Vera Guerin is an American billionaire, philanthropist, and musical theater producer.

Biography

Guerin 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, the daughter of Lily (née Schreiber) and

Nathan Shapell Nathan Shapell (March 7, 1922 – March 11, 2007) was a Polish-born American survivor of The Holocaust, as well as a real estate developer whose Shapell Industries was one of the largest real estate companies in California; he was also a philanthr ...

.Los Angeles Times: "Nathan Shapell, 85; builder who developed Porter Ranch was also noted philanthropist" by Valerie J. Nelson
March 13, 2007Jewish Journal: "Nathan Shapell, real estate developer and philanthropist, 85
March 11, 2007Builder-Activist Los Angeles Times: "Nathan Shapell Is Driven to Develop Some Big Ideas" by Gabe Fuentes
February 12, 1989
by Michael Kinsman] March 25, 2007 Her father was born in Poland. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he was interned at the

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

and Buchenwald concentration camps but he managed to escape. Her mother was also an Auschwitz survivor and worked as an interpreter at several of the war crimes trials. Her parents immigrated to California in 1952 when she was five where her father co-founded home builder Shapell Industries with his brother David and brother-in-law Max Webb. Shapell Industries eventually went on to build 65,000 houses in California. Guerin inherited her father’s 43 percent stake in Shapell Industries upon his death in 2007.Bloomberg: "Auschwitz Survivor’s Daughter Becomes Billionaire" By Seth Lubove & John Gittelsohn
November 14, 2013 In November 2013,

Toll Brothers Toll Brothers is a company which designs, builds, markets, sells, and arranges financing for residential and commercial properties in the United States. In 2020, the company was the fifth largest home builder in the United States, based on home ...

purchased the Shapell Homes housebuilding division of Shapell Industries for $1.6 billion; Shapell's share was $690 million. Shapell still retains a 43 percent interest in the remainder of Shappell industries which includes over 10,000 apartments, five shopping centers, and four office buildings worth an additional $1.7 billion making her share worth $645 million. This sum combined with the amount earned from the Shapell Homes sale gives her an estimated net worth of $1.3 billion. Guerin is an occasional musical theater producer. She produced a show for the Women’s Guild 50th Anniversary Gala emceed by Billy Crystal. She produced the musical '' Leap of Faith.''

Philanthropy

In 2008, Guerin donated $5 million to support the research arm of the Women's Guild Lung Institute at

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a nonprofit, tertiary, 886-bed teaching hospital and multi-specialty academic health science center located in Los Angeles, California. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital employs a staff of over 2 ...

.Cedars-Sinai Medical Center: "The Major Catalyst - Vera and Paul Guerin"
Summer 2008 In 2013, Guerin donated $10 million to establish the Vera and Paul Guerin Family Congenital Heart Program at the

Heart Institute; and $10 million to endow two academic chairs in pulmonary medicine and pediatric neurosurgery and to support Cedars-Sinai’s new outpatient services building.Cedars-Sinai Hospital: "Groundbreaking Congenital Heart Disease Program to be Named for Longtime Cedars-Sinai Benefactors Vera and Paul Guerin"
September 19, 2013Medical News Net: "Vera and Paul Guerin Family Congenital Heart Program to be established in Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute"
September 20, 2013 Guerin serves as vice chair and chair-elect of the Cedars-Sinai Board of Directors and is a former president of the Women's Guild Lung Institute. She served as trustee at the

Harvard-Westlake School Harvard-Westlake School is an independent, co-educational university preparatory day school consisting of two campuses located in Los Angeles, California, with approximately 1,600 students enrolled in grades seven through twelve. Its two predec ...

; served on the

Stephen S. Wise Temple Stephen Wise Temple is a large Reform Jewish congregation in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1964 by the late Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin, with 35 families, the congregation grew rapidly. At various times in its histo ...

advisory board; and served on the board of the

Skirball Cultural Center The Skirball Cultural Center, founded in 1996, is a Jewish educational institution in Los Angeles, California. The center, named after philanthropist-couple Jack H. Skirball and Audrey Skirball-Kenis, features a museum with regularly changing exh ...

in Los Angeles. Her husband is president and board chairman of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, a support group for Israel’s soldiers. In 2021 Guerin Donated $100 million to support Children's Health Services at Cedars Sinai

Personal life

In 1968, Guerin married a

gentile Gentile () is a word that usually means "someone who is not a Jew". Other groups that claim Israelite heritage, notably Mormons, sometimes use the term ''gentile'' to describe outsiders. More rarely, the term is generally used as a synonym for ...

, Paul Guerin, over her parents' objections. He converted to Judaism. They have three children: Lisa, Dana, and Michael.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guerin, Vera Living people 1947 births People from Los Angeles American people of Polish-Jewish descent Jewish American philanthropists Philanthropists from California American billionaires Shapell family 21st-century American Jews