The Grandees: America's Sephardic Elite

"Astoundingly readable and beautifully written.... It moves along like a romantic thriller, but is as serious a work and as good a job as Our Crowd". -- Denver Post

Descendants of the original twenty-three Jewish families who arrived in New York in 1654, the Sephardic Jews began a tradition of wealth, pride, and exclusiveness that continues to this day. Stephen Birmingham sheds light on this segment of Jewish society who viewed other Jews as peasants, and ardently shunned all publicity. It is the story of over three centuries of power and achievement, scandal, and folly, elegant lifestyles, and sometimes flamboyant personalities -- a story only Stephen Birmingham could tell with characteristic spellbinding skill.