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Wednesday, March 26, 2025
From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Billionaire industrialist Stef Wertheimer dies at age 98
Stef Wertheimer in Nazareth, Northern Israel, on April 6, 2016 (Mark Neyman/GPO/File)
Israeli billionaire industrialist and former politician Stef (Ze’ev) Wertheimer has died at age 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% of the firm for $5 billion. In May 2013, Buffett bought the rest of the company for an additional $2.05 billion.
He is known for founding industrial parks around the country and for his philanthropic work, mainly in the field of education. He also served as a member of the Knesset between 1977 and 1981 under the Democratic Movement for Change and later Shinui.
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