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 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.
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.
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, 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.
A strategic investor during its nascent stages, Wolfson is considered to be a pioneer of the hedge fund 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 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 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, 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.