Michael H. Steinhardt (born December 7, 1940) is an American billionaire hedge fund manager, philanthropist, and former antiquities collector. In 1967, he founded a hedge fund, Steinhardt Partners which he ran until he closed it in 1995. After a hiatus from work, he returned to head WisdomTree Investments in 2004. In January 2014 he was on the cover of ''Forbes Magazine'', referred to as "

Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for ...

's greatest trader." ''

Forbes Magazine ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also rep ...

'' reported his

net worth Net worth is the value of all the non-financial and financial assets owned by an individual or institution minus the value of all its outstanding liabilities. Since financial assets minus outstanding liabilities equal net financial assets, net ...

at $1.1 billion as of October 2018.

Early life

Steinhardt earned a bachelor's degree at the

Wharton School The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in ...

of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

, graduating in 1960. He started his career working for the mutual fund Calvin Bullock and the brokerage firm Loeb, Rhoades & Co. (the precursor to

Shearson Loeb Rhoades Shearson was the name of a series of investment banking and retail brokerage firms from 1902 until 1994, named for Edward ShearsonLoeb, Rhoades & Co., Steinhardt followed the

conglomerate Conglomerate or conglomeration may refer to: * Conglomerate (company) * Conglomerate (geology) * Conglomerate (mathematics) In popular culture: * The Conglomerate (American group), a production crew and musical group founded by Busta Rhymes ** ...

industry, which included companies such as Automatic Sprinkler (now defunct), City Investing (also defunct), and the best-known conglomerate of its day, Gulf+Western (now part of Viacom and Viacom's spinoff CBS).

Steinhardt Partners

In 1967, using earnings from his investments, Steinhardt founded the hedge fund Steinhardt, Fine, and Berkowitz (later Steinhardt Partners) with co-investors

William Salomon William Salomon (1914-2014) was an American businessman who served as managing partner of Salomon Brothers. Biography Salomon was born to a Jewish family in New York City, the son of Percy Salomon who co-founded Salomon Brothers with his bro ...

, former managing partner of

Salomon Brothers Salomon Brothers, Inc., was an American multinational bulge bracket investment bank headquartered in New York. It was one of the five largest investment banking enterprises in the United States and the most profitable firm on Wall Street durin ...

and Jack Nash, founder of Odyssey Partners. Between 1967 and 1995, Steinhardt Partners averaged an annualized return for its clients of 24.5%, after a 1% management fee and a "performance fee" of 15% (early in his career, later 20%) of all annual gains, realized and unrealized, nearly triple the annualized performance of the

S&P 500 The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices. As of ...

Index over the same timeframe. After decades of successfully managing the fund, Steinhardt and his firm were investigated for allegedly trying to manipulate the short-term

Treasury Note United States Treasury securities, also called Treasuries or Treasurys, are government debt instruments issued by the United States Department of the Treasury to finance government spending as an alternative to taxation. Since 2012, U.S. gov ...

market in the early 1990s. He personally paid 75% of a total fine of $70 million as part of settlement with the U.S.

Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

and

Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

. His firm made $600 million on the Treasury positions. In his book, ''No Bull'', Steinhardt said he did nothing wrong, but merely settled the case in order to "move on." His fund lost 1/3 of its value in the 1994 bond market crisis. In 1995, after finishing up 25%, decided to close his fund, stating, "I thought there must be something more virtuous, more ennobling to do with one's life than make rich people richer," before returning to work in 2004 to head WisdomTree Investments, a fund with nearly US$64 billion in assets under management. The hedge fund distributed all monies to its limited partners at the end of 1995.

WisdomTree Investments

In 2004, Steinhardt came out of retirement to work for Index Development Partners, Inc., now known as WisdomTree Investments. He is chairman of WisdomTree, which offers dividend and earnings-based

index fund An index fund (also index tracker) is a mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF) designed to follow certain preset rules so that the fund can a specified basket of underlying investments.Reasonable Investor(s), Boston University Law Review, avai ...

s rather than traditional index funds based on

market capitalization Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by ...

. As of July 2018, WisdomTree had $41.2 billion under management. During the fall of 2007 and 2008, WisdomTree's growth stagnated, as the stock market, especially the financial sector, in which WisdomTree's dividend-based funds are overweighted, tanked, as did WisdomTree's stock. However, as the WisdomTree funds tended to outperform their "bogies," asset growth resumed its earlier pace and its stock price appreciated accordingly.

Wealth and philanthropy

'' reported Steinhardt's

at US$1.1 billion as of October 2018. The

Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development The New York University Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development (commonly referred to as Steinhardt) is the secondary liberal arts and education school of New York University. It is one of the only schools in the world of ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

bears his name in recognition of two $10 million donations. After 2018 sexual harassment allegations against Steinhardt, the student government at the school called for removal of the philanthropist’s name; a call which was renewed after his 2021 deal with the Manhattan District Attorney about Steinhardt's 180 stolen antiquities. In the 1990s, Steinhardt bought and donated

Steeple Jason Island Steeple Jason Island is a small island west of Grand Jason Island. It is a part of the Jason Islands in the Falkland Islands. Along with Grand Jason, it is one of the "Islas los Salvajes" in Spanish (the Jasons being divided into two groups in t ...

and Grand Jason Island in the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouze ...

to the

Wildlife Conservation Society The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a non-governmental organization headquartered at the Bronx Zoo in New York City, that aims to conserve the world's largest wild places in 14 priority regions. Founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological ...

(WCS), along with US$425,000 for a research station to be named after himself and his wife. Steinhardt invested in baseball teams, owning part of the

Miami Marlins The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The club's home ballpark is LoanDepot Park. The fra ...

and the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League West, West division. Established in 1883 i ...

. Steinhardt is the past chairman of the

Democratic Leadership Council The Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) was founded in 1985 and closed in 2011. Founded and directed by Al From, prominent members include Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton (who was elected president in 1992 and 1996), Delaware Senator Joe Biden ( ...

and a board member of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, to which he donated $250,000 in 2002.

Jewish causes

Steinhardt is chairman of the board at The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life and

Taglit-Birthright Israel Taglit-Birthright Israel ( he, תגלית), also known as Birthright Israel or simply Birthright, is a not-for-profit educational organization that sponsors free ten-day heritage trips to Israel, Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights for young adult ...

. He also makes public appearances, speaking with young Jewish children through organizations such as Ezra USA and

RAJE *In Maharashtra, Chatrapati Shivaji Raje was addressed as ''King'' or ''Raje''. Also, other clans of the Maratha community put Raje before their original clan name; Raje Shirke, Raje Mahadik, Raje Kadam, Raje Chalukya, Raje Jadhavrao etc or used ...

. He has been an active

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

, donating over $125 million to Jewish causes. In 1999, he and

Charles Bronfman Charles Bronfman, (born June 27, 1931) is a Canadian-American businessman and philanthropist and is a member of the Canadian Jewish Bronfman family. With an estimated net worth of $2.5 billion (as of 2021), Bronfman was ranked by '' Forbes'' ...

co-founded

, which sends young Jews aged 18–26 on a 10-day trip to Israel without charge. In 2009, Steinhardt gave the

American Hebrew Academy AHA International School (formerly American Hebrew Academy until 2020) was intended to be an international college-preparatory school located in Greensboro, North Carolina. It was to be open to students of all faiths but was originally founded a ...

$5 million. The American Hebrew Academy released an advertisement featuring his endorsement. Steinhardt has founded a network of Hebrew-language charter schools, which are secular and open to both Jews and non-Jews. He has said "these schools teach Hebrew in a way that is demonstrably superior to Jewish day schools". Steinhardt is part of the "Mega Group" – a loosely organized club of 20 of the most wealthy and influential Jewish businessmen. The "Mega Group" was formed by Leslie Wexner, chairman of Limited Inc. and

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

and Edgar Bronfman Sr., chairmen of

Seagram The Seagram Company Ltd. (which traded as Seagram's) was a Canadian multinational conglomerate formerly headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. Originally a distiller of Canadian whisky based in Waterloo, Ontario, it was once (in the 1990s) the ...

. Steinhardt is a strong supporter of the

State of Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, which he regards as the "Jewish miracle of the 20th century". He views Israel as "the most moral state on this planet", and in a 2017 interview said "The more one understands about Israel, the more comfortable one becomes with the politics of the Israeli government."Ben Sales
Michael Steinhardt thinks American Jews need to stop focusing on religion
''Jewish Telegraphic Agency''; June 9, 2017. In April 2017, he made history after being selected as one of two diaspora Jews to light an official torch at the

Independence Day Torch-lighting Ceremony (Israel) as a symbol of "Jewish unity" for contributions as the co-founder of

. Steinhardt served as Chairman of the Board of Tel Aviv University, where he received an honorary doctorate in 2011, and endowed the

Steinhardt Museum of Natural History The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Israel National Center for Biodiversity Studies at Tel Aviv University, is a natural history museum in Israel, including both education and a research center. It is the largest and most active center in Isr ...

Ramat Aviv Ramat Aviv Alef or Ramat Aviv HaYeruka, and originally plainly Ramat Aviv ( he, רָמַת אָבִיב, ''lit.'' Spring Heights), is a neighborhood in northwest Tel Aviv, Israel. History Ramat Aviv was founded in 1950s following the great i ...

Publishing

In 2001, Steinhardt made his foray into publishing. He, along with several other investors, including

Conrad Black Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour (born 25 August 1944), is a Canadian-born British former newspaper publisher, businessman, and writer. His father was businessman George Montegu Black II, who had significant holdings in Canad ...

, founded the ''

New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...

'', a niche New York City newspaper best known for its pro-Israel support and neo-conservative outlook. Steinhardt wrote a letter to President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

advocating the pardon of

Marc Rich Marc Rich (born Marcell David Reich; December 18, 1934 – June 26, 2013) was an international commodities trader, hedge fund manager, financier, businessman, and financial criminal. He founded the commodities company Glencore, and was later ind ...

, calling him "my friend...who has been punished enough." On January 20, 2001, Clinton's last day in office, Rich was pardoned. Steinhardt was an early supporter of the possible presidential candidacy of

Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a c ...

in 2008.

Sexual harassment allegations

On September 12, 2018, ''

The Jewish Week ''The Jewish Week'' is a weekly independent community newspaper targeted towards the Jewish community of the metropolitan New York City area. ''The Jewish Week'' covers news relating to the Jewish community in NYC. In March 2016, ''The Jewish W ...

'' reported that

Hillel International Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, also known as Hillel International or Hillel, is the largest Jewish campus organization in the world, working with thousands of college students globally. Hillel is represented at more than 550 colle ...

was investigating Steinhardt for "inappropriate sexual remarks" to two female employees of one of the organizations he supports. ''The Jewish Week'' story quoted "sources close to the investigation" as saying that since, 2015, when the first complaint by a female employee occurred, it has been a "practice" within the organization for no female employee to have meetings with Steinhardt alone. The second woman making allegations received a written apology from Steinhardt, dated August 23, 2011, acknowledging his inappropriate comments made toward her and two male colleagues at a meeting the year before. The report noted that Hillel had "quietly" removed his name from the board of governors listed on their website while the organization was investigating the claims. Hillel made an official statement that the complaints about sexual harassment by its donors were justified. Steinhardt stated in response to the findings "If I had been told immediately about concerns regarding anything I said at the time, I would have apologized immediately. I only recently learned about this investigation when Hillel called me about comments I made several years ago. I am sorry and deeply regret causing any embarrassment, discomfort or pain, which was never my intention." As of March 2019, six women had come forward alleging that Steinhardt had made unwanted sexual requests of them.

Private antiquities collection and lifetime ban from collecting artifacts

Steinhardt is an art collector, especially of antiquities. A special exhibition, "Ancient Art of the

Cyclades The Cyclades (; el, Κυκλάδες, ) are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The name ...

", held at the

Katonah Museum of Art The Katonah Museum of Art is a non-collecting institution geared towards visual arts, located in Katonah, New York. It does not have a permanent collection, but holds temporary exhibitions. The museum was founded in 1953, in one room at the loca ...

included some pieces owned by him. He sat on the American advisory board of

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is owned by Groupe Artémi ...

, the art & antiques auction house. In December 2021, Steinhard surrendered 180 stolen antiquities valued at $70 million and received a lifetime ban on acquiring antiquities. In November 2014,

had to withdraw a prehistoric sculpture from Sardinia, valued at $800,000-$1.2m, put on auction by Steinhardt and previously put on sale by the notorious and convicted antiquities dealer Giacomo Medici. In January 2018, investigators raided Steinhardt's New York City apartment and seized a large amount of stolen antiquities which had been illegally purchased by Steinhardt. In December 2021, after a four-year multinational investigation examining his "acquisition, possession and sale of more than 1,000 antiquities since at least 1987", Steinhardt reached an agreement with the

New York County District Attorney The New York County District Attorney, also known as the Manhattan District Attorney, is the elected district attorney for New York County (Manhattan), New York. The office is responsible for the prosecution of violations of New York state laws ...

to relinquish 180 items with an estimated value of $70 million, in exchange for the dismissal of a grand jury investigation into his collection. As part of the deal, Steinhardt was being permanently banned from acquiring new pieces. Steinhardt kept the remaining pieces that he legally purchased. The seized antiquities were slated to be returned to their proper owners in much of the

Eastern Mediterranean Eastern Mediterranean is a loose definition of the eastern approximate half, or third, of the Mediterranean Sea, often defined as the countries around the Levantine Sea. It typically embraces all of that sea's coastal zones, referring to commun ...

region, as well as Bulgaria and Iraq. In a press release, District Attorney

Cyrus Vance Jr. Cyrus Roberts Vance Jr. (born June 14, 1954) is an American attorney and politician who served as the District Attorney of New York County, New York, also known as the Manhattan District Attorney. He was previously a principal partner at the law ...

said, "For decades, Michael Steinhardt displayed a rapacious appetite for plundered artifacts without concern for the legality of his actions, the legitimacy of the pieces he bought and sold, or the grievous cultural damage he wrought across the globe." A lawyer for Steinhardt said many of the dealers from whom he bought the artifacts "made specific representations as to the dealers’ lawful title to the items, and to their alleged provenance."

''Heliodorus Stele''

In 2007 Steinhardt lent

Israel Museum The Israel Museum ( he, מוזיאון ישראל, ''Muze'on Yisrael'') is an art and archaeological museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world’s leading encyclopa ...

the "Heliodorus Stele",
commons
which he had recently acquired. The

stele A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek language, Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ...

was 2,200-year-old

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

text inscribed in

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

. However, an expert soon noted that two pieces excavated from a cave in

Maresha Tel Maresha ( he, תל מראשה) is the tell (archaeological mound) of the biblical Iron Age city of Maresha, and of the subsequent, post-586 BCE Idumean city known by its Hellenised name Marisa, Arabised as Marissa (ماريسا). The tell i ...

fit the Heliodorus Stele "like a jigsaw puzzle", and hence concluded that the stele came from the same cave. In December 2021, the "Heliodorus Stele" was among the 180 artifacts Steinhardt agreed to surrender to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. As of January 7, 2022, the "Heliodorus Stele" was still on display in the Israel Museum, together with 2

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several pa ...

masks.

2014-06 Israel - Jerusalem 023 (14938323181)

''Guennol Stargazer''

Steinhardt acquired the ''Guennol Stargazer'' in 1993. The marble idol depicts a nude human figure and is estimated to be 6,000 years old. After attempting to sell the idol at auction in 2017, the Turkish government sued to halt the sale. The sale occurred, though the buyer later backed out. A bench trial in 2021 determined that Turkey had waited too long to attempt to repatriate the idol, and that it would remain in the United States.

Personal life

In 1967, Steinhardt met his future wife, Judy, in a

car pool Carpooling (also car-sharing, ride-sharing and lift-sharing) is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves. By having more people usin ...

he organized. During one of the carpools into New York City, he mentioned the name of the grain elevator company Colorado Milling and Grain Elevator. Judy mentioned the company to her father who invested in the company and made a substantial profit after Colorado Milling was acquired by

Great Western Sugar The Western Sugar Cooperative is a grower owned American agricultural cooperative originating from the Great Western Sugar Company in 1901. History The Great Western Sugar Company was incorporated in February 1901 by Charles Boettcher and other ...

in 1968; the merged company was renamed Great Western United. Judy is the chairwoman of

's Institute of Fine Arts and of the American Friends of the

. They have three children. His daughter, Sara Berman, a former journalist and parenting columnist for The ''

'', is the president of the Hebrew Language Academy Charter School in

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 ...

. In Sebastian Mallaby's 2010 book entitled '' More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite'', he dedicated a chapter to Steinhardt. He described Steinhardt as a "lover of botany and a collector of exotic fauna," living in his retirement "on his country estate an hour's drive north of New York City." Mallaby included a photo of Steinhardt "dancing on his estate opposite... an elegant blue crane . . . that had taken to courting him with a graceful gavotte." In 2001, Steinhardt published an autobiography: ''No Bull: My Life in and out of Markets''. In this book, he addressed for the first time the question of his father, Sol Frank Steinhardt, who also went by the moniker "Red McGee." "Red" Steinhardt was convicted in 1958 on two counts of buying and selling stolen jewelry, and was sentenced to serve two 5-to-10 year terms, to run consecutively, in the

New York State prison system New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

. In his book, Steinhardt describes how his father bankrolled his early forays into the stock market by giving him envelopes stuffed with $10,000 in cash and sometimes much more than that. The book also suggests that Steinhardt's education at the

may have been paid for with illicit funds. In 2008, he was inducted into Institutional Investors Alpha's Hedge Fund Manager Hall of Fame along with Julian Roberston, Kenneth Griffin,

Steven A. Cohen Steven A. Cohen (born June 11, 1956) is an American hedge fund manager and owner of the New York Mets of Major League Baseball since September 14, 2020, owning roughly 97.2% of the team. He is the founder of hedge fund Point72 Asset Manageme ...

, and others.

References

External links

*
Curated interview with Michael Steinhardt from Market WizardsThe Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life
official site *
Steinhardt Judaica Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steinhardt, Michael 1940 births Living people American finance and investment writers American financial analysts American financiers American hedge fund managers American investors American money managers American newspaper publishers (people) American political activists American political fundraisers American stock traders American Zionists Businesspeople from New York City Jewish American philanthropists Lafayette High School (New York City) alumni New York University people Stock and commodity market managers Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni Writers from Brooklyn Journalists from New York City Philanthropists from New York (state) American billionaires Archaeological theft