Power, Privilege and the Unlikely Rise of a New York Dynasty
An outlier among the German Jewish immigrants of New York, the Morgenthau patriarch, Lazarus, didn’t escape poverty for vague dreams of riches in the New World. He arrived intent on rebuilding the fortune he’d made — and lost — manufacturing cigars and cigar boxes in Germany when the US banned the export of tobacco during the Civil War.
Part entrepreneur, part confidence man, he failed miserably — his last attempt, shut down by the police: a townhouse dressed up as a wedding hall for orphans for whom he ostensibly solicited dowries.
The next generations of Morgenthaus not only made money but history — and the story of how and what they did is the basis of Andrew Meier’s extraordinary new volume, Morgenthau, tracing the journey of three generations following Lazarus: the accomplishment of son Henry, who amassed the family fortune by becoming one of New York’s real estate barons before being appointed US ambassador to the Ottoman Empire; his son Henry, confidant of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, US treasury secretary and dogged antagonist of those intent on keeping Jewish refugees from American shores during World War II; and Robert, the longest-serving district attorney in the history of the state of New York.
Meier joins us to discuss the Morgenthau dynasty, from Lazarus’s relationship to Temple Emanu-El, to Henry’s hesitation to accept the “Jewish” ambassadorship to the Ottoman Empire and to Robert’s prosecution of John Lennon’s killer, Mark David Chapman, the Preppy Killer, Robert Chambers, and rapper Tupac Shakur. In what has been called “his finest hour,” he acted to vindicate the five men convicted of attacking the Central Park Jogger.
Journalist Andrew Meier is the author of three previous books and a regular contributor to national and international publications. A commentator on the BBC, CNN and NPR, he has reported for PBS television documentaries and codirected the Netflix documentary Our Godfather.
Jewish Dynasties: About the Series
For New York Jews, the names Lehman, Goldman, Loeb, Sachs and Guggenheim conjure up American Jewish royalty; German immigrants who clawed their way out of tenements into Park Avenue mansions.
But theirs are not the stories of all Jewish dynasties. Join us to learn about the othercrowd!
March 14: The Sassoons
March 21: The Morgenthaus
March 28: The Safras