Abraham Hirschfeld
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Abraham Jacob "Abe" Hirschfeld (1919—9 August 2005), was a Polish-born New York real estate developer known for his eccentric endeavors, love for publicity, $2 neckties, and strong Yiddish accent.
Hirschfeld was born in Tarnów, Poland and immigrated to Palestine in the early 1930s. He said most of his extended family stayed and died in the Holocaust. In the 1950s, his family came to the U.S.A. He made a fortune building semi-enclosed "open-air" parking garages (which he claimed he pioneered--he would say, "Cars don't catch cold!"), and he subsequently funded a number of endeavors. According to his obituary, throughout his career he had many failed campaigns for political office, including unsuccessful bids as "Honest Abe" for Congress, for New York City Council, for Manhattan borough president in 1997, for New York state lieutenant governor, for state comptroller in 1998 and for mayor of Miami Beach, Florida. He did serve as treasurer for the New York State Democratic Committee in the 1960s and was elected to the City Commission of Miami Beach in 1989. His most recent attempt at running for political office was in 2004, when he ran as a third party candidate for US Senator from New York against Charles Schumer and other challengers. Schumer won 71% of the vote, Hirschfeld garnered less than 1%.
In 1989, he funded the Broadway flop Prince of Central Park and a failed Jackie Mason show. He is also known for his March 1993 two-week takeover of the bankrupt New York Post, firing editor Pete Hamill, but later upon court order reinstating him and kissing his face in a famous picture. After his New York Post failure he founded Open Air PM, an afternoon newspaper using the motto, "Love thy Neighbor" — it folded within 5 months.
In 1998, he offered 1,000,000 U.S. dollars to Paula Jones to drop her sexual harassment lawsuit against former US President Bill Clinton. In 1999, he was cleared of charges he owed $3.3 million in back taxes.
In 2000, for his role in a 1996 plot to murder and seize the property of his business partner, he was sentenced for three years prison, of which he served two.
In its list of "Builders and Titans," Time magazine included Mr. Hirschfeld among the 100 "most influential business geniuses of the century."
Hirschfeld was a guest on the Howard Stern Show along with Gilbert Gottfried in 2002. He came on to talk about his time in jail, and his visions to rebuild the World Trade Center site. However, Gottfried had other plans. When Hirschfeld decided to go into one of his jokes he created in jail, Gottfried and Stern said there were technical problems, and requested that Hirschfeld repeat his jokes several times. Hirschfeld's radio appearance was one of the most memorable on Stern's show. The clip was featured on Stern's all-request Labor Day weekend in September 2006, which featured memorable fan favorties from Stern's 20-year library of radio shows.
He died at age 85 on August 9, 2005 in Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan of cardiac arrest stemming from complications of a battle with terminal cancer. He is survived by his Alzheimer's-afflicted widow, Zipora Hirschfeld, and their two children, Rachel (who allegedly became a born again Christian) and Elie Hirschfeld, whom he said he was going to remove from his will (although they do not appear worried by this prospect). His daughter was quoted as saying: "There's more than enough for everyone." [1]
On 25 November 2006, his wife of 63 years, Zipora Hirschfeld, passed away. She is buried beside her husband.
