The Jeffrey Epstein That His Parents Were Unaware Of

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                     

How could such a thing happen to the Epsteins?  Having a son bringing tsuris to his family in such a manner is something we might all want to know about in order to avoid it happening to others. This would be one mother who certainly couldn't brag about her son, the Sex offender!  She must have planned saying, my son the doctor of math!  

 Jeff was only a few days older than my son born in Oregon. 

I checked my DNA with FTDNA and on the 1st page of 25, I matched 25 Epsteins; all 4th to remote cousins!!!  Well, Poland does border Lithuania, and my paternal grandmother was from Lithuania/Poland.   

From what I gather, this Brooklyn-born boy  was a very bright but overweight boy, doing best in math and music, which seem go go together.  He was even tutoring friends, probably in math.  He had even skipped two grades in school. His mother worked as a school aide, so was not home full time like my mother was.  I also wasn't home for my children when they came home from school being I was a teacher.  Luckily, I was home early enough.   Something happened that kept him from getting a math degree.  Though his parents were 1st generation Americans,  uneducated simple people, he had all the genes of being very bright in my estimation as a retired teacher.  

Here is the Wikipedia report on Epstein:  

Jeffrey Edward Epstein was born on January 20, 1953, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. His parents Pauline "Paula" Stolofsky (1918–2004) and Seymour George Epstein (1916–1991) were Jewish and had married in 1952 shortly before his birth. Pauline worked as a school aide and was a homemaker. "Paula was a wonderful mother and homemaker, despite the fact that she had a full-time job", according to a former childhood friend of Epstein's. Seymour worked for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation as a groundskeeper and gardener. 

Seymour George Epstein (1916-1991)

WikiTree

https://www.wikitree.com › wiki › Epstein-472

Aug 10, 2019 — He was born on 04 Dec 1916 in New York, USA and he was the son of Bessie (Tesher=Fisher, 1890-1960)

 and Julius Epstein (1882-1944) who were both born in Russia.

So Jeffrey was the grandson, or 2nd generation of Jewish immigrants from Russia, which could have meant either Russia

 or anywhere in the Pale of Settlement.  Ah, Julius was born in Poland; Bialystock, Miasto Bialystok, Podlaskie, Poland !!

Julius Epstein

Birth

15 Sep 1882

Białystok, Miasto Białystok, Podlaskie, Poland

Jeffrey was the older of two siblings; he and his brother Mark grew up in the working-class neighborhood of Sea Gate, a private gated community in Coney Island, Brooklyn. Epstein was referred to as "Bear" by his parents while Mark was known as "Puggie". Neighbors described the Epstein family as being, "so gentle, the most gentle people."                               

     Typical family group picture of Epstein family. Julius may have been the heavier fellow on the right.  

Epstein attended local public schools, first attending Public School 188, and then Mark Twain Junior High School nearby and usually earned money by tutoring classmates. Acquaintances considered Epstein "sweet and generous", although "quiet and nerdy", and nicknamed him "Eppy". "He was just an average boy, very smart in math, slightly overweight, freckles, always smiling", a female friend later said.

In 1967, Epstein attended the National Music Camp at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. He began playing the piano when he was five, and was regarded as a talented musician by friends. He graduated in 1969 from Lafayette High School at age 16, having skipped two grades. Later that year, he attended advanced math classes at Cooper Union until he changed colleges in 1971. From September 1971, he attended the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University studying mathematical physiology, but left without receiving a degree in June 1974.

Jeffrey Edward Epstein January 20, 1953 – August 10, 2019) was an American financier and child sex offender. 

Born and raised in New York City, Epstein began his professional career as a teacher at the Dalton School, despite lacking a college degree. (New York must have sure been hurting for teachers if this is the case--without a college degree?  How about the teaching certificate, too?

After his dismissal from the school in 1976, he entered the banking and finance sector, working at Bear Stearns in various roles before starting his own firm. (Why did he lose his school job-which caused him to do a 180 and go into banking?)

Epstein allegedly showed inappropriate behavior toward underage female students at the time, paying them constant attention, and even showing up at a party where young people were drinking, according to a former student. Other former students also often saw him flirting with female students. Eventually, Epstein became acquainted with Alan Greenberg, the chief executive officer of Bear Stearns, whose son and daughter were attending the school. Greenberg's daughter, Lynne Koeppel, pointed to a parent-teacher conference where Epstein influenced another Dalton parent into advocating for him to Greenberg.  In June 1976, after Epstein was dismissed from Dalton for "poor performance",Greenberg offered him a job at Bear Stearns.

Epstein cultivated an elite social circle and procured many women and children whom he and his associates sexually abused. (According to later accusations)

On June 30, 2008, after Epstein pleaded guilty to a state charge of procuring for prostitution a girl below age 18, he was sentenced to eighteen months in prison. While most convicted sex offenders in Florida are sent to state prison, Epstein was instead housed in a private wing of the Palm Beach County Stockade and, according to the sheriff's office, was, after 3+1⁄2 months, allowed to leave the jail on "work release" for up to twelve hours a day, six days a week.

On July 6, 2019, Epstein was arrested by the FBI-NYPD Crimes Against Children Task Force at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey on sex trafficking charges. He was jailed at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City.

In February 2025, Trump Administration Attorney General Pam Bondi stated that Jeffrey Epstein's client list was "sitting on my desk" for review, and in June, Elon Musk alleged that President Trump himself was in the Epstein files. In July, however, the DOJ and the FBI announced that there was no client list, no evidence that Epstein had blackmailed anyone, that Epstein had killed himself, and released footage showing the outside of Epstein's cell undisturbed—though that footage was not able to be independently verified. A minute was found missing from the footage soon after, where the clock jumps from 11:58:58 to 12:00:00. A Wired investigation found that the video had been modified despite the FBI's claim that it was raw, and that nearly three minutes have been cut out of the video.

Jeff had a huge problem.  I wonder if counselors in schools today could have brought this to the attention of a poor family with a very bright son who was going to be having problems as an adult.  

Wikipedia has amassed tons of information of Epstein.  I read just a few parts, more involved in other aspects of his life.

Update: 10/26/25: from Book: Legal Gladiator, the life of Alan Dershowitz by 

Solomon Schmidt,

p.208 and on about Epstein befriending Dershowitz and his wife;  telling how they 

had

 similarities ; that Epstein showed an aptitude for math and skipped two grades; that

in the 70's had become a math and physics teacher at a prestigious private school,

Dalton Academy...how Epstein had invited the Dershowitz couple to his home, but 

Alan never learned about his personal goings on.  

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Epstein

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/201027801/julius-epstein

.  

The Sad Case of Jeffrey Epstein of Brooklyn, New York

 Nadene Goldfoot                                           

  

 Epstein in 1980, born in January 20, 1953 –died on  August 10, 2019) at age 66.  He was the age of my son. He died scandalously as the best known sex-offender of the USA.    What happened to him to step out of his role as a respected Jewish man?  We Jews have managed to be the best in many professions, but this?  The number of Jews in New York City soared throughout the beginning of the 20th century and reached a peak of 2 million in the 1950s, when Jews constituted one-quarter of the city's population. 

Jeffrey Epstein was an average Jewish young man of Brooklyn, New York in the 1980s, not much different than the man I married, Danny Eskow, also of Brooklyn.  Jeffrey's parents were   Pauline (née Stolofsky, 1918–2004) and Seymour G. Epstein (1916–1991) who were Jewish and had married in 1952 shortly before his birth. Pauline worked as a school aide and was a homemaker. Seymour Epstein worked for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation as a groundskeeper and gardener. 

Coney Island

Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. 

Sea Gate on Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York

 Jeffrey was the older of two siblings; he and his 

brother Mark grew up in the working-class 

neighborhood of Sea Gate, a private gated

 community in Coney Island, Brooklyn.  

(Interesting because out West where I live, a private 

gated community usually contains very expensive 

homes with professional highly educated people).  

Epstein attended local public schools, first attending Public School 188, and then Mark Twain Junior High School nearby. In 1967, Epstein attended the National Music Camp at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. He began playing the piano when he was five. (He must have had gifted tendencies for his family to pay for lessons at that age.  Most piano teachers want a student by age 8).  

He graduated in 1969 from Lafayette High School at age 16, having skipped two grades. (That means he was bright;  very bright).  

Later that year, he attended classes at Cooper Union until he changed colleges in 1971. From September 1971, he attended the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University, but left without receiving a degree in June 1974.(He my not have had the money for tuition.). (A scientific fact is that there is a connection between music and math with music helping to develop the math.)  

So far, Jeffrey hasn't let me down.  He was a bright, intelligent and gifted young man.  

Around 1974, Jeffrey decided to try his hand at teaching and obtained a teaching position in mathematics with an annual salary of $12,000 at the Dalton School, a highly respected private school in uptown Manhattan which caters to the wealthy. Children in his classes included, for example, those of Robert Redford, Joel Grey and those of wealthy financiers. This was a social class to which Jeffrey had not previously been exposed. As a teacher, Jeffrey was commended for being lively, interesting, and uniquely gifted in presenting the material in a way which challenged the students. As matters would turn out, Jeffrey’s experience at the Dalton School would become life altering on a number of different levels.

Jeffrey began his professional life by teaching at the Dalton School in Manhattan, despite lacking a college degree. (Do I see a pattern of starting something but not finishing it--because of getting tired of it or lacking the motivation for seeing something to the end?)

Bear Stearns World Headquarters , The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. was a New York-based global investment bank, securities trading and brokerage firm that failed in 2008 as part of the global financial crisis and recession, and was subsequently sold to JPMorgan Chase. The company's main business areas before its failure were capital markets, investment banking, wealth management, and global clearing services, and it was heavily involved in the subprime mortgage crisis.

After his dismissal from the school, he entered the banking and finance sector, working at Bear Stearns in various roles;  eventually starting his own firm. In 2008 Jeffrey was 55 years old.  

Carbyne Raises $56 Million in Series C Funding to Modernize Emergency Contact Centers  Yoni Yatsun (Full stack Team leader), Amir Elichai (CEO), Alex Dizengof (CTO), Carbyne's founders. Credit: Nir Arieli

By 2015, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Epstein invested in the startup Reporty Homeland Security (rebranded as Carbyne in 2018). The startup was connected with Israel's defense industry. Jeffrey was now 62 years old, owner of his own investrment firm from New York, and looked pretty important to Israel.    

          Ehud Barak of the Labor Party  in 2016.   He is a graduate in physics, mathematics, and economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Stanford University.

It was headed by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who was also at one time the defense minister, and chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The CEO of the company is Amir Elihai who was a special forces officer, and Pinchas Bukhris, who is a director of the company, was at one time the defense ministry director general and commander of the IDF cyber unit 8200.

      Barak and American Condoleezza Rice-Secretary of State from 2005-2009.  

 Epstein and Barak, the head of Carbyne, were close, and Epstein often offered him lodging at one of his apartment units at 301 East 66th Street in Manhattan. Epstein had past experience with Israel's research and military sector. In April 2008, he went to Israel and met with a number of research scientists and visited different Israeli military bases. During this trip, he thought about staying in Israel in order to avoid trial, and possible jail, for charges he was facing for sex crimes; however, he opted to return to the United States.

       His 2019 mugshot;  not bad for a mugshot at 66, just before COVID set in.  

Epstein developed an elite social circle and procured many women and children; he and some of his associates then sexually abused them.  

In 2005, police in Palm Beach, Florida, began investigating Epstein after a parent reported that he had sexually abused her 14-year-old daughter^] Epstein pleaded guilty and was convicted in 2008 by a Florida state court of procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute. 

He served almost 13 months in custody, but with extensive work release. He was convicted of only these two crimes as part of a controversial plea deal; federal officials had identified 36 girls, some as young as 14 years old, whom Epstein had allegedly sexually abused.

Epstein installed concealed cameras in numerous places on his properties to allegedly record sexual activity with underage girls by prominent people for criminal purposes such as blackmail.

Jeffrey Epstein owned two private islands in the 

US Virgin Islands. 

Rick Friedman Photography via Getty; Marco Bello/Reuters

 Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's long-term girlfriend and companion, told a friend that Epstein's private island in the Virgin Islands was completely wired for video and the friend believed that Maxwell and Epstein were videotaping everyone on the island as an insurance policy. When police raided his Palm Beach residence in 2006, two hidden pinhole cameras were discovered in his home. It was also reported that Epstein's mansion in New York was wired extensively with a video surveillance system.

Among his new acquaintances that became his friends 

were:  the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, leading to her 2021 conviction on U.S. federal charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy for helping him procure girls, including a 14-year-old, for child sexual abuse and prostitution.

 Epstein also maintained long-term relationships with high-profile men including George J. Mitchell, Bill Richardson, Donald Trump, Les Wexner, Bill Clinton, Alan Dershowitz, and Prince Andrew, Duke of York.  I've heard Dershowitz speak of this.  He was Epstein was only a client, and Dershowitz is quite angry that people woul think otherwise.                                

Donald Trump- 54 years old  with his then-girlfriend, Melania

 Knauss, now his wife, and Jeffrey Epstein-47 years old, with Ghislaine Maxwell at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., in February 2000. (Davidoff Studios Photography/Getty Images)

He also surrounded himself with beautiful, young women. "I've known Jeff for fifteen years," Donald Trump told New York Magazine in 2002. "Terrific guy. He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."  

Note that he went with Ghislaine Maxwell for a long time.  Born in France, Maxwell was raised in Oxford. In the 1980s she attended Balliol College, Oxford, and then became a prominent member of London's social scene. Maxwell worked for her father, Robert Maxwell, until his death in 1991; she then moved to New York City, where she continued living as a socialite and had a relationship with Epstein.

Robert Maxwell, 1989  at the Global Economic Panel in Amsterdam 

Robert Maxwell, her father,  was born into a poor Yiddish-speaking Orthodox Jewish family in the small town of Slatinské Doly, in the region of Carpathian Ruthenia, Czechoslovakia (now Solotvyno, Ukraine). His parents were Mechel Hoch and Hannah Slomowitz. He had six siblings. In 1939, the area was reclaimed by Hungary. Most of Maxwell's family was murdered in Auschwitz after Hungary was occupied in 1944 by Nazi Germany, but years earlier he had escaped to France. In May 1940, he joined the Czechoslovak Army in exile in Marseille.  

Yet he was a marked man.  Ian Robert Maxwell MC (born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch; 10 June 1923 – 5 November 1991) was a Czechoslovak-born British media proprietor, member of parliament (MP), suspected spy, and fraudster. Maxwell led a flamboyant lifestyle, living in Headington Hill Hall in Oxford, from which he often flew in his helicopter, or sailing in his luxury yacht, the Lady Ghislaine. He was litigious and often embroiled in controversy. In 1989, Maxwell had to sell successful businesses, including Pergamon Press, to cover some of his debts. In 1991, his body was discovered floating in the Atlantic Ocean, having apparently fallen overboard from his yacht. He was buried in Jerusalem.

Over the years, Epstein had many girlfriends, but ultimately never married. Here's what to know about his romantic relationships. Sources revealed Jeffrey said in 2014 that if he ever married, it would be to Celina Dubin, who was 19 years old at the time, according to New York Post. However, Celina and Jeffrey weren't actually dating or in a romantic relationship. She was also the daughter of Jeffrey's ex-girlfriend Eva Andersson Dubin. Jeffrey and Dubin dated for 11 years starting in 1980, according to The Daily Mail. 

Over the years, Ghislaine Maxwell helped manage his multiple homes and coordinate his social relationships, The New York Times reported. “Ghislaine floated in and out of the house with the keys, and even though Jeffrey told me they didn’t have a sexual relationship, she’d drop under her breath that she was sleeping in his bed from time to time,” one of Epstein's ex-girlfriends told Vanity Fair.

                       

His sex criminal legal legacy may have years to run, says The Guardian.  

Epstein was arrested again on July 6, 2019, on federal charges for the sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York. He died in his jail cell on August 10, 2019. The medical examiner ruled the death a suicide. Epstein's lawyers have disputed the ruling, and there has been significant public skepticism about the true cause of his death, resulting in numerous conspiracy theories.

 Since Epstein's death precluded the possibility of pursuing criminal charges against him, a judge dismissed all criminal charges on August 29, 2019

Update 9/20/22: Jeffrey could have used the book, mindset by Carol S. Dweck, PhD, who writes about fulfilling one's potential, and Jeffrey had a lot of potential, but it got lost in the middle of his life, going off the main path into something dark.  

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Epstein

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/carbyne-raises-56-million-in-series-c-funding-to-modernize-emergency-contact-centers-301619066.html

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/2019/10/30/post-exclusive-never-before-seen-jeffrey-epstein-biography-surfaces/2210602007/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews_in_New_York_City

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coney_Island

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Gate,_Brooklyn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_affairs_of_Donald_Trump

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-and-jeffrey-epstein-partied-together-then-an-oceanfront-palm-beach-mansion-came-between-them/2019/07/31/79f1d98c-aca0-11e9-a0c9-6d2d7818f3da_story.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghislaine_Maxwell

https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a32686919/was-jeffrey-epstein-married/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Maxwell

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condoleezza_Rice