Nathan Straus (January 31, 1848–January 11, 1931) was an American merchant and philanthropist who was to own two of New York City's biggest department stores -- R.H. Macy & Company and Abraham & Straus before giving away most of his fortune to the Zionist cause.
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Life
Nathan Straus was born in Otterberg, Germany, the third child of Lazarus Straus (1809 - 1898) and his wife Sara (1823 - 1876). His siblings were Hermine Straus Kohns (1846 - 1922), Isidor Straus (1845 - 1912) and Oscar Solomon Straus (1850 - 1926). The family moved to Georgia in 1854. After the American Civil War the family moved to New York City where his father formed L Straus & Sons, a crockery and glassware firm On April 28, 1875 he married Lina Gutherz (1854 - 1930) with whom he had six children.
Macy's and A&S
He and his brothers started selling the crockery R.H. Macy & Company department store. The brothers became partners in Macy's in 1888 and co-owners in 1896. In 1893 he and Isidor bought out Joseph Wechsler in the Abraham and Wechsler dry goods store in Brooklyn, New York which was then renamed Abraham & Straus.[1]
Public Service
In the late 1880s he began a period of philanthropy and public service in New York City. He served as New York City Park Commissioner from 1889–1893, president of the New York City Board of Health, 1898, and in 1894 he refused the Democratic nomination for New York Mayor.[2] In 1892 he and his wife privately funded the Nathan Straus Pasteurized Milk Laboratory to provide pasteurized milk to children to combat tuberculosis. In his battles with the disease he was to open the Tuberculosis Preventorium for Children at Lakewood, New Jersey (later it was moved to Farmingdale, New Jersey in 1909. He was to donate money to the New York Public Library specifically targeting young people. The Young People's Collection at the Donnell Library Center is named for him.
Israel
In 1912 a trip to then Palestine was to shape the rest of his life. On the trip he became fascinated with the area. His brother Isidor and Isidor's wife headed back to New York aboard the RMS Titanic and perished when it sank. Feeling he had been spared by divine intervention he then devoted two-thirds of his fortune on Palestine. He established a domestic science school for girls in 1912, a health bureau to fight malaria and trachoma, and a free public kitchen. He opened a Pasteur Institute, child-health welfare stations, and the funded the Nathan and Lina Straus Health Centers in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv The modern Israeli city of Netanya, founded in 1927, was named in his honor. The Jerusalem street, Rehov Straus (Chancellor Avenue during the British Mandate), was also named for Nathan Straus. Nathan Straus died on January 11, 1931 in New York City.
Anne Frank connection
Nathan's son (Nathan Jr., 1889 - 1961) attended Princeton University and arrived in Heidelberg University in 1908 where he met a young art history scholar named Otto Frank. Otto accepted a job in Macy's with Nathan Straus, Jr. Otto fell in love with New York and its brashness. But in 1909, Otto's father died and he returned to Germany where he would live to fight in World War I and live to see the time when he and his daughters would have to leave Germany because of anti-Semitism. One of Otto's daughters was called Anne Frank.
