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This year Steinhardt is back on form, with returns around 20%. In Steinhardt's lexicon, therefore, now is the time to get out, make sure his investors get their principal and profits and pursue his new dream. He says, "The Jewish generation I'm part of was at the confluence of two great rivers: East European Jewish religious traditions and the openness of secular America. That led to an extraordinary explosion of achievement. Just look at the number of Nobel Prizes, academics, writers, successful businessmen it produced. Not only that, this generation gives more philanthropically than any other group. And it has allowed itself to get kicked in the pants by the very minorities it feels so strongly about helping. But the present generation doesn't have the same commitment to Judaism and Jewish values." Steinhardt's idea is to create a nondenominational school to transmit those values.
Even if his latest endeavor does not pan out, Steinhardt will never be short of interests. He is a major contributor to the Democratic Leadership Council, which seeks a third road for American politics outside established political parties. Once an enthusiastic backer of Bill Clinton, Steinhardt now says, "I have my problems with our President. He doesn't believe in very much. His promise has been a failed promise."
Steinhardt's other pet project is, well, pets. The menagerie at his 54-acre estate north of New York City includes rheas, ostrich-like flightless South American birds; capybaras, the world's largest rodents; and even such mundane creatures as longhorn cattle. Competing for the time he spends with his wife Julie and their three children is Martha, a blue crane that has taken a romantic shine to her owner. Says Steinhardt: "She follows me around the grounds. Sometimes we dance: she jumps up and down, and I flap my arms. We've developed a close relationship." Retirement, in Steinhardt's way of looking at the world, is for the birds--and still a lot of fun.
--With reporting by Sribala Subramanian/New York