George Karfunkel (born 1948/1949) is an American businessman, the co-founder of companies including

AmTrust Financial Services AmTrust Financial Services, Inc., is a New York City-based multinational property and casualty insurance company, offering workers’ compensation, general liability, business owners policies (BOP), cyber liability, employment practices liabilit ...

, and a survivor of

Operation Entebbe Operation Entebbe, also known as the Entebbe Raid or Operation Thunderbolt, was a counter-terrorist hostage-rescue mission carried out by commandos of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on 4 July 1976. A week earl ...

Early life

George Karfunkel was born in Hungary, the son of Louis Karfunkel (1914-1997), a religious scholar and fishmonger, and his wife Clara. The family migrated to the US in the late 1950s, after the failed

Hungarian Revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...

, and lived in the Orthodox community of

Boro Park Borough Park (also spelled Boro Park) is a neighborhood in the southwestern part of the borough of Brooklyn, in New York City. The neighborhood is bordered by Bensonhurst to the south, Dyker Heights to the southwest, Sunset Park to the west, ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. His older brother Michael Karfunkel, died in April 2016, aged 72.

Career

In 1971, he co-founded American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC. In 1998, AmTrust Financial Services was founded by brothers George and Michael Karfunkel. Karfunkel has been a director of

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

since September 2013. On July 29, 2020, Karfunkel and his wife Renee donated 3 million of their 6.3 million

shares to Congregation Chemdas Yisroel, a tax-exempt religious organization, and they will be able to claim this donation as a tax deduction. Karfunkel founded Congregation Chemdas Yisroel in 2018. On July 27, the Trump administration awarded Kodak an "unprecedented" $765 million

Defense Production Act The Defense Production Act of 1950 () is a United States federal law enacted on September 8, 1950 in response to the start of the Korean War.Congressional Research ServiceThe Defense Production Act of 1950: History, Authorities, and Considerati ...

loan, and the share price soared from $2.16 to $60. Upon the donation of 3 million of their 6.3 million Kodak shares, the Karfunkels would be entitled to a tax deduction of $116.3 million for shares that two days earlier had been worth $6.39 million. A new document filed on January 12, 2021 seemingly contradicts the previous security filing by specifying that only 2 million of their 6.3 million Kodak shares have been donated to the organization, thereby producing a tax deduction of $77.5 million.

Personal life

In 1976, he was one of the survivors of

, when Palestinian terrorists hijacked an Air France plane and flew it to Entebbe, Uganda, and 102 of the 106 hostages were rescued by

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...

(IDF) commandos. Karfunkel is married to Renee. Their daughter

Anne Neuberger Anne Neuberger (born 1976) is an American national security official, who serves as the Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology in the Biden Administration. Prior to this role, she served for over a decade at NSA, as Dir ...

works in the

Biden Administration Joe Biden's tenure as the 46th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 2021. Biden, a Democrat from Delaware who previously served as vice president under Barack Obama, took office following his victory ...

as Deputy National Security Adviser for Cybersecurity. Anne Neuberger is married to Yehuda Neuberger.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karfunkel, George American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Living people American company founders American billionaires 1940s births American Hasidim Satmar Hasidim