Cyril Stein (; 20 February 1928 - 15 February 2011) was an English

bookmaker A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays out bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds In probability theory, odds provide a measure of the probability of a particular outco ...

, businessman and finally

philanthropic Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

supporter of many Jewish causes and charities who first bought

Ladbrokes Ladbrokes Coral is a British gambling company. Its product offering includes sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. The Ladbrokes portion of the group was established in 1886, and Coral in 1926. In November 2016, th ...

in 1956, then floated it in 1967 and finally left it in 1993.''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' (London), obituary Thursday February 17, 2011The Jewish Chronicle
February 17, 2011

Biography

Born in the East End of London into a family of immigrants from Russia. His father, known as “Honest Jack”, worked for the London and Provincial Sporting News Agency, which relayed information between off-course bookmakers and racecourses. Cyril Stein was educated at West Ham Grammar School. Stein did his best to shun publicity and said one of his main concerns was to keep his family out of the limelight. He married Betty Young in 1949. He was survived by his wife sons Jonathan and Daniel and daughter Marion, and several grandchildren. An Orthodox Jew, he was never seen at a racetrack on a Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, and was frequently seen in public wearing a knitted

kippah A (plural: ''kippot''), , or is a brimless Jewish cap, skullcap, usually made of cloth, traditionally worn by Jewish men to fulfill the customary requirement that the Head covering, head be covered. It is the most common type of head-coverin ...

. He used his money and influence to try to keep the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, including

East Jerusalem East Jerusalem (, ; , ) is the portion of Jerusalem that was Jordanian annexation of the West Bank, held by Jordan after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel. Captured and occupied in 1967, th ...

, in Israeli hands. In the 1980's he won a $250 million tender, via Ladbrokes, to redevelop the Mamilla neighbourhood in Jerusalem. As a committed Zionist throughout his life, Stein spent much of his latter years in Israel. Stein was a major funder of the

Labour Friends of Israel Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) is a group in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that advocates a strong bilateral relationship between the United Kingdom and Israel, and seeks to strengthen ties between the British Labour Party (UK), Labour ...

along with

Trevor Chinn Sir Trevor Edwin Chinn (born 24 July 1935) is a British businessman, philanthropist, and political activist. He is a Labour Party supporter and donor as well as active in Jewish and pro-Israel causes. Career Chinn was educated at Clifton Coll ...

Business career

Stein ran his own small credit-betting office in the

West End of London The West End of London (commonly referred to as the West End) is a district of Central London, Central London, England, in the London Borough of Camden, London Boroughs of Camden and the City of Westminster. It is west of the City of London an ...

when (aged 28) he teamed up in 1956 with his bookmaker uncle Mark, who traded as Max Parker, to buy the venerable but failing bookmaking firm of

, founded in 1886, for a reported £100,000. Appointed chairman of

in 1966 and some 12 months before the company was successfully floated on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

with an initial market capitalization of £1-million. Cyril Stein remained chairman until stepping down at the end of 1993 (aged 65) by which time the company was valued in excess of £2-billion.

Philanthropy

He was: * Vice-president of United Joint Israel Appeal (UJIA) * Supporter of the

Jewish National Fund The Jewish National Fund (JNF; , ''Keren Kayemet LeYisrael''; previously , ''Ha Fund HaLeumi'') is a non-profit organizationProfessor Alon Tal, The Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, The Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben Gurion ...

(JNF), including ** Chair of the JNF Negev redevelopment project * Trustee of the Jewish Education Development Trust * Trustee and chairman of the Governors of Carmel College, Wallingford, Oxfordshire (UK)

References

External links

Obituary in The Telegraph

Obituary in The Guardian

Obituary in The Scotsman

The Ladbrokes Story
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stein, Cyril 1928 births 2011 deaths British bookmakers English Orthodox Jews Labour Friends of Israel People in greyhound racing British Zionists English people of Russian-Jewish descent British emigrants to Israel Jewish British philanthropists Businesspeople from London 20th-century English philanthropists 20th-century English businesspeople