Lehman's Progeny Gather Downtown

By Linda Konner
POSTED MARCH 30, 2007

He came from Bavaria to Alabama in 1850 to join his brothers and open a general store in Montgomery.

Thus begins the story of Mayer Lehman who married Babette and started  a family that would become one of America’s most accomplished.

Their progeny have included not just Wall Street giants, but also a  four-term governor  of New York; a senator; a congressman; a state Court of Appeals judge; an ambassador; a district attorney (Manhattan D.A. Robert M. Morgenthau, whose father, Henry, served as FDR’s treasury secretary); and passionate philanthropists behind such city treasures as Mt. Sinai Hospital, the Lehman Wing of the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, and the Morgenthau Wing of the Museum of American Jewish Heritage in Battery Park City.

Into this hotbed of intellect and achievement entered historian and Tribeca resident Kenneth Libo, tape recorder in hand, to gather facts and fabliaux from the Lehman clan. Fifty-five of those descendants tell their stories in Libo’s oral history, “Lots of Lehmans: The Family of Mayer Lehman of Lehman Brothers, Remembered by His Descendants.” On Feb. 28, the clan, 150 of them, gathered at the Museum of American Jewish Heritage to herald its publication.

 “Remember Margaret Mead?” asked Libo about the renowned anthropologist. “She put on a pith helmet and went to Samoa to study the Samoans. I consider myself spiritually connected to Margaret Mead. I spent two years of my life with the Lehmans. I got to know them very well and to observe them in their native habitat. I did no telephone interviews. I went to Boston, to Washington, saw them in their homes, their offices. The experience broadened my intellectual horizons—and I ate well!”

Libo wistfully recalls a particularly tasty steak he enjoyed at the home of Ann Loeb Bronfman, a
granddaughter of Arthur Lehman and the former wife of Edgar Bronfman, of the Seagram’s Bronfmans. “She was great fun,” he continued, “and she had a fantastic art collection.” One of the joys of doing the book, Libo noted, was entrée to the families’ private art collections—which included Toulouse-Lautrecs and Renoirs.

Heroes and villains of the day make cameo appearances in the book. We hear about Aunt Sissie who sent “Professor Einstein to wash his ‘paws’ before coming to luncheon” and Senator Herbert Lehman, one of the few who confronted Joseph McCarthy on the Senate floor, demanding to see his list of Communist spies. Clara Lehman, recalls being rejected admission to the Brearly School by the headmistress who explained that they already had one Jewess. As a teen, she and her family were also refused entrance to a fashionable Cape Cod hotel with a “No Jews” policy.

Authorized family histories tend to be uncritical and this book is no exception. However, there are some uncomplimentary glimpses into some of the Lehmans. For example, one of the daughters of
Mayer and Babette recalls how her grandmother, Clara, bawled out her Irish chauffeur for making a wrong turn. “I can still see the red of his rage coming up the back of his neck.” Babette, we learn, required her sons to visit her every day after work. She was also prone to criticizing one daughter-in-law about how she was bringing up her children.

In his research, Libo said he came to realize that the pursuit of philanthropy and culture served as a surrogate for religious Judaism for the clan.

“As the family’s mastery of Hebrew weakened and its participation in Jewish ritual waned, philanthropic largesse took its place,” noted Libo, who teaches American Jewish History at Hunter College. That philanthropy became particularly evident, he said, in a recent walk around the Metropolitan Museum of Art, when he counted the paintings donated by Lehman descendants—not including works in the Lehman Wing.

“The contributions the Lehmans made to improve life in New York are remarkable,” said Libo. “And what’s more, they did it quietly. Donald Trump could learn a lot from them.”

Lots of Lehmans (Center for Jewish History, $39.95) is available at the center’s bookstore at 15 West 16th St. or their Web site (www.cjh.org).

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