Jewish businessmen have featured prominently in this year's unofficial British Rich List released by the Sunday Times at the weekend – with two of the top five and three of the top ten being of the faith.
Chelsea football club's Russian owner Roman Abramovich is named second richest person in the UK and Ireland in the supplement released by the British national newspaper each April.
Retail billionaire Philip Green and his wife Tina have stayed close to the top in fifth place, while property moguls, brothers Simon and David Reuben, were named eighth richest by the newspaper.
The Rich List details the 1,000 wealthiest Brits and the accompanying magazine explains the background to how many of them made their money.
It is based on identifiable wealth such as real estate, property and significant shares in publicly quoted companies, but not bank account or other items which the newspaper has no access to.
Persons based in Britain, such as Abramovich, are included, even if they are not holders of a British passport.
Chelsea man
Abramovich, one of the 1,012 men named on the list, was also found by the Rich List researchers to have the fastest growing fortune. In 2005, when the oil billionaire was also placed second, he was apparently worth 7,500m pounds (10,800m euros). This has now jumped to 10,800m pounds (15,500m euros) in January 2006.
The 39-year-old, whose football team look likely to again win the English Premier League title, has seen his money grow at an average annual rate of 568.4m pounds (819m euros).
Abramovich made his fortune in the Russian oil industry with his partner, fellow Jew Boris Berezovsky. Last year the Sibneft oil business which they bought together for about 120m pounds (172m euros) was sold, netting Abramovich around 7.5 billion pounds (10.8 b euros).
Although he is regularly seen watching Chelsea at their Stamford Bridge stadium in London, Abramovich rarely, if ever, speaks to the press, as was seen during his trip to Israel for a Russian football tournament earlier this year.
Fashionably rich
The traditionally Jewish fashion industry has again proved to be a money maker for Jews with three of the top 10 richest in the business coming from Jewish families.
Green, who with his wife owns the massively successful Arcadia group of clothes shops, is shown to have a bulging wallet of 4,900m pounds (7,000m euros). Famous for his opulent parties, the flamboyant entrepreneur this year bought the British branch of Etam which were soon all incorporated into his other outlets which include Top Shop, Dorothy Perkins and BHS.
Another Jewish fashion guru is Bernard Lewis owner of more than 250 River Island stores in the UK. The brand, which changed its name from Chelsea Girl in 1987, has been going since the 60s. Lewis is named second richest man in fashion with a fortune of 1,030m pounds (1,484 m euros), but only 49th on the overall list.
David Gold, owner of the sexy clothes chain Anne Summers, as well as Birmingham City Football Club is sixth richest in fashion and 119th overall with 525m pounds (756m euros).
Other prominent Jews include the Reuben brothers, eighth on the list with a cool 3,250m pounds (4,600m euros) as their property business continues to boom.
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Simon and David Reuben (Center and Right) |
The pair were pushed into the limelight earlier this year when London mayor Ken Livingstone publicly blamed them for delays to a key development for the London 2012 Olympics and told them to “go back to Iran.”
Also featuring highly is 16th placed Joe Lewis who made his money in foreign exchange and is now worth 2,100m pounds (3,000m euros) And media man Richard Desmond, the owner of Express Newspapers will be celebrating the successful US launch of the celebrity-focused OK Magazine after moving up three places in this year's list to 22 with a 1,900m euros (2,700m euros) fortune.