William Rosenwald was an American businessman and philanthropist whose American Securities Corporation invested in other business including AMETEK and Western Union International.
Background
His father was Julius Rosenwald, the former chairman of Sears, Roebuck and Company and a leading philanthropist whose Rosenwald Fund built 5,000 schools for black children in the South a few decades after the Civil War. William Rosenwald was born in Wilmette, Illinois in 1903 to Julius Rosenwald and the former Augusta Nusbaum.
Education
Bachelor of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1924. Student, Harvard College, 1925. Student, London School of Economics and Political Science, 1927.
Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary), Hebrew Union College, 1944. Doctor of Laws (honorary), Tuskegee Institute, 1964.
Career
He was a philanthropist who helped establish the nationwide United Jewish Appeal in 1939 and made other charitable grants through the William Rosenwald Family Fund. He was employed by Sears, Roebuck starting in 1928, and was a director of the firm from 1934 to 1938. He organized a family effort in the mid-1930s to provide assistance to relatives in Europe affected by the rise of Nazi Germany.
By 1948 over 300 individuals had been brought to the United States and provided with work and places to live.
An additional 300 family members in Europe were also provided foreign Kurtz died in 1985. In January 1939, Rosenwald"s National Coordinating Committee Fund joined with Rabbi Jonah Wise of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver of the United Palestine Appeal, to form the United Jewish Appeal for Refugees and Overseas Needs.
The founders emphasized that the funds needed to support Jews in Europe and Palestine would be triple to quadruple the amount raised in the previous year. While the organizations would raise funds together, the Joint Distribution Committee would assist Jews in Europe, the United Palestine Appeal would aid the Jewish community in Palestine, including refugees from Europe arriving there and the National Coordinating Committee Fund would assist refugees arriving in the United States.
From 1942 to 1946, Rosenwald was one of the United Jewish Appeal"s three national chairmen, leading the first campaign to raise more than $100 million, and led campaigns again from 1955 to 1957.
In 1974, Rosenwald oversaw the merger of the joint campaign between United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York and the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and was named as the first president of the combined campaign. This joint fundraising campaign by the two philanthropic organizations was the first step in the complete merger of the organizations in 1986. He served on the executive committee of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee for five decades and was an active leader of the American Jewish Committee and the Council of Jewish Federations, among many other organizations.
Rosenwald died at age 93 on October 31, 1996 at his apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Achievements
Membership
Honorary vice president American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Inc. Honorary president United Jewish Appeal-Federation Jewish Philanthropies New York Inc. Life trustee, honorary national chairman United Jewish Appeal, Inc.
Life member board directors Council Jewish Federations. Honorary vice president American Jewish Committee. Life member, vice president Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.
Honorary trustee Tuskegee University. Honorary life trustee Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago. General chairman national United Jewish Appeal, 1954, 55, 56 Campaigns.