Sammy Ofer ( he, שמואל "סמי" עופר; born Shmuel Herskovich; 22 February 1922 – 3 June 2011) was an Israeli shipping magnate and one of the richest men in the country.

Early life

Shmuel Herskovich was born in 1922 in

Galați Galați (, , ; also known by other alternative names) is the capital city of Galați County in the historical region of Western Moldavia, in eastern Romania. Galați is a port town on the Danube River. It has been the only port for the most pa ...

, Romania, to a Jewish family.John Reed
Idan Ofer: fleeing Israel’s new populism
''The Financial Times'', 12 April 2013 In 1924, his family

immigrated Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

to the then

British Mandate of Palestine British Mandate of Palestine or Palestine Mandate most often refers to: * Mandate for Palestine: a League of Nations mandate under which the British controlled an area which included Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan. * Mandatory P ...

(present-day Israel). The family resided in the city of

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

. With the start of World War II, he enlisted in the British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

. During the

1948 Arab-Israeli War Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form Britis ...

, he served in the

Israeli Sea Corps The Israeli Navy ( he, חיל הים הישראלי, ''Ḥeil HaYam HaYisraeli'' (English: The Israeli Sea Corps); ar, البحرية الإسرائيلية) is the naval warfare service arm of the Israel Defense Forces, operating primarily in ...

Career

After finishing his military service, he became a shipping agent with the Eastern Conglomerate, and by 1950 had bought his first ship. He expanded in the shipping business. Ofer's assets were partly in his exclusive ownership and partly owned together with his brother Yuli, consisting of one of the largest private shipping companies in the world, with a value of $3.6 billion in 2011. This includes the companies ZIM,

Royal Caribbean International Royal Caribbean International (RCI), also formerly known as Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL), is a cruise line brand founded in 1968 in Norway and organised as a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Group since 1997. Based in Miami, Flo ...

Israel Corporation Israel Corporation ( he, החברה לישראל) (also Israel Corp) is Israel's largest holding company. It was founded in 1968 by the Government of the State of Israel. 50% of its manufacturing activities and 70% of its consolidated revenues ...

Israel Chemicals ICL Group Ltd. (Hebrew: איי.סי. אל. גרופ בע"מ) (formerly Israel Chemicals Ltd., ICL) is a multi-national manufacturing concern that develops, produces and markets fertilizers, metals and other special-purpose chemical products. I ...

Oil Refineries Ltd BAZAN Group, (ORL or BAZAN, ), formerly Oil Refineries Ltd., is an oil refining and petrochemicals company located in Haifa Bay, Israel. It operates the largest oil refinery in the country. ORL has a total oil refining capacity of approximatel ...

, Bank Mizrahi-Tfahot, and Tower Semiconductor. The annual ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' magazine's list of

The World's Billionaires ''The World's Billionaires'' is an annual ranking by documented net worth of the wealthiest billionaires in the world, compiled and published in March annually by the American business magazine ''Forbes''. The list was first published in March ...

estimated in 2011 his fortune, together with his brother Yuli's, to be $10.3 billion, ranked him in 2011 as the 79th in the wealthiest people in the world, and the wealthiest man in Israel.

Philanthropy

In March 2008, Ofer donated £20 million to London's

National Maritime Museum The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the Unite ...

(NMM) at

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

, as part of a £35 million programme of expansion. Ofer donated £3.3 million to help complete the restoration of the

Cutty Sark ''Cutty Sark'' is a British clipper ship. Built on the River Leven, Dumbarton, Scotland in 1869 for the Jock Willis Shipping Line, she was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest, coming at the end of a long period ...

by 2010. In 2013, a £1.5 million donation from Eyal Ofer enabled the NMM to buy two paintings by

George Stubbs George Stubbs (25 August 1724 – 10 July 1806) was an English painter, best known for his paintings of horses. Self-trained, Stubbs learnt his skills independently from other great artists of the 18th century such as Joshua Reynolds, Reynold ...

from 1772. The paintings depict a kangaroo and a dingo, and are the first depictions of Australian animals in Western art. In 2007, Sammy Ofer donated $25 million to the

Rambam Health Care Campus Rambam Health Care Campus ( he, רמב"ם - הקריה הרפואית לבריאות האדם) commonly called Rambam Hospital, is a teaching hospital in the Bat Galim neighborhood of Haifa, Israel founded in 1938, 10 years before the establis ...

in Haifa, Israel. This contribution was earmarked for two main purposes: $17 million for the 2000-bed fortified underground hospital and $7 million to renovate the existing departments of Surgery, Urology, and ENT. On 10 November 2008 he was made an Honorary Knight Commander of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(KBE) in recognition of his involvement with maritime heritage in the United Kingdom.

Personal life

He was married to Aviva Ofer. They had two sons: Idan Ofer and Eyal Ofer. They mainly resided in

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is ...

, Monaco.

Death

On 3 June 2011, Ofer died in his house in Tel Aviv, Israel, at the age of 89.

Legacy

In 2013, Idan Ofer donated £25 million to

London Business School London Business School (LBS) is a business school and a constituent college of the federal University of London. LBS was founded in 1964 and awards post-graduate degrees (Master's degrees in management and finance, MBA and PhD). Its motto is " ...

in honor of his father, Sammy.Della Bradshaw, Adam Palin
Idan Ofer gives £25m to London Business School
''The Financial Times'', 26 September 2013 A new educational facility at

Marylebone Town Hall Marylebone Town Hall, also known as the Westminster Council House, is a municipal building on Marylebone Road in Marylebone, London. The complex includes the council chamber, the Westminster Register Office and an educational facility known as t ...

was established as the Sammy Ofer Centre. The gift was the largest in the school's history. There is also a well-known Israeli

soccer stadium Soccer-specific stadium is a term used mainly in the United States and Canada to refer to a sports stadium either purpose-built or fundamentally redesigned for soccer and whose primary function is to host soccer matches, as opposed to a multi-pu ...

named after him that he also partially funded,

Sammy Ofer Stadium Sammy Ofer Stadium ( he, אצטדיון סמי עופר), also known as Haifa Municipal Stadium (), is a 30,858 seats multi-purpose stadium in Haifa, Israel. Construction began in late 2009 and was completed in 2014. The stadium was develop ...

in the city

, Israel.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ofer, Sammy 1922 births 2011 deaths Israeli businesspeople in shipping Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Israeli billionaires Israeli chief executives Israeli Ashkenazi Jews Royal Navy personnel of World War II Israeli people of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War Israeli philanthropists Ashkenazi Jews in Mandatory Palestine Jewish military personnel Jewish philanthropists Naturalized citizens of Israel People from Galați People from Tel Aviv Romanian emigrants to Mandatory Palestine

Sammy Sammy is a nickname, frequently for people named Samuel, and also an English spelling of the Arabic name Sami. People Music *Sammy Adams (born 1987), American rapper and songwriter * Sammy Cahn (1913-1993), American songwriter * Sammy Davis Jr. ...

Burials at Trumpeldor Cemetery 20th-century philanthropists Romanian Ashkenazi Jews Israeli people of Romanian-Jewish descent Romanian emigrants to Israel