Jeffrey Epstein Donated to a Ton of Jewish Organizations but Didn't Seem to Be Very Religious

In July 2019, Jeffrey Epstein was arrested and charged with sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors, per the Department of Justice. The alleged incidents occurred between 2002 and 2005 in New York and Florida and involved a multi-level marketing scheme of sorts in which the financier groomed minors, then asked them to bring in more victims. The DOJ also alleged that Epstein had a network of employees who helped facilitate these crimes.

Prior to his arrest, Epstein was a bit of a mystery, though people understood he was extremely wealthy. After he was fired from his job as a physics and mathematics teacher at the Dalton School on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, Epstein became a low-level junior assistant to a floor trader thanks to the parent of a student. From there, he worked his way up to become a multi-millionaire. But what about his religious beliefs? If his religion played a role, Epstein kept that to himself.

According to CBS News, Epstein was the grandson of Jewish immigrants. His father, Seymour Epstein, was a groundskeeper and gardener for the New York City Parks Department. Paula Epstein, his mother, was a homemaker. Epstein grew up in the 1950s and 1960s in the Lafayette neighborhood around Coney Island, as noted by the book Filthy Rich.

Per Untapped New York, Coney Island once had a "thriving Jewish population." By the 1960s, the one Jewish synagogue in the neighborhood was mostly empty on Saturdays. Robert Moses, a prominent Jewish city planner, started replacing whole blocks with low-income housing. Perhaps this contributed to the move Epstein's family would eventually make to West Palm Beach, Fla., reported The Daily Beast, which also has a robust Jewish community.

Although Epstein has never spoken publicly about being Jewish, he supported the community. According to tax filings obtained by the Miami Herald, the financier donated money to more than a dozen Jewish nonprofits and educational institutions between the years 1998 and 2017. Epstein did this through three of his nonprofit organizations.

There are conflicting reports regarding where Epstein grew up. Forward, an independent Jewish magazine, obtained records that stated Epstein was raised in Sea Gate, a private community at the far western edge of Coney Island. This is also New York's oldest gated community.

Sea Gate has had a strong Jewish presence for about a century. Epstein's childhood home was across the street from Keneses Israel, Sea Gate’s oldest synagogue. This area is now home to a "large community of Orthodox Jews, including many Chabad and Satmar Hasidim."

Epstein and his brother struggled at Lafayette High School, which had a large percentage of Italian students. "There was a lot of volatility at Lafayette," said one graduate of the school. "It was a blue-collar area that was, at one time, 90 percent Italian. Then, a small amount of Jews moved in, and there was antisemitism. The Italians didn’t want the Jews to be there." Epstein ended up skipping two grades and graduating at the age of 16