Max Stern (businessman)

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Max Stern (1898 – May 21, 1982)^[1] was an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist who established and built the Hartz Mountain Corporation.

He was born to a Jewish family in Fulda, Hesse, Germany, to parents Emanuel and Caroline Stern. He emigrated to the United States in 1926 fleeing the religious prejudice that he experienced in Germany.^[1]

Stern founded the Hartz Mountain Corporation, a large pet products manufacturer and real estate development company.^[1] Stern was also the leader of Yeshiva University for 41 years.^[1]

Stern was twice-married:

• His first wife was Hilda Lowenthal (born 1922 in Eschwege, Germany) who emigrated to New York in 1935. The couple had three children: Stanley, Leonard, and Gloria. All were reared in the Jewish tradition.^[2]
• In 1950, he married Ghity Lindenbaum (née Amiel). They remained married until Max's death in 1982. Ghity was born into a Jewish family in Lithuania where she married her first husband, Nathan Lindenbaum in 1928. They had four children: Marcel, Maidy, Henry, and Armand. In 1940, fleeing Nazi Germany, the family emigrated to the United States settling in New York City. Nathan died in 1946. Her father, Moshe Avigdor Amiel, was chief rabbi in Antwerp, Belgium, and later became the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv.^[3]

As a leading Jewish philanthropist, he helped many charitable organizations both in the U.S. and Israel.

Stern founded the Stern College for Women — the undergraduate women's college of arts and sciences of Yeshiva University, located in New York City, New York, which is associated with Modern Orthodox Judaism — with a major grant, in honor of his late parents Emanuel and Caroline Stern.

The Max Stern Academic College of Emek Yezreel, located in Jezreel Valley, Israel, is named after him.

Stern was a communal lay leader.

He died in 1982, age 83 or 84, leaving his son, Leonard N. Stern, to carry on the family business. He is interred in the Sharon Gardens Division of Kensico Cemetery.