George H.W. Bush and Gerald Ford sidled alongside Henry Kissinger and Newt Gingrich. Natalie Cole, backed by a full orchestra, provided the tunes.

Even for an investor and former oil man worth an estimated $760 million, the turnout was impressive. But given Fisher's long history of political involvement, especially as an advocate for Israel, it comes as no surprise. Fisher has been "a friend and advisor to every Republican president since Eisenhower," boasts the Republican Jewish Coalition, an influential political group he founded under a different name in 1985. "He has played a remarkable, if quiet, role in the history of both (Israel and the United States)."

Born to Russian immigrants in the small town of Salem, Ohio, Fisher attended Ohio State University on a football scholarship. After school he joined his father's oil reclamation business in Detroit. Fisher grew that business into one of the largest gas station chains in the Midwest before selling the business in 1959 and investing in a series of stock and real estate deals that made him one of Detroit's richest residents. At age 92, he still sits on the board of Comerica, the consumer and investment bank, and Sotheby's, the embattled English auction house. He is also on the board of Restoring the American Dream, a conservative political action committee led by Richard DeVos Sr. (No. 12, $764,500).

Throughout his economic climb, Fisher headed up a variety of Jewish-American organizations, including the United Jewish Appeal, the Council of Jewish Federations, and the American Jewish Committee. According to a recent biography, Fisher was asked by Ford and Kissinger in 1975 to help heal a diplomatic rift between the United States and Israel over relations with Egypt. Fisher met repeatedly with Israeli leaders and Ford's chief of staff, Donald Rumsfeld, who is now Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush. Fisher's report, the biography suggests, helped shape Ford's policy towards Israel.

"My fundamental responsibility was as an American," Fisher explained. "Then as an American Jewish leader. And finally, I had my love for Israel."

In recent years, the Republican Jewish Coalition has supported a hard-line approach to negotiating an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, criticizing President Clinton for "appeasing Chairman Arafat" instead of requiring "responsibility and compliance from the Palestinian Authority." The group supported the construction of the controversial Har Homa settlement in East Jerusalem, over Palestinian objections that the project jeopardized the peace process. It also supports continued American military support of Israel, including a recent project to build an anti-ballistic missile system.

On the domestic front, the RJC supports school choice and voucher initiatives as effective tools to curb the "risk of assimilation" for some Jews living in the United States. "By lessening the financial burdens, vouchers would make a Jewish education available to the entire Jewish community," reads one position paper. The group has supported welfare reform, lowering the estate and capital gains taxes, voluntary prayer by student groups in public school, abortion rights, and tougher crime laws, including a California-style "three strikes" law for some federal crimes.

During the presidential campaign, the RJC took out a full-page ad in the New York Times chastising Senator Joseph Lieberman for making ovations to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, whom the group called an "unrepentent promoter of hatred, bigotry, and anti-Semitism."

Fischer is one of eight leaders of the coalition on the Mother Jones 400. Others include Sam Fox (No. 23, $626,700), Lawrence Kadish (No. 38, $532,900), John Price (No. 57, $467,550), Earle I. Mack (No. 125, $298,000), Clifford M. Sobel (No. 294, $192,700), Lewis M. Eisenberg (No. 328, $176,400), and David M. Flaum (No. 367, $162,800).