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Zev Wolfson (September 27, 1928 – August 13, 2012) was a Jewish businessman and philanthropist, who has been remembered as one of the most important figures in American Orthodoxy over the past century.


Background

Born to a
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
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(then Poland) as Wolf Wolfowski, he became a war refugee at the age of 13 when his family was exiled by Russian forces in the days before the German occupation of Lithuania in June 1941. He spent the remainder of the war years in Siberia and
Dzhambul Taraz ( ; also historically known as Talas) is a city and the administrative center of Jambyl Region in Kazakhstan, located on the Talas (Taraz) River in the south of the country near the border with Kyrgyzstan. It had a population of 330,100 a ...
. At 16, he carried his father's dead body over his shoulder to bury him in the frozen tundra, and took responsibility for the support of his mother and younger brother. He began trading on the
black market A black market is a Secrecy, clandestine Market (economics), market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality, or is not compliant with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the set of goods and services who ...
in order to obtain food and goods for survival. Following the end of the war, they left Russia, reaching Lodz, Poland and eventually a
DP Camp DP may refer to: In arts and entertainment Film, television, and theatre * ''Danny Phantom'', an animated television series * David Production, a Japanese animation studio * Director of photography, a job in filmmaking * Digital Playground, an ...
in Germany where they obtained visas to America. In May 1947 they immigrated to
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, where Zev worked for his uncle Mendel Aviv in the electronics business. Eventually, he went off on his own and saw instant success selling refurbished television tubes to customers in
South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...
. As a young man seeking to make a difference in his new country, Wolfson attached himself to the Torah sage Rabbi Aharon Kotler, working at his side to help build and sustain important Jewish causes such as
Chinuch Atzmai Jewish education (, ''Chinuch'') is the transmission of the tenets, principles, and religious laws of Judaism. Jews value education, and the value of education is strongly embedded in Jewish culture. Judaism places a heavy emphasis on Torah s ...
and
Torah Umesorah The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () o ...
.


Business career

Wolfson started developing real estate in the 1960s, eventually building skyscrapers in Manhattan's financial district. His first major project was One State Street Plaza, a 33 story, Class A skyscraper located at the southern tip of Manhattan. It was completed in 1969 and renovated in 1995. In 1979, he acquired the iconic
Cunard Building The Cunard Building is a Grade II* listed building in Liverpool, England. It is located at the Pier Head and along with the neighbouring Royal Liver Building and Port of Liverpool Building is one of Liverpool's ''Three Graces'', which line the ...
, one of Lower Manhattan's architectural gems. In the 1970's he started to leverage his assets to invest in
hedge fund A hedge fund is a Pooling (resource management), pooled investment fund that holds Market liquidity, liquid assets and that makes use of complex trader (finance), trading and risk management techniques to aim to improve investment performance and ...
s and
private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...
. During the following years his wealth grew rapidly, eventually cycling hundreds of millions of dollars. Some of those he invested with in his early days include legendary financiers
Carl Icahn Carl Celian Icahn (; born February 16, 1936) is an American businessman and investor. He is the founder and controlling shareholder of Icahn Enterprises, a public company and diversified conglomerate holding company based in Sunny Isles Beach, ...
,
Julian Robertson Julian Hart Robertson Jr. (June 25, 1932 – August 23, 2022) was an American hedge fund manager, and philanthropist. Robertson founded Tiger Management, one of the first hedge funds, in 1980. From its inception in 1980 to its 1998 asset pe ...
and
Michael Steinhardt Michael H. Steinhardt (born December 7, 1940) is an American billionaire Hedge fund, hedge fund manager, philanthropist, and former antiquities collector. In 1967, he founded a hedge fund, Steinhardt Partners which he ran until he closed it in 19 ...
as well as funds such as
KKR KKR may refer to: * KKR & Co., a global investment firm *Kolkata Knight Riders, an Indian Premier League franchise * Rheinsberg Nuclear Power Plant (), first nuclear power plant in the former East Germany * Kalkara, Malta, postal code KKR *Kir-Bala ...
,
Apollo Global Management Apollo Global Management, Inc. is an American asset management firm that primarily invests in alternative assets. , the company had $548 billion of assets under management, including $392 billion invested in credit, including mezzanine capita ...
and
The Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. It was founded in 1985 as a mergers and acquisitions firm by Peter G. Peterson, Peter Peterson and Stephen A. Schwarzman, Stephen Schwarzman, who h ...
. A strategic investor during its nascent stages, Wolfson is considered to be a pioneer of the
hedge fund A hedge fund is a Pooling (resource management), pooled investment fund that holds Market liquidity, liquid assets and that makes use of complex trader (finance), trading and risk management techniques to aim to improve investment performance and ...
industry. Wolfson is said to be one of the first Americans to utilize such strategies to grow his wealth in such fashion, and under the leadership of his children, his
family office A family office is a privately held company that handles investment management and wealth management for a wealthy family, generally one with at least $50–100 million in investable assets, with the goal being to effectively grow and transfer ...
is said to continue to employ similar investment strategies today. Upon being introduced to Mr. Wolfson for the first time, the chairman of
Merrill Lynch Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, doing business as Merrill, and previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investm ...
asked him how he had acquired his wealth. "God gave it to me," Zev replied, without hesitation. He felt no need to expand. He not only believed that God had given him his wealth, but that the money belonged to God, and was only entrusted to him as long as he used it for God's purposes. In the midst of the most intense business negotiations, he almost never failed to take a call regarding one of his projects or from a family member. Into his 70s, he still flew economy class. He would not permit the money with which he had been blessed to become a source of honor. Where other large donors condition their gifts on having buildings named after them, Zev always insisted on the opposite condition – that his name not be linked to whatever cause he was supporting.


Relationship with Israel and politics

In 1985, at a time of hyperinflation in Israel, Wolfson saved Israel hundreds of millions in interest payments by shepherding through Congress an appropriations bill that permitted Israel to refinance existing loans at much lower interest rates by prepaying the existing loans with the benefit of US loan guarantees. In 1989, when Israel was in desperate need of money to absorb hundreds of thousands of refugees from the former Soviet Union (FSU), Wolfson played a major role in securing $10 billion in US government loan guarantees. Nor were his efforts on behalf of Israel limited to the economic sphere. In 1968, Israel's ambassador to the United States,
Yitzchak Rabin Yitzhak Rabin (; , ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the prime minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–1977, and from 1992 until his assassination in 1995. Rabin was ...
, was eager to have language written into the foreign aid bill favoring the sale of Phantom jets to Israel. He turned to Zev to use his connections on Capitol Hill, and it was done. The two men became close friends. A senior Israeli finance ministry official once noted that, "when the economic history of the State of Israel is written, Wolfson will be one of the three crucial figures in its first half century, after only
David Ben-Gurion David Ben-Gurion ( ; ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary List of national founders, national founder and first Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister of the State of Israel. As head of the Jewish Agency ...
and
Pinchas Sapir Pinchas Sapir (; born Pinchas Kozlowski 15 October 1906 – 12 August 1975) was an Israeli politician during the first three decades following the country's founding. He held two important ministerial posts, Minister of Finance (1963–68 and ...
", (the long-time finance minister with whom Wolfson worked closely). Working with leading figures in Congress, most prominently Senator
Daniel Inouye Daniel Ken Inouye ( , , September 7, 1924 – December 17, 2012) was an American attorney, soldier, and statesman who served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Hawaii from 1963 until his death in 2012. A Medal of Honor recipi ...
of Hawaii and Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware he succeeded in having inserted into foreign aid appropriation bills, on several occasions, provisions altering the repayment terms on US governmental loans to Israel, or having the loans changed to grants. The resulting savings to Israel totaled billions of dollars. The vast majority of these lobbying efforts were at Wolfson's individual initiative, based on his keen understanding of where the levers of power in Congress lay – an understanding fostered, in part, by frequent reading of the
Congressional Record The ''Congressional Record'' is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress, published by the United States Government Publishing Office and issued when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record Ind ...
. Former senate majority leader
Trent Lott Chester Trent Lott Sr. (born October 9, 1941) is an American lobbyist, lawyer, author, and politician who represented Mississippi in the United States House of Representatives from 1973 to 1989 and in the United States Senate from 1989 to 2007. ...
attributed much of his influence in Congress to the fact that he never sought anything for himself. And although Wolfson's DC lobbying efforts took place under the radar, their impact was well known to senior officials in Jerusalem. For approximately two decades, a special section of the annual defense allocations in the Israeli budget was known as Se'if Wolfson. The monies in that section were directed to projects determined by Wolfson. He persuaded French president
Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, ; ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and 1986 to 1988, as well as Mayor of Pari ...
, for instance, to supply land for Otzar HaTorah schools, which primarily served immigrants from North Africa, and then paid for the building with monies from the Israeli government. Similarly, he obtained millions of dollars via the
Israeli government The Israeli system of government is based on parliamentary democracy. The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of government and leader of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government (also known as the cabinet). Legislat ...
for
Jewish education Jewish education (, ''Chinuch'') is the transmission of the tenets, principles, and religious laws of Judaism. Jews value education, and the value of education is strongly embedded in Jewish culture. Judaism places a heavy emphasis on Torah ...
in the FSU. In the 1960s and '70s, Wolfson obtained US government funding to build dozens of institutions in Israel, under a provision for schools and hospitals abroad from the
USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an agency of the United States government that has been responsible for administering civilian United States foreign aid, foreign aid and development assistance. Established in 19 ...
budget. Most of those institutions served children of Jewish refugees from Arab lands, a group extremely close to his heart. Once the schools and residential educational centers were built, he was often able to secure further funding from the Israeli government. All these efforts to obtain government funding were the product of his early insight that governments can provide funding at a level far beyond that possible through private philanthropy. In lauding Wolfson's accomplishments in the political sphere, former
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (CoP; commonly Presidents' Conference) is the umbrella organization for the American Jewish community. Comprising 53 national Jewish organizations across the political spectrum, ...
CEO
Malcolm Hoenlein Malcolm Hoenlein was the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations from June 1986 until 2019. He was succeeded by William Daroff. He is the founding executive director of the Greater New Yo ...
, "He was the pioneer, the one responsible for initiating much of the political outreach that we he American Jewish communitytake for granted today". Besides lifelong friends like Senator's Inouye, Lott, Dole and Biden, Wolfson worked closely with many important US Senators and Congressman including
Otto Passman Otto Ernest Passman (June 27, 1900 – August 13, 1988) was an American politician who served in the United States House of Representatives for Louisiana's 5th congressional district from 1947 until 1977. As a congressman, Passman chaired the Ho ...
, the Louisiana congressman from 1947–1977 who chaired the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Aid, Massachusetts Senator
Ted Kennedy Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts who served as a member of the United States Senate from 1962 to his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic Party and ...
, Indiana Senator Homer E Capehart, Wisconsin Senator
Robert Kasten Robert Walter Kasten Jr. (born June 19, 1942) is an American Republican politician from the state of Wisconsin who served as a U.S. Representative from 1975 to 1979 and as a United States Senator from 1981 to 1993. Background Kasten was born i ...
and House Majority Leader
Eric Cantor Eric Ivan Cantor (born June 6, 1963) is an American lawyer and former politician who represented Virginia's 7th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2014. A Republican, Cantor served as House Mino ...
.


Philanthropy

By the late 1980's however, Wolfson found his ability to fund his projects via either the Israeli or American governments greatly circumscribed. At that point, Wolfson began giving from his personal fortune on a scale perhaps unprecedented in Jewish history. Wolfson had clearly defined goals. His focus was Jewish education and outreach. His activities spanned the globe and he was constantly on the lookout for talented individuals who could make a difference. He was attracted to those who thought big, and often complained that there were not enough high-impact projects for the money he wanted to give. Rabbi Moshe Shapiro, Rabbi Asher Weiss, Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Grossman, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Rabbi Yaakov Hillel, Rabbi Shlomo Raanan and Rabbi David Refson were all greatly boosted by his support and ideas. One beneficiary of his work wrote regarding Wolfson's audacious ability to think big: "He was uninterested in funding something for a few thousand dollars. He wanted something earth-shattering for a few million." He added that he once approached Wolfson for help with opening a niche
Jewish Day School A Jewish day school is a modern Jewish educational institution that is designed to provide children of Jews, Jewish parents with both a Jewish and a secular education in one school on a full-time basis. The term "day school" is used to differentiat ...
and was immediately yelled at, "Why one? Why not ten or twenty? You do ten or twenty and I will pay for them!" Beyond Rabbi Aharon Kotler and his son Rabbi Shneur Kotler, Wolfson maintained a close relationship with other important rabbis such as Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, Rabbi Aharon Leib Steinman, Rabbi Joseph B Soloveitchik, Rabbi Herman Neuberger, Rabbi
Dovid Cohen David is a common masculine given name of Hebrew origin. Its popularity derives from the initial oral tradition (Oral Torah) and recorded use related to King David, a central figure in the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, and foundational to Judaism, and ...
Rabbi Avraham Pam and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Wolfson regularly initiated partnerships with other legendary Jewish philanthropists in order to maximise his reach. The Canadian
Reichmann Reichmann, Reichman (, ) is a German and Yiddish surname. The name means that somebody is a very wealthy (rich) man; (reich = rich and mann = man) in German. Notable people Notable people with the surname include: * Adva Reichman, Israeli write ...
family and Brazilian businessman Elie Horn worked with Wolfson to fund Jewish outreach and education around the world. Wolfson was famous for not accepting recognition for his largess and did not allow his name to be displayed on buildings or even smaller plaques. The notable exception to that is the
Hebron Yeshiva Hebron Yeshiva, also known as ''Yeshivas Hevron'', or Knesses Yisroel, is a yeshiva (school for Talmudic study). It originated in 1924 when the Rosh yeshiva, roshei yeshiva (deans) and 150 students of the Yeshivas Knesses Yisrael (Slabodka), Slabo ...
in Jerusalem, where the building carries his name. Some have speculated that his lifelong personal relationship with the Hebroni family is the reason he allowed for an exception. In paying tribute to Wolfson, US Senator
Joseph Lieberman Joseph Isadore Lieberman (; February 24, 1942 – March 27, 2024) was an American politician and lawyer who served as a United States senator from Connecticut from 1989 to 2013. Originally a member of the Democratic Party, he was its nomine ...
, compared his humble nature to that of
Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...
, "who just wanted to be judged by his actions". In 1980, in the presence of Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin Menachem Begin ( ''Menaḥem Begin'', ; (Polish documents, 1931–1937); ; 16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992) was an Israeli politician, founder of both Herut and Likud and the prime minister of Israel. Before the creation of the state of Isra ...
, Wolfson was conferred with an honorary doctorate by 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. ...
, a school he helped found with Professor Ze'ev Lev in the late 60's. It is not known whether he attended the event.


Personal life

After WWII, Wolfson's mother Rachel remarried famed yiddish writer and poet Aaron Zeitlin. His wife Nadine is herself a prolific philanthropist and the founder of Shalom Task Force as well as other important Jewish endeavors. Wolfson had 10 children, who still continue his business and charitable work from a NYC skyscraper that he built. His eldest son, Rabbi Avrohom (Abraham) Wolfson was a noted philanthropist and Torah scholar who died in December 2020 at the age of 64, a few months after suffering a heart attack from which he never recovered. Avrohom was remembered as a man of exceptional character whose wealth meant little to him as he eschewed materialism. At his funeral, Rabbi Elya Ber Wachtfogel called him a "one in a generation figure" and someone who possessed a "holy tongue." Other speakers spoke of how he was always careful not to speak Lashon Horah and took great care of many orphans and widows with a personal touch. He is buried at the Har Hamenuchot cemetery in Jerusalem. His son Aaron is the president of The Wolfson Group and is active in many of the family's charitable endeavors, including Olami, which was founded by his father and Elie Horn in 2001 to perpetuate Jewish identity and continuity on college campuses around the world. His son Morris Wolfson is the founder of Ness Technologies, and invests in public and private companies. His youngest son, Daniel Wolfson is an active investor in technology companies. His stepson, Rabbi David Fohrman, is a noted author, lecturer and the CEO & the Founder of Aleph Beta.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfson, Zev Jews and Judaism in Manhattan American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent 1928 births 2012 deaths American businesspeople in real estate 20th-century American philanthropists 21st-century American Jews