Bruce Kovner

Kovner apparently values his status as a relative unknown. In a 2005 exposé about Kovner for New York Magazine, Philip Weiss wrote: "If no one knows anything about Bruce Kovner, it is because he likes it that way. Yet the unassuming manner is camouflage for one of the most powerful people in the country, culturally, financially, and politically." Regarding Kovner's purported political influence, Weiss reported: "He's a neoconservative godfather. He is among the backers of the Manhattan Institute and the fledgling right-wing daily the New York Sun. Most important, Kovner is chairman of the American Enterprise Institute. The right-wing think tank has supplied the government with the most powerful ideas in foreign policy in a generation, a vision of a supremely idealistic and militaristic American empire that must carry democracy out from its shores by force and begin by remaking the Middle East" (New York Magazine, August 8, 2005).

Norman Podhoretz, an early progenitor of neoconservatism who once hired Kovner to be a music critic for Commentary , told Weiss: "Bruce is an intellectual. He understands the world of ideas. He would have been supremely well qualified to be an active member of that [academic] world had circumstances moved him in that direction. And what distinguishes him from most intellectuals is that he is also brilliant."

Besides his intellect, there is another important reason neoconservatives like to claim Kovner as their own-his monetary generosity. Reported Weiss: "James Q. Wilson, a member of the AEI board, says that Kovner has pushed AEI to build an endowment so that scholars are more independent, so they don't have to hunt up grants for their work. Kovner's hedge fund manages the lion's share of the group's investments, which grew from $28 million to $40 million in 2003, the latest year collected by Guidestar.org."

According to Weiss, Kovner first came in touch with early neoconservatives while in grad school at Harvard, where he became the "star student" of Edward C. Banfield, a former official in President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal administration who eventually became disillusioned with liberal, big-government initiatives. Kovner, reported Weiss, became part of "a network that included Daniel Patrick Moynihan and James Q. Wilson," who were close to Banfield.

Kovner's gift-giving is not strictly political. In early 2006, Kovner donated to the Juilliard School 140 musical manuscripts, which according to Joseph W. Polisi, Juilliard's president, are "the very definition of priceless" (Wall Street Journal, March 9, 2006). Kovner is also chairman of the Juilliard School. According to New York Magazine, Kovner is "New York's most unassuming philanthropist"-he donated $25 million for the renovation of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (New York Magazine, May 15, 2006). He has also donated to education. In 1997, Kovner and several other investors started the School Choice Scholarships Foundation, which awarded private scholarships to students from poor families. "We are doing this because of the importance of making choice available to kids who don't have real alternatives," Kovner said. "The public school system hasn't provided good opportunities for these kids; so we think the private schools should be given a chance to help out" (American Enterprise Magazine, March/April 1997).

His taste in culture seems offbeat when compared to many of the neoconservatives associated with outfits like AEI. According to Weiss, Kovner once showed up at a Tenth Avenue party for Surrender, "that paean to anal sex by former Balanchine dancer Toni Bentley." Wrote Weiss: "It goes without saying that a wide gulf separates the Surrender party from the American Enterprise Institute, whose female residents offer grating lectures on the evils of feminism, therapy, and The Vagina Monologues, where Robert Bork heaps abuse on Roe v. Wade."

Despite his sometimes seemingly non-conservative ways, there is little doubt about Kovner's connection to neoconservatism and its main advocates, according to Weiss. "There can be no question that he supports the militarist neoconservative agenda. Last October [2004], when George Bush's chestnuts were in the fire, Kovner helped to pull them out. He wrote checks for $110,000 to a 527 (political organization) called Softer Voices that was aimed at 'security moms' in swing states. Softer Voices is led by, among others, the writer Midge Decter, the wife of Norman Podhoretz, and Nina Rosenwald, a force in the pro-Israel lobby. Kovner was its largest financial backer. For all his reserved sagacity, Bruce Kovner has always been comfortable with radical ideas."

Private Sector

Education

Manhattan Institute Board of Trustees, www.manhattan-institute.org/html/trustees.htm.

Philip Weiss, "George Soros's Right-Wing Twin," New York Magazine, August 8, 2005.

Matthew Gurewitsch, "Bruce Kovner's Gift for Music," Wall Street Journal, March 9, 2006.

"The Quiet Revolution in School Choice," American Enterprise Magazine, March/April 1997.

For media inquiries, email rightweb@publiceye.org or call (617) 666-5300.