Claude Henry Kleefield

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"That same evening, a stone's throw from his offices, he gave me

go to one of the oldest steakhouses in

Manhattan, an institution in New York, cozy, jazzy,

deliciously retro just right: Gallaghers.

Mr. Kleefield takes off his glasses and tells me about his life.

His grandfather, Edmond KLEEFIELD, is none other,

in the 1930s, that the banker of the King of the Belgians

Leopold III. Banker in New York and with his brothers

Henri and Gaston also stockbrokers at 3 Rue

of the Congress in Brussels. They manage the King's cash in

multiple currencies. The Kleefeld family is distinguished by

patronage towards emeritus students of the Faculty of

medicine of Brussels by awarding each year the

Armand KLEEFIELD prize in memory of the little

Armand died of typhus at the age of twenty-one.

Edmond KLEEFELD is also the banker of the

Jewish Community of Brussels. A heavy

responsibility in this emerging Europe

dangerously neo-Nazi. It helps, supports, finances

dozens of Jewish families in Belgium. He is the pillar

of the Kleefeld family, and that evening when recalling his

grandson can't hold back a tear.

In 1940 the Kleefield family was forced into exile.

The family assets will be sequestered and

unfortunately several members will be deported

and murdered in the death camps. For me

Kleefield, saved at the last minute by his grandfather, this

will be New York via the Atlantic Clipper of the Panham a

October 18, 1940, at just 10 years old, then Cornell

Law School and admission to the New York Bar

in 1954.

He then founded his firm and very quickly joined the ten law

firm leaders in Manhattan for three

decades. But to succeed, whether in Paris or in New

York means agreeing to pay the price: three decades

where he had to fight fiercely to continue to exist

so much jealousy was present like that day when the

federal troops landed, taking with them all the

office files to finally have to do

backtracking on the judge's decision: arbitrariness

combined with anti-Semitism; orchestrated harassment

by the New York bar against a man

employing around twenty employees alone,

fiercely attached to its independence, refusing

any form of association even if it

would come from the New York Bar.

In 1981, the French left took power: the

USA once again becomes a land of exile and refuge for

a good number of French bosses; Kleefield

registers up to one hundred companies per month!

During his presidential term, Ronald Reagan

agrees to return a person to the border

African national in a cattle car.

Kleefield, ensuring the defense of the homeless, snatches a

historic victory proving to skeptics that the “

little Jew” from Manhattan can also bring

the American establishment.

In 1986, in a real estate face-to-face, Donald

Trump, deluded by his financial arrogance and his

army of lawyers, will also bite the dust:

KLEEFIELD will defend tenants

expelled forcing the “king” of concrete to respect the

law, compensate and rehouse the victims.

Tough guy… and with a lot of ideas:

dessert time he whispers in my ear part of

my life. He offers me law and business: lawyer and

investment banker. According to him, if I combine law and

finance, I have a pair like in poker.

He and New York State can give me all of this.

The challenge is significant."