David Rubenstein tours the Lincoln Memorial in 2016. Rubenstein, who donated $18 million to fund improvements to the memorial, is buying the Baltimore Orioles. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

By Louis Keene January 31, 2024

A Jewish billionaire who collects vintage Americana as a hobby has his latest national treasure: the Baltimore Orioles.

David Rubenstein, who grew up in the city’s Jewish community before earning his fortune in private equity, leads a group of investors who agreed Wednesday to buy a controlling stake in the 130-year old baseball franchise from Peter Angelos for about $1.7 billion.

Rubenstein, a philanthropist with a taste for Jewish history and artifacts, will take over a team whose roster includes American Israeli pitcher Dean Kremer, and whose home field, Camden Yards, has a kosher hot-dog stand.

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He said in a statement on Wednesday that he had been an Orioles fan “my entire life” and set a “collective goal” of bringing a World Series Trophy back to Baltimore, though the Orioles — despite having the American League’s top record in 2023 — have not won a postseason game since 2014. 

“To the fans, I say: we do it for you and can’t do it without you,”

Forbes Magazine estimated Rubenstein’s net worth at $3.7 billion That would place him in the upper half of Major League Baseball principal owners, eight of 30 of whom are Jewish. (A ninth, the Milwaukee Brewers’ Mark Attanasio, married a Jewish woman and reportedly attends synagogue, but is not known to be Jewish.)

Rubenstein, 74, grew up in northwest Baltimore, the only child of a postal worker and a dressmaker. He attended Duke University and University of Chicago law school, and in 1987 founded the Carlyle Group, a firm that now manages some $382 billion of assets.

“When I was young, Baltimore was a religiously segregated city,” Rubenstein said upon receiving the Horatio Alger Award in 2007. “The Jews were in the northwest part of town, and it was very much a ghetto situation. I was 13 before I realized everyone in the world was not Jewish. Up to that point, everyone I knew was Jewish.”

Rubenstein’s infatuation with historical artifacts is well-documented. He spent $21.3 million to acquire a 1297 copy of the Magna Carta — the only one in private ownership. He also owns two copies of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln, a copy of the Declaration of Independence and a signed copy of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery.

He has also funded Jewish historical preservation, underwriting the restoration of two Torah scrolls, one from Auschwitz and another from Dachau.

A 2024 Baltimore Sun article said most of the documents in his collection are on loan to museums and public institutions like the White House and National Archives.

“He’s very clear about his love of America,” an agent representing the seller of one of the Emancipation Proclamations said of Rubenstein in 2012. “He’s buying these documents to give back to the American public.”

Among his major philanthropic investments were a $1.9 million gift to the Duke Center for Jewish Life in 2014 and the 2013 formation of a $25 million fund for research to cure ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Rubenstein is also one of several billionaires who have signed the Giving Pledge, which commits his fortune to charity after his death.

In a 2009 profile in The New York Times, Rubenstein said when he turned 54 he read that white Jewish males were likely to live to 81. “So I said, ‘I have 27 years to go,’ ” Rubenstein said. “I could be like the pharaohs and say, ‘Bury me with my money.’ Or I could start giving it away.” 

His acquisition of the Orioles was greeted warmly by fans on X, who had grown weary of Angelos’ reluctance to spend big on the big-league roster. 

“How can you not be pumped!!!” Maryland Sports Blog, a fan site that covers the Orioles, posted Wednesday on X. “We have the number one farm system, number one prospect, had the best record in the American League and now will have an owner willing to spend money!”

“The future is bright in #birdland!” posted another.

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