Miriam "Mimi" Lurie Haas (born 1946) is an American

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

businesswoman. She is the widow of Peter E. Haas, who was the great-grandnephew of

Levi Strauss Levi Strauss (; born Löb Strauß ; February 26, 1829 – September 26, 1902) was a German-born American businessman who founded the first company to manufacture blue jeans. His firm of Levi Strauss & Co. (Levi's) began in 1853 in San Francisco ...

, the founder of denim manufacturer Levi Strauss & Co.

Early life

She was born Miriam Ruchwarger in 1946 in New Jersey, the daughter of Nancy (née Zdenka) and Avram Ruchwarger, Jewish refugees from Yugoslavia. She was raised in

Annapolis, Maryland Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east o ...

and then in the

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

suburbs where her father was a psychiatrist. She attended

Oxon Hill High School Oxon Hill High School (OHHS) is a public senior high school, located in Oxon Hill, an unincorporated area in Prince George's County, Maryland, and a suburb of Washington, D.C. in the United States.Oxon Hill Oxon Hill is an unincorporated area and census-designated place (CDP) in southern Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. Oxon Hill is a suburb of Washington, located southeast of the downtown district and east of Alexandria, Virginia. It ...

, a suburb of Washington, DC, and graduated in the class of 1964. She earned a degree in political science from

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

Career

Haas is president of the Miriam and Peter Haas Fund, since August 1981. In July 2004, Haas was elected as a director of Levi Strauss & Co, succeeding her husband, who stood down as chairman emeritus. Haas is vice chair of the board of trustees and chair of the committee on painting and sculpture of the

New York Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of th ...

, and vice chair of the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

. Haas owns 16.7% of Levi Strauss & Co, making her a billionaire, following the February 2019 plan for the company to be publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Personal life

On June 12, 1968, she married Brian Lurie, who she had met in Israel when on an American Friends of the Hebrew University program. Rabbi Brian Lurie was head of the Jewish Community Federation for many years, and now runs the progressive New Israel Foundation. They had two sons, Ari Lurie and

Daniel Lurie Daniel Lurie (born 1976/1977) is an American philanthropist who is the founder and CEO of Tipping Point Community. Biography Lurie was born and raised in a Jewish family in San Francisco, the son of Mimi (née Ruchwarger) and Rabbi Brian Lurie. H ...

, who runs

Tipping Point Community Tipping Point Community is a grant-making organization aiming to break the cycle of poverty for people in the San Francisco Bay Area whose income level is too low to meet their basic needs. It was founded by Daniel Lurie in 2005. In addition to ...

. She was married to Peter E. Haas (his second marriage) from 1981 until his death in 2005. She lives in San Francisco. In 2010, she bought one of the apartments owned by

Charles R. Schwab Charles Robert Schwab Sr. (born July 29, 1937) is an American investor and financial executive. He is the founder and chairman of the Charles Schwab Corporation. He pioneered discount sales of equity securities starting in 1975. His company be ...

834 Fifth Avenue 834 Fifth Avenue is a luxury residential housing cooperative in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. It is located on Fifth Avenue at the corner of East 64th Street opposite the Central Park Zoo. The limestone-clad building was des ...

, New York, for $12.5 million.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haas, Mimi Living people 1946 births American billionaires 20th-century American Jews Female billionaires Haas family People from Oxon Hill, Maryland 21st-century American Jews