Jack Benaroya

An endowned chair in Israel Studies had been created in his and his wife’s name at the University of Washington, Seattle. In February 2022, it was reported that the endownment was pulled back after the holder of the endowned chair, Prof. Liora Halperin made statements that the Benaroya family disagreed with. UW returning the donation was widely criticized as a dangerous precedent for donor intervention in academia. https://mesana.org/advocacy/committee-on-academic-freedom/2022/02/28/letter-to-the-president-of-the-university-of-washington

Benaroya was married to his wife Rebecca for over seventy years. They had three children: Donna Benaroya, Alan Benaroya, and Larry Benaroya. In the years before his death, Benaroya was slowed by Parkinson's disease. He died on May 11, 2012.

He funded the Benaroya Hall, facility for the Seattle Symphony which opened in 1998; and the Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle which opened in 1999.

In 1956, Benaroya established the Benaroya Company which would become the largest commercial real estate developer in the state of Washington. In 1984, he sold his real estate portfolio for $315 million shifting the focus of the company to venture capital.

Jack A. Benaroya (July 11, 1921 – May 11, 2012) was a pioneering real estate developer who built what became the Northwest’s largest privately-held commercial real-estate empire which he sold in 1984 for $315 million.