Samuel "Sonny" Gindi (1924–2012) was the co-founder of the Century 21 department store.

Biography

Gindi was born to a

Syrian Syrians ( ar, سُورِيُّون, ''Sūriyyīn'') are an Eastern Mediterranean ethnic group indigenous to the Levant. They share common Levantine Semitic roots. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend of both indi ...

Sephardic Jewish Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefar ...

family. His father died when he was nine. At the age of 14, he opened his first retail store and in the 1950s, he opened a children's clothing store. In 1959, leveraging his retail experience, he partnered with Alfred Sutton and Morris Sutton,PRN Newswire: "Changes In Children's Wear Industry Leads Apparel Company To Reinvent Itself – After 48 years of success, Lollytogs, Ltd. has a new corporate identity reflecting their innovations in business"
January 8, 2007 he opened the ''Lolly Togs'' children's wear business which was the first importer to do business with Hong Kong. ''Lolly Togs'' changed its name to the ''LT Apparel Group'' in 2007. In 1961, he partnered with fellow Sephardic community member and cousin Al Gindi and opened the Century 21 department store on Courtland Street in Manhattan. At the time of his death, Century 21 had expanded throughout the New York metropolitan area with locations in

Westbury, New York The Incorporated Village of Westbury is a Village (New York), village in the North Hempstead, New York, Town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York (state), New York, United States. It is located a ...

Rego Park, Queens Rego Park is a neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City. Rego Park is bordered to the north by Elmhurst and Corona, to the east and south by Forest Hills, and to the west by Middle Village. Rego Park's boundaries include Queens ...

, the

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

of Manhattan,

Morristown, New Jersey Morristown () is a town and the county seat of Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. ...

Paramus, New Jersey Paramus ( Waggoner, Walter H ''The New York Times'', February 16, 1966. Accessed October 16, 2018. "Paramus – pronounced puh-RAHM-us, with the accent on the second syllable – may have taken its name from 'perremus' or 'perymus,' Indian for ...

, and on Fulton Street in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. Al Gindi's son, Raymond Gindi, serves as Century 21's Chief Operating Officer while Sonny Gindi's son, Isaac Gindi serves as its Chief Executive Officer and his son Eddie Gindi, its Executive Vice President.

Personal life and philanthropy

Gindi was married to Irene Tawil with whom he had four children: Isaac Gindi, Eddie Gindi, Jack Gindi, and Rachelle Gindi. Gindi was a supporter of the

United Jewish Appeal The United Jewish Appeal (UJA) was a Jewish philanthropic umbrella organization that existed from its creation in 1939 until it was folded into the United Jewish Communities, which was formed from the 1999 merger of United Jewish Appeal (UJA), Cou ...

and the International Sephardic Education Fund (ISEF) dedicated to “narrow(ing) Israel’s socio-economic gap through higher education for gifted students from disadvantaged backgrounds.” Gindi was a member of the Sha'are Zion synagogue and served on the synagogue's founding committee for several decades. He also served as president of the Magen David Yeshivah from 1970–1972. The Al & Sonny Gindi Scholarship Fund is named in his honor as is the Al and Sonny Gindi Barkai

Yeshivah A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are stud ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gindi, Sonny American Sephardic Jews American retail chief executives 1924 births 2012 deaths American people of Syrian-Jewish descent Syrian emigrants to the United States Businesspeople from New York City 20th-century American businesspeople