David Samuel Gottesman (February 22, 1884 – April 21, 1956) was a Hungarian-born, American pulp-paper merchant, financier and philanthropist. He was generally known as Samuel Gottesman or D. Samuel Gottesman.
Biography
He was born to a Jewish family on February 22, 1884, to Mendel Gottesman and Sarah Fischgrund in
Munkacs
Mukachevo ( uk, Мукачево, ; hu, Munkács; see name section) is a city in the valley of the Latorica river in Zakarpattia Oblast (province), in Western Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of Mukachevo Raion (district), the city ...
, in
Bereg County
Bereg ( rue, Береґ; ) was an administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is now mostly in western Ukraine and a smaller part in northeastern Hungary. The capital of the county was Beregszász ("Berehove" in U ...
, Hungary, (present-day
Zakarpattia Oblast
The Zakarpattia Oblast ( uk, Закарпатська область, Zakarpatska oblast) is an administrative oblast located in western Ukraine, mostly coterminous with the historical region of Carpathian Ruthenia. Its administrative centre is ...
, Ukraine). In 1885, Gottesman emigrated to the United States and later joined his father's paper-making business,
M. Gottesman & Company.
Samuel Gottesman died on April 21, 1956.
Banking
He was also a successful banker, organizing the Central National Bank in New York City. Today, through a series of mergers, the bank became amalgamated into
JPMorgan Chase & Co. Further, he became the director of the Eastern Corporation and of Rayonier Inc.
Philanthropy
Gottesman became well known for his generous philanthropy. His monetary gifts extended to the
New York Public Library and numerous Jewish organizations and institutions, including the D. Samuel Gottesman Library at
Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University is a private Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City.["About YU]
on the Yeshiva Universi ...
,
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a research-intensive medical school located in the Morris Park neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City. Founded in 1953, Einstein operates as an independent degree-granting institution as part of t ...
, in New York City.
One of his highest-profile gifts was the donation of the
Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls (also the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the ...
to the State of Israel, where they are housed in the
Shrine of the Book
The Shrine of the Book ( he, היכל הספר, ''Heikhal HaSefer'') is a wing of the Israel Museum in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem that houses the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Aleppo Codex, among others.
History
The building was construc ...
. His sister-in-law,
Esther G. Gottesman
Esther G. Gottesman (née Garfunkel; 1898 - October 1, 1997) was an American philanthropist and Zionist.
Early life and education
Gottesman was the daughter of Aaron and Sarah Garfunkel. Her father was a founder of the Federation of Jewish Philan ...
, perceived the importance of the scrolls and encouraged him to purchase and donate them to Israel.
The shrine, located adjacent to the
Israel Museum in western
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
, was funded by a foundation established by Gottesman's children as a memorial to their father.
Family
Samuel Gottesman was the uncle of billionaire
David Gottesman, the grandfather of sports psychologist
Steven Ungerleider, and the great grandfather of physician and film producer,
Shoshana R. Ungerleider.
His wife, Jeane Herskovits Gottesman, died of cancer in 1942 at age 49, a year after his granddaughter Jenifer was born. She likewise died of cancer, in 1991.
His daughter, Celeste Ruth Gottesman (1913–2013), was a wealthy modern-art collector and museum and library benefactor who resided in New York City. Her first husband was Jerome John Altman, whom she divorced in 1935 and then married American architect and philanthropist
Armand Phillip Bartos. Celeste also established the Pinewood Foundation in 1958, named after her father's estate in
Lawrence
Lawrence may refer to:
Education Colleges and universities
* Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States
* Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States
Preparator ...
,
Long Island, New York.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gottesman, Samuel
1884 births
1956 deaths
People from Mukachevo
Ukrainian Jews
Austro-Hungarian emigrants to the United States
American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
Jewish American bankers
20th-century American philanthropists
Gottesman family