---
category: "Business & Finance"
tags:
  - Person
  - Nuclear
  - Israel
summary: "Abraham Feinberg was a wealthy New York businessman and ardent advocate of statehood for Israel."
born: 1908
died: 1998
location: "New York City, New York"
---

Abraham Feinberg was a wealthy New York businessman and ardent advocate of statehood for [[Israel]]. By 1947, he played a major and discreet role in fundraising and [[White House]] lobbying for Israel and the Democratic Party. He would operate at the highest levels between [[Washington, D.C.]] and [[Jerusalem]] for two decades.[^1]

Feinberg was a close friend of [[Ernst David Bergmann]], and in the fall of 1947, Bergmann indiscreetly revealed to Feinberg that there was uranium in the [[Negev Desert|Negev]] desert, implying a path for Israel to develop the atomic bomb. Feinberg was astonished by this talk and "shushed him up."[^1]

Feinberg was recruited by [[David Ben-Gurion]] in 1945 to help raise money for guerrilla operations against the British mandatory power in [[Palestine]]. He recalled that the kibbutz's administrative building, constructed near a large British military base, was a "fraud," serving as a cover for a secret underground plant producing bullets for the Hagannah. The facility was "scooped out" in twenty-seven days, with workers alternating between farming and arms production to maintain the deception.[^2]

### Truman Library oral history

Feinberg gave an oral history interview to the [[Harry S. Truman Library]], conducted by [[Richard D. McKinzie]] on August 23, 1973. He was a business executive and philanthropist active in the cause of immigration to Palestine and in the creation of the State of Israel, 1945 to 1948, and a friend of President [[Harry S. Truman]].[^3]

### Footnotes

[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 2.
[^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 15.
[^3]: Harry S. Truman Library, "Abraham Feinberg Oral History Interview," interview of August 23, 1973 by Richard D. McKinzie, biographical note. https://trumanlibrary.gov/oralhist/feinberg.htm