Getty Alexander Soros
Alexander Soros is George Soros’s son. The 33-year-old says that things have gotten much worse for his family ever since Donald Trump assumed the presidency. In a rare op-ed for the New York Times, Alexander praised his father’s courage and railed against the person who put a pipe bomb in his mailbox this week. But Alexander also implied that President Trump shoulders a lot of the blame for the “vitriol” that his father receives on a constant basis.
Alexander penned the op-ed for the New York Times on Wednesday. Just Monday, an explosive device was found in his father’s mailbox. On Wednesday morning, the Secret Service announced that it had intercepted suspicious packages addressed to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Later in the day, a package another explosive device was sent to CNN’s New York headquarters. (The package was addressed to former CIA chief John Brennan.) Yet another package was apparently sent to former Attorney General Eric Holder, although that one was rerouted back to its return address.
Alexander writes that his father has faced “plenty of attacks” throughout his life; he is no stranger to anti-semitism either. But, Alexander says, his father’s enemies used to be in the extremist fringe. Ever since Donald Trump was elected, hating Soros has become a pretty mainstream position.
Alexander writes,
“with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, things got worse. White supremacists and anti-Semites like David Duke endorsed his campaign. Mr. Trump’s final TV ad famously featured my father; Janet Yellen, chairwoman of the Federal Reserve; and Lloyd Blankfein, chairman of Goldman Sachs — all of them Jewish — amid dog-whistle language about “special interests” and “global special interests.” A genie was let out of the bottle, which may take generations to put back in, and it wasn’t confined to the United States.”
Here’s what you need to know about Alexander Soros:
1. Alexander Is the Son of Soros’s Second Wife, Susan Weber
George Soros has been married three times and has five children. He has three children with his first wife, Annaliese Witschak. In 1983, the couple divorced. Soros later married Susan Weber and had two children with her. Alexander, born in 1985, is the older of those two sons. (Soros was divorced from Susan Weber Soros in 2005. He married his current wife, Tamiko Bolton, in a lavish ceremony in 2013.)
Alexander and his younger brother, Gregory, grew up attending a private school in Connecticut. A classmate told the New York Post that Alexander seemed like just an ordinary kid, who wore non-designer clothes, carried his school books in an old briefcase, and worked in his father’s mail room over the summer break.
2. At 33, Alexander Sits on the Board of Several Charitable Foundations & Is Deputy Chair of the Open Society Foundations
Alexander Soros has said that philanthropy is the Soros “family business.” The 33 year old is on the boards of a number of charitable foundations:Global Witness, the International Crisis Group, and Libraries Without Borders, among others. He also is the deputy chair of the Open Society Global Board. (The Open Society Foundations is a grant-making organization founded by George Soros.)
Alexander once told the Wall Street Journal that he’s interested in the more “controversial” side of charity — he likes the risky, sometimes unpopular positions. He said, “Who’s going to do the unpopular stuff like dealing with issues of drugs and prisons,” says Mr. Soros. “I’m much more interested in doing things that are more experimental and controversial because I think they could have the greatest impact. My dad’s view was always instead of building a hospital in a war-ravaged area, why not try and make peace or solve the actual problem.”
3. Alexander Holds a PhD in History from the University of California at Berkeley
Susan Weber, Alexander’s mother, is a historian. Alexander earned a PhD in history at the University of California, Berkeley, writing a thesis titled “Jewish Dionysus: Heine, Nietzsche and the Politics of Literature.”
Friends told the New York Post at the time that Alexander was a hard-working student, serious about his studies. They said that he liked to party and had no problem splashing out by hosting huge parties for his friends in the Hamptons. But they also said that Alexander was mostly motivated by his work: the 30-year-old would periodically disappear to get back to his studies or to talk about Congolese politics to anyone who shared his interest.
4. Alexander Has Appeared on Page 6, Partying in the Hamptons
At least as recently as 2016, Alexander was appearing on the New York Post’s Page 6, where he was described as holding one party after another at his family’s Hamptons estate. Alexander was photographed partying with models like Rachel Fox, Allie Fosheim, Lameka Fox, Mayra Suarez. New York Knicks star Joakim Noah also attended at least one party at Soros’s place. For a while, at least, Alexander’s parties spawned their own hashtag on social media: #CampSoros.
5. Alexander Fought Back Against Roseanne Barr After She Attacked His Father in a Tweetstorm
Back in May, Alexander penned an opinion piece for the Daily News, defending his father against Roseanne Barr. Barr had taken to Twitter to say that George Soros was a “nazi who turned in his fellow Jews 2 be murdered in German concentration camps & stole their wealth.” Barr later apologized for the tweet.
Alexander wrote, “Until now, I have been mostly silent on these matters because I have not wanted to add fuel to the fire by giving them further attention. But I find one lie so odious that I feel duty bound to address it directly: the false assertion that my father somehow collaborated with the Nazis during the German occupation of Budapest.”
You can read the full op-ed here.