Nathaniel Charles Jacob, fourth Baron Rothschild, commands the room without
effort.
Choosing his words with the skills derived from an Eton and
Oxford education, he delivers them in the deep, cultured tones of a British
aristocrat.
Tall and erect at 76, he has distinctive looks (“a long oval
face, high forehead, and arched hawk-like eyes,” as one writer describes him)
and quite a pedigree: he is the great, great, great grandson of Nathan Mayer,
one of the five sons of Mayer Amschel, founder of the House of Rothschild, the
financial world’s most famous family dynasty, and the archetype of Jewish
wealth.
Lord Rothschild parted from the family banking business decades
ago. Today he is one of Britain’s most renowned business investors and chairman
since 1989 of Yad Hanadiv, the philanthropic arm of the legendary family, which
quietly distributes tens of millions of Rothschild dollars every year to dozens
of projects throughout Israel.
One of the most accomplished of the
modern-day Rothschilds, Jacob is a world renowned art patron and, in what seems
to be his favorite avocation, a world-class philanthropist. He was chairman of
the trustees of the British National Gallery and involved in major British
cultural projects, including the Courtauld Institute of Fine Art and the
restoration of Somerset House in London. When the UK National Lottery was
launched in 1994, he was invited to chair the British National Heritage Lottery
Fund, responsible for distributing some $2 billion.
Jacob’s own net
worth, estimated at around $600 million by the Sunday Times in 2010, has now
been surpassed by the riches of his son and heir, Nat, according to the
newspaper’s annual Rich List. Lord Rothschild is no longer counted among the 100
wealthiest people in Britain, but he retains the confidence of world leaders,
business giants and royal family members whom he hosts at Waddesdon Manor, a
turreted 19th-century Loire Valleystyle chateau and estate in Buckinghamshire
that he inherited from Dorothy de Rothschild, the widow of his cousin James.
Jacob’s London office is Spencer House in St. James’s, the former ancestral home
of the late Diana, Princess of Wales.
Although he is one of the world’s
top financiers, Lord Rothschild displays surprising consideration for the Occupy
movements in Wall Street, London and elsewhere.
“I have a lot of sympathy
with people who protested about some of the excesses in the world of finance,”
he tells The Jerusalem Report. “After all, here are characters who have made
great fortunes, who have been in charge of a system, which has been very
damaging to many interests in the last five to ten years. They have had enormous
benefits but the banking system as a whole has had a crippling effect in a
number of areas throughout the world.”
Rarity
He is not optimistic that
the protesters might transform bankers into a more socially conscious group “by
trying to get the banks to recycle some of their wealth back into the
community.” It’s an unlikely scenario. Right now, he says, “the banks are not in
a very fit state to give away money. They are mostly being helped by
governments.”
Our conversation is a rarity. The activities of the
Rothschild Foundation in Israel have been characterized by a discretion
bordering on secrecy. Accustomed to adopting a low profile toward the many
Rothschild accomplishments in Israel, Yad Hanadiv has Nathaniel Charles Jacob,
fourth Baron Rothschild, commands the room without effort.
Choosing his
words with the skills derived from an Eton and Oxford education, he delivers
them in the deep, cultured tones of a British aristocrat.
Tall and erect
at 76, he has distinctive looks (“a long oval face, high forehead, and arched
hawk-like eyes,” as one writer describes him) and quite a pedigree: he is the
great, great, great grandson of Nathan Mayer, one of the five sons of Mayer
Amschel, founder of the House of Rothschild, the financial world’s most famous
family dynasty, and the archetype of Jewish wealth.
Lord Rothschild
parted from the family banking business decades ago. Today he is one of
Britain’s most renowned business investors and chairman since 1989 of Yad
Hanadiv, the philanthropic arm of the legendary family, which quietly
distributes tens of millions of Rothschild dollars every year to dozens of
projects throughout Israel.
One of the most accomplished of the
modern-day Rothschilds, Jacob is a worldrenowned art patron and, in what seems
to be his favorite avocation, a world-class philanthropist. He was chairman of
the trustees of the British National Gallery and involved in major British
cultural projects, including the Courtauld Institute of Fine Art and the
restoration of Somerset House in London. When the UK National Lottery was
launched in 1994, he was invited to chair the British National Heritage Lottery
Fund, responsible for distributing some $2 billion.
Jacob’s own net
worth, estimated at around $600 million by the Sunday Times in 2010, has now
been surpassed by the riches of his son and heir, Nat, according to the
newspaper’s annual Rich List. Lord Rothschild is no longer counted among the 100
wealthiest people in Britain, but he retains the confidence of world leaders,
business giants and royal family members whom he hosts at Waddesdon Manor, a
turreted 19th-century Loire Valleystyle chateau and estate in Buckinghamshire
that he inherited from Dorothy de Rothschild, the widow of his cousin James.
Jacob’s London office is Spencer House in St. James’s, the former ancestral home
of the late Diana, Princess of Wales.
Although he is one of the world’s
top financiers, Lord Rothschild displays surprising consideration for the Occupy
movements in Wall Street, London and elsewhere.
“I have a lot of sympathy
with people who protested about some of the excesses in the world of finance,”
he tells The Jerusalem Report. “After all, here are characters who have made
great fortunes, who have been in charge of a system, which has been very
damaging to many interests in the last five to ten years. They have had enormous
benefits but the banking system as a whole has had a crippling effect in a
number of areas throughout the world.”
Rarity He is not optimistic that
the protesters might transform bankers into a more socially conscious group “by
trying to get the banks to recycle some of their wealth back into the
community.” It’s an unlikely scenario. Right now, he says, “the banks are not in
a very fit state to give away money. They are mostly being helped by
governments.”
Our conversation is a rarity. The activities of the
Rothschild Foundation in Israel have been characterized by a discretion
bordering on secrecy. Accustomed to adopting a low profile toward the many
Rothschild accomplishments in Israel, Yad Hanadiv hasNathaniel Charles Jacob,
fourth Baron Rothschild, commands the room without effort.
Choosing his
words with the skills derived from an Eton and Oxford education, he delivers
them in the deep, cultured tones of a British aristocrat.
Tall and erect
at 76, he has distinctive looks (“a long oval face, high forehead, and arched
hawk-like eyes,” as one writer describes him) and quite a pedigree: he is the
great, great, great grandson of Nathan Mayer, one of the five sons of Mayer
Amschel, founder of the House of Rothschild, the financial world’s most famous
family dynasty, and the archetype of Jewish wealth.
Lord Rothschild
parted from the family banking business decades ago. Today he is one of
Britain’s most renowned business investors and chairman since 1989 of Yad
Hanadiv, the philanthropic arm of the legendary family, which quietly
distributes tens of millions of Rothschild dollars every year to dozens of
projects throughout Israel.
One of the most accomplished of the
modern-day Rothschilds, Jacob is a worldrenowned art patron and, in what seems
to be his favorite avocation, a world-class philanthropist. He was chairman of
the trustees of the British National Gallery and involved in major British
cultural projects, including the Courtauld Institute of Fine Art and the
restoration of Somerset House in London. When the UK National Lottery was
launched in 1994, he was invited to chair the British National Heritage Lottery
Fund, responsible for distributing some $2 billion.
Jacob’s own net
worth, estimated at around $600 million by the Sunday Times in 2010, has now
been surpassed by the riches of his son and heir, Nat, according to the
newspaper’s annual Rich List. Lord Rothschild is no longer counted among the 100
wealthiest people in Britain, but he retains the confidence of world leaders,
business giants and royal family members whom he hosts at Waddesdon Manor, a
turreted 19th-century Loire Valleystyle chateau and estate in Buckinghamshire
that he inherited from Dorothy de Rothschild, the widow of his cousin James.
Jacob’s London office is Spencer House in St. James’s, the former ancestral home
of the late Diana, Princess of Wales.
Although he is one of the world’s
top financiers, Lord Rothschild displays surprising consideration for the Occupy
movements in Wall Street, London and elsewhere.
“I have a lot of sympathy
with people who protested about some of the excesses in the world of finance,”
he tells The Jerusalem Report. “After all, here are characters who have made
great fortunes, who have been in charge of a system, which has been very
damaging to many interests in the last five to ten years. They have had enormous
benefits but the banking system as a whole has had a crippling effect in a
number of areas throughout the world.”
Rarity He is not optimistic that
the protesters might transform bankers into a more socially conscious group “by
trying to get the banks to recycle some of their wealth back into the
community.” It’s an unlikely scenario. Right now, he says, “the banks are not in
a very fit state to give away money. They are mostly being helped by
governments.”
Our conversation is a rarity. The activities of the
Rothschild Foundation in Israel have been characterized by a discretion
bordering on secrecy. Accustomed to adopting a low profile toward the many
Rothschild accomplishments in Israel, Yad Hanadiv has only recently opened a
website and its annual report must be the only one produced by the financier
that contains no figures.
“We’ve tried not to be in the headlines,” says
Lord Rothschild, defending a policy that dates back to 1882 when Baron Edmond de
Rothschild provided the early Zionists with the tools to edge toward nationhood,
founding some of the first modern Jewish settlements and businesses in
Palestine, including the Carmel winery, whose grapes came from cuttings
transferred from the Rothschild vineyards in France. Edmond was the son of James
Mayer, brother of Nathan Mayer, from whom Jacob is descended.
Despite his
efforts to maintain a low profile, Zionists dubbed Edmond “Hanadiv Hayadua”
(“The Known Benefactor”) – since everyone knew the identity of the anonymous
donor.
Edmond’s son James and daughter-inlaw Dorothy were not so
reticent. James became a British member of parliament and an outspoken supporter
of the Zionist cause.
They provided Chaim Weizmann with the needed
contacts in Britain to attain British support for a Jewish state through the
Balfour Declaration. “Dear Lord Rothschild,” UK Foreign Secretary Arthur
Balfour’s famous November 2, 1917 letter begins, addressed to the second Baron,
Walter, Jacob’s great uncle.
Jacob’s father Victor, the third Baron, was
more interested in his scientific research and wartime intelligence work for
Britain than in Zionist politics. Cousins James and Dorothy were the ones who
encouraged the young Jacob to make his first trip to Israel in the early 1950s
with his friend Isaiah Berlin, the Oxford philosopher. It was James and Dorothy
who groomed Jacob to assume the leadership of the family’s century-old
commitment to the Zionist project. When Dorothy died in 1988, she bequeathed
Jacob both Waddesdon and her 94-million-pound fortune – at the time, the largest
ever British inheritance – and the chairmanship of Yad Hanadiv.
Few other
visitors to Israel in the past 50 years could have experienced quite the same
pride as Jacob Rothschild upon seeing the construction of Israel’s Knesset
parliament building, Supreme Court, Open University and a raft of educational,
scientific and research projects across the country – for Lord Rothschild and
his fund built them all.
Under his expert stewardship, the 94 million
pounds he inherited from Dorothy has multiplied many times over. Every penny has
been plowed into philanthropic pursuits in Israel.
Though he has traveled
to Israel annually for half a century to oversee the work of the foundation,
Jacob Rothschild has shunned creating publicity around Yad
Hanadiv.
Despite the many millions donated by the family, neither the
Knesset, the Supreme Court, the Jerusalem Music Center at Mishkenot Shaananim
nor the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University bear the
Rothschild name. In stark contrast to other wealthy families, there is no
Rothschild hospital, college or synagogue, even though foundation money has been
vital for the development of all these areas in Israel. Until nine days before
architects were chosen to design the Knesset, completed in 1952, only a handful
were aware that James and Dorothy Rothschild had donated 1.25 million British
pounds for the new parliament building. “Our tradition has been that we don’t
shout from the rooftops what we are doing,” says Jacob.
Privacy, however,
has not protected the Rothschilds entirely from unwanted exposure, especially
from anti-Semites who portray the family as the prime example of Jewish wealth
and hence Jewish evil. Nor has their near silence kept others from prying,
usually unsuccessfully, into their behind-the-scenes interactions. When news
leaked of a power tiff in 1980 with cousin Evelyn that triggered Jacob’s
departure from the family’s flagship investment bank, N. M. Rothschild and Sons,
the cousins were horrified, vowing to protect themselves against future
intrusions.
Transformed
So Yad Hanadiv’s activities have largely been
conducted in private, even though their results have transformed the Israeli
landscape. Conscious that Israel’s National Library lacked the modern facilities
required for a 21st-century institution, the Rothschilds quietly stepped in and
offered to save the Israeli government most of the cost of financing a new
building, due to open in 2017, and the technology to make holdings available
online.
The Rothschilds gave few public speeches and their photographs
seldom appeared in newspapers. Yad Hanadiv offered few insights into its major
projects. In contrast with most other philanthropists, the Rothschilds barred
recipients in Israel from citing the family as the main supporter of their
projects.
They defended their silence by asserting that their
philanthropy was a privilege that would have been diminished had they taken
public credit for it. Producing one remarkable nation-building project after
another, Yad Hanadiv avoided self-promotion out of what Lord Rothschild quietly
refers to as “shyness.”
It was a quaint humility that seemed increasingly
anachronistic.
Over the years, as Israel changed, so did the nature of
the Rothschilds’ giving. “Israel was a relatively poor country that once needed
soup kitchens more than it does today,” says Jacob. “Today the role of
philanthropy in Israel, given the prosperity of this country, is a very
different one. We like to think we’re doing things that wouldn’t have happened
had we not become involved.”
As a result, the Rothschilds prefer to
invest in higher education and science. Israel’s edge, Jacob says, is in its
intellectual prowess, so the goal of philanthropy should be “to make that edge
continue to prosper. And we identify higher education as a role where we could
make a difference.
“I think the National Library is a good example,” he
says. “I think it frankly wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t come along with
our proposal.”
Yad Hanadiv was instrumental in creating Educational
Television in 1966, Israel’s first live TV station, which began with a rare
appearance by Lord Rothschild himself. The foundation also created the Open
University in 1976. Based on the British model and only the second such
institution in the world, it is now Israel’s largest university.
When the
Israeli government slashed funding to higher education between 2000 and 2010,
the Humanities were particularly hard hit. Yad Hanadiv created a fund to
encourage innovation and unheard of cooperation among universities to help keep
certain fields afloat.
It continued to encourage young scholars with
postdoctoral fellowships in the Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities and the
Bruno Award – roughly modeled on the MacArthur “genius” awards – all the while
funding scientific initiatives at the Technion and Weizmann Institute. Other key
projects supported by Yad Hanadiv include an institute for the training of
school principals, the establishment of a center for researching the impact of
the environment on human health, projects in the Arab community emphasizing
access for the disabled and, most recently, an initiative to establish 22
employment centers in Arab neighborhoods.
Until the mid-1990s, few in
Israel knew precisely what Yad Hanadiv was doing. Yad Hanadiv was so secretive
that even its Guiding Principles were not publicly available, nor were a series
of potentially useful studies, including a heavily researched committee report
on the feasibility of a new National Library building.
More recently, the
foundation has been influenced by a burgeoning transparency in the philanthropy
world. Yad Hanadiv has slowly fallen in step with other philanthropists who saw
the value of networking and sharing information about their
projects.
Inevitably, the Rothschilds’ beneficence has become public
knowledge despite the tight-lipped traditions. It was not possible each year for
400,000 visitors to visit the Ramat Hanadiv Memorial Gardens near Haifa – burial
place of Baron Edmond – or for another 40,000 students and post-doctorate
fellows to benefit from the Open University, without Yad Hanadiv’s
once-scrupulous anonymity slowly dissolving. The prospect of building a major
public institution like the new National Library in an age of open information
and social networking provided impetus for a higher public profile.
A few
years ago, another benefactor urged Jacob to let Rothschild beneficiaries boast
that the family was supporting a particular project. By not being allowed such
“bragging rights,” his friend argued, these recipients were denied a tool for
effective fundraising from other donors. Lord Rothschild got the
point.
The family finally dropped the veil in February 2010 when Yad
Hanadiv went online and published the names of its staff.
“We have a
website and we have a proper board of trustees,” says Jacob
gleefully.
Yadhanadiv.org.il contains a brief history of Rothschild
efforts in Israel, a timeline, and those once-unpublished Guiding
Principles.
Included are the statements “We value sharing of knowledge”
and “We are committed to a modest public profile.”
Unmarked
In early May,
the Yad Hanadiv offices moved from their unmarked building in a Jerusalem side
street to new headquarters opposite the King David Hotel where, in the spirit of
the burgeoning openness, its fresh facilities make it easier to host partners
and grantees.
But there is a limit. The details of Yad Hanadiv’s finances
remain a secret, as do its debates and negotiations. The family name is absent
from the new, green-friendly building, nor will there be a Rothschild Tower on
the Tel Aviv seafront or a Rothschild Theater in Jerusalem. And, while the
practice of not publicizing the names of many recipients remains official
policy, some of their identities are now published on the website. But it’s a
two-way street. At a ceremony in the Knesset on March 25, Lord Rothschild
presented the $50,000 biannual Rothschild Prize to five eminent professors. The
Israeli press was invited to attend but none of them bothered to turn
up.
Might the increased public profile induce the Rothschilds to turn
their world-class influence toward resolving the Israeli- Arab conflict? No,
says Jacob Rothschild.
Historically, the family has always steered clear
of politics – and business – in Israel.
Besides, he wants to focus his
personal energies in Israel exclusively on Yad Hanadiv, adding with another dash
of the family “shyness” that he has neither the skill, the impartiality, or the
time that would make him a peace facilitator.
“I don’t think I’ve ever
had a minute off in Israel,” he says. “I’ve been completely and utterly devoted
to what Hanadiv does. I’m not saying I’m a good guy for that. It’s just the way
the dice have fallen. Therefore, I have a certain reticence about becoming
involved away from my main focus. I don’t feel that I can enter the arena of the
political debate, or should do, because of a lack of expertise in
it.
That’s not to say, of course, that I don’t have feelings about it and
views about it, but I think where I can contribute is through what I’m doing. I
think I should discipline myself in a life that’s already too crowded, to focus
on that one objective.”
In a surprising admission – one routinely assumes
a Rothschild can effortlessly amass as much money as he wishes – the storied
investor points to his own “hard work” in keeping the Rothschild coffers full in
order to fund Yad Hanadiv’s expanding activities.
“I’ve enjoyed the
countless opportunities but they are demanding as well,” he says.“One of
the things that I’ve spent a lot of time doing is growing the assets of the
foundation, which have enabled us to do what we do.That’s been a lot of
hard work, to make Yad Hanadiv grow from what it was to what it is today. We see
ourselves as competing to come out ahead of the pack.”
The Rothschild
legacy, Jacob suggests, depends not just on the skillful stewardship of Dorothy
de Rothschild’s bequest but on reinvigorating the wider family’s traditional
ties so the ever-growing network of cousins can continue the work far into the
future.
“If you take the nineteenth-century Jewish families, how many can
you point to where the lights are still on? Not many, are there? I won’t mention
names, but in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe, the lights have
gone out,” he says. “It’s nice that some of those old families carry
on.”
Looking to the future, Lord Rothschild has mapped out a strategy to
ensure that the collective family’s intimate connection to Israel and the work
of the foundation will long outlive him. The rift with Sir Evelyn was healed
long ago. “We speak at least once a week,” he says, with obvious
satisfaction.
Echoing the summons he answered from his cousins James and
Dorothy a half century ago, Jacob has deployed the board of trustees of Yad
Hanadiv as a recruiting ground for the next generation of Rothschild
cousins.
“I can’t hold out to you that our family is particularly
religious but, in terms of involvement, I’ve got here today my daughter Hannah,
my niece Alice, my niece Kate, and my nephew James. I’m doing everything I
possibly can,” he says, noting the trustees visiting Jerusalem for a meeting of
the board and the Rothschild Prize ceremony. Another cousin, Beatrice, and his
daughter Beth were also due to come but were detained at home.
“I think
that’s not bad to have seven here who are involved. That’s what I’m working at,”
he says.
And so, one Rothschild becomes seven Rothschilds, equipped with
modern communications, larger staff, a new headquarters and a fortune secure and
large enough to continue doing what this unique family has been doing for more
than a century: to make a difference.
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