Zev Wolfson

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.

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, 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.

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.

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 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, compared his humble nature to that of Moses, "who just wanted to be judged by his actions". In 1980, in the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Wolfson was conferred with an honorary doctorate by the Jerusalem College of Technology, a school he helped found with Professor Ze'ev Lev in the late 60's. It is not known whether he attended the event.

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, one of Lower Manhattan's architectural gems. In the 1970's he started to leverage his assets to invest in hedge funds and private equity. 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, Julian Robertson and Michael Steinhardt as well as funds such as KKR, Apollo Global Management and The Blackstone Group.

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 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 May 1947 they immigrated to New York City, 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. As a young man seeking to make a difference in his new country, Wolfson attached himself to the great Torah sage Rabbi Aharon Kotler, working at his side to help build and sustain important Jewish causes such as Chinuch Atzmai and Torah Umesorah.

Besides lifelong friends like Senator's Inouye, Lott, Dole and Biden, Wolfson worked closely with many important US Senators and Congressman including Otto Passman, the Louisiana congressman from 1947-1977 who chaired the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Aid, Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, Indiana Senator Homer E Capehart, Wisconsin Senator Robert Kasten and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

Born to a Jewish family in Vilnius (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. 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 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 in Germany where they obtained visas to America.

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.