On Sept.
2001 The Hebrew College of America welcomes the first students to 100-
Kerry campus in Greensboro, New JerseyC.
The only Jewish boarding school in the United StatesS. with a non-
Orthodox course, AHA has a secret benefactor-one Maurice (Chico)Sabbah.
Sabbah has accumulated great wealth in reinsurance business and has invested $100 million in schools.
When Sabbah accepted the excitement of the opening day, he was particularly satisfied to know that he succeeded in creating the AHA and the wealth behind it, while at the same time being almost completely unknown to the public.
The next day ended Sabbah's anonymity and destroyed the company that made him rich.
Fengze reinsurance, which is based near Burlington, dominates a key area of commercial aviation reinsurance business, while a sister company in Bermuda --
The chartered reinsurance company, srilina Re, is handing out a small dividend to Sabbah and his partner, Kenneth Kornfeld.
The terrorist attack destroyed the fort and the Japanese insurance company it represented.
These companies, the company's fire insurance, the company filed for bankruptcy, while the other, Nissan fire insurance, the fort being sued and the fraud of its principal responsible person.
Fortress said it did nothing wrong.
Sabbah, 73, has never spoken to the media, and for three years he has rejected our request for an interview.
However, this summer, due to the exposure of his cover, his school needed publicity and he agreed to speak.
It always seems natural for him to be anonymous, he says, and he is a private figure in the secret industry.
"I don't hide it, but I don't advertise it," he said . "
"Let you tell me it's good and I'm not happy with what I did.
"Sabbah did not become rich until his later years.
At the age of 45, he lived well in an inconspicuous unit of a big insurance company, but there was nothing to show that he would earn £ 9 one day --
Give a gift to anything.
When the big one hits, he is not interested in a yacht or trophy wife.
"I face all this wealth, but I am not prepared for it.
"I'm not going to change my way of life," he said . ".
"I came to this world with nothing, and I will leave with nothing.
"The demise of the fort and Carolina raises questions about the future of the Hebrew Academy.
Nissan's lawyers seem to want to learn more about Sabbah's charitable donations and personal wealth, suggesting that they will chase these assets if they have a chance.
Other donors may come forward: Members of the school's board of directors include p. r.
Gulucson Kester and financier Michael Steinhart.
Sabbah insists the school will stay here.
He said that the bank has at least $50 million to cover the operating expenses of the next decade (for now)
There will be enough property in the school.
If other donors can be persuaded to complete a $0. 25 billion construction plan, he says, he can focus on creating donations of up to $0. 5 billion.
Everything about the AHA was conceived on a large scale, in line with Sabbah's vision for a boarding school that could compete almost overnight with the New England elite prep school.
In 1998, the school paid a high fee of $10 million.
End the Greensboro community and entrust Frank Lloyd Wright's door student, Alan Green, to design the campus (
Green died last year).
The building built by imported Jerusalem stones is heated and cooled by a huge network of geothermal wells.
The first completed academic building was a behemoth rising from clay in North Carolina, with electronic whiteboards in each classroom.
The dormitory is spacious;
The pool is 25 yards long.
Sabbah's funding allows schools to pay tuition fees for class 1 of the ninth sessionand tenth-
Since last fall, there are about 80 children.
Students enrolled this fall will have to pay $15,000, including accommodation.
The plan is from now on, with 200 students in four grades each year.
For Chico Sabbah and his wife Zmira, the magnificent charity is not a style, they live in a ranch --
The style house is within walking distance of their Greensboro synagogue.
Their previous donations included housing for the disabled in Israel (
Sabbahs has a retarded adult daughter).
However, if Sabbah is almost unknown, his partner, Kenny Colfield, will become more visible.
Kornfeld entertained himself and lived in the mansion of an old textile baron opposite the second fairway of Greensboro Country Club.
Sabbah, grew up in Brooklyn and suburban New York. Y. by an Egyptian-
Born father and idealistic Zionist mother, studying agriculture in a subtropical setting at the University of California, Davis
Those who are similar to the climate of land that became Israel halfway through his college career.
"I want to be a farmer in Israel," Sabbah said . ".
His voice still hints at Brooklyn, and it is easy to see that, although his body has become weak as he grows older, because of a day when he has cut grass in Kibbutz, Israel, heAfter that (
After serving in Israel and the United StatesS. armies)
He took part in mutual insurance for public services in New York.
There, he helped build a reinsurance business that flourished in a series of disasters, including Hurricane Betsy in 1965, lowering the position of many competitors.
He worked in Burlington, north of the United States, in 1972. C.
Penn general office, where he replaced the traditional high
Add low-cost reinsurance to the cost structure of the profit commission.
The business ended up being called Fortress Re because it was just a management agent and not an insurance company, so it was not notified by the regulator.
In 1979, General Payne sold the business to Sabbah and Kornfeld for $700,000.
Saba and his family left two.
Third, the rest is Kornfeld.
"We may make $35,000 a year, but after a few years we have paid off our debt by working hard," Sabbah said . ".
Sabbah and Kornfeld have established strong relationships with the Japanese reinsurance companies they represent-
Nissan, Taixi, love insurance.
Sabbah and Kornfeld travel to Tokyo every year.
Insurance companies and other reinsurance companies deal with forts in order to do business with the Japanese companies it represents, and because forts have a good reputation in the payment of claims.
But why not just be an agent when you can get an action?
In 1984, Sabbah and Kornfeld created saflina Re as a risk
Take responsibility for the airline
According to the practice of the reinsurance industry, they have obtained the Bermuda charter of Carolina.
The state insurance regulator in North Carolina does not care about its potential liabilities or assets that cover them.
By the 1990 s, aviation had become the main business of the fort.
At the same time, it, as a middleman, bears almost half of the reinsurance premium, with a loss of $50 million to $0. 4 billion per crash.
For forts and the insurance companies it represents, profits are flowing.
Fortress claims to have generated $2 billion in profits from its customers.
The companies represented by Sabbah and Kornfeld assumed partial responsibility on all four aircraft hijacked by Sept.
11, including ground responsibility.
According to court documents, the limlina Re should have taken out approximately 25% of the $0. 843 billion claim against the fortress swimming pool.
Its capital and surplus is only $62 million.
The Bermuda authorities declared bankruptcy on December. 3, 2001.
Fengze is still operating but does not cover new businesses.
Nissan claimed in its lawsuit that before the grensboro Federal District Court heard it did not know how big the Fortress was under its obligations and that the fort was too dependent
Called financial reinsurance
This particular animal is like a credit reinsurance company using other reinsurance companies to pay a claim.
However, under this arrangement, the risk of transfer is very small.
Nissan also claims that while Carolina reinsurance companies lack the funds to pay their debts, Sabbah and Kornfeld have managed to withdraw funds, with a commission of about $0. 4 billion and company dividends, over the years.
Nissan wants the two to put the money back on the table.
Glenn Drew, Sabbah's nephew and chief counsel for the Fort Re, said Japanese companies were given all the information they requested, and the fort and Carolina followed the rules.
If Sabbah's wealth and his charity survive this legal struggle, does the United States need a non-
Orthodox Jewish boarding school
Sabbah takes this bold adventure
Belittling the term: "We want someone else to be involved, but it's always helpful to get a crazy person to start doing things.