The New York City police commissioner is known to send emails about department business to police officials at 2 a.m. Later that morning, the commissioner reviews emails that detail how many murders and other serious crimes took place in the city overnight. Then, at night, the commissioner often attends public events, representing NYPD.
The commissioner does not need the work, or the salary — she is a multi-millionaire.
Jessica Tisch, 44, the commissioner since November, 2024 — kept in that post by Mayor Zohran Mamdani — headed New York City’s Sanitation Dept for two years before that.
She is a member of the city’s prominent, philanthropic, uber-rich, Jewish Tisch real estate family. Her personal wealth is estimated at between $10 and $50 million.
Tisch, a high-visibility figure, is an example of noblesse oblige, exemplifying a moral obligation of wealthy people to use their powerful resources, connections, influence, time and talents for the benefit of others.
Explaining her motivation, Tisch has been quoted saying that she enjoys running agencies.
Starting in the late 2010s, Tisch served in a series of positions in the city’s government, including NYPD’s counterterrorism bureau and Dept. of Information Technology and Telecommunications.
Today, her duties as Top Cop include administration, budget, personnel and supervision — plus briefings for the media and visiting with officers injured on the job.
Tisch is among a group of benevolent Jews — from industry, banking, the arts and other fields — who have walked in the service footsteps of Andrew Carnegie, the 19th-century industrialist and philanthropist who established the paradigm of doing good after doing well.
He gave away most of his fortune during his lifetime, and inspired subsequent generations of wealthy men and women to devote themselves to the common good.
For the many wealthy Jews, this is not only a matter of lobbying or serving on prestigious boards, but actual 40-hours-a-week-or-more jobs or unglamorous, roll-up-your-sleeves volunteer work.
As far back as the first Jew . . . the Torah describes Abraham as “very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold.” Faithful to G-d, he followed the Divine directive “to command his children and his household after him, to keep the way of the L-rd — doing righteousness and justice.”
Tosefta Peah 4:16 says,“One who turns his eyes away from communal needs is as though he worships idols.”
Recent Jewish centuries are replete with such examples, sometimes in the public eye, sometimes out of the limelight.
Some inherited their wealth, some earned it, some married into it — but all used their talents for the betterment of society.
Many were born in one country but imparting the sensitivity for an outsider’s perspective —like Abraham and Sarah.
Examples:
Moses Montefiore. The British financier, one of the richest people in Europe in the 19th century, fought anti-Semitism. To improve the lives of impoverished Jews in Russia and the Holy Land, he visited many places, inspecting conditions, speaking with families, seeing to housing and health projects.
Felix Warburg. The Hamburg-born banker came in 1900 to New York, where he took an interest in anti-poverty programs. President of the Joint Distribution Committee, he was a supporter of Zionist causes. Focusing on education, he addressed truancy.
Baron Maurice de Hirsch. A native of Munich and mastermind of an international banking house, he took a special interest in oppressed Russia Jewry. As part of his colonizing activities, he regularly spent his mornings receiving reports from overseas and dictating correspondence.
Felix Adler. The German-born son of a Reform rabbi and founder of the Ethical Culture Society, he took up several civic causes in the US, including living conditions of in tenements. He knew these conditons from delivering meals to poor residents of tenements.
A. D. Gordon. The Russian-born founder of Labor Zionism, he put his money — or, in his case, his hands — where his mouth was. After settling in Palestine in 1904, he turned down a librarian’s job, preferring to work in the fields, modeling farm labor for a generation of kibbutz founders.
Henrietta Szold. The Baltimore native founded Hadassah — The Women’s Zionist Organization of America and, after settling in Palestine in 1933, help found Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.
Hannah Greenebaum Solomon. The founder of the National Council of Jewish Women was a member of the wealthy Spiegel family, founders of the Spiegel catalogue. She took part in Chicago community service projects that provided aid to immigrants.
Oscar Straus. The Bavarian-born attorney who grew up in Georgia as a member of the successful family that founded Macy’s, took time away from his legal practice to serve as US Ambassador to Turkey and Secretary of Commerce and Labor under Theodore Roosevelt — the first Jew in a presidential cabinet.
Jerry Lewis. Famous as a comedian and actor, he earned more fame later for his work on behalf of Muscular Dystrophy. As host of the long-running Labor Day fundraising telethon on television, his devotion to stricken children included visiting children with MD in hospitals.
Gene Simmons. The Israeli-born co-founder of the rock group KISS supports cancer research and visits patients in hospitals. One notable case: in January, 2016, he flew to Las Vegas to visit terminally ill 17-year-old Dilan Kohn at the Children’s Hospital of Nevada.
Joan Rivers. The blunt comedian who died in 2014 at 81 was a volunteer for G-d’s Love We Deliver, the New York City humanitarian agency that brings food to people with AIDS. She not only dropped off the meals, but used her comedic talents to boost the recipients’ spirits.
Jon Stewart. His estimated wealth is $120 million from years of hosting “The Daily Show.” He has taken up several causes, including support for first responders. In support of the National Park Service Day of Service, he took part in painting rooms, laying mulch and removing weeds.
Mark Cuban. The billionaire (family’s original name: Chabenisky), best known for his appearances on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” has taken up the cause of lowering drug prices. Instead of delegating the work, he directly negotiates with pharmaceutical companies and creates direct-to-employer programs.
Other Jews fulfilled their longing for public service in elected political office. Among the members of this group:
Michael Bloomberg. Ranked in 2023 as the world’s seventh-wealthiest person, he served three terms as New York City mayor, with an annual $1 salary. He entered politics because “I’ve always respected those who try to change the world, not just talk about it.”
Rudy Boschwitz. A Berlin native who left Nazi Germany in the early 1930s, he founded a retail lumber wood chain, and was a two-term Senator from Minnesota. One of his favorite activities was running parties to help young Jewish congressional staff members connect in DC.
Dan Goldman and Daniel Lurie. US House representative from New York City and mayor of San Francisco, respectively, they are cousins and heirs to the Levi Strauss & Co. fortune. The political priorities of both include poverty and the needs of working families.
Herbert Kohl. President of Kohl’s Corp., his family’s business owns the Kohl’s department store chain. He served 24 years as a US senator from Wisconsin.
