Who is Michael B. Mukasey?
By Christopher Bollyn
Independent Journalist
President George W. Bush has appointed Michael B. Mukasey to be the next attorney general of the United States. This is a very important appointment. If Mukasey is confirmed by the Senate, this man will become the top law enforcement officer of the United States, yet very little is known about him - at least publicly.
Michael B. Mukasey,
Nominee to be U.S. Attorney General
It seems very odd that the U.S. media would have so little information or interest in the background of the man who has been nominated to one of the most powerful positions in the nation.
USA Today offers its readers more than most newspapers with this much biographical description:
THE MUKASEY FILE
From USA Today
Age: 66; born July 28, 1941, in New York City.
Education: Bachelor's degree, Columbia University, 1963. Law degree, Yale Law School, 1967.
Experience: Partner, Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP in New York City, 2006-present; U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York, 1988-2006 (chief judge 2000-06); attorney, Patterson Belknap, 1976-87; assistant U.S. attorney, Southern District of New York, 1972-76.
Family: Wife Susan; son Marc, a partner at Bracewell & Giuliani, the law firm of Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani; and daughter Jessica.
Source: USA TODAY research
You will note that USA Today does not even give the names of his parents. How very odd.
Why would the mass media in the United States have so little information about the man who is expected to become the head of the Dept. of Justice? Is there something that needs to be hidden from the public? Apparently so.
MUKASEY'S ROOTS
I have been looking into Mukasey's background and written two articles about his religious and political background. We know that his is an Orthodox Jew and that he is very dedicated to the State of Israel. This is clearly a man with a foreign agenda, just like Michael Chertoff and Alvin K. Hellerstein.
This should be enough for disqualification of this nominee. How can the American people allow their highest law enforcement official to be openly dedicated to a foreign state? Is this not the most serious of conflicts of interest?
But who really is Michael Bernard Mukasey - the man? Because this is such an important nomination for the United States and because so little information is being provided about him by the media, I am providing the material (with sources) that I have found about Mukasey with the hope that my fellow Americans will look more deeply into who this odd-looking fellow with a foreign agenda really is.
MUKASEY'S FAMILY
Michael Mukasey, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, married Susan Bernstock Saroff, a divorcee with two children. Rabbi Judah Nadich married the two in the home of Mr. and Mrs. William Bernstock, Susan's parents. (Source: NYT July 15, 1974 "Susan Saroff Bride of M.B. Mukasey")
Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato (R-NY), recommended the nomination of Mukasey, then a 45-year-old partner in the law firm of Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler to President Ronald Reagen who nominated Mukasey to become a Federal district judge in Manhattan on July 23, 1987.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT HIS ANCESTORS
We know that Mukasey was born July 28, 1941. His parents are listed as Albert Mukasey and Mae Fischer Mukasey.
A Yiddish Grave in Lyakhovichi's Graveyard
Note the use of Hebrew text on the stone
His father, Albert Mukasey, was born September 5, 1902, probably in or near the Yiddish-speaking shtetl (ghetto) of Lyakhovichi (Lachowichi, Lachowicze) in the Russian Pale of Settlement.
Yiddish Funeral in Lyakhovichi
There are quite a few Mukaseys (with this spelling and a variety of other spellings) who lived in Lyakhovichi, in the Baranovichi District of the region of Brest-Litovsk. This is today northern Belarus, near Lithuania.
Source: JewishGen ShtetLinks: Lyakhovichi
http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/lyakhovichi/lyakhovichi.html
Albert Mukasey became a naturalized American citizen in 1928 in the District Court in Brooklyn, according to a passenger list from the "Queen of Bermuda," which he traveled on with his wife Mae in May of 1933. This was probably their honeymoon, or wedding trip. Albert Mukasey lived in the Bronx, earlier at 120 Vermilyea Ave., and died on or about September 17, 1972.
Michael's father, Albert, or Al, had five sisters: Ruth (Lazarus), Kate (Baitelman), Frieda (Wasserman), Hinda (Freund), and Bella (Levin). (Source: Obituary of Kate Baitelman, NYT, April 29, 1955)
These sisters would be the aunts of Michael Mukasey, the nominee.
Of this rather large Mukasey family, however, only two U.S. Census records appear with this name through 1930: Bella Mukasey in 1910; and Freida Mukasey in 1920. In both cases the Mukasey girls appear as living with the family of their sister, Rose [Hinda] and her husband, Oscar Freund.
In 1910, Bella is 19 years old (born in 1891) and is living in Manhattan, at 174 Third Street, with her 24-year-old sister "Rose" and her husband Oscar Freund. Rose and Oscar have a 1-year-old son, Max. Bella is registered as an "operator" in a "waist factory." She probably worked as a seamstress in one of the factories.
Bella is listed as having immigrated in 1906, as is her sister Rose. Bella mush have been about 15 when she came to America. Oscar, Rose, and Bella are all listed as having been born in Russia and speaking Yiddish. Oscar is listed as a Thread Dealer.
Rose was probably born in 1886 and came to the United State at age 20. She and Oscar appear to have been married in 1908.
In 1920, Frieda is registered as living with her sister's family, which has now moved to the Bronx. Bella is no longer living with the Freunds.
The Freund family is now living at 1977 Prospect Avenue, in Number 105. Oscar is now 41 and Rose must be 34, although she is listed as 23, which is also given for the age of Frieda. Rose now has Max, 10, and Saul (7).
Frieda works as an "operator" on dresses while Oscar is a wholesaler of "trimmings." It is interesting to note that the 1920 census no longer mentions the family as having been Yiddish-speaking; they are now all of Russian-speaking background.
In 1928, Oscar Freund of 1977 Prospect Avenue, New York, is also running the Orient Theatre in Jersey City, which he leased in October 1924. This makes the news because he is paying a $25 a week kick-back to Joseph Bernstein, reportedly to keep his operation open on Sundays. (Source: NYT Sept. 18, 1928)
The Mukasey girls, like other immigrants from Lyakhovichi, probably had very unusual sounding Yiddish names, so they apparently changed their first names to more American sounding names.
We know that Albert Mukasey married Mae Fischer, who was the mother of two children: Rhoda (Eckstein) and Michael. When Mae Fischer died in February 1975, her obituary in the New York Times mentioned that she was the mother-in-law of Norbert Eckstein and Susan Mukasey. (Source: NYT Feb. 13, 1975)
Norbert Eckstein and Rhoda, Michael's sister are listed as living in Maryland. They have, or had, residences in Gaithersburg, Rockville, and Ocean City. The Eckstein name rings a bell to those who may have heard Sam Danner's version of what he said he saw and did on the Pentagon lawn on 9-11.
Danner said something about the person who was directing the clean-up of the small pieces from the lawn of the Pentagon wearing an FBI jacket named Eckstein. Norbert (a.k.a. Norm) and Rhoda Eckstein have two children in their late 40s, David J. and Debbie J. Eckstein. (The credibility of Danner's testimony has been disputed.)
On May 17, 1933, Albert Mukasey and Mae Mukasey sailed from Bermuda on the "Queen of Bermuda" to New York City. The passenger list indicates that Albert was a naturalized alien married to a 24-year-old American, Mae, who was listed as having been born in New York in 1909.
The record of Mae's death, however, indicates that she was born in November 1899, which would have made her several years older than Albert. Did she lie about her age when she was married? It appears that may have been the case.
In any case, Albert and Mae were listed as living at 120 Vermilyea Ave. in 1933. This is where things get rather interesting.
It appears that this immigrant family had come into quite a bit of money for people who worked in the sweatshops of Manhattan and the Bronx. Because I am no expert on how these transfers, extensions, and mortgages worked, or the kinds of schemes that may have been at work, I am providing the listings as they appear in the New York Times.
It certainly appears that the Mukasey family was involved in real estate deals that would have been beyond a family of their modest means. This may be a clue into how this family made its way in the New World.
Manhatten Transfers:
1. Sickles Street, 14-28, 200 by 170 feet; Beefred Realty Corporation to Ruth Mukasey, 20 Sickles Street; mortgage $378,750. (Source: NYT October 16, 1930)
2. 125th Street, north side, 425 feet east of Broadway, 58.9 by 99.11; Ernest Guettinger to Ruth Mukasey, mortgages $8,100. (Source: NYT July 31, 1931)
Transfers:
3. Colgate Ave (14-3737), e s 760 n of Watson Ave, 38x100; Key Realty Corp to Mae Mukasey, 120 Vermilyea Ave. (Source: NYT January 11, 1938)
Extensions:
4. 85th st. 10 E; extends two mtgs agg. $31,000 to Sept. 1, 1944 at 6%; Master Management Corp. to Bella Levin, 120 Vermilyea Ave. (Source: NYT September 10, 1942)
Mortgages:
5. Vermilyea Ave. 120-124; Cole Operating Corp. Max Mukasey, pres) to Lebras Holding Corp. 1475 Bway; p m mtg (pr mtg $357,315), 5 years, 5%; $65,000. (Source: NYT August 11, 1945)
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