Philip Nettre Lilienthal (1850–1908) was an American banker and philanthropist. He served as a director of the California Title Insurance & Trust Company of San Francisco, the San Francisco Free Library, Union Iron Works, and was President of the Philharmonic Society. He co-founded the Russian Jewish Alliance with Rabbi Jacob Voorsanger which assisted Jews who had fled Russia for the United States.

Biography

Philip Nettre Lilienthal was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

in 1850, the son of Babette "Pepi" Nettre (born 1821) and

Max Lilienthal Max Lilienthal (November 6, 1815 – April 6, 1882) was a German-born adviser for the reform of Jewish schools in Russia and later a rabbi and proponent of Reform Judaism in the United States. Life and religion Work for Russian Government Lilie ...

, a leading Rabbi in

Reform Judaism Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its ethical aspects to its ceremonial ones, and belief in a continuous sear ...

. He was raised in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. At the age of 14, he worked for Stix, Krause & Co. and at the age of 17, moved to

where he worked for James and

Joseph Seligman Joseph Seligman (November 22, 1819 – April 25, 1880) was an American banker and businessman who founded J. & W. Seligman & Co. He was the patriarch of what became known as the Seligman family in USA and was subsequently related to the wealthy ...

at J. & W. Seligman & Co. In 1869, he was sent to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

to run the Seligman Bank. In 1873, he co-founded the Anglo-Californian Bank with Ignatz Sheinhart. He went on to found several other banks: the Porterville Bank of

Porterville, California Porterville is a city in the San Joaquin Valley, in Tulare County, California, United States. It is part of the Visalia-Porterville metropolitan statistical area. Since its incorporation in 1902, the city's population has grown as it annexed n ...

; the Bank of South San Francisco, the Bank of Pleasanton, the Bank of Willits, and the Bank of Eureka. Lilienthal married Isabella Seligman, daughter of

; they had 4 children: Joseph L. Lilienthal, Elsie Lilienthal Beer (wife of Dr. Edwin Beer), Phillip N. Lilienthal, Jr. (married to Ruth Haas, daughter of

Abraham Haas Abraham Haas (1847–August 8, 1921) was an American businessman, co-founder of the Hellman, Haas & Co. (which became Smart & Final), and patriarch of the Haas family. Biography Haas was born to a Jewish family in Reckendorf, Kingdom of Bavar ...

), and Theodore Max Lilienthal. In 1908, Lilienthal died in an automobile accident. He was a member of Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lilienthal, Philip N. 1850 births 1908 deaths American Jews American bank presidents Lilienthal family 19th-century American businesspeople Burials at Home of Peace Cemetery (Colma, California) Businesspeople from New York City Businesspeople from Cincinnati Businesspeople from San Francisco