9/11 attacks could hurt Triad Hebrew academy.

• Author: Maley, Frank
• Position: Tar Heel Tattler - Greensboro boarding school

It's unlikely that Muslim hijackers had the American Hebrew Academy on their radar Sept. 11, 2001, when they crashed jetliners into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in southern Pennsylvania. After all, the Greensboro boarding school opened just the day before. But the suicide missions set off a domino effect that could yet strike a blow against Jews in the Triad.

The planes were covered by a reinsurance pool managed by Burlington-based Fortress Re, run by Maurice Sabbah and Kenneth Kornfeld. Sabbah, a Greensboro resident, is reported to have pledged $100 million to get the school started and is chairman of its board of trustees. He was such a generous giver to charitable causes that he was No. 48 on Business Week's list of the nation's top philanthropists in 2003. The magazine included him among its secret givers--"outstanding contributors who neither seek recognition nor want any thanks."

Fortress Re's pool used resources from three Japanese insurance companies to spread the risk of aviation losses so no disaster would fall too heavily on one company. When the planes crashed, the pool lost an estimated $1.4 billion. But one of the companies, Tokyo-based Sompo Japan Insurance, says it discovered irregularities while studying Fortress Re's books after the 9/11 losses. Fortress Re, Sompo contends, counted loans as revenue...