Baron Guy de Rothschild, patriarch of the storied French Jewish banking family, died in Paris at 98.Rothschild died Thursday, according to news reports. No cause of death was given.Rothschild saw his family bank taken over during the Nazi occupation in 1940 because it was owned by Jews. In 1981, the bank again was taken over by the Socialist government of Francois Mitterrand. In an editorial in Le Monde, Rothschild accused the Socialists of anti-Semitism. His son David reconstructed the family banking network, which in 1987 became the Rothschild and Company Bank.Rothschild also founded and presided over the United Jewish Welfare Fund, France’s primary Jewish philanthropic agency, from 1950 to 1982. Along with David, he is survived by another son, Edouard, and many other relatives. A funeral is scheduled for June 21 in the main synagogue of Paris.
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