The Julius Chajes Music Fund Concert Series & The Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit present "An Evening on Broadway" Cabaret Concert featuring "Company Five" and gold fixtures. But the man without a country felt the need for a more perma- nent abode. In the 1970s Shoul Eisenberg chose Israel. lb ensure his welcome, Ei- senberg, in a now familiar pattern, bore down heavily with considerable charm and much economic karate: per- sonal gifts spread liberally; political contributions (in Israel's last election he gave both major parties seven figures each); investments (some $65 million); and the promise, never fulfilled, of a lot more. "I warned them [the Israeli government] not to fall for it," a former senior Israeli official recalls, "but they wouldn't listen. It was the psychology of a banana republic?' The Knesset passed what became notorious as the Ei- senberg Law. While other Is- raeli citizens were forbidden to hold property, securities or currency abroad — in 1977 Prime Minister Yitzhak Rab- in resigned when it was dis- covered his wife had $2,000 in a Washington, D.C. bank — for new citizen Eisenberg's companies it became quite legal, and tax-free. Finally, the middleman without a country had a home. "In most places he's not socially acceptable," says "In most places he's not socially acceptable," says a former business associate. "In Israel he has a lot of honor." a former business associate. "In Israel he has a lot of honor." Eisenberg declined to tell his story. "Someday," he said, when we cornered him on a flight to London, "I will write it myself." But in interviews with dozens of former asso- ciates and others who know him well, a clear picture emerges. No one refuses the call to share a kosher Japanese meal served on cushions in Eisen- berg's home near Th1 Aviv. His name inspires fear, even among those who have bro- ken with him. Eisenberg's present staff aren't called the "golden slaves" for nothing. Fealty is demanded, even ser- vility. And don't talk to reporters. "When you are with him, you are his slave," says an ex- employee. "He never stops working, so you cannot either." Says another: "You can't take him to the theater — he's a genius at business, but he wouldn't understand a word." lb squeeze an extra day into his week, Eisenberg will fly 12 hours to Tel Aviv, where offices are open Sun- day, then fly 12 hours back. His only other passion is food: He'll eat anything, and a lot. Money? "He doesn't really care," confided one former head of his Third World operations. "If you tell him you made $200,000 on a deal, he'll say, 'Not enough,' but the money has no mean- ing." But the getting of it does. Eisenberg now has about $100 million in real estate ($70 million in Washington, Denver and New York, $30 million in let Aviv, plus as much as 1.4 million acres of Amazon jungle). His stakes in various Israeli companies are worth more than $150 million. Reliable sources put his cash and securities hoard at $250 million, said to be conservatively invested in Switzerland and the U.K. Debt? Don't middlemen pile up a lot of it, like Adnan Khashoggi? Not if they don't gamble away their earnings. Eisenberg doesn't. "In this business," says one banker who has watched Eisenberg up close, "you don't have debt" — and here he winked — "you have overheads." There has been significant capital appreciation, and — with nothing at risk — Eisen- berg has never incurred an an- nual loss. (His profits do swing widely, in the last decade from $10 million a year to $50 million). At 66, Eisenberg is clearly slowing down. Last year's cor- onary bypass operation bare- ly affected him, but with no more Koreas, Eisenberg must expend his energies in less profitable places, like Belize. He would like to do more business in the U.S. But here the moves he has perfected are unlikely to work: Ameri- cans call prepaid brokerage fees bribes. Still confident that contacts will buy him entree, Eisenberg has just hired David Kimche, dis- tinguished former chief of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, to open doors for him in the U.S. That may not go over so well: Kimche designed Israel's part in Irangate. singing the music of Victor Hebert, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Kern, Sondheim, Gershwin and Berlin Saturday, March 19, 1988 8:30 PM Jewish Community Center 6600 West Maple W. Bloomfield, Michigan Admission: $10.00 Advertising in The Jewish News Gets Results Place Your Ad Today. 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