Billionaire industrialist and philanthropist Stef Wertheimer dies at 98
German-born businessman sold metalworking company to Warren Buffett, built industrial parks to encourage economic development in disadvantaged communities
Israeli billionaire industrialist, former politician and philanthropist Stef (Ze’ev) Wertheimer died Wednesday at the age of 98.
Wertheimer, one of the richest people in Israel, started the ISCAR Metalworking Company in 1952 and remained its principal shareholder until 2006, when American billionaire Warren Buffett, via his Berkshire Hathaway investment firm, bought 80 percent of the firm for $5 billion. In May 2013, Buffett bought the rest of the company for an additional $2.05 billion.
Wertheimer was known for founding industrial parks around the country and his philanthropic work, mainly in the field of education. He also served as a member of the Knesset.
Wertheimer was born in Kippenheim, Germany in 1926. His family fled the country in 1937 amid rising antisemitism and moved to Tel Aviv.
He dropped out of school at the age of 16 and began working in a camera store while studying optics.
He joined Britain’s Royal Air Force during World War II, serving as a technician, before joining the Palmach in 1945. Wertheimer was detained in 1946 as part of the Black Sabbath operation by British forces and held for four months.
In the 1950s, Wertheimer went to work for defense company Rafael but was later fired because he did not have any formal qualifications.
Instead, he set up a metal shop and toolmaking company in the garden of his Nahariya home. That business became the ISCAR Metalworking Company. According to Forbes, roughly half of ISCAR’s Israeli employees were Jewish and the other half Arab.
In 1977, Wertheimer entered the Knesset as a lawmaker for the centrist Democratic Movement for Change party.
When that party dissolved, he joined Shinui before leaving politics in 1981.
According to Forbes, Wertheimer invested over $100 million in building industrial parks to boost economically disadvantaged communities.
Wertheimer told Forbes in 2012 that the aim of the industrial parks was not financial profit for him.
“I am happy if it breaks even,” he said, apparently laughing at the question. “In the long term, it will make a profit. For the next 20 years, it probably will not.”
“I made my money in Iscar,” he told The New York Times. “I spend my money on the industrial parks.”
According to The New York Times, Wertheimer drew up plans in the 1990s for a business park in the Gaza Strip’s Rafah as part of his proposal to achieve peace in the Middle East through economic prosperity, but the plan was shelved with the outbreak of the Second Intifada.
In 1991, Wertheimer was awarded the Israel Prize for his contribution to the state. In 2010 received the Oslo Business for Peace Award.
Wertheimer is survived by his wife, three children, grandchildren, including actress and presenter Maya Wertheimer, and great-grandchildren. His son Eitan Wertheimer died in 2022.
The Times of Israel Community.