest person in world. The majority of her wealth comes from the 80 million shares she inherited from her father, Ted Arison, in Carnival Cruise Lines - the largest cruise line company in the world. Her shares are worth some $3.6b. Shari's father, Israeli-born Ted Arison, moved to Miami in the 1960s and started Carnival Cruise Lines in 1972 utilizing a refurbished former transatlantic liner ... Ted Arison died in 1999 at the age of 75. Carnival, which posted a net profit of $1.2b. last year, is currently managed by Ted's son, Micky. Shari currently holds 35 percent of the shares in Arison Holdings which owns 20.7% of Bank Hapoalim, 35% of Housing and Construction (Shikun Ubinui) and 49% of Eurocom - Israel's largest privately-owned communications group. She also holds a significant number of shares in Partner Communications and Internet Zahav. Shari, who served in the IDF, officially made aliya in 1967 but has been back and forth between the US and Israel many times over the years. She left Israel in September last year following withering media attacks but returned in June saying that she loves Israel and that her heart is here. Arison is heavily involved in the Arison Foundation which has distributed $150m. in Israel ...
2. Morris Kahn, $1.75b.
South African-born Kahn, 74, made his fortune through software giant Amdocs which he co-founded in 1982. Amdocs went public on the New York stock exchange in 1998. It is estimated that half the phone calls made in North America today rely on Amdocs software. In 2000, Kahn began selling off his Amdocs shares, netting him the majority of his $1.75b. fortune ...
3. Pincus Green, $1.1b.
Commodities trader Green, 69, is rated No. 514 on Forbes' 2004 Wealthiest Americans list. In the Sixties and Seventies, Green and partner Marc Rich amassed a fortune dealing in oil, precious metals and other commodities. But in the Seventies, the two were indicted on charges of manipulating the US oil system, trading with Iran during the hostage crisis, and evading taxes. In spite of paying about $150 million in fines, criminal charges remained outstanding against the two and they moved their base to a town south of Zurich. Rich and Green eventually both became citizens of Spain and Israel, countries where the tax charges aren't grounds for extradition. Despite receiving pardons from president Bill Clinton in 2001, the partners have been reluctant to return to the US. While Rich's lavish lifestyle and campaign contributions to Clinton made headlines, soft-spoken Green was considered an appendage. But Swiss bankers say that Green was the brains behind the commodity trades, exploiting price differentials due to delays and other glitches in transporting nickel, aluminum, oil and other commodities ...
4. Benzion (Benny) Landa, $500m.
Known as the father of digital offset color printing, Landa, 56, is the former chairman and founder of Indigo, which he established in 1977. In 2002, Landa sold Indigo to Hewlett-Packard for $830m. Landa was born in Poland to post-World War II refugee parents but grew up in what he described as a "poor but loving home" in Canada. His interest in printing goes back to the time he worked as a child in his father's photo shop. "As a young man, I dreamed about two things: machines and Israel," he said. His dream of moving to Israel he fulfilled in the mid-Seventies ...
5. Leon Koffler, $444m.
Canadian-born Koffler, 56, is CEO of the Israeli drugstore chain Super-Pharm. The story begins with his father, Morry, who founded Shopper's Drug Mart in Toronto in the 1960s. Over time it blossomed into a chain of more than 1,000 stores across Canada and today has annual revenues of almost $5b. In the early Seventies, at the invitation of then finance minister Pinhas Sapir, Morry came to Israel with other Jewish businessmen ...
6. Benjamin Jesselson, $350m.
American-born Jesselson, 51, along with his two brothers, Michael and Daniel, inherited their father Ludwig's fortune. Ludwig founded Phillip Barders, a commodities trading company which dealt in oil and metals. He later merged it with investment giant Solomon Smyth Barney and the Jesselsons became the largest shareholders in the firm. Brother Michael currently manages the family's holdings in the US while Benjamin does the same in Israel ... He has had a couple of run-ins with the law. Last year he was acquitted on charges of helping businessman Shlomo Eisenberg deceive shareholders and manipulate a vote in the Arad investment company. In 1998, he was acquitted of mismanagement with intent to deceive in tax fraud charges brought against Teva CEO Eli Hurvitz and senior managers of Promedico. He was, however, charged with tax evasion, and acquitted in 2000 ...
7. Erwin Eisenberg, $300m.
London-born Eisenberg, 54, inherited his fortune from his father, Shoul, who built up a $1b. empire, which included real estate and industrial holdings such as Israel Corp. ...
8. Shirley Porter, $125m.
Tesco supermarket heiress Dame Shirley Porter, 73, is believed to be worth at least BP69m. according to the Sunday Times's 2001 rich list. Unfortunately for her, she is wanted by British authorities for a 1994 conviction in the "homes-for-votes" affair. In the Eighties, Porter was believed to be active in trying to boost votes in a London borough by offering heavily discounted council housing to potential voters, and she relocated to Tel Aviv. Earlier this year, Porter paid London's Westminster Council some BP12.3 million as a settlement of their claim for BP42 million. Porter's latest difficulties, which may be grounds for extradition, center on an affidavit she signed during the affair in which she claimed she was worth just BP300,000 ...
9. Isi Leibler, $60m.
Born in Belgium, Leibler, 70, grew up in Melbourne, where he made his money in the travel industry. Leibler is the son of a diamond merchant who wisely moved his family to Australia prior to World War II. After working in his family's jewelry business, Leibler got involved in the travel industry in 1964, creating a travel company called Jetset which eventually was valued at $100m. He netted $20m. when he sold his share in the company to Air New Zealand in 1997. Since then he has been involved in real estate deals. A former head of the Australian Jewish community, Leibler has also served as the co-chairman of the World Jewish Congress governing board and is currently vice president of the WJC. Leibler made aliya [moved to Israel] in 1998.
10. Barry Shaked, $55m.
South-African-born Shaked, 47, made aliya with his family in 1960 at the tender age of three, but that still officially qualifies him as an oleh. Shaked is founder, chairman and CEO of Retalix.
11. Avi Arenson, $30m.
Winnipeg-born Arenson, 64, is the founder and majority shareholder of private company A. Arenson Construction, one of Israel's largest infrastructure firms ...
12. Jonathan Kolber, $25m.
Canadian-born Kolber is vice-chairman and CEO of Koor Industries. Kolber graduated from Harvard in 1983 with a BA in Near Eastern Languages and civilization and later studied at the American University of Cairo. He moved to Israel in 1988 to take charge of the Israeli branch of Claridge, an investment company he controls together with the Bronfman family ...
13. Shlomo Ben-Zvi, $20m.
Businessman Ben-Zvi, 39, grew up in Golders Green, London, where he was known as Michael Goldblum. He moved to Israel in 1978 at the age of 13. He learned at Hesder Yeshiva Kerem B'Yavne and Mercaz Harav Kook before studying philosophy and math at the Hebrew University. He also holds a graduate degree in international relations. Following his studies, Ben-Zvi went into the family business - commercial real-estate development - in Tel Aviv and Europe. He also started investing in hi-tech companies in Israel and Europe, including Israeli company Ness Technologies. Most recently Ben-Zvi has been involved in building a media empire aimed at taking on Israel's powerful media establishment. Along with American-Jewish billionaire Ronald Lauder he formed the Techelet Group which established Techelet, Israel's first Jewish-content television channel ...
14. Marc Belzberg
Vancouver-bred Belzberg, 49, made aliya in 1992 and is chairman and CEO of e-Sims, a simulation software company, formerly known as Emultek. He is also CEO of ODF Electronics and was CEO of the now defunct Versaware, which converted books into electronic versions on the Internet and CDs. Before coming to Israel, Belzberg managed Mergers & Acquisitions and LBOs for Salomon Brothers and Oppenheimer & Co. and served as the first president of First City Capital Corp. from 1983 to 1990 ... Marc is the son of Samuel, one of the famous Belzberg brothers of Canada. The sons of Polish immigrants, Sam, William and Hyman Belzberg made a fortune in real estate, oil and gas investments and were said at one point to be worth $8 billion ...
15. Edward Reichmann
Edward, 79, is the oldest of the five famous Reichmann brothers. The brothers, who fled Austria to Canada with their parents during World War II, built a real-estate development empire estimated at $18 billion. Olympia & York, the firm founded by the brothers eventually became the world's biggest owners of office space. But after risking $6 billion in the 24-building Canary Wharf project in London, the company crashed and today the brothers are believed to hold less than $1b."
JEWISH WINNERS OF THE JOHN BATES CLARK MEDAL IN ECONOMICS
(71% of all recipients),
jinfo
- Paul Samuelson (1947)
- Milton Friedman (1951)
- Kenneth Arrow (1957)
- Lawrence Klein (1959)
- Robert Solow (1961)
- Hendrik Houthakker (1963)
- Zvi Griliches (1965)
- Gary Becker (1967)
- Marc Nerlove (1969)
- Franklin Fisher (1973)
- Martin Feldstein (1977)
- Joseph Stiglitz (1979)
- Jerry Hausman (1985)
- Sanford Grossman (1987)
- David Kreps (1989)
- Paul Krugman (1991)
- Lawrence Summers (1993)
- Andrei Shleifer (1999)
- Matthew Rabin (2001)
- Steven Levitt (2003)
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