At least 139 of the Forbes 400 are Jewish

I’ve spent the past couple of days buried in Google, going through Forbes’ recently released list of the country’s 400 richest citizens and trying to figure out who is Jewish. This list is by no means an exact science. But those who we considered Jewish were those who were of Jewish descent or those who […]

Advertisement

I’ve spent the past couple of days buried in Google, going through Forbes’ recently released list of the country’s 400 richest citizens and trying to figure out who is Jewish.

This list is by no means an exact science. But those who we considered Jewish were those who were of Jewish descent or those who openly identified as Jews either personally or in thier giving. There are a number of folks on this list below that we were unsure about, and they are denoted with asterisks.

Some quick stats: We are reasonably certain that 139 of the richest 400 Americans are Jewish, including 20 of the richest 50. Those top 20 control some $211.8 billion in personal wealth.

Those of particular interest: Sheldon Adelson continued his drop on this list. After being ranked the third wealthiest American in 2007, and publicly stating that he wanted to overtake Warren Buffet, who was then rnaked second on the Forbes 400, Adelson watched his personal wealth drop by $13 billion in 2007, then another $4 billion for this ranking.

The Google guys, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, both moved up a couple of slots on the Forbes list, from 13 and 14 respectively to a tie for 11 this year. But both saw their wealth drop a bit. Brin was worth $15.9 billion last year and is now worth $15.3. Page droppd from $15.8 billion to $15.3. The richest American Jew, Larry Ellison, saw his wealth and his spot on this liest stay level, while our second wealthiest member, Michael Bloomberg, managed to lose $2.5 billion but maintian his spot at number 8 on this list.

According to Forbes, some of the names that the Jewish philanthropy world knows best had rough years.

Lynn Schusterman’s Samson Resources lost $1 billion over the past year, according to Forbes, but Schusterman is still worth $1.5 billion and 236 on the Forbes list.

Edgar Bronfman is ranked 123 on the Forbes list with assets of $2.5 billion, while his brother, Charles Bronfman is not on the list. Last year, the 400th ranked American had $1.3 billion in assets. This year the lowest ranked on the list has $960 million.

Here is the list of Jewish entries that I culled from the Forbes list. The lists includes where they rank on the  Jewish list, followed by their rank on the general Forbes list, their net wealth in millions of dollars, followed by their age, location and the source of their wealth. This is just the Forbes list with the rest of the names deleated. (Click here for Forbes complete list, which includes short bios. If you see anyone who we missed, please let us know, and if you see anyone on here eroneously, again, please let us know.)

Over the coming months, we’ll be taking a deeper look at how each of these people give their money away.

Here’s the list:

  1. 3 Lawrence Ellison 27,000 65 Redwood City Oracle
  2. 8 Michael Bloomberg 17,500 67 New York Bloomberg
  3. 11 Sergey Brin 15,300 36 Palo Alto Google
  4. 11 Larry Page 15,300 36 San Francisco Google
  5. 13 Michael Dell 14,500 44 Austin Dell
  6. 14 Steven Ballmer 13,300 53 Seattle Microsoft
  7. 15 George Soros 13,000 79 Westchester hedge funds
  8. 16 Donald Bren 12,000 77 Newport Beach real estate – father is jewish
  9. 22 Carl Icahn 10,500 73 New York leveraged buyouts
  10. 23 Ronald Perelman 10,000 66 New York leveraged buyouts
  11. 24 George B. Kaiser 9,500 67 Tulsa oil & gas, banking
  12. 26 Sheldon Adelson 9,000 76 Las Vegas casinos, hotels
  13. 29 James Simons 8,500 71 East Setauket hedge funds
  14. 36 Steven Cohen 6,400 53 Greenwich hedge funds
  15. 42 Eli Broad 5,400 76 Los Angeles investments
  16. 44 Len Blavatnik 5,000 52 London Access Industries
  17. 44 David Geffen 5,000 66 Malibu movies, music
  18. 44 Ira Rennert 5,000 75 New York investments
  19. 49 Charles Ergen 4,900 56 Denver EchoStar **
  20. 50 Stephen Schwarzman 4,700 62 New York investments
  21. 52 Samuel I. (Si) Newhouse Jr. 4,500 81 New York publishing
  22. 56 Micky Arison 4,300 60 Bal Harbour Carnival Cruises
  23. 61 Ralph Lauren 4,200 70 New York fashion
  24. 65 Lester Crown & family 4,000 84 Wilmette investments
  25. 65 Richard LeFrak & family 4,000 64 New York real estate
  26. 65 Donald Newhouse 4,000 79 Somerset County publishing
  27. 65 Daniel Ziff 4,000 37 New York inheritance, hedge funds
  28. 65 Dirk Ziff 4,000 45 New York inheritance, hedge funds
  29. 65 Robert Ziff 4,000 43 New York inheritance, hedge funds
  30. 77 Henry Kravis 3,800 65 New York leveraged buyouts
  31. 77 Paul Milstein & family 3,800 87 New York Emigrant, real estate
  32. 77 Samuel Zell 3,800 68 Chicago real estate, private equity
  33. 84 Leonard N. Stern 3,600 71 New York real estate
  34. 85 Stanley Druckenmiller 3,500 56 Pittsburgh hedge funds
  35. 85 Bruce Kovner 3,500 64 New York hedge funds
  36. 85 George Roberts 3,500 66 San Francisco leveraged buyouts
  37. 97 Riley P. Bechtel 3,000 57 San Francisco engineering, construction**
  38. 97 Stephen D. Bechtel Jr. 3,000 84 San Francisco engineering, construction**
  39. 97 Leonard Lauder 3,000 76 New York Estee Lauder
  40. 97 Theodore Lerner 3,000 84 Washington real estate
  41. 97 Steven Spielberg 3,000 62 Pacific Palisades movies
  42. 97 Warren Stephens 3,000 52 Little Rock Stephens Inc. **
  43. 97 David Tepper 3,000 52 Milburn hedge funds
  44. 110 Stephen Ross 2,900 69 New York real estate
  45. 113 Daniel Och 2,800 48 New York hedge funds
  46. 113 Haim Saban 2,800 65 Beverly Hills television
  47. 118 Joan Tisch 2,600 83 New York Loews
  48. 123 Edgar M. Bronfman 2,500 80 New York liquor
  49. 123 Ronald Lauder 2,500 65 New York Estee Lauder
  50. 123 Mitchell Rales 2,500 53 Washington Danaher Corp **
  51. 123 Steven Rales 2,500 58 Washington Danaher Corp **
  52. 123 David Rubenstein 2,500 60 Bethesda leveraged buyouts
  53. 139 Mark Cuban 2,400 51 Dallas Broadcast.com
  54. 139 Malcolm Glazer & family 2,400 81 Palm Beach sports teams, real estate
  55. 141 Steve Wynn 2,300 67 Las Vegas casinos, hotels **
  56. 147 Tom Gores 2,200 45 Beverly Hills leveraged buyouts
  57. 147 Bruce Wasserstein 2,200 61 New York Wasserstein Perella, Lazard
  58. 158 Nicolas Berggruen 2,000 48 New York Investments
  59. 158 Leon Black 2,000 58 New York leveraged buyouts
  60. 158 William Gross 2,000 65 Laguna Beach bonds **
  61. 158 Michael Milken 2,000 63 Los Angeles investments
  62. 158 Sumner Redstone 2,000 86 Beverly Hills Viacom
  63. 158 Leslie Wexner 2,000 72 New Albany Limited Brands
  64. 158 Mark Zuckerberg 2,000 25 Palo Alto Facebook
  65. 183 Stewart Rahr 1,950 63 New York Kinray
  66. 193 Alan Casden 1,850 63 Beverly Hills real estate
  67. 196 Thomas Pritzker 1,800 59 Chicago hotels, investments
  68. 196 Jerry Speyer 1,800 69 New York real estate
  69. 204 Israel Englander 1,700 61 New York hedge funds
  70. 204 Penny Pritzker 1,700 50 Chicago hotels, investments
  71. 204 Sheldon Solow 1,700 81 New York real estate
  72. 212 Robert Friedland 1,650 59 Singapore mining
  73. 212 Henry Samueli 1,650 55 Newport Beach Broadcom
  74. 220 Thomas Friedkin 1,600 74 Houston Gulf States Toyota
  75. 220 Alec Gores 1,600 56 Beverly Hills leveraged buyouts
  76. 220 Irwin Jacobs 1,600 76 La Jolla Qualcomm
  77. 220 Anthony Pritzker 1,600 48 Los Angeles hotels, investments
  78. 220 Jay Robert Pritzker 1,600 44 Evanston hotels, investments
  79. 230 John Morgridge 1,550 76 Portola Valley Cisco ** (NETA with Jewish Agency)
  80. 230 Isaac Perlmutter 1,550 67 Palm Beach Marvel
  81. 230 Wilma Tisch 1,550 82 New York Loews
  82. 236 Neil Bluhm 1,500 71 Chicago real estate
  83. 236 Robert Kraft 1,500 68 Brookline New England Patriots
  84. 236 Stephen Mandel 1,500 53 Greenwich hedge funds
  85. 236 Daniel Pritzker 1,500 50 Marin County hotels, investments
  86. 236 James Pritzker 1,500 58 Chicago hotels, investments
  87. 236 Jean (Gigi) Pritzker 1,500 47 Chicago hotels, investments
  88. 236 John Pritzker 1,500 56 San Francisco hotels, investments
  89. 236 Karen Pritzker 1,500 51 New Haven hotels, investments
  90. 236 Linda Pritzker 1,500 55 St. Ignatius hotels, investments
  91. 236 Marc Rich 1,500 74 Meggen commodities
  92. 236 Lynn Schusterman 1,500 70 Tulsa oil & gas, investments
  93. 236 John Sperling 1,500 88 Phoenix Apollo Group
  94. 236 Mortimer Zuckerman 1,500 72 New York real estate, media
  95. 272 George Lindemann & family 1,450 73 Palm Beach investments
  96. 272 Bernard Marcus 1,450 80 Atlanta Home Depot
  97. 277 S. Daniel Abraham 1,400 85 Palm Beach Slim-Fast
  98. 277 John Arrillaga 1,400 72 Palo Alto real estate
  99. 277 Alfred Mann 1,400 83 Los Angeles medical devices
  100. 277 Michael Moritz 1,400 55 Mountain View venture capital
  101. 277 Michael Price 1,400 57 Far Hills investments
  102. 277 Tamir Sapir 1,400 62 New York real estate
  103. 277 Alfred Taubman 1,400 85 Bloomfield Hills real estate
  104. 289 Ken Fisher 1,350 58 Woodside Money management **
  105. 289 David Gottesman 1,350 83 Rye investments
  106. 289 Marc Lasry 1,350 49 New York hedge funds (92nd Street Y)
  107. 296 Edmund Ansin 1,300 73 Miami Sunbeam Broadcasting
  108. 296 Ron Baron 1,300 66 New York money management
  109. 296 Leon Charney 1,300 68 New York Real estate
  110. 296 Glenn Dubin 1,300 52 New York hedge funds
  111. 296 Donald Fisher 1,300 81 San Francisco Gap
  112. 296 Doris Fisher 1,300 78 San Francisco Gap
  113. 296 Jeremy Jacobs Sr. 1,300 69 East Aurora sports concessions
  114. 296 Gary Michelson 1,300 60 Los Angeles medical patents
  115. 317 Arthur Blank 1,250 67 Atlanta Home Depot
  116. 317 Jeffrey Greene 1,250 54 Miami Beach real estate, investments
  117. 317 Thomas H. Lee 1,250 65 New York leveraged buyouts
  118. 317 Herbert Simon 1,250 74 Indianapolis real estate
  119. 317 Peter Sperling 1,250 49 Phoenix Apollo Group
  120. 326 John E. Abele 1,200 72 Shelburne healthcare **
  121. 326 Norman Braman 1,200 77 Miami art, car dealerships
  122. 326 John Fisher 1,200 48 San Francisco Gap
  123. 326 Nicholas Pritzker 1,200 65 Chicago hotels, investments
  124. 326 Alexander Rovt 1,200 57 Brooklyn fertilizer
  125. 326 Margaret Whitman 1,200 53 Atherton Ebay
  126. 341 Leon Cooperman 1,150 66 Short Hills hedge funds
  127. 341 Barry Diller 1,150 67 New York IAC/InterActiveCorp
  128. 341 Joseph Mansueto 1,150 53 Chicago Morningstar **
  129. 347 Marc Benioff 1,100 45 San Francisco Salesforce.com
  130. 347 A. James Clark 1,100 81 Easton Construction **
  131. 347 Robert Fisher 1,100 56 San Francisco Gap
  132. 347 Alan Gerry 1,100 80 Liberty cable television**
  133. 347 James Irsay 1,100 50 Carmel Indianapolis Colts (Father, Bob was Jewish)
  134. 347 Michael Krasny 1,100 56 Highland Park CDW Corp 3
  135. 347 Daniel Snyder 1,100 44 Potomac Washington Redskins
  136. 347 Henry Swieca 1,100 52 New York hedge funds
  137. 366 Peter Lewis 1,050 75 Coconut Grove Progressive Corp
  138. 366 Nelson Peltz 1,050 67 Bedford Investments
  139. 371 William Fisher 1,000 52 San Francisco Gap
  140. 371 Pincus Green 1,000 74 Jerusalem commodities
  141. 371 Jeffry Picower 1,000 67 Palm Beach investments
  142. 371 Steven Schonfeld 1,000 50 Westbury Proprietary Trading
  143. 371 Walter Shorenstein & family 1,000 94 San Francisco real estate
  144. 371 Evgeny (Eugene) Shvidler 1,000 45 London Millhouse LLC
  145. 371 Charles Zegar 1,000 61 New York Bloomberg LP
  146. 394 Jeffrey Lurie 980 58 Haverford Philadelphia Eagles
  147. 396 Nancy Lerner 960 49 Cleveland inheritance
  148. 396 Norma Lerner 960 73 Cleveland inheritance
  149. 396 Randolph Lerner 960 47 Cleveland inheritance

Thanks to Gil Shefler for helping with the research.

Recommended from JTA

Advertisement