Haas was born to a Jewish family in Reckendorf, Bavaria in 1847 and immigrated to the United States in 1864 settling in Los Angeles where he co-founded the retail drug and grocery store, Hellman, Hass and Company with his brother, Jacob, and partners, Herman W. Hellman and Bernard Cohn.
Using his profits, he founded the first flour milling and cold storage businesses in Los Angeles, the Capital Milling Company, as well as several electricity and gas companies. became one of the leading philanthropists in the city at the time. He moved to San Francisco in 1900 where he founded Wholesale Grocers and also served as a director for Wells Fargo Bank, the San Francisco Savings & Loan Company, the California Insurance League, and the Union Sugar Company. was a benefactor of the Eureka Benevolent Society (later the Jewish Family Service), the Federation of Jewish Charities, and the Pacific Orphans’ Asylum and Home Society.
