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December 2, 2009

Winnick Hosts Bel Air Soireefor Harvard’s David Gergen

By Danielle Berrin

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Financier and philanthropist Gary Winnick hosted a dinner at his Bel Air estate, Casa Encantada, on Nov. 19 honoring David Gergen, director of The Center for Public Leadership at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was among the West Coast political and financial powerbrokers in attendance at the dinner, which included an off-the-record briefing by Gergen on the Obama presidency and the country’s current economic position.

In addition to his role at Harvard, Gergen has worked closely with at least four sitting presidents during the Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton administrations, and he currently serves as an editor at large for U.S. News and World Report magazine as well as an analyst for CNN. Gergen is not Jewish, but his daughter, Katherine Gergen, underwent an Orthodox conversion before marrying a Jewish man in 2003. 

Winnick, the evening’s host, was named to the Forbes 400 with an estimated net worth of $3.2 billion and is active in several Jewish causes, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) and Hillel International, whose boards he serves on. Winnick’s $40 million gift in 2000 toward the SWC in Jerusalem, now under construction, was not only project-enabling, it was one of the largest philanthropic gifts in the country at that time and resulted in the building being named after him: The Winnick International Conference Center of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Jerusalem.

A version of this article appeared in print.

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