Roger Hertog

Roger Hertog (born July 5, 1941)

Personal life and career Born to German Jewish immigrants, Hertog was raised in the Bronx and attended public schools. His first job was in the mail room of a financial company while attending City College at night. Eventually, he joined Oppenheimer & Co. in a clerical position. At Oppenheimer, he met his future business partner, Sanford Bernstein. In 1967, Hertog joined Sanford C. Bernstein, & Co. Hertog remained president of the firm until its merger with Alliance Capital Management in 2000. He retired in 2006 from AllianceBernstein L.P. and remains Vice-Chairman Emeritus. Roger and Susan Hertog have three grown children. He currently serves as the executive committee chairman for the New York Historical Society’s board of directors, and as a board member at the Alexander Hamilton Society. Hertog has spent time on the boards of the American Enterprise Institute, New York Public Library ,Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the Washington Institute for Near-East Policy, and is a chairman emeritus of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. He was a part-owner of now-defunct The New York Sun and The New Republic, and is a board member at Commentary. He is also a major supporter of National Affairs magazine, edited by Yuval Levin.

Hertog often donates to Jewish and Israeli organizations, and is the chairman of the Tikvah Fund. Hertog has also given money to the Anti-Defamation League, Taglit-Birthright Israel, and American Friends of Shalva. He sponsored the creation of the Bronx Library Center, which opened in 2006.

In the 1990s, Hertog, along with other investors, launched one of the first privately funded school-voucher programs, funding 1,000 scholarships annually for poor families interested in sending their children to private schools. Over 25,000 applied for the scholarships. He has invested in the Success Charter Network and Families for Excellent Schools in New York, and funded a study on the charter school movement in New York City.

On November 15, 2007, Hertog was awarded a National Humanities Medal in a White House ceremony with U.S. President George W. Bush. He won the William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership in 2010.