Saul Fox, a former student at Cheltenham High School, recently made international news for his involvement in Donald Trump’s returning a set of ancient oil lamps to the Israel Antiquities Authority.
The story was picked up by The Wall Street Journal, The Jerusalem Post, The Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the independent Jewish outlet Forward, The National Review, and The Times of Israel.
According to the The Jerusalem Post’s article, the Authority had been asking for the lamps’ return for months. The California-based Fox is described as a “a major donor to the Israel Antiquities Authority” and a “Jewish Republican donor who gave Trump the priceless items,” and said that he believes the items were meant to be in Trump’s custody permanently.
The Wall Street Journal recently published an article titled How Donald Trump Ended Up With Priceless Israeli Antiquities which informed the Post’s story. The former director of the authority who organized the sending of the lamps told the Journal that “Saul Fox operated transparently with the antiquities authority.”
“These historic items were presented by a representative of the Israeli antiquities authority with the full support of the organization,” the Journal quoted an unidentified Trump spokesman as saying. “As the items were displayed as originally intended, the office will be expediting their return to the organization’s representative.”
Fox had asked the Authority to present Trump with the lamps at the White House Hanukkah party in 2019 to thank him for his Israel policies. Trump didn’t receive the lamps until 2021, at which point the Authority asked Fox to return the lamps. According to the Post, “he resisted, finding the request offensive.”
More about Saul Fox
The Saul A. Fox National Coin Center and the Saul A. Fox Center for Ancient Glass are two of Fox’s anthropological endeavors. He is also the founder of Fox Paine & Company, a private equity and investment and advisory firm, and has served as the company’s CEO since its inception in 1996.
The Wyncote native attended Cheltenham High but graduated from Chestnut Hill’s Miquon Upper School in 1971. He went on to graduate from Temple University in 1975 and is a 1978 cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
For the full article by the Post, you can click here.
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Photo courtesy of Saul Fox via the WSJ