Stewart Rahr, Pays For Israeli Politicians’ Trips To Auschwitz

Stewart Rahr

The bill for the visit by half the Knesset to Auschwitz this week is being footed by a self-described “King of Fun,” who reportedly sent avideo of himself having sex with three women in the back of a limo to his email contact list last year.

Stewart Rahr, a Manhattan billionaire, has paid more than $600,000 to fly 64 Knesset members, 30 Auschwitz survivors and assorted dignitaries and friends to the Nazi death camp on two charter 737 planes, the New York Post reported.

The 250 person-strong group will hold a memorial ceremony on Monday, 69 years after the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 27, 1945, a date now marked as International Remembrance Day.

Joining the group will be several American business leaders, including billionaires Carl Icahn, Michael Milken and Sheldon Adelson, and Jewish congressman Eric Cantor (R-Va.)

Other participants from Israel are expected to include the state comptroller, a Supreme Court justice, one of the chief rabbis, the chairman of Yad Vashem Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem and senior officials of the World Zionist Organization.

Rahr has also arranged for Italian singing star Andrea Bocelli to perform for the group, according to the New York Post. Prior to the memorial ceremony, the Knesset is scheduled to hold a special session in the Polish city of Krakow.

“This event will be the most uplifting and emotional remembrance ceremony in Jewish history, a once-in-a-lifetime event,” Rahr was quoted as saying. He added that he found out about the event from Israel “Yummy” Schachter, a Toronto entrepreneur.

PR man Jonny Daniels, co-organizer of the trip, said: “We are getting very close to the point where there will be no more firsthand accounts left. The onus falls on us . . . to understand what happened and to ensure it never repeats again.”

Rahr is a self-made pharmaceutical billionaire who sold his business to Cardinal Health in 2010 for $1.3 billion. In 2013, he divorced his wife of 43 years, Carol, in a $250 million settlement.

According to Huffington Post, he celebrated the divorce by holding "a private soiree in the back of a limousine with three young women, filmed it, and then emailed the video to his New York society contact list."

Rahr's antics since his divorce were detailed in a long feature article in Forbes magazine last September headlined "Guns, Girls And Sex Tapes: The Unhinged, Hedonistic Saga Of Billionaire Stewart Rahr, 'Number One King Of All Fun'."

According to the article, he was banned from the midtown outlet of Robert De Niro’s celebrity sushi joint, Nobu last November. Ten days later he was taken into custody for allegedly pulling a gun on an elevator operator.

Rahr is known as an active and generous philanthropist. He established a charitable foundation with an endowment of $100 million and donated $15 million to a prostate cancer foundation sponsored by his friend and fellow billionaire Michael Milken.

“He’s got a heart as big as the entire world," Milken said of Rahr.