Jack D. Weiler (1904–1995) was an American real estate developer and philanthropist.

Biography

Weiler was born to a poor

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family in Svyatsk, Russian Empire, the seventh of ten children. His father, Faivel, was a

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

and

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

ic scholar. In 1910, the family moved to the United States and settled in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

and then the

Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

where his father taught

yeshiva A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The stu ...

students. During high school, Weiler worked odd jobs and was forced to leave college due to lack of funds and accept a job as a stenographer in a real estate office. He eventually became a broker where he learned all aspects of the real estate business and in 1936, he partnered with Benjamin Swig (father of Melvin Swig) of Boston and founded a real estate company then named Swig & Weiler. Weiler managed the firm's New York office while Swig ran the West Coast business out of

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. They grew the business nationally including over 5 million square feet in New York City and 1.5 million square feet in California; properties owned included the Metropolitan Opera House (which they demolished to build 1411 Broadway at 39th Street); the

W. R. Grace Building The W. R. Grace Building is a skyscraper in Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed principally by Gordon Bunshaft, and completed in 1972. The building was commissioned by the W.R. Grace Company, and was also used by the Deloitte & ...

; 1065 Avenue of the Americas; and 711 Third Avenue at 44th Street.

Philanthropy

Weiler is also known for his charitable activities stating "Philanthropy comes first, ahead of my business". In 1964, he received the Israel Bond Organization’s first Herbert H. Lehman Israel Award. Weiler was a leader in the

United Jewish Appeal The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), formerly the United Jewish Communities (UJC), is an American Jewish umbrella organization for the Jewish Federations system, representing over 350 independent Jewish communities across North Ameri ...

, Israel Bonds and the American Joint Distribution Committee. He served as the chairman of the board of overseers for the

Albert Einstein College of Medicine The Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a Private university, private medical school in New York City. Founded in 1953, Einstein is an independent degree-granting institution within the Montefiore Einstein Health System. Einstein hosts Doc ...

Yeshiva University Yeshiva University is a Private university, private Modern Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City.

, and in 1985, Einstein Hospital in the Bronx was renamed the Jack D. Weiler Hospital. In 1995, a new community of 5,000 residents just south of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

was renamed ''Kiryat Jack Weiler'' in his honor. He served as chairman of the Housing Committee of the

Jewish Agency for Israel The Jewish Agency for Israel (), formerly known as the Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. It was established in 1929 as the operative branch of the World Zionist Organization (WZO). As an ...

which brought 50,000 diaspora Jews to Israel. The architecture school of the

Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design () is a public college of design and art located in Jerusalem. Established in 1906 by Jewish painter and sculptor Boris Schatz, Bezalel is Israel's oldest institution of higher education and is considered the ...

in Jerusalem was renamed the Jack D. Weiler College of Architecture; he funded the Weiler-Arnow Medical Education Building at

Ben Gurion University Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) (, ''Universitat Ben-Guriyon baNegev'') is a public research university in Beersheba, Israel. Named after Israeli national founder David Ben-Gurion, the university was founded in 1969 and currently has f ...

of the Negev; and the

Jerusalem College of Technology The Jerusalem College of Technology - Lev Academic Center (JCT; ) is a private college in Israel, recognized by the Council for Higher Education, which specializes in providing high-level science and technology education to the Jewish community. ...

named its

in honor of his father. Weiler served as the national treasurer and president of the Century Club of the State of Israel Bonds Organization; former president and chairman of the board of directors of Bronx-Lebanon Hospital; a member of the board of the

Montefiore Medical Center Montefiore Einstein Medical Center is an academic medical center that is the primary teaching hospital of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York City. Its main campus, the Henry and Lucy Moses Division, is in the Norwo ...

; a member of the board of the

Jewish Theological Seminary of America The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) is a Conservative Jewish education organization in New York City, New York. It is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism as well as a hub for academic scholarship in Jewish studies ...

; president of the Realty Foundation of Greater New York; and president of the

UJA-Federation of New York UJA-Federation of New York ( United Jewish Appeal⁣ – ⁣ Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, Inc.) is the largest local philanthropy in the world. Headquartered in New York City, the organization raises and allocates funds annual ...

. Weiler stated "I tell them that you can't take it with you, that once you're stretched out in a box, your hands are always open, not closed." In 1947, he was named an honorary alumnus of

Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...

, he was the first New Yorker and the third individual in the United States to receive this honor.

Personal life

In 1927, he married Doris Person; they had two children: Alan Weiler and Joan Weiler Arnow who was married to real estate developer Robert H. Arnow.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weiler, Jack D. American businesspeople in real estate American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent 1904 births 1995 deaths 20th-century American philanthropists 20th-century American Jews Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States