Background
He was born in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1925, on December 11.
He was born in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1925, on December 11.
Yeshiva University.
When the Malden Mills factory burnt down on December 11, 1995, Feuerstein used his insurance money to rebuild it, and to pay the salaries of all the now-unemployed workers while it was being rebuilt. Feuerstein spent millions keeping all 3,000 employees on the payroll with full benefits for 6 months. Feuerstein said that he could not have taken another course of action due to his study of the Talmud and the lessons he learnt there:
I have a responsibility to the worker, both blue-collar and white-collar.
I have an equal responsibility to the community.
lieutenant would have been unconscionable to put 3,000 people on the streets and deliver a deathblow to the cities of Lawrence and Methuen. Maybe on paper our company is worthless to Wall Street, but I can tell you it"s worth more.
This cost Feuerstein $25,000,000, his Chief Executive Officer position, and a November 2001 filing of chapter 11 bankruptcy. Malden Mills later garnered some lucrative Department of Defense (Department Of Defense) contracts for "smart" products that interweave fiber optic cabling, electronic biosensors, and USB ports into polar fleece fabric.
Malden Mills was awarded a $16 million Department Of Defense contract in 2006.
In January 2007, however, Malden Mills filed for bankruptcy again and ended production in July. The company"s underfunded (by 49%) pension was abandoned due to sale of corporate assets. Feuerstein is an alumnus of Camp Modin in Belgrade, Maine, and was the keynote speaker at the 75th annual reunion in 1997.
Feuerstein is a member of Young Israel of Brookline.