Elias "Eli" Jacob Sagan (born 1927)

Wikipedia 🌐 Eli Sagan


Saved Wikipedia (Aug 11, 2022) - "Eli Sagan"

Saved as : [HK00AL][GDrive]

Eli Sagan (March 3, 1927 – January 4, 2015) was an American businessman who headed one of the nation's largest manufacturers of outerwear for young women, an autodidact in cultural sociology who wrote several widely reviewed books on the subject and a political activist who served on the national finance committee for George McGovern's 1972 presidential campaign, a role that earned him a spot on Richard Nixon's Enemies List in 1973.

Early life and business career

Sagan was born on March 3, 1927, in Summit, New Jersey to manufacturer [George Sagan (born 1895)] and homemaker Esther (nĂŠe Gooen) Sagan. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Harvard University in 1948, magna cum laude, and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society.[1]

After college, he joined the family business, New York Girl Coat Co., which manufactured outerwear for young women, largely for sale to department stores.[2] The company, founded by [Eli Sagan]'s father [George Sagan (born 1895)] in 1916, was an early innovator in adapting assembly line techniques to the process of manufacturing coats—techniques which would become industry standards—and was one of the first in the field to build its own facilities to manufacture its clothing. By 1966, when the company celebrated its 50th anniversary, [Eli Sagan] was its president. That year, The New York Times reported that the company produced 10% of all girl's coats sold in the United States, accounting for $12 million in annual sales, with Sagan targeting a 20% market share in the upcoming years.[3]

Political advocacy

A co-founder of the political group Fund for New Priorities in America in 1969, [Eli Sagan] also served as director and treasurer of the Council for a Livable World, an advocacy organization dedicated to eliminating the US arsenal of nuclear weapons. He helped to coordinate the "Senators for Peace and New Priorities" rally held at New York City's Madison Square Garden in 1970, and two years later was behind a rally for McGovern also held at the Garden.[1]

A supporter of progressive candidates, [Eli Sagan] was a fundraiser for Eugene McCarthy in McCarthy's 1968 bid for the Democratic Party nomination for President. Four years later Sagan supported George McGovern, serving on the Democratic presidential candidate's national finance committee and being chosen as a delegate from New Jersey for the McGovern ticket at the 1972 Democratic National Convention. His support of McGovern and other left-leaning political causes earned him a spot among the 490 people listed on Richard Nixon's 1973 Enemies List; he was included as part of the "List of McGovern Staff Members and campaign contributors".[4] He told a newspaper that he felt "honored" to be included in two versions of the list, but "was disappointed that I wasn't on the last one".[2] He called his inclusion on the list as his "proudest life moment".[5]

Writings and teaching

His extensive readings in anthropology and psychology led Sagan to write on the subject of cultural anthropology. He authored several books on the subject, including 1985's At the Dawn of Tyranny: The Origins of Individualism, Political Oppression and the State, the 1991 work The Honey and the Hemlock: Democracy and Paranoia in Ancient Athens and Modern America, and his 2001 book Citizens & Cannibals: The French Revolution, the Struggle for Modernity and the Origins of Ideological Terror.[2] he also wrote a book on the history of cannibalism in the early seventies.

In a review of At the Dawn of Tyranny in The New York Times, reviewer Andrew Bard Schmookler called the book "flawed in structure and... assumptions", but acknowledged Sagan's writing as "rich in substance and humane in spirit" and credited him for making a "serious contribution" to the field of evolutionary sociology.[6]

Sagan was a visiting professor in sociology and women’s studies at the University of California, Berkeley, The New School and Brandeis University.[5] During the early seventies he also taught one course a week in anthropology at The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.

Sagan married Frimi Giller of Chelsea, Massachusetts on August 7, 1949, at Boston's Copley-Plaza Hotel.[7] They had four children: Miriam, Rachel, Susannah and Daniel.[1] In his longtime hometown of Englewood, New Jersey, he was active in the chamber music program at the Art Center of Northern New Jersey, participating for nearly two decades. During the early 1970s, he served on the boards of the Elisabeth Morrow School and the Englewood School for Boys (later the Dwight-Englewood School).[1] Sagan moved to Dedham, Massachusetts in 2011, and died there on January 4, 2015.[8]

References


EVIDENCE TIMELINE

(Jan 1946) - George Sagan (father) charities :

See George Sagan (born 1895)

Full newspaper page : [HN024S][GDrive] / Clip above : HN024T][GDrive]

1947 (Feb 21) - Father George Sagan's foundation...

See George Sagan (born 1895)

Full newspaper page : [HN024Q][GDrive] / Clip above : [HN024R][GDrive]

1955 (Nov 18) - New Jersey Jewish News : George Sagan (father) is elected to the board of governors of the Weizmann Institute of Science at a recent meeting in Tel Aviv

See George Sagan (born 1895)

Image (screenshot) from JHS : [HN024N][GDrive]

1956 (FEB 19) - Central New Jersey Home News : George Sagan (father) transfers industrial plant in New Jersey to Eli Sagan and Bruce Sagan brother)

Mentioned - Bruce Lewis Sagan (born 1929) / Elias "Eli" Jacob Sagan (born 1927) / George Sagan (born 1895)

Full newspaper page (pg 23) - [HN024K][GDrive]

1960 (Jan 17) - The Daily News (New York) - Father George Sagan wins award

Full newspaper page : [HN024H][GDrive] / See George Sagan (born 1895)

1961 (Jan 22)

https://www.newspapers.com/image/315503439/?terms=%22new%20York%20girl%20co.%22&match=1

1961-01-22-the-central-new-jersey-home-news-pg-27-clip-coats.jpg

1964 (Jan 20) - NYTimes : "INDUSTRIAL TRACT BOUGHT IN JERSEY; 185‐Acre Site in Piscataway Acquired by Developers"

https://www.nytimes.com/1964/01/20/archives/industrial-tract-bought-in-jersey-185acre-site-in-piscataway.html?searchResultPosition=6

1964-01-20-nytimes-industrial-tract-bought-in-jersey-185acre-site-in-piscataway.pdf

A 185‐acre tract in Piscataway Township has been bought by three New Jersey realty men, who plan to erect a major industrial park in the Middlesex County community.

The property fronts 3,000 feet on the new interstate Route 287 and more than 4,500 feet on Reading Railroad trackage. The projected park will include industrial plants, laboratory buildings and distribution facilities in a landscaped campus setting.

The property, to be known as the Rutgers Industrial Center, will be developed by Meyer Segal, Philip J. Levin and Paul Goldman. They bought it from George and Eli Sagan and Harold Kaplan.

Mr. Segal opened his own industrial real estate firm in Newark last year after having been head of the industrial department of J. I. Kislak, Inc., for many years. He will direct the development and leasing program at the Rutgers Industrial Center

Mr. Levin and Mr. Goldman have been identified as builders with more than $100 million worth of postwar construction in New Jersey, most of it in Middlesex County.

Mr.Levin, as president of Levin Associates and Allstate Con‐ struction Corporation, has built more than 150 projects, including shopping centers throughout the eastern states.

Mr. Goldman has built several large developments of individual homes, as well as apartment houses and shopping centers.

The new industrial center, according to the sponsors, will be the first planned community of its kind in Piscataway Township, which is midway between New Brunswick and Plainfield.

Several large new industrial installations have been built in Piscataway, however, and several others are in the construction or planning stages.

1960 (Feb 02)

https://www.newspapers.com/image/67415994/?terms=%22new%20York%20girl%20co.%22&match=1

1960-02-17-southtown-economist-pg-2

1960-02-17-southtown-economist-pg-2-hl-ny-coats

1971 (Oct 07) - NYTimes :

https://www.nytimes.com/1971/10/07/archives/muskie-bids-liberals-form-a-coalition-to-win-change-muskie-at.html?searchResultPosition=11

1971-10-07-nytimes-muskie-bids-liberals-form-a-coalition-to-win-change-muskie-at.pdf

1971-10-07-nytimes-muskie-bids-liberals-form-a-coalition-to-win-change-muskie-at-img-1

1971-10-07-nytimes-muskie-bids-liberals-form-a-coalition-to-win-change-muskie-at-img-2

Muskie Bids Liberals Form A Coalition to Win Change

By Frank Lynn

  • Oct. 7, 1971

With Mayor Lindsay and Senator George McGovern sharing the dais and a Liberal party dinner as his forum, Senator Edmund S. Muskie declared lash night that American liberalism had failed to solve the nation's major problems.

“The blunt truth is that liberals have achieved virtually no fundamental change in our society since the end of the New Deal,” the Maine Democrat, charged in a speech before nearly 2,000 Liberals and Democrats at the annual statewide Liberal party dinner at the Americana.

Mayor Lindsay, devoting most of his speech to a stinging attack on the Nixon Administration, charged that the Administration had abandoned the principle that “the first responsibility of power is to the powerless.”

“Let's tell it straight: This Administration has become a government of the powerful by the powerful and for the powerful,” the Mayor said. “It governs from behind closed doors in banks and air‐conditioned board rooms and not in the neighborhoods. It is close to the rich and remote from the poor.”

Senator McGovern, in his speech, called for a “massive infusion of money” for the reconstruction of cities. Mr. McGovern said $30‐billion could be cut from the defense budget to finance “the rebuilding of our cities.”

Asserting that liberals accounted for only 40 per cent of the vote in a national election, Senator Muskie called for a “liberal coalition” that would reach out to “hardhats, and housewives and clerks — to men and women who will support liberal principles if those principles give them programs they can trust.”

“If the liberal mission has any overriding obligation, it is to enlist enough of our people to make change a reality and not just a rallying cry,” the Senator declared.

The audience applause at this point broke a silence that had greeted the Senator's cataloguing of the asserted failures of liberalism.

The speech and its delivery in the presence of two possible rivals for the Democratic Presidential nomination pointed up sharply the Muskie strategy to win that nomination.

The Maine Democrat has apparently staked out a middleof‐the‐road course, seeking to appeal basically to moderate Democrats while Senator McGovern and Mayor Lindsay appear to be identified with a basically liberal constituency.

The competition for that liberal constituency was evident yesterday when Senators Muskie and McGovern and another Presidential aspirant, Senator Fred R. Harris of Oklahoma, testified at a New Democratic Coalition platform hearing in Manhattan. The ultraliberal coalition developed from the Presidential campaign of Senator Eugene J. McCarthy in 1968.

Senator Harris left for Connecticut immediately after the N.D.C. hearings while Senator Muskie remained here for the Liberal party dinner and a surprise meeting with Mayor Lindsay at the Plaza Hotel “for a drink.”

Mayor Lindsay spent 25 minutes conferring with Senator Muskie in the latter's suite just before the dinner. Afterward, as he walked with long strides toward the Americana, the Mayor gave a report on the session.

“The first thing I did was welcome him to my city,” said Mr. Lindsay. “The second thing was to express my satisfaction that we were both going to be at the Liberal party dinner.

“On the political side I told him what I had been doing, like him, toward building a lot of strength in the country for a change in the leadership of the Government in 1972. He felt the same way about the need for change.

“We both feel very warmly toward each other—I've known the Senator quite a while and I have great respect for him, I consider him a great credit to the Senate and the country.”

Asked if they discussed strategy in bringing about the change they were both interested in, the Mayor said, “Oh no,” and indicated there hadn't been time for that. “I asked about his family and he asked about mine and we both expressed regret that our occupations kept us from being with them more.”

The Mayor confirmed that he had asked for the meeting.

Ironically, Senator McGovern had canceled a meeting with the Mayor. A spokesman for the Mayor cited “schedule problems,” but sources close to Mr. McGovern said that they did not intend to give the Mayor any added stature as a Presidential possibility.

This version was supported by the assertion of a McGovern spokesman that at least some of the Senator's time yesterday was earmarked for rest before last night's appearance with his prospective competitors for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

Of the three major speakers at the Liberal dinner, Mayor Lindsay—who noted that he had been a Democrat less than two months—delivered the harshest attack on the Nixon Administration. He also praised both potential competitors for the Presidential nomination.

All three candidates were greeted warmly by the audience, which was composed of more Democrats than Liberals. However, the Mayor seemed to have a slight edge on unofficial applause meters.

Earlier, at a fund‐raising luncheon at the Americana, Senator McGovern had mildly needled both the Mayor and Mr. Muskie without naming them.

The South Dakota Democrat touched on a Lindsay sore point when he told 1,350 supporters who had paid $25 for lunch that the nation could move men to the moon but “can't move them from Brooklyn to Queens,” and “can successfully test an ABM but not an IRT.”

The soft‐spoken Senator pledged that “never would I advocate a course in private that I'm ashamed to defend before the people of this country.”

Many of his listeners interpreted this remark as an allusion to Senator Muskie's statement at a private session with Negro leaders that he would not favor a black running mate because such a ticket would he defeated.

Mr. Muskie again defended his position at a brief news conference when he said that the remark had been made “in the context” of a discussion of inequalities suffered by Negroes.

He said he had told Negro leaders “that it was wrong that this political inequality existed and that it should he changed.”

Senator McGovern, in his luncheon speech, reiterated that a woman should he appointed to the United States Supreme Court and that amnesty should be extended to conscientious objectors. He also singled out three New York supporters, Bronx Borough President Robert Abrams, the Queens Democratic chairman, Matthew J. Troy, and former Representative Richard L. Ottinger, for praise.

Eli Sagan, president of the New York Girl Coat Company and a leading McGovern fundraiser, said that the Senator would need $2‐million by the time of the Wisconsin primary next April. He said that New York supporters hoped to raise $500,000 of that sum.

Senator McGovern squeezed into his half‐day here the fundraising luncheon, the Liberal dinner and a brief talk at a Liberal affair billen as “an antidinner” by its sponsors, Liberals for New Politics. The group opposes what it calls the “boss rule” of Alex Rose, the Liberal party leader.

Neither Senator Muskie nor Mayor Lindsay attended the latter affair. Mr. Rose is generally believed to be a strong supporter of Mr. Lindsay for the Presidential nomination.

Earlier, Mr. Muskie told the New Democratic Coalition hearing on proposals for the 1972 national Democratic party platform that this country must take “affirmative action to produce racial and economic integration in the suburbs, in fact as well as in law.”

He suggested that Federal funds he used “to make it profitable for suburbs and towns to welcome Americans of every race and class.”

“In June of 1970, the Federal Government had a $3‐million backlog of unfunded requests for water and sewage grants,” he told the hearing at the headquarters of Local 1199 of the Drug and Hospital Employes Union, 310 West 43d Street.

“We can and should take a community's attitude toward economic integration into account in whether its requests should be approved. If we do not, we will underwrite a domestic isolationism contrary to the fundamental principles of a free society.”

Senator Muskie remained here overnight for a series of private meetings with Democratic leaders and prospective contributors today and appearances this evening at a New York City Democratic Committee reception for district leaders and the annual Suffolk County Democratic organization dinner in Patchogue, L.I.


1971 (Oct 27) - NYTimes : "MILLIONAIRES ASK POLITICAL REFORM"

https://www.nytimes.com/1971/10/27/archives/millionaires-ask-political-reform-60-set-conditions-as-a-price-for.html?searchResultPosition=8

1971-10-27-nytimes-millionaires-ask-political-reform-60-set-conditions-as-a-price-for.pdf

By Frank Lynn

Oct. 27, 1971

A group of 60 millionaires decided at a luncheon meeting here yesterday to ask Presi dential candidates to support series of Congressional, gov ernmental and campaign‐fi nancing reforms as the price for their contributions.

The guest list at the luncheon meeting, held at the 21 Club, at 21 West 52d Street, read like a “Who's Who” among political contributors.

One millionaire told his fel low guests that their potential contributions represented per haps one‐quarter of the funds necessary for a Presidential campaign. The eventual Presi dential nominees are expected to spend a minimum of $20‐ million each.

The millionaires agreed over their consommĂŠ and sliced steak that they would ask Presi dential candidates to come individually before the group in the next few months to discuss such proposals as abolition of the Congressional se niority system, democratization of the political parties, moderni zation of state and local gov ernment structures, strict limi tations on campaign spending and ultimate government fi nancing of political campaigns.

“It was the Establishment taking on the Establishment,” said one participant who asked not to be identified. The meet ing was not announced publicly and participants were reluctant to talk about it afterward.

The conferees did not draw up a list of Presidential can didates to be invited, but it was apparent that the group, al though it included some Republi cans, would concentrate its pressure on Democratic candi dates.

One of those present, Marvin Rosenberg, president of Cameo Curtains, Inc., and a long‐time financial backer of Senator Hu bert H. Humphrey, Democrat of Minnesota, said that he did not think President Nixon would be invited to appear be fore the group.

The meeting was organized by Howard J. Samuels, presi dent of the city's Offtrack Bet ting Corporation; Edgar Bronf man, president of Distillers Cor poration‐Seagrams Ltd.; Charles Dyson, board chairman of Dyson‐Kissner Corporation, an in vestment concern, and Arthur G. Cohen, board chairman of Arlen Realty and Development Corporation.

Among those present were Stewart Mott, a major General Motors stockholder; Abraham Feinberg, retired hosiery man ufacturer and chairman of the executive committee of the American Bank and Trust Com pany; Eli Sagan of New York Girl Coat Company, Inc.; Jay Wells, president of Wells Tele vision Company of Massachu setts; Charles Bassine of Spar tans Industries, and Mrs. Carol W. Haussaman, philanthropist and real estate heiress.

Gardner Present

Also present were John W. Gardner of Common Cause, the reformist citizens' group, and Alan K. Campbell, dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

One informant said that the millionaires “sounded like col lege students” as they “dia logued” over their meal on the asserted failures of the “sys tem.”

“Let us resolve that no can didate, whatever his party, will feel free to expect our support if he does not address himself to these burning issues,” said Mr. Bassine.

Mr. Gardner, informants said, decried the “tyrannical” Con gressional seniority system and said that “society's confidence in its institutions has been, leaking away.”

“This is a group that can do something about it,” he added.

The basis for the hour and a half discussion in the Hunt Room of 21 was a memorandum drawn up by Mr. Samuels in which he concluded that the country would not solve its economic and social problems “without some basic changes in our political and governmental institutions.”

Several of those who attend ed the meeting said that they did not see the session as bene fiting any particular Presiden tial candidate even though Mr. Samuels owes his present job to Mayor Lindsay.

Informants said that some of those present had already con tributed to the campaigns of several Democratic Presidential prospects, but that most had kept their wallets and check books closed so far.

No formal vote was taken at the meeting, informants said, but there was no dissent when Mr. Bassine proposed that the meetings with Presidential can didates be set up immediately. Mr. Samuels's staff was given the task of selecting the candi dates, setting dates and prepar ing agendas for the meetings.

1975 (Feb 01) - Father (George Sagan) passes - NYTimes : "GEORGE SAGAN, 79, LED COAT COMPANY - Head of New York Girl dies; Aided Jewish causes"

Source : [HN023Y][GDrive]

[George Sagan (born 1895)], founder and former chairman of the New York Girl Coat Company and a dealer in Jewish philanthropy, died Tuesday in West Orange, N. J. He was 79 years old and hived in Verona, N. J.

Mr. Sagan, who retired as chairman in 1971 but continued as a consultant to the apparel company, was born in Russia and came to the United States in 1910. He founded the company in 1916.

He established the Sagan Foundation in Summit, N. J., and endowed a chair of performing arts at Brandeis University. He had been an overseer of the Jewish Theological Seminary and a director of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

Mr. Sagan was an honorary alumnus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and had been active in support of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

A former co‐chairman of the United Jewish Appeal in Essex County, N. J., and former chairman of the Newark Placement of Immigrants Service, he had also been a member of the board of the National Conference of Christians and Jews and received its award of merit.

[Surviving] are his widow, the former Esther Gooen; three sons, Eugene ([Eugene "Gene" Benjamin Sagan (born 1925)]), Eli ([Elias "Eli" Jacob Sagan (born 1927)]) and Bruce ([Bruce Lewis Sagan (born 1929)], and nine grandchildren.

1975 (Feb 16)

https://www.newspapers.com/image/145647304/?terms=%22new%20York%20girl%20coat%22&match=1

1975-02-16-asbury-park-press-nj-pg-45-clip-coat-factory-back.jpg

Eli Sagan, P’81, of Dedham, Mass., who took great pride in his inclusion on Richard Nixon’s list of political enemies, died on Jan. 4. He was 87. After retiring as president of the New York Girl Coat Co., which his father founded, the Harvard graduate went on to author six books in the area of cultural sociology, including “At the Dawn of Tyranny: The Origins of Individualism, Political Oppression and the State” and “Freud, Women and Morality: The Psychology of Good and Evil.” He taught at Brandeis (1993-98), the New School (1986-91) and the University of California, Berkeley (1981-86). He served on the national board of the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program at Brandeis. In 1973, he made the White House’s list of 490 political enemies. “I feel honored,” Eli told a newspaper at the time. “I was disappointed that I wasn’t on the last one.” He was named a Nixon enemy for his support of Democratic Sen. George McGovern, the man whom the 37th president routed in the 1972 election. Eli leaves his wife of 65 years, Frimi; four children, Miriam, Rachel, Susannah ’81 and Daniel; his brother; and seven grandchildren. He is also survived by Susannah’s husband, Andrew Katz ’80.


Detail Source

Name:

Eli Jacob Sagan

Race:

White

Age:

18

Birth Date:

3 Mar 1927

Birth Place:

Summit, N. J.

Residence Place:

Summit, Union, New Jersey

Registration Date:

5 Mar 1945

Registration Place:

Cambridge, New Jersey, USA

Employer:

Student Harvard Univ.

Height:

5 ft 7"

Weight:

145

Complexion:

Light

Hair Color:

Brown

Eye Color:

Gray

Next of Kin:

Mr George Sagan


Household Members

Eli Jacob Sagan

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/301305242:2238?tid=&pid=&queryId=f827606cac785678f202f54d1959f9fb&_phsrc=Kxi205&_phstart=successSource

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/301305242:2238?tid=&pid=&queryId=f827606cac785678f202f54d1959f9fb&_phsrc=Kxi205&_phstart=successSource



Frimi Sagan

December 28, 2016

Frimi Sagan, age 90, passed away peacefully December 28 in Dedham, MA. She was preceded by the love of her life, Eli Sagan, after 65 years of marriage. She is survived by her children Miriam (Richard) (first husband, Robert, deceased), Rachel... View Obituary & Service Information

Login

PRINT

The family of Frimi Sagan created this Life Tributes page to make it easy to share your memories.

Hide message

Obituary & Service

Frimi Sagan, age 90, passed away peacefully Decembe...

Tribute WallPhotos & VideosObituary & Service

+ More

Information

Obituary for Frimi Sagan

Frimi Sagan, age 90, passed away peacefully December 28 in Dedham, MA. She was preceded by the love of her life, Eli Sagan, after 65 years of marriage. She is survived by her children Miriam (Richard) (first husband, Robert, deceased), Rachel (Steve), Susannah (Andy), and Daniel (Alisa), grandmother of Isabel, Max, Ezra, Sophie, Tobias, Leah, and Sonya. Frimi was a teacher by both profession and vocation. Raised in Chelsea, MA, Frimi graduated from Radcliff College in 1946, and moved with Eli to New York upon marriage, entering graduate school at Columbia University. They eventually settled in Englewood, NJ where they raised their family. Frimi began teaching English and Russian literature at the Dwight-Englewood School in 1968. A woman who combined brilliance, elegance, and charm, Frimi ardently pursued the life of an intellectual. The written word was her passion, as were all things beautiful, including works of art and horticulture. An accomplished amateur pianist, Frimi was known as a giving, gracious, and helpful presence in countless lives. A beloved teacher, she retired from Dwight-Englewood in 2011, and continued pursuing her adoration of music, the arts and literature at her new home in Dedham, not far from where she spent her formative years, and Martha’s Vineyard where they summered. Donations may be made to the Frimi Giller Sagan Fund at the Dwight-Englewood School (www.d-e.org). Shiva will be held Wednesday, January 4th at 6:30 at the home of Susannah Sagan and Andy Katz.

https://www.epsteinmemorialchapel.com/obituaries/Frimi-Sagan/#!/Obituary