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Joy Silverman (born April 8, 1947) is an American socialite and Republican Party operative and fundraiser.

Biography

Silverman was born Joy Fererh to a Jewish family of modest means on April 8, 1947, the daughter of Jeanette (née Rothenberg) and Ben Fererh. In 1951, her parents divorced and in 1955, she moved to Great Neck, New York with her mother's new husband, Marc Germont, a French Jew. She attended elementary school in Great Neck. She has one half-brother from her mother's second marriage, composer Bruce Wolosoff. Her mother worked as a secretary for wealthy Long Island real estate developer Alvin Bibbs Wolosoff, whom she married after Germont's death. In 1964, she attended the Howard School for Girls in Bridgewater, Massachusetts and then studied liberal arts at the University of Maryland from 1965 to 1968 but dropped out. She then went to work as a receptionist at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in New York City. In 1986, she was named a member of New York City Mayor's Commission for Protocol under Ed Koch and also served chairman of the Advisory Council of the New York State Commission on the Bicentenial of the United States Constitution.

In 1988, she worked for the New York presidential campaign of then-Vice President George H. W. Bush raising over $600,000 becoming one of his top fundraisers. She donated $100,000 to Bush's campaign and additional $300,000 to his various Republican candidates either in her name, her husband's name, or in the name of Ply Gem Building Products where her husband was CEO. After Bush's victory, Bush's brother, Jonathan Bush and Republican Party Chairman Richard N. Bond recommended her for an ambassadorship and she was nominated on June 29, 1989 as United States Ambassador to Barbados (which is also responsible for Dominica, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines) despite her desire to be named Ambassador of Luxembourg. The nomination was controversial as she was one of several made by Bush of long-time financial backers and financial supporters rather than career Foreign Service officers including Republican bundler Peter F. Secchia (Ambassador of Italy), Walter Curley (Ambassador of France), real estate developer Joseph Zappala (Ambassador of Spain), and real estate developer Mel Sembler (Ambassador of Australia). Democratic Senator Paul Sarbanes shut down the nomination stating she is "a candidate with no ostensible qualifications for ambassadorship other than her campaign contributions" despite the rest of the non-career and all-male nominees being approved to more prestigious postions. The Wolosoff family attorney and in-law, Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals Sol Wachtler (Wachtler's wife was the niece of Alvin Bibbs Wolosoff) tried to intervene on her behalf with formal documentation of Silverman's campaign contributions but the nomination eventually expired in the U.S. Senate never coming to a vote. President Bush then appointed her as a trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. When Alvin Bibbs Wolosoff died in 1984, Wachtler served as executor of his $24 million estate and protected Silverman's $2.4 million inheritance from Wolosoff's son James who had been disinherited.

In 1988, Silverman and Wachtler began to have an affair but the relationship soured in 1991 as Wachtler refused to leave his wife; Silverman then began dating attorney David Samson. Wachtler did not take her leaving him well and soon began harassing Silverman. Silverman directly contacted then FBI Director William Sessions who referred the case to the FBI field office in Newark. After a call to Silverman was traced to Wachtler, he was arrested on 7 November 1992, on charges including extortion, racketeering, and blackmail. Prosecutors alleged that he demanded a $20,000 blackmail payment in exchange for turning over compromising photographs and tapes of Silverman with her then-boyfriend, attorney David Samson. He eventually pleaded guilty to harassing Silverman and threatening to kidnap her daughter. Wachtler resigned as a judge and from the bar; and was sentenced to 15 months, but received time off for good behavior. Silverman was besieged by the press and blamed for her role in the removal of the popular judge (some say he could have been the first Jewish president) and left New York City.

Personal life

In January 1969, she married her childhood friend and furniture store heir, Richard "Dick" Simons. The couple moved to Palm Beach, Florida and had one son, Evan Marc Simons (born 1970). In 1972, they divorced. She was introduced to her second husband, Florida banker David L. Paul, by real estate developer Sol Atlas; they divorced 2 months later. In 1977, she married recently divorced New York financier Jeffrey Silverman. Silverman adopted Evan and the couple also adopted a daughter, Jessica. In 1995, they divorced after Silverman's affair with Sol Wachtler. Jeffrey Silverman remarried but later committed suicide.

References

1. ^ "'Extraordinary Tragedy' Of Judge Sol Wachtler". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. November 18, 1992.
2. ^ Wolfe, Linda (August 26, 2014). Double Life: The Shattering Affair between Chief Judge Sol Wachtler and Socialite Joy Silverman. Open Road Media. ISBN 9781497648869.
3. ^ New York Magazine: "Crazy For You" by Eric Poley December 14, 1992
4. ^ George Bush, Volume 1 -. U.S. Government. p. 829. Nomination of Joy A. Silverman To Be United States Ambassador to Barbados, Dominica, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines June 29, 1989
5. New York Times: "Judge and Heiress: The Rise and Fall of a Private Affair" by Catherine S. Manegold November 15, 1992
6. ^ "Bush Withdraws Silverman Nomination After Critics Hit No-Job Portfolio". Associated Press. February 1, 1990.
7. ^ "True to tradition. President Bush is rewarding his long-time financial backers and political supporters with desirable ambassadorships, mostly in Western Europe". The Financial Times. April 2, 1990.
8. Lamb, Karl A. (July 1, 1998). Reasonable Disagreement: Two U.S. Senators and the Choices They Make (Politics and Policy in American Institutions). Routledge. p. 142. ISBN 978-0815328018.
9. Los Angeles Times: "Kennedy Center Trustee" February 02, 1990
10. Plotz, David. "Judicial Restraint: Sol Wachtler's worthy sentiments on prison." Slate.com April 16, 1997
11. New York Times: "As Inquiry Widens, Port Authority Chief May Lose His Low Profile" by Russ Buettner and William K. Rashbaum January 15, 2014
12. ^ Van Gelder, Lawrence (27 August 1994). "Ex-Judge Wachtler to Move From Prison to Halfway House". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 January 2009.
13. St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "'Extraordinary Tragedy' Of Judge Sol Wachtler" November 18, 1992 | "she married again. This time it was to David Paul, a divorced real estate developer and financial wunderkind who would be indicted years later in the Bush administration savings and loan scandal. They were introduced by her father's friend and sometime partner, mega-developer Sol Atlas. The marriage began in a Las Vegas wedding parlor and ended in annulment in Santo Domingo in less than two months"
14. ^ New York Magazine: "The Man Who Had Everything" by Beth Landman retrieved May 23, 2017
15. New York Magazine: "Jeffrey Has More Joy, But No Divorce" June 12, 1995
16. New York Daily News: "MY AFFAIR WITH JUDGE SOL WAS A JOY, SAYS EX-LOVE" by Salvatore Arena May 19, 1995

• 1947 births
• Living people
• American Jews
• American political fundraisers
• University System of Maryland alumni