Grandma's army

  Commercial banks are the oldest and most powerful financial institutions in the world. Siggi was warned that no industry in the country   has more consistently and cruelly rejected Jews from positions of power and influence, than commercial banking. There was nothing Siggi liked more than to defy preconceived beliefs. While surveying the newspapers for likely candidates, his interest focused on   a medium level bank: The Trust Company of New Jersey (TCNJ). Like Wilshire, it was run by an old-school board lacking vision. It would take years for Siggi to acquire enough TCNJ stock to combine the two   companies but it became his number one priority. Most of the TCNJ stock was held by approximately a dozen people. The majority of the directors on the board were old Nazi types, tall German WASPS, none of them under 70 years old, totally close- knit. Siggi picked up little bits of stock whenever they came on the market. When the largest shareholder died his son, Don Brenner, inheri

                                                                                               After an intense study of the stock market, Siggi  Wilzig  began his extraordinary career by buying five shares at a time in the Wilshire Oil and Gas Co. This was a small   company whose stocks sold at an affordable price. Siggi had become a close friend of a fellow Jew, Sol Diamond, who was a very successful, well-known entrepreneur. Diamond had also invested in the Wilshire Co. and was concerned over Wilshire’s failure to realize its potential. The company was in trouble and needed fresh energy and a charismatic leader. Since Diamond was too old to take on fresh challenges (almost eighty) he promised Siggy that he would back him financially - if he would take up the challenge of overturning the present President of Wilshire. This meant purchasing large amounts of stock. Siggi never refused a challenge. With no money of his own to do so, he enrolled everyone he could think of,   to purch