Victims rule7

Sometimes the Jewish heritage of the powerful or newsworthy is difficult to ascertain, but their ethnicity can often be decided via articles about relatives, relationships to Israel, synagogues, religious holidays, cultural indicators, or Jewish-configured political organizations and other tangential leads. Many surnames (Cohen, Katz, Kaplan, Levy, Levine, Levin, etc.) are instantly recognizable to the informed as Jewish and, even if a small minority of individuals with such names are only "half-Jewish" or, rarely, converts to some other religion, the familial link to the Jewish community (especially in homage to the Holocaust and often modern Israel) may fairly be presumed to be no small thing. For purposes here, that allegiance, and all it entails, is the crucial determinant in determining who is Jewish. The ambiguous "community of fate" is, after all, one of the major self-defined measures of Jewish identity. This is particularly true of those who hold power of some sort in popular culture: most of these people are in significant degree part of a Jewish network, especially an economic and political one.

In these senses, this work follows the lead of the Jewish community (and the Jewish ethnic media) itself. (Many individuals, however, who may well be Jewish, had to be left out of this assemblage because public information was too weak and names were too ambiguous to presume that they had a Jewish background). This entire methodology (ironically ascribed by Jews as a manifestation of anti-Semitism if it represents anything less than an intention to flatter Jewry) is popular in the Jewish world itself, often noted as "nose-counting" or "bean-counting": usually a celebratory emphasis of who exactly is Jewish and/or its attendant search for allegiances. As Jewish scholar Nathan Glazer has noted about this phenomena, and its tinge of paranoia:

"A leading figure in the Jewish community affairs relates that a

Jew eagerly asks, in any situation, 'How many are Jews?' And

when he gets an answer, he asks suspiciously, 'How do you

know?'" [NEUSNER, J., 1972, p. 3]

Efforts here to determine specifically who is Jewish are, in some ways, more extensive than most Jewish organizations' demographic studies themselves. In a 1999 investigation of the Jews of the Miami area by the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County, for example, the way to ascertain who was Jewish was simple. Ten percent of common Jewish names were merely tallied, and compared to other years, from phone books. From this base, estimates were made. This method of determining Jewish population numbers "has been used by Jewish demographers across the country for 40 years." [BELKIN, D., 5-6-99, p. B1] An American Jewish Committee examination of voter patterns in the Philadelphia was in large part "based on surnames gathered from voter-registration records." [FELDMAN, S., 3-2-2000, p. 1] Jewish author George Gilbert, like many, notes in his introduction to his volume about "Jewish photographers," that "for the purposes of this study, individuals are deemed Jewish even if they do not meet the halakhic structure responsible for traditional Jewish religious criteria: being born of a Jewish mother." [GILBERT, G., 1996, p. ix] Stanley Rothman's and S. Robert Lichter's definition of Jewry to qualify for inclusion in a book about Jewish political radicalism goes like this: "We classified students as Jewish if the ethnic background of both parents was Jewish, or if only one parent was of Jewish background but had raised the child as a Jew or without religious training." [ROTHMAN/LICHTER, 1982, p. 213] In 1973 Harry Golden noted United Jewish Appeal methodologies to find the Jewish nouveau riche to pester for philanthropic donations: "[UJA] researchers go over every prospectus issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission, attentively study advertised stock offerings in every city, and plow through hundreds of year-end reports to the stockholders issued by major industries, always on the lookout for that Jewish name that they have never read before." Another UJA division scans obituaries, looking for affluent Jews by surname, intent upon contacting survivors. [GOLDEN, H., 1973, p. 119] No apologies are thereby made for such popular Jewish research methodologies that are in large part followed here.

"Having money is a good thing, having power over money is

-- Old Yiddish folk saying [KUMOVE, S., 1985, p. 16]

"Money goes to money."

Old Yiddish folk saying, [KUMOVE, S., 1985, p. 179]

"The rich breed more rich."

Old Yiddish folk saying, [KUMOVE, S., 1985, p. 251]

"The rich man's way is without fair play."

-- Old Yiddish folk saying, [KUMOVE, S., 1985, p. 251]

"Villains fare well in this world, saints in the next world."

-- Old Yiddish folk saying, [KUMOVE, S., 1985, p. 84]

"Behind every fortune lies a crime." -- Balzac

     "Jewish money," noted Gerald Krefetz, "-- its purported influence and power-- is one of the oldest canards of anti-Semitism. Therefore, the topic is usually dealt with in the softest of voices by Jews for fear of raising the specter of anti-Semitism; and by non-Jews for fear of being tarred by the brush, of being called anti-Semites for even ventilating the subject. The omission is startling since money -- its use and abuse, its acquisition and disposition -- was and is a central element in the Jewish experience." [KREFETZ, p. 3]

     As an Eastern European Jewish fable notes about the subject of anti-Jewish hostility, traditional tension between Jewish haves and Gentile have-nots, and the wisdom of keeping relative Jewish affluence hidden:

     "Once the good-hearted rabbi of Chelm was interrupted in his devotions
      by the sudden appearance of one of his townspeople, Yankele, bleeding
      and howling in pain. The shabbes-goy [non-Jewish Saturday servant for
      Jews] had gratuitously punched Yankele in the mouth. The rabbi asked
      solicitously if he could inspect the damage. But when Yankele opened
      his mouth, the rabbi was horrified. How does a Jew come to have such
      a healthy set of teeth? Are these the very teeth that Yankele had exposed
      to the shabbes-goy? Well, then, no wonder he had been brutalized.
      For a Jew to show such strong teeth is in itself a provocation. The
      rabbi counseled Yankele never to show his teeth to any Gentile again.

      In susequent weeks, although Yankele keeps his mouth dutifully shut, the
      shabbes-goy beats him up repeatedly. Each time the rabbi, after due
      analysis of the situation, discovers a provocation: once Yankele had carried
      a loaf of bread home from the marketplace, obviously attracting the shabbes-goy's
      envy; a second time he had strayed too far out of town, obviously transgressing
      what the shabbes-goy considered to be the Jew's legitimate bounds. Finally,
      after still another beating, the rabbi realizes the gravity of the situation and
      calls a public meeting of the local Jewish elders to resolve the matter. The
      meeting unanimously concludes that Yankele is too dangerous to keep in town.
      At the rabbi's suggestion he if forced to leave, and the shabbes-goy's wages
      are modestly raised to placate him and 'move him to pity.'" [SHORRIS, E.,
      1982, p. 98-99; written by WISSE, RUTH]

"Jewish success in America," says Henry Feingold, "appears to rest partly on the pre-existing Jewish culture (which gives it behavioral cues, a unique entrepreneurial vision, plus connections and capital); and American culture (which gives it a success ethos, economic opportunity, and open society)." [FEINGOLD, p. 41] "Jews," noted Israeli scholar Boas Evron in 1995, "are among the most powerful, best integrated and wealthy groups in the United States, Britain, and France." [EVRON, p. 48] "Jews," adds Joseph Heckelman, "are disproportionately visible in every area of human endeavor. In other words, Jews are disproportionately successful." [HECKELMAN, J., p. 68] "Success is a basic fact of Jewish American life," observed Roger Kahn in 1968, "... Success surrounds and infuses their lives. Success in business; success in educating children; success in entering the most hotly-sought endeavors. Jews are business owners, business managers, professionals, writers and artists. Few are laborers. Virtually none is a farmhand." [KAHN, R., p. 4] "We didn't progress because we were Jewish," a Jewish factory owner in Brooklyn told researcher Jonathan Rider in 1985, "but because we are a driving, pushing people." [REIDER, J., 1985, p. 45]

Karl Marx's mid-19th century comment that America had already become "Judaized" (i.e., commercialized and rendered excessively materialistic) through Jewish influence upon America's own stringent brand of Protestantism, was echoed in 1911 by the Jewish anthropologist, Maurice Fishberg:

"Fifty years ago the criminology of the Jews was a good indication of

what modern society is coming to under commercial and financial

activity. In this respect, as was the case with many other peculiarities,

such as the excessive number of psychopathics and neuropathics, the

Jews have only been the advance agents. Many publicists of Europe

have, in fact, often designated conditions in the United States as

'Jewish.'" [FISHBERG, p. 549]

     "The power of commercialism in the United States was hardly to be denied," says Albert Lindemann, "The English themselves were often taken aback by the commercial scramble in the United States in the nineteenth century, by the 'Jewish souls of the Yankee.'" [LINDEMANN, p. 206] "It has been the Jews," says Edward Shapiro, "who taught Americans how to dance (Arthur Murray), what to wear (Ralph Lauren), how to behave (Dear Abby and Ann Landers), and where to complain (David Horowitz). [SHAPIRO, Anti-Sem, p. 1] Jews even gave the world the idealized images of the Barbie doll and Superman. "If you live in New York or any other major city," said comedian Lenny Bruce, "you are Jewish." [RUBIN, p. 89]

    As Chaim Bermant notes:

     "There is probably less anti-semitism and certainly less overt anti-semitism in
      the world today than at any other time since the rise of Christianity. Auschwitz is,
      of course, one reason; another is the decline in religious fanaticism and, indeed, in
      religious belief in general, and while rampant secularism may be a threat to Judaism
      it has made life easier for the Jew. A third reason, which is connected to the second,
      is that the western world has become more Jewish. The commercial drive which
      was said to characterize the Jew and which was regarded with such disdain by the
      European (if not the American) bourgeoisie, has become, if not respectable, then at
      least more widespread and acceptable ..." [BERMANT, C., 1977, p. 37]

"If the religious traditions of the shtetl had accustomed Jews to think of luxuries as a type of instrument for dignifying the holy days," says Andrew Heinze, "the secular American environment refocused this awareness." [HEINZE, p. 5] ... By exploiting the Jewish concept of honoring a holiday, merchants and consumers turned the religious occasion into a pretext for shopping ... [HEINZE, p. 66] ... As a pretext for shopping, Jewish holidays merged subtly with the fashion cycle." [HEINZE, p. 67] "The turn of the century New York Yiddish press," writes Paula Hyman and Deborah Moore, "abounded with references to the enthusiasm of Jewish women, even the newly arrived, for the latest style of dress and interior decoration. Furthermore, there were certain clear contrasts between Jews and other groups in respect to the consumption of goods ... [Jewish] attraction to new kinds of products and pleasures also contributed to the rapid development of a resort culture among Jews, which set them apart not only from other immigrants, but from virtually all Americans of similar modest means." [HYMAN, p. 24] Among the best known of these resorts in the Catskill Mountains was Grossinger's.

"In the 1860s and 1870s," notes William Leach, "luxury was seen by many Americans as morally corrupting ... By the 1920s, luxury seems to have lost for many people much of its negative meaning." [LEACH, p. 295] "The modern definition of luxury," decided an influential Columbia University economist, Edwin R. Seligman, in 1927, "is neutral so far as ethical connotation is concerned." [LEACH, p. 295] "Nourished by American conditions and values," says Andrew Heinze, "Jewish merchants were able to make a profound impact in the era before World War I. In the areas of street marketing and film marketing, they would completely change the prevalent mode of operations, thereby demonstrating that Jewish adaptation in America entailed the creation as well as the reception of new forms of consumption." [HEINZE, p. 181-182] "The contemporary historian John Higham," notes Edward Shapiro, "has concluded that the Jewish emphasis on the materialistic and competitive values of business is also 'deeply ingrained in American life.'" [SHAPIRO, p. 11]

Even modern advertising and the selling of "brand names" can be traced to Jewish origins, particularly rooted in the Jewish Rothschild banking monolith in Germany in the 1800s. The House of Rothschild, notes Sam Lehman-Wilzig, "developed ... institutionalized advertising. Advertising today is taken for granted as a central cog in the capitalist system, especially in regard to fueling demand. This was not always the case; for as [German economist Werner] Sombart points out, a pretty display in a window was considered unethical business practice a mere three hundred years ago. Noteworthy is that this institution was elevated by HR [the House of Rothschild] to new heights, advertising not any specific product but a corporate name." [LEHMAN-WILZIG, p. 256]

In a more recent expression of the "brand name" archetype, Christopher Byron traces the Israeli Nakash brothers (of Jordache jeans) road to success in America in the 1980s:

"Steeped in the Middle Eastern arts of obliqueness and guile, the

brothers seemed manipulative by nature. And as the youngest of the

three, Avi's guile certainly showed through when he came up with a

gimmick that would make them all rich. Catching on quickly to the

American way of doing things, he suggested that they forget about

the product and invest in the image instead. In other words, spend

the money on an ad campaign ... And what more mesmerized the

masses than sex, wealth, and social power ... If a four-dollar swatch

of denim could be turned into a symbol of success, there was just

no telling how much people would be willing to pay for it ... [The

first TV commercial they personally created] the three networks

all rejected ... as lewd, but New York area independents agreed to

carry it, and within weeks Jordache was the rage of every high

school in the Greater New York area." [BYRON, p. 34-35]

Another example of the artificial construct of economic value is the entire world of diamonds, largely controlled internationally by Jews. The idea of an "engagement ring" (and specifically a diamond one, as an expression of eternal love) is a recent phenomena, created by advertising agencies to sell more diamonds. David Koskoff notes that:

"Harry Oppenheimer [the head of the South African-based De Beers

diamond syndicate] is usually credited with augmenting demand [for

diamonds] through advertising, which De Beers undertook in 1939 ...

Most diamantaries [those in the diamond trade] appreciate that the value

of their product is illusory and dependent on the props maintained by

De Beers." [KOSKOFF, The Diamonds, p. 272

In 1993 the Israeli author Amos Oz paraphrased a Jewish critic's referral to the special Jewish entrepreneurial vision:

"We Israelis hear now and then that the very state of Israel might

have been a mistake ... George Steiner goes even further by adding

that a national state per se is vain, childish, anachronistic, and a

dangerous concept. We should aspire to 'Judaifying' the entire world

by turning it into the arena of one hundred different civilizations,

rather than a single nation state." [OZ, p. 117]

"Western civilization," says Albert Lindemann, "is undeniably a 'jewified' civilization, however offensive the word may be to our ears because of the ugly use made of it by anti-Semites ... Anti-Semites believed that Jews were everywhere, and in a sense they were almost everywhere that counted in modern society." [LINDEMANN, Esau's, p. 20]

WASP economic and social dominance in America was well along in the process of being dismantled when Jewish commentator Peter Schrag wrote in 1971 that

"In the last twenty-five years, dissecting the establishment has become a

highly popular academic endeavor. C. Wright Mills (among others)

took it on in The Power Elite, E. Digby Baltzell in The Protestant

Establishment, G. William Domhoff in The Higher Circles and Who

Rules America? One might suspect that the very existence of these

studies indicates that the subject bears more resemblance to a carcass

than to a living body." [SCHRAG, p. 161]

******************************************

The first immigration group of Jews to America came in the colonial era; they were largely Sephardic and established themselves as a merchant elite. "They were "among the founders of such Establishment institutions as the New York Stock Exchange, Columbia University, New York University, the American Medical Association, and the Boston Atheneum." [ZWEIGANHAFT, p. 9] Hayman Levy was the largest fur trader in colonial America; even Daniel Boone was hired by a Jew, "Jacob Cohen, and other Jewish merchants to survey the land, mark out roads and locate land claims in Kentucky." [DAVIS, D., 129] A second immigrant group arrived in the middle of the 19th century; some of these "made their way into investment banking, where they were joined by an equally successful group of Jews stemming from the banking houses established by the Jews in Germany." [FEINGOLD, p. 39]

By the 1870s, "proportionally speaking, in no other immigrant group have so many ever risen so rapidly from rags to riches." [ZWEIGENHAFT, p. 11] "The first generation of [Jewish] millionaires included the manufacturer Philip Heidelbach, the bankers Josephs Seligman, Lewis Seasongood, and Solomon Loeb, the railroad magnates Emanuel and Mayer Lehman, and a good many more. The generall body of American Jews participated in the same upward thrust; a survey of 10,000 Jewish families in 1890 showed that 7,000 of them had servants." [HIGHAM, J., 1957, p. 8] "Many Jews," noted Richard Zweigenhaft and G. William Domhoff, "were influential in founding the very clubs that helped set the upper class apart from the rest of society ... Like the Sephardim who preceded them, the wealthiest German Jews were accepted in the most prestigious social clubs, and many interacted with and were entertained socially by 'the best' of gentile society." [ZWEIGENHAFT, p. 10] In 1889 62% of American Jews in the occupational world were either bankers, brokers, wholesalers, retailers, collectors, or agents. 17% more were professionals. [LIPSET/RAAB, p. 82]

The third wave of Jewish immigrants, the largest, came from Eastern Europe at the turn of the twentieth century and mostly settled in New York City; occupationally, these Jews gravitated to the clothing industry. Between 1881 and 1924 over two and a half million Jews from Russia alone came to America aggravating -- with their allegedly rude and "uncivilized" mode of living -- not only non-Jewish Americans but indigenous Jewish -Americans as well, who worried that their Eastern European brethren's "customs and manners ... imperil[ed] their ascent." [ZWEIGENHAFT, p. 12-13]

(A more recent - -1980s -- Jewish immigration, with the fall of the Shah, was that from Iran. "This," says the Los Angeles Times, "was one of the richest waves of immigrants ever to come to the United States. Their first toehold in their new land was no squalid, crowded 'Little Tehran,' but rather the gracious hillsides of Trousdale Estates in Beverly Hills, and other nearby neighborhoods of the Westside and San Fernando Valley." [MITCHELL, p. J1] By the late 1980s, one of five students in the posh Beverly Hills (which is, as noted earlier, mostly Jewish anyway) school system were "Iranians"; most of these Iranians were Jews. [MITCHELL, p. J1] Hundreds of thousands of Jews from Israel have also emigrated to America in recent years. "I would ... venture a guess," says Israeli sociologist B.Z. Sobel, "and suggest that at least in the case of the United States, the Israelis currently arriving represent the most gilded of immigrant groups to reach American shores in this century." [SOBEL, B., p. 149] Jews from Israel in America have been rated with an economic "productivity index of 6.8," the highest of any ethnic group. "Those Jewish immigrants from Israel," notes Steven Silbiger, "were seven times more likely to have the highest concentration of higher incomes and the lowest rate of dependency on public assistance than any other group studied." [SILBIGER, S., 2000, p. 4]

Then there are the recent Russian Jewish immigrants to America since the 1970s -- approximately 400,000 in the metropolitan New York area alone. As the Jerusalem Post noted in 2000 about the results of an American Jewish Committee survey: "The Russians are the most educated immigrant group in America's immigrant history and are more highly educated than American Jews as a whole ... after six years in the U. S. most of the employed Russians are similar to American Jews in terms of annual income and attitude." [HENRY, M., 1-13-00, p. 3])

"As early as 1885," notes Joel Kotkin, "... Jews, mostly from Germany, owned 97% of all the garment factories. By the early twentieth century Jewish domination of the 'rag trade' [in America] was virtually complete, with Jews accounting for between 50 and 80 per cent of all haymakers, furriers, seamstresses, and tailors in the country." [KOTKIN, p. 48-49] By 1915 the "clothing trade" was America's third largest industry, behind only steel and oil. [LEACH, p. 93] "Jews largely created the American clothing production industry, replacing homemade clothes and tailor-made clothing." [SILBIGER, S., 2000, p. 46] "Jews," says Milton Plesur, "were the chief source of operatives for the ready-made clothing industry, but by the 1920s, they constituted less than half of the operatives and by mid-century less than 28 percent. In the meantime, Jews have risen to management and ownership, thus achieving almost exclusive control of the entire wearing apparel industry." [PLESUR, M., 1982, p. 161] The modern bra, for instance, was a Jewish marketing invention, promoted by the Maiden Form Brassiere company owned by William and Ida Rosenthal with Enid Bissett, founded in 1923. Likewise, the suits of "Hattie Carnegie [born Herietta Kanengeiser] led a fashion empire that set the pace of American fashion for nearly three decades." [HYMAN, p. 207]

In more recent history, Jews have congregated in, and dominated, the "fashion" aspects of the clothing industry -- founding everything from Guess, Gitano, Jordache, Calvin Klein, and Levi-Strauss jeans to Ralph [Lifshitz] Lauren cosmetics. (The Jordache and Guess companies -- both founded by recent Jewish immigrants to the United States -- were involved in particularly nasty lawsuits and underhand unscrupulous maneuvers against each other. The companies' manipulations are documented in a 1992 volume entitled: Glamour, Greed, and Dirty Tricks in the Fashion Industry: The Bizarre Story of Guess v. Jordache. In 1985, one of the brothers who owns Jordache, Joe Nakash, was elected in Israel to be the president of the Boys' Town Jerusalem Society. "This is the message I want to convey to those who care about Israel's future," Nakash said, "That in addition to providing its students with a superb education, Boys' Town builds and develops their character, their conviction and their commitment to their homeland." [JEWISH WEEK, 5-3-85, p. 22]

At Levis-Strauss, in 1982 Robert Haas "became the fifth generation family member to run the company (his father, Walter A. Haas Jr. was CEO from 1958 to 1976." [MUNK, p. 36] Warren Hirsch, president of Murjani International initiated the blue jean craze in recent years with the designer label "Gloria Vanderbilt." Alfred Slaner headed Kayser-Roth into the 1980s, "the largest clothing manufacturing establishment in the world." [GREENBERG, M., p. 73]

French-born Maurice Bidermann (born Maurice Zylberberg) "was the mastermind of one of the largest [clothes] manufacturing networks in the world, with thirteen thousand workers in thirty-four factories. Producer of Pierre Cardin and Yves Saint Laurent suits, his plants in France, the United States and Hong Kong churned out nearly $200 million in designer duds each year ... He was the older brother of Regine, the jet-set nightclub owner of New Jimmy's and Regine's, in Paris and New York." [GAINES/CHURCHER, p. 196] The president of Bidermann's companies in the U.S.? Also Jewish. Michael Zelnick.

"Of all the monarchs in the garment industry," note Steven Gaines and Sharon Churcher, "... Carl Rosen [of Puritan Fashions; Chief Financial Officer: Sam Rubenstein] was the biggest and richest ... Rosen owned two Rolls-Royces, both painted gold, and the one he kept at his Palm Springs estate once belonged to the queen mother of England ... Reportedly ... Carl supplied hookers and dirty weekends to Las Vegas for the buyers." [GAINES/CHURCHER, p. 216] "The [Dan] Millstein name [of coats and suits] had become familiar to every American household ... [Seymour] Fox was in a league of his own in the fashion business, a mogul even wealthier than Millstein. Fox was known not only for his exquisite, high-priced fashions but for his grand lifestyle, replete with stretch limousines and a beautiful mistress, the Women's Wear Daily columnist Carol Bjorkman." [GAINES/CHURCHER, p. 49, 56]

In the 1960s and 1970s, Hartmarx "became the largest manufacturer and retailer of men's tailored clothing." The company, originally called Hart, Schaffner and Marx, was founded in the late 1800s by Harry and Marcus Marx. Relative Joseph Schaffner joined as a co-partner later. [SONNENFELD, J., 1988, p. 167] In Canada, Steven Shein owns E&J Manufacturing Ltd., "one of Canada's largest wool coat makers." [KUITENBROWER, P., 4-1-2000, p. D1] Sigi Rabinowicz, an Orthodox Jew, is the CEO of Israel-based Tefron, "a major force in lingerie." [MCLEAN, B., 9-18-2000, p. 60] "Israel Myers -- son of a tailor -- originated the London Fog raincoats." [KRISCHNER, S., 9-14-00, p. 11]

In 1995 another Jewish garment mogul, Calvin Klein, who had a serious problem with cocaine and Quaaludes over the years [GAINES/CHURCHER, p. 208], was condemned by a range of parent and social welfare groups for an advertising campaign featuring images by Jewish photographer Stephen Meisel. Adolescent models, notes Henry Giroux, were photographed

"in various stages of undress, poised to offer both sexual pleasures and

the fantasy of sexual availability ... Angry critics ... called the images

suggestive and exploitive, and condemned Calvin Klein for using

children as sexual commodities. Other critics likened the ads to child

pornography." [GIROUX, p. 16-17]

This was an old theme for Klein. Earlier suggestive commercials with an adolescent Brooke Shields had garnered condemnation from a variety of groups, including a feminist group called Women Against Pornography. (Klein's key partner in his initial years was fellow Jewish entrepreneur Barry Schwartz. Another Jewish friend, described as Klein's "mentor," was Nicholas de Gunzburg, the "fur and fabric editor" of Vogue magazine). [GAINES/CHURCHER, p. 97-98]

The Guess company (founded by the Jewish Marciano brothers, who share control of the firm with the Nakash family, who are also Jewish) has also followed the same advertising strategy to sell jeans. "Media Watch," noted the Los Angeles Times in 1990, "a feminist group in Santa Cruz, has called for a boycott of Guess, charging that its ads demean women, integrating sex with violence." [SCHACTER, J., 1990, p. D1]

Elsewhere, Estelle Sommers founded the Capezio dancewear brand, Ann Klein [originally Hannah Golofski] has become a widely recognized "designer" brand, as has Donna Karan and her DKNY label. Isaac Mizrahi and Tommy Hilfiger are other famous Jewish fashion brands, as is that of the Iranian-Jewish mogul of perfume and self-promotion, Bijan (Pakzad), also known as the "designer of what's probably the world's most expensive menswear." [DORFMAN] Rudi Gernreich and John Weitz are other Jews who have been prominent fashion designers. Designer Arnold Scassi's last name is Isaacs (his original surname) spelled backwards. Kenneth Cole (originally: Kenneth Cohen) developed popular lines of shoes, belts, and leather jackets. Judith Lieber manufacturers luxury handbags. Liz Claiborne founded her company with her Jewish husband Arthur Ortenberg and Leonard Boxer. She retired in 1989 whereupon Jerome Chazen became chairman of the firm. Other prominent executives in the company are Harvey Falk and Jay Margolis.

In 1988, Nicholas Coleridge listed the American "power buyers" (those who buy for stores) of the fashion world. Most of the people listed are Jewish, and a huge percentage of the stores are Jewish-owned:

"Daria Retain, fashion director of Neiman Marcus; Ellin Saltzman,

director of fashion and product development at Saks Fifth Avenue;

James Fowler and Mary Talbot, vice-president and design buyer

of Jacobsons Stores, Michigan; Kaye von Bergen, designer buyer

of Bendel's; Lois Ziegler and Sue Bicksler, fashion directors of

J.C. Penney; Bernie Ozer, vice-president of the Associated

Merchandising Corporation; Barbara Weiser of Charivari; Barbara

Warner, formerly of Barneys, who virtually single-handedly turned

the store into an upbeat designer terminus; Lynne Manulis, president

of Marthas; Joan Weinstein, president of Ultimo; James Sullivan,

fashion director of Jordan Marsh; Missy Lomonaco, fashion

director of Bonwit Teller; Betty Hahn, designer buyer of Garfinkels,

Washington; Jean Navin, vice-president and fashion director of

Lord & Taylor; Kal Ruttenstein, vice-president and fashion director

of Bloomingdales; Terry Melville, fashion director of Macy's; and

Sal Ruggerio of Marshall Field, Chicago." [COLERIDGE, p. 259]

In 2000, the National Post noted the heart of the garment district in Montreal, Canada -- the Jewish center of Chabenel Street. The article addressed the bribery of store buyers by clothing makers and its long tradition in the Jewish community. (In Yiddish: "Az men shmert nit, fort men nit." -- If you don't bribe, you don't ride). Kickbacks, noted Doug Robinson, a Canadian fraud squad officer is "a dirty secret of the industry." [KUITENBROWER, P., 4-1-2000, p. D1]

Elsewhere, Israeli-born Elia "Tahari is among the most respected names in department and specialty stores." [HOOD, p. 1E] In California Severin Wunderman's company, the Severin Group ($500 million a year in sales), remains "the sole manufacturer, marketer, and distributor of Gucci timepieces and Fila sports watches." These products' retail cost run between $225 and $14,000 apiece. "The word 'demanding' is repeatedly used to describe [Severin]. In addition to shouting and breaking things, he has tossed more than one cellular phone out the window of his chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce." [HOWLETT, p. E1] The head of the French luxury jewelry firm, Cartier, is also Jewish: Alain Dominique Perrin. In 1996, during a visit to Israel, he announced "plans to donate an unspecified percentage of the revenue from the sale of $10 million worth of jewelry to WIZO [the World International Zionist Organization]." [CASHMAN, 1996, p. 14] Kenneth Jay Lane, "the fake jewelry king," [HORYN, C., 12-12-99, sec. 9, p. 1] is also Jewish. Nudie Cohen, head of Nudie's, was the "costume designer who pasted Nashville in rhinestones in the 1940s and '50s." [LONGINO, M., 9-8-2000] He supplied the Hollywood/Las Vegas cowboy image to people like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. Others fitting such stars were "Nathan Turk and his East coast counterpart Rodeo Ben (Bernard Lichtenstein), both Eastern European immigrants" whose "clothes brought western wear into its heyday." [MOORE, B., 2001, p. E3] Adrian's was the logo of Adrian Goldberg, a famous dress designer for Hollywood in the 1930s and '40s. Sidney Toledano is today's president and CEO of Christian Dior.

The Chanel company, which makes "the most expensive perfume in the world," was founded by non-Jew Co Co Chanel, but built to power by the Jewish Wertheimer brothers. As the London Independent notes:

"In 1924 [Chanel] sold 90 per cent of the rights to Chanel No. 5

to Pierre Wertheimer, who, with his brother Paul, owned Bourjois,

the largest cosmetics company in France ... They bought out Chanel

-- couture house, perfume and all -- in 1954." [JOBEY, L., 11-27-90,

Feeling that "she was being cheated" by the Wertheimers, Chanel had sued them in 1934. [MOUBRAY, J., 2-10-98, p. 18]

Elsewhere in France, in 1995 Jean-Pierre Meyer became Deputy Chairman of the L'Oreal cosmetics giant, suceeding Andre Bettencourt (whose father founded the firm). Meyer, who is Jewish, is married to Bettencourt's daughter. [ http://www.klarsfeld.org/press/95/us_urged/us_urged.htm ]

Diane von Furstenberg (original name: Diane Simone Michelle Halfin) founded a "fragrance and fashion empire." Stanley Kohlenberg, head of Revlon's domestic Group III, was "recognized as one of the premiere marketing men in the fragrance industry." [GAINES/CHURCH, p. 182] Samuel Rubin founded the Faberge perfume company. Max Factor built a cosmetics empire, including waterproof mascara and long-lasting lipstick. Helena Rubenstein sold "beauty and royalty." "The names [of Jewish entrepreneurs] Helena Rubenstein and Estee Lauder [born Josephine Esther Menzer] became virtual synonyms for cosmetics in the twentieth century." [HYMAN, p. 27] Adrien Arpel opened 500 skin care salons across America. "A legend in the cosmetics industry.... although Arpel is not a formally observant woman, she is very conscious of her Jewish identity." [HYMAN, p. 67-68] Vidal Sassoon built an business empire based on hair care. (Sassoon, founder of a research unit on anti-Semitism at an Israeli university, was the recipient of the first American Jewish Congress "Beauty Hall of Fame" award). Non-Jew Grace Mirabella, for 17 years the editor of Vogue magazine, notes that "all the models, actresses, and photographers of London" hung out a Sassoon's hair studios. [MOIRABELLA, G., 1995, p. 127]

Jack Rosen is chairman of the Hazel Bishop cosmetics company (as well as being the CEO and chairman of Continental Health Affiliates and the CEO of Infu-Tech, two major health care corporations). [PR NEWSWIRE, 3-13-98] Shirley Polykoff at Clairol introduced to America her advertising catchphrases: "'Does she or doesn't she?,' 'If I have only one life to lead, let me live it as a blonde,' and 'Hate that gray, wash it away.'" [BAER, p. 158]

The Gottleib family founded the Gottex swimwear line. Marvin Winkler (philanthropist of an Orthodox Chabad "Immigrant Camp" in Hollywood) and Jay Schottenstein bought the Gotcha surf wear company in 1996 (also including the MCD and GirlStar brands. Adam Tihany is one of America's best known upscale "restaurant designers," his work includes Manhattan's Le Cirque 2000. Maurice Stein owns Burbank, "one of the world's largest suppliers of cosmetics, skin, and hair products to the entertainment industry." [WILGOREN, p. A1] Israeli-born Gil Gamlieli is co-owner of "Manhattan's celebrated Gil Gamlieli Beauty Group." [EPSTEIN, M., p. T6] Even a Satmar hasidic Jew, Victor Jacobs, is CEO and Chairman of Allou Health and Beauty Care.

Chicago's Irving Harris became a millionaire with his ToniHome Permanent. Mr. Blackwell -- creator of the world's "worst" and "best" dressed lists, is a Jewish fashion designer who changed his name from Richard Selzer to Dick Ellis to, lastly, Blackwell. Britain's Trevor Spero founded the Flame model agency and Scene magazine, which covers the fashion industry. New York's Fashion Institute of Technology "grew from the dream of a small group of successful Eastern European Jewish immigrant manufacturers ... [who ultimately created] a thriving college of art and design, business and technology. [NEWSDAY, p. A39] FIT's chairman of the board was still in Jewish hands in 1998, in the person of Edwin Goodman. "By the late 1930s," notes Henry Feingold, "Jews could be also found in the creative departments of the full-service advertising agencies as the experts in marketing surveys, motivation research, and the psychology of consumption." [FEINGOLD, p. 104]

Brett Goldberg sells Dead Sea mud as a skin lotion. His business (Ahava's hand cream) took off when he met and married Eve Berenblum, head of Sak's cosmetics department. The American-born Goldberg has dual American-Israeli citizenship and volunteered for the Israeli army. [BERMAN/SANDERS, 1-11-99] Sydell Miller and her husband Arnold started Matrix Essential, a hair care and skin products company. Sidney Kimmel heads the Jones Apparel Group; its clothing lines include Jones New York, Evan-Picone, Saville, NineWest shoe stores, and movie production interests. The CEO of the Jo Ann Stores chain (1065 stores nationwide; also sometimes called Cloth World and Jo Ann Fabrics) is Alan Rosskamm. Co-founded by his father, the firm's 1997 sales alone were $975 million. Bob Sockolow is the president and CEO of San-Francisco based Rochester Big and Tall Clothing. The founders of the Banana Republic clothing retail chain were Bill Rosenszweig, and Mel and Patricia Ziegler. The Eddie Bauer outdoor clothing empire is headed of course by Eddie Bauer; he is also Jewish. Jeffrey Swartz is the president and CEO of the Timberland shoe and boot firm. The 2002 CEO of the Cherokee clothing chain is Bobby Margolis.

In 1997 The Limited Inc. (Leslie Wexner, CEO) was accused by the AFL-CIO of subcontracting garment work in the Dominican Republic that paid workers $21 for an 80-hour work week. The Limited's 3,000 outlets and brands include Abercrombie and Fitch, Structure, Express, Lane Bryant, Henri Bendel, Bath & Body Works, and Victoria's Secret, among others. [FORWARD, 5-30-97, p. 1] (Abercrombie and Fitch's 2001 summer catalogue attracted a coalition of groups as diverse as the National Organization for Women and Concerned Christian Americans in protest. The catalogue was condemned as "soft porn." An earlier A&F catalogue -- Naughty or Nice -- was "denounced" by the Michigan attorney general's office.") [CRARY, D., 6-22-01] In 1986, Linda Wachner, also Jewish, president of Max Factor, U.S. Division, maneuvered a hostile takeover of the Warnaco Group, effectively seizing control of much of the women's underwear market (including the brand names Warners, Olga, Valentino, Scaagi, Ungaro, Bob Mackie, and Fruit of the Loom). Wachner was henceforth the CEO of Wanaco, "one of the highest paid and most powerful businesswomen in America in the 1990s." [HYMAN, p. 27] Elsewhere, Howard Gross is the CEO of Miller's Outpost's chain of 220 stores; Robert Siegel became the CEO of the Stride Rite store chain in 1993. Donald Fisher is founder and CEO of the giant clothes retailer The Gap. He too is Jewish, [ALTMAN-OHR, A., 4-14-2000, p. 64A] as is Millard Drexler, another top executive at the company.

By 1984 41% of Jewish households had an income of $50,000 or more, four times the proportion of non-Hispanic whites. [SILBERMAN, p. 118; SILBIGER, S., 2000, p. 4] And while Jews constitute just 2.5 per cent of the American population, by 1990 more than twice as many Jews as non-Jewish whites had household incomes over $50,000 a year; the average Jewish American's income was also two to three times higher than the average of all other Americans. Two-thirds of all adult American Jews between the ages of 25 and 64 had graduated from colleges or universities, worked as professionals or managers, and lived in households with incomes over $50,000 per year. [ZUCKERMAN, A. p. 22] As 2.5% of America's population, by the late 1980s Jews "accounted for 13% of executives under the age of 40." [ROIPHE/CHANES, p. 451] By 1990, almost 90% of American Jews were in white-collar occupations. The rest tended to work as jewelers, watchmakers, waiters, hairdressers, cosmetologists, electronic repair technicians, or in security careers. [HARTMAN, p. 118] "The pace of socio-economic change," says Calvin Goldschieder and Alan Zuckerman, "and the levels attained are exceptional features of Jews compared to non-Jews." [LIPSET, Unique, p. 3]

In a study of Boston Jews in 1975, 60% of Jewish males in the work force were categorized as professionals. One quarter of them were physicians. Less than 3% of Boston's male Jewish workforce (ages 30-39) could be classified as "workers." [GOLDSCHIEDER, JOBS, p 5] By 1996, Jews were "two to three times more likely to work as professionals or managers than other Americans ... For several decades now, Jews have been distinguished by their extraordinary socioeconomic achievements." [WILDER, E., 6-96]

For Jews of Eastern European heritage, their dramatic trajectory of wealth building in America has occurred in the last century or so. "The Jewish explanation for their common affluence," says Liebman and Cohen, "is 'the myth of the lower East Side,' according to which Jews arrived in the United States as an impoverished group and by dint of hard work, sacrifice, and determination rose to prosperity ... It is not too far-fetched to suggest that this myth also alleviates the guilt that Jews may feel over their present prosperity and material comfort." [LIEBMAN/COHEN, p. 17]

"Even when compared to others of similar social characteristics," says Stephen Whitfield, "such as years of education, Jewish families still earn more. Even in families with no one working, Jewish families earn more." [WHITFIELD, American, p. 7] "Jewish academics," noted Marshall Sklare in 1974, "... are also considerably more prosperous on the average than their Gentile counterparts." [SKLARE, 1974, p. 20] "Earnings from investments of one sort or another are apparently greater among Jews," notes economist Thomas Sowell, "as are other advantages based on the past." [KREFETZ, p. 8]

Asserting fears of anti-Semitism, Jews try to keep their collective economic power from being widely known by non-Jews. "Some Jews," writes Edward Shapiro, "are embarrassed by references to Jewish affluence for fear that any discussion will encourage the anti-Semitic stereotype of vast Jewish wealth and economic power ... Marxists, true to the teachings of the founder of their cult, have continued to identify Jews and Judaism (and now Israel) with commercial exploitation and capitalism. Little wonder, then, that Jews and their friends, despite evidence to the contrary, and even though they themselves know better, prefer to deny, ignore, or explain away Jewish wealth. ... Jews would prefer to believe, and have others believe, that they are like everyone else, only more so. This stance has the advantage of not attracting attention." [SHAPIRO, p. 9] "Given that the myth of the 'all-powerful Jew' is identified with Nazi propaganda," says Lenni Brenner, "it should not surprise us that there are still many people who are squeamish about bringing attention to the sociological changes that have converted a community once unique in America for its mass radicalism into a pillar of capitalism." [BRENNER, p. 61] "Even today," noted Steven Silbiger in 2000, "many Jewish people would rather reserve the subject of their success for private conversations rather than fuel the fires of anti-Semitism. Older Jewish-Americans, in particular, have downplayed their success and their Judaism in an effort to avoid unwanted attention and possible trouble." [SILBIGER, S., 2000, p. 3]

Harry Golden notes Jewish economic standing in a religion-based report in the 1957 Bureau of Census survey and Jewish organization attempts to hide this information:

"This report, intended to furnish data on the economic and social

characteristics of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, was almost

immediately suppressed at the insistence of religious organizations

and groups. Notable among these groups and organizations were

the Jewish social-action agencies, who feared the news about

Jewish incomes, education levels, and mobility would feed

anti-Semitism." [GOLDEN, H., 1973, p. 6]

"From Buenos Aires to Baghdad," says Joshua Halberstam, "from the days of Rome to the present, the world talks about Jews and their special relationship to wealth ... The really peculiar part of these slogans about Jews and money ... is the equivocation with which Jews react to the charges ... Proud of their financial achievements, American Jews often congratulate themselves and their success, but when a non-Jew points to the same Jewish affluence, American Jews become extremely nervous and suspect lurking anti-Semitism." [HALBERSTAM, p. 10] "Writing about money and Jews is inflammatory no matter how cautious it is handled," wrote Gerald Krefetz in an apologetic introduction to his book, Jews and Money, (1982), "As I examined the available literature on the subject it became clear to me that in recent years no one had scrutinized the scope of contemporary Jewish economic activity in America. The reason for this neglect was not hard to find: ... the subject of Jews and money was best not discussed for fear of raising the anti-Semitic ghost again." [KREFETZ, p. ix, x] When Jewish economic power is (rarely) openly addressed, Jewish dissimulation strategy is usually to emphasize the risky, precarious nature of their business dealings and their supposed relative marginality to the American social, economic, and political system. [SHAPIRO, p. 9]

      "Those who do not want to confront the reality of the wealth of the richest portions of modern Jewry," notes Brenner, "tend to overemphasize the poverty of the poorest section." [BRENNER, p. 61] In 1983, for instance, some Jewish organizations were claiming that 13-15% of American Jewry was "economically disadvantaged and vulnerable." Such a figure, however, notes Lenny Brenner, is afforded by an American Jewish Committee study which defines "poverty among Jews at 150 per cent of the Federally defined poverty level ... Two-thirds of the poor are elderly. A large proportion of these are widows." As early as 1955, researchers were noting that Jews were "underrepresented in the population below or close to the poverty line." [WEYL, 1968, p. 173] As early as 1902, Isaac Max Rubinow, a Jewish medical inspector for the New York Board of Health wrote:

      "I must express my conviction (which will evoke protest among the intelligentsia
      of New York) that the Jewish masses are better off economically than the other
      immigrants [to America], and extreme poverty is not prevalent in the Jewish section.
      I think that I am familiar with the horrors of dire poverty. As a medical inspector for the
      New York Board of Health I had to spend several months in the poorer sections of
      Brooklyn. When I beheld the privations of the Irish, the Italians, the Negroes and
      others, I had to admit that the condtion of the Russian-Jewish masses is more or less
      satisfactory." [RUBINOW, I., 1959, p. 96]

      "The percentage of Jewish households with income less than $20,000 is half that of non-Jews." [SILBIGER, S., 2000, p. 4] The Jewish working class appears to be vanishing from all but the largest communities," wrote Jewish sociologist Marshall Sklare in 1955, "-- the phenomenon of an American Jewish working class may turn out to be characteristic only of the immigrant era." [SKLARE, M., 1955, p. 215]

"It is disingenuous to pretend," says W. D. Rubenstein,

"that since the end of the war there has not been a fundamental

change in the status of Western Jewry ... Understandable reluctance

to discuss Jewish socio-economic advantage in an explicit fashion has

led to the neglect of an important trend: the steady rise of Western

Jewry into the upper-middle class, together with the broadening of

Jewish membership in the institutional elites of most Western countries

... The rise of Western Jewry to unparalleled affluence and high status

has led to the near-disappearance of a Jewish proletariat of any size:

indeed, the Jews may become the first ethnic group in history without

a working class of any size." [RUBENSTEIN, p. 51]

     This increasingly elite caste status for Jews throughout the world is not true in Israel, of course, because that country's population is largely Jewish. Any elite caste depends upon-- and is supported by -- a large sub-caste beneath it. Although there is an institutionally enforced Arab underclass in Israel, the assumption of wealth, power, and status for all Jews as a class in that nation is impossible because it necessitates the economic exploitation of the local population, which is largely other Jews too. This, notes Israeli sociologist Sammy Smooha, poses a paradoxical problem for the Judeocentric Israeli state: "In contrast to Jews in western societies where they constitute a negligible minority (for instance, Jews in the U.S. number only 2.5 percent of the population) and where therefore most of them can reach the highest strata, most Jews in Israel cannot be in top positions as long as Jews make up 85% or more of the population." [SMOOHA, S., p. 176] Or as Jay Gonen, another Israeli commentator, put it:

     "Everywhere in the world the Jews are the most successful businessmen, but not
     in Israel, everywhere else they are financial wizards, but not in Israel. You know
     why? Because here in Israel they can only deal with other Jews." [GONEN, J.,
     1975, p. 274]

      What is not explicitly stated here by such Jewish commentators (although it is certainly inferred) is that the Jewish diaspora's economic, political, and social self-advancement in capitalist society -- as a collectivity -- is contingent upon the exploitation of Gentiles below it. In Israel, by the demographic dictates of Israeli policy that insist upon a strong Jewish population dominance, (even with the import of cheap Arab labor from Gaza and the West Bank) there are not enough exploitable non-Jews to go around. (One might argue, however, that the $3 billion a year the United States government provides for the Jewish state, and similar funds from other nations, thanks to international Jewish lobbying, is a collective kind of exploitation of non-Jewish lands). Per Israel, Israeli scholar Simha Flapan notes that "the 1.25 million Palestinians who came under Israeli rule provide cheap labor for the Israeli economy, supplying nearly 100,000 workers for agriculture, public works, construction, light industries, and private services. The Palestinians became Israel's 'water carriers and hewers of wood.' Jewish workers moved up the social ladder to positions of management, the professions, trade, and public service." [FLAPAN, S., 1987, p. 239]

All this, of course, has profound implications. Harry Triandis, while not addressing the Jewish dimensions to the issue, notes the broader context in America for the growing elite as a significant part of the American upper classes:

"The gulf between the rich and the poor is becoming larger. In

the 18th century the gross national product per capita ... of the

rich was twice that of the poor; in 1950 this ratio had become

50 to 1; in 1990 it was 70 to 1." [TRIANDIS, p. 15]

Today's Jewish high status and attendant world view represent the material opposite of much of immigrant American Jewry's sense of itself at the turn of the twentieth century. As Hania Diner notes:

"Both left-wing radicalism and Zionism shaped the political and

ideological lives of many Jews who emigrated to the United States

beginning in the 1880s ... [DINER, p. 7] ... Socialism proved such an

attractive political philosophy to these immigrant Jews because

of the brutal sweatshop conditions under which so many worked,

usually in factories owned by other Jews ... [DINER, p. 9] ... [In 1925]

such predominantly Jewish unions as the ILGWU, the United

Cloth Hat and Cap Makers, and the Furrier's Union all sent

[communist] May Day greetings to ... the black socialist magazine,

the Messenger." [DINER, p. 202]

This radically universalist expression, or whatever else it was (transitory strategy to deconstruct the existing Christian-oriented culture?), has proven over the years to have been remarkably illusory and shallow-- merely a means to a self-promotive end -- as Jewry has quickly ascended the American economic ladder. As Arthur Hertzberg notes about America's early twentieth century Russian Jewish population, supposedly rooted so deeply in socialist ethics, "Jews were uniquely visible in this stampede toward wealth because they were moving more rapidly upward from the poverty of their youth than any other group in America. This intense passion for success was noted by others, and not always with approval." [HERTZBERG, A., 1989, p. 331]

(In Latin America too, notes Judith Elkin, immigrant Jews were quick to dismiss their European-based socialist political radicalism in their new environments: "Jews had never developed linkages with non-Jewish campesinos; ... Contact with the proletariat was broken. This is a startling fact, considering that so large and so vocal a portion of Jewish immigrants arrived with leftist and universalist ideals.") [ELKIN, 1998, p. 148]

As Nathan Glazer noted about the American social and political world in 1971:

"All the roles that Jews play are roles that the New Left disapproves of,

and wishes to reduce ... [The Left is critical] of all private business,

and of its whole associated institutional complex -- lawyers,

stockbrokers, accountants, etc. -- in which Jews are prominent.

The kinds of society it admires have no place for occupations in which

Jews have tended to cluster in recent history." [SHAPIRO, E., 1999,

As early as the mid-twentieth century, American Jewry was already largely stratified out of the traditional "working class." In a survey of 14 American cities between 1948-53, proportions of Jews in "non-manual positions (i.e., proprietors, managers, administrators, officials, clerks, salespeople, etc.) ranged from 75 to 96% of the Jewish working population." [SKLARE, p. 138] "The distinction between manual and non-manual work," wrote Nathan Glazer in 1958, in reviewing the survey,

"is today considered a crucial one for determining the social status of

individuals and groups ... [GLAZER, MIDDLE, p. 139] ... The rise

in the proportion of professionals has been accompanied by a fall

in the number of Jews engaged in the lower-levels of white-collar

work -- as clerks and salesmen ... The rapid decline in the numbers

of Jewish secretaries and salesmen in recent years is a phenomenon

apparent to the naked eye; the available figures support this

impression ... [GLAZER, p. 139] ... What has happened ... is

that the Jewish economic advantages, already perfectly obvious

in the thirties ... has borne fruit in the fifteen years of prosperity

since 1940." [SKLARE, p. 139] (By 1970, one-third of one percent of

American Jews were involved in manual labor occupations.

[HALBERSTAM, p. 27])

Glazer found the 1953 research intriguing for other reasons too. No matter what field of economic endeavor Jews chose, and no matter where they chose it in America, Jews earned more money than non-Jews, even those in the same locale, with the same education, and the same occupation. To explain this endemic disparity, Glazer notes that

"Ultimately, social explanations must resort to history, and explain a

present peculiarity by discovering any earlier one. We think the

explanation for the Jewish success in America is that the Jews, far

more than any other immigrant group, were engaged for generations in

the middle-class occupations, the professions, and buying and selling."

"Whereas many [immigrant] Poles," says Andrew Heinze, "looked for unskilled jobs in the steel industry and thus settled in industrial towns like those of Pennsylvania, Jews from the same part of the Old World concentrated in major cities where they could work in skilled and semi-skilled trades and in retailing, the occupations for which they were prepared ... Digging coal, forging steel, laying railroad track, and building bridges did not bring newcomers into contact with the trends and nuances of American fashion. The manufacture and sale of ladies' underwear, children’s' dresses, and men’s' suits did." [HEINZE, p. 99]

University of Michigan professor Arthur Evans Wood noted in 1955 some interesting information in his sociological study of the Polish enclave of Hamtramck in Detroit. 70% of the 43,000 residents of Hamtramak were (non-Jewish) Poles or of Polish (also peasant) heritage, attracted there to work in local automobile factories. The City Attorney for the city was Jewish, however, William Cohen. Although there were few, if any, Jews living in Hamtramak, he also was co-owner of one of the city's two main newspapers, the Hamtramak Citizen. "A fascinating additional reminder of an old world situation," wrote Wood,

"is to be found in the dependence of the Poles in Hamtramak upon

the Jewish attorney, Bill Cohen, for frequent legal services. The

relationship is somewhat like that between the village folk and the

Jewish tavern keeper [in the Old Country] ... The serviceableness

of Cohen to various and opposed Polish [political] factions over

the years is reminiscent of an old Polish proverb, 'Jak bida, to

     do zyda.' (when in need go to the Jew)." [WOOD, A.E., p. 80, 233, 84]

     Edward Kantowicz, in his study of Polish Americans in Chicago, notes

     "Throughout much of partitioned Poland, Polish-Jewish relations consisted
     of Polish peasants bargaining for goods or money with Jewish shopkeepers
     and moneylenders. Such an economic relation led often to ill feelings and
     a pervasive sentiment among peasants that they were being exploited by
     the Jews. In America, Poles and Jews often ended up in a similar economic
     relationship. Whereas the peasant Poles generally took up industrial work
     in the New World, the Jews frequently continued in occupations similar
     to those they had practiced in the Pale. Thus the business streets of
     [Chicago's] Polonia were lined with many shops and stores owned by
     immigrant Jews, and the Poles again found themselves dealing day by
     day with Jewish shopkeepers and moneylenders. Very early this caused
     resentment. In 1895 one Polish newspaper called for an increased Polish
     effort to establish and patronize their own businesses since 'the Jews, the
     leeches of Polish society, have monopolized business in this section of
     town." [KANTOWICZ, E., 1975, p. 118]

        A 1950s-era study of the Jews of Detroit, Michigan, found:

      "There are extremely large differences in the occupational structures of Jewish,
      Catholic, and Protestant families. A large majority of the heads of Jewish families
      hold white-collar jobs (73 percent); the heads of non-Jewish families, especially
      Catholics and Negro Protestants, are heavily concentrated in the blue-collar
      occupations. Jewish family heads are particularly clustered in the 'proprietor,
      manager, and official' classification. The proportion of Jews in these 'tradesmen'
      jobs (42 percent) is between three and four times greater than that for Catholics
      or white Protestants ... The contrast in occupational distribution of the fathers
      of Jewish and non-Jewish family heads is enormous. Approximately 75 percent
      of the non-Jewish fathers were in farming or held blue-collar jobs, whereas almost
      the same proportion of Jewish fathers were in white-collar occupations. Many of
      the Jewish fathers who held white-collar jobs were probably hucksters, peddlers,
      or small trades, and merchants; but the fact remains that their background was
      typically urban ... One of the most striking features of the economic status of
      Jewish families in Detroit is that almost one-half of the family heads are self-employed,
      although only 10 per cent or less of the heads of non-Jewish Detroit area families
      work for themselves ... The median annual income of the heads of Jewish families
      during the 1951 to 1954 period was $6,200. This figure is considerably larger than
      the median incomes of non-Jewish family heads. The high Jewish income, of course,
      is related to the upper occupational status of the group. The large number of Jewish
      family heads who made $10,000 or more annually is striking. One-third of the heads
      of Jewish families earned this much money, as compared with less than one-tenth
      of the heads of non-Jewish groups. [GOLDBERG/SHARP, 1960, p. 113, 114]

More recently, in addressing the claim by many Jews that their community is "a light unto nations" with higher moral standards than others, Lenny Brenner, a Jewish critic, notes that "modern Judaism is a light unto no one ... American Judaism is the paradigm of hollow worldly success." [BRENNER, p 357] Concerning the possible movement by some Jews from the Jewish tradition of self-employment into salaried professions and the effect it could have on donations to Jewish causes, Steven Cohen remarks that

"One need not be overly cynical to realize that self-employed

entrepreneurs have a greater ability to hide their income from the Internal

Revenue Service than do most salaried professionals." [BRENNER, p.

        In recent years, according to one Jewish count, of the top fourteen American billionaires, at least four were Jewish. [SHAPIRO, p. 8] Of the 40 wealthiest Americans, sixteen (40%) were Jewish, as were 23% of the four hundred richest Americans. "Or," says Joshua Halberstam, "to put this another way, there are more Jewish billionaires in the United States than the total number of billionaires of France and England combined." [HALBERSTAM, p. 12] Every year the Forbes "rich list" as an extraordinarily disproportionate number of Jews. Jewish author Steven Silbiger examined the 1999 Forbes "richest 400 people" list and announced that

     "Jewish individuals accounted for 23 percent of the entire group, 36 percent of
     the top fifty and 24 percent of the billionaires -- eleven, eighteen, and twelve times
     times their relative percentage in the U.S. population at large. And these percentages
     in the Forbes 400 have been consistent over time, although the players change
    from year to year; studies of the lists from 1982, 1983, and 1984 conducted by
     others reveal similar figures." [SILBIGER, S., 2000, p. 86]

    Silbiger, investigating who exactly of this list was Jewish, explored public information sources and knowledgeable Jewish organizations. As Silbiger discovered, 15 of these moguls do not wish to be known publicly, at least in this wealth context, as Jewish; the rest of Silbiger's 1999 list is rendered here. An earlier (1980) list of America's wealthiest Jews may be found here.

      As early as 1955 a researcher suggested that 20% of America's millionaires were Jewish, and Jewry at-large accounted for 10% of America's total personal income, [WEYL, 1968, p. 173] about four times their percentage of the population. By 1973, Harry Golden noted that "New York [the heart of the American business and communications empire] is the one city Jews transformed into a Jewish city. They are the warp and woof of its fabric ... Jews own roughly 80 percent of New York City's businesses." [GOLDEN, H., 1973, p. 8-9]

     And the other American economic and mass media nerve center: Los Angeles? As Joel Kotkin noted in 2001,

     "In the neighborhoods and marketplaces that comprise 21st-century Los Angeles,
      two ethnic groups predominate: Jews and Latinos. Although others, including
      Asians, African Americans and Anglo Gentiles, play important roles, these two
      groups shape the social, economic and cultural contours of the city ... Jews reign
      over many of the most dynamic parts of the city's economy, from Hollywood to
      real estate, from cyberspace to the garment business. They are well-represented at
      both the elite and grass-roots levels of L.A. business. Jews, whether from Eastern
      Europe or the Middle East, boast among the highest entrepreneurship rates of any
      group in the city's ethnic mosaic, according to Cal State Northridge demographer
      James Allen; nearly half the Los Angeles Business Journal's list of richest Angelenos
      are Jews ... Unlike Jews and Gentiles, or African Americans, Jews and Latinos share
      little history or mythology. For the most part, their contacts have been opportunistic.
      Jews have employed Latinos in garment factories, as maids and gardeners and
      serviced them as customers in a host of enterprises from Whittier Boulevard to
      Santee Alley and Pico-Union." [KOTKIN, J., 3-25-01, pt. M, p. 1]

In 1999, Jewish Canadian billionaires included Barry Sherman ($1.83 billion), Leslie Dan ($1.56 billion), and Saul Feldberg ($1 billion). Sherman is chairman and CEO of the Apotex pharmaceutical firm, and Dan heads rival Novopharm Ltd. "[These] two Toronto-based companies control about 90 percent of Canada's market for generic, low-cost drugs." [CANADIAN PRESS NEWSWIRE, 2-6-97] Sherman "donates heavily to Jewish causes and the state of Israel." [THOMPSON, A. 2-11-92, p. C1] Dan funded a CD-Rom produced by Israel's Yad Vashem "to help teach the Holocaust." [CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS, 12-5-96] (From America, Harold Snyder founded Biocraft Laboratories, a manufacturer of drugs, in 1964. It was sold to the largest pharmaceutical company in Israel , Teva, in 1996, an organization where Snyder serves as a board member.) [MOTHER JONES, 5-3-01] The third Jewish Canadian billionaire, Feldberg, a Holocaust survivor, moved to Israel, and later to Canada. He heads the Global Group and the Teknion Corporation, two office furniture conglomerates. [GILBERT, N., 7-2-98, p. 15] In earlier years, Max Tanenbaum was "the leading Jewish industrialist in Canada." [DRABINSKY, G., 1995, p. 120]

Also in Canada, "the proportion of Jews earning over $75,000 [per year] in 1991 was close to four times that in the Canadian population as a whole." [SINGER/SELDIN, 1995, p. 235] In Spain, by 1991 the Koplowitz family's construction empire was worth $1.2 billion.

In France, when Marcel Dassault [born Marcel Bloch] died in 1987 he was "the richest man in France." [FONG, p. 148] He was a member of the French Parliament and had founded the aviation company that manufactured the Mirage fighter jet. Dassault was born a Jew, but formally converted to Christianity. Another French mogul of Jewish descent, Marcel Blaustein-Blanchet died in 1996. He was the founder and chairman of Publicis, "the giant advertising company he founded as a teenager." Blaustein-Blanchet "gave France its first advertising agency, its first radio news program, and its first opinion polls." [THOMAS, R., 1996, p. 50] Publicis has offices today in 19 countries (top two executives in 1996: Elizabeth Badinter and Michael Levy). Also, "the Citroen, one of France's most popular cars, is named for a Jew [Andre-Gustave Citroen] who was a pioneer in France's automotive industry ... During World War I he produced munitions for the French government, but at the war's end he turned to the mass production of automobiles." [GOLDBERG, M. H., 1976, p. 108-109] [Today's richest person in France in 2002?]

According to Forbes magazine, by 1998 Michael Dell was the seventh richest person on the planet, worth $16.5 billion, and also the youngest to have ever been listed on the Forbes 500 "rich list." He is the head of the Dell computer company, a direct-sales firm. Dell is an active philanthropist in the Austin, Texas, Jewish community. In 2001, Dell Ventues, a division of Dell Computers, announced plans to invest in hi-tech development in Israel. [GORDON, B., 1-21-01]

In 1999, the richest man in Los Angeles was also Jewish, Gary Winnick (worth over $6 billion). "Winnick is the fastest among today's top entrepreneurs to make his first billion dollars. He did it in a breathtaking 18 months." [TUGEND, 10-1-99] Syndicated columnist Richard Reeves calls the first time he ever saw Winnick "one of the most disgusting events I've endured in many years of watching the way the world works." Because Winnick had paid a sizeable sum for a Democratic Party fundraiser, he was afforded time to speak to the crowd. "This egomaniac," wrote Reeves, "who could afford the tab got up and rambled on about how rich and daring he was and how great his kids were." Then he put a cap with his telecommunications company's logo (Global Crossing) on the head of Secretary of State Madeline Albright. "It made you cringe to be a citizen of the world's greatest democracy," wrote Reeves. "But that's the way it works these days." Winnick's company expected to lay 100,000 miles of fiber-optic cable to 27 countries and 200 cities by mid-2001. He has pledged $40 million to start an institute named after himself in Israel. "He also funds other pro-Israel programs. "[MOTHER JONES, 5-3-01]

In Great Britain, the (London) Daily Mail noted a 1999 study by a credit research organization, Experian:

"A survey identifying Britain's wealthiest family names by their postcard

areas has produced a fascinating insight into the national makeup of

the 50 surnames most common among the movers and shakers...

More than 20 are from Jewish families ... There are more Cohens in

the top group than any other family name. Just behind are Levy,

Bloom, and Wolf ... This [trend] is confirmed by other surveys, for

instance the Sunday Times Rich 1999, which featured three Cohens,

Betterware multimillionaire Andrew, Courts furniture chain tycoon

Bruce, and DIY store boss Frank. Hugely wealthy Levys include

59-year old Peter, chairman of the London-based Shaftsbury

property company, while the Wolfs are represented by Sir John, a

      legend in Britain's films." [POULTER, p. 19]

    Jews are approximately half of one percent of England's population, but, in 2001, 14 of them ranked among Great Britian's 100 richest people. Joe Lewis is the wealthiest, worth 2.2 billion pounds. "Mr. Lewis made his fortune in the restaurant trade and, subsequently, in foreign exchange dealing." Mark Pears (and family) is worth about 600 million pounds, owning about "20,000 flats and houses." Jewish concerns of the Pears clan include Maccabi Union and Jewish Care. Gerald Ronson, based in real estate, is worth 75 million pounds, and David Lewis and family ("fashion, property, travel, and banking") are worth 350 million pounds. [LEVITT/KOHEN, 4-27-01, p. 14]

    In 2002, the Jewish Chronicle featured an article on the results of a study of British Jews: "London Jews comprise 'a relatively affluent group of people with middle-class' lifestyles, according to a report published today by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research [A Portrait of Jews in London and the South East: A Community Study, 'the largest [survey] ever conducted of Jews in Britain,' [2,965 people]. And, while details of their income are being kept under wraps, they are 'high on the socio-economic scale.' Around one-third describe themselves as employers in large organisations or in higher managerial and professional occupations, and another third in 'lower professional and higher technical and supervisory' work. Only one per cent are engaged in 'routine' occupations." [JeWISH CHRONICLE, 12-6-02, p. 31]

    The story in Australia, where Jews represent less than a half of one percent of population, is the same. As that continent's Jewish ethnic magazine Generation. Jewish Life observed in 2000:

     "Every year they are out there for all to see. There it is, in full salacious detail: the
      BRW Rich List, that quintessence of pennies envy, the vehicle of voyeurism that
      sums up the worst and most popular features of modern journalism. Each year, it
      parades the names of Australia's wealthiest, and the Jewish ones are always prominent.
      In fact, this year, their collective wealth totaled more than $23 billion, close to 40 percent
      of New Zealand's GDP. The names themselves are all too familiar. There's shopping
      centre king and former delivery truck driver Frank Lowy ($2.6 billion) and the
      cardboard magnate Richard Pratt. They are the second and third richest men in
      Australia." [Others noted include the Smorgon family, Scheinberg family, Harry
      Triguboff, Boris Lieberman, John Gandel, Solly Lew, Marc Besen, Nathan Werdiger,
      Joseph Gutnick, Ted Lustig, Max Moar, Eddie Kornhauser, Isador Magid, Barry|
      and Norman Bloom, Chaim Liberman, Morry Fraid, Ruben Fried, Nathan Baron,
      Henry Krongold, Isi Liebler, Drvin Graf, Peter Joss, Eddie Kornhauser, Henry Roth,
      Philip Wolanski, Rodney, Kathy, and Roxanne Adler, Ruth Simon and David Herrman] ...
      "The Jews on the BRW list represent a group that accounts for a ridiculously small
     proportion of the general population -- only 0.4 percent in fact, according to the 1996
      Census. So why the prominence?" [GETTLER, L., 2000, p. 23]

    Jewish observer Leon Gettler suggests possible reasons for Jewish prominence in Australian wealth-building, including an immigrant ethic, Talmudic principles, Jewish networking ("Maybe its just the tribal nature of the Jews"), chutzpah (pushiness), peer pressure ("keeping up with the Cohens"), a this-world materialist focus, and a survivalist mentality. ("Many of the Jews who graced the BRW Rich Lists emerged from the ashes of the Holocaust.") [GETTLER, L., p. 23-27]

In America, in comparison to other minority communities, there are no Hispanics and one Black in the Forbes "richest 400 people" list, minority populations that are larger in America than their Jewish counterparts. [LIPSET, p. 4] "When I read through the [1996] Newsweek story of the 'Overclass 100,'" wrote Jewish journalist Philip Weiss, "I began counting the Jews, something I've done since childhood, but soon gave up, overwhelmed by my tribe's prevalence among the powerful, troubled by what this means in the new American class paradigm of haves and have-nots." [WEISS, p. 27] "The Jewish economic and social profile diverges dramatically from that of Gentile Americans," notes Edward Shapiro, "Jews are wealthier, more likely to be found in the professions, academia, and the upper ranks of business, and attend universities in greater numbers ... Jews in Canada, Central and South America, and Europe exhibit the same characteristics." [SHAPIRO, E., 1998]