Joseph S. Gruss

Joseph Saul Gruss was born on March 19, 1903 to a Jewish family in Lviv, one of seven children.[1] His father, Isaac, was a Talmudic scholar and banker; his mother belonged to a family involved in the export grain business.[1]

In 1939, Gruss founded a travel agency in New York City.[1] While he and his wife were in the United States, the Nazis invaded eastern Europe, and they were unable to return home. Their first born child[1] and many of their relatives perished in the Holocaust.[2] In 1942, he founded the Wall Street firm, Gruss & Company,[3] which focused on mergers and arbitrage primarily in the oil and gas industries. Thereafter, he engaged in oil and gas exploration and development primarily in Texas, Oklahoma, Wyoming, and West Virginia.[2]

In the 1970s, Gruss focused on philanthropy particularly for Jewish education.[2] He supported hundreds of Jewish schools and thousands of students and educators.[1] He funded Yeshiva University's Caroline and Joseph S. Gruss Institute in Jerusalem;[4] the Caroline Zelaznik Gruss and Joseph S. Gruss Visiting Professorship in Talmudic Civil Law; and the Fund for Jewish Education in association with the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and the United Jewish Appeal of New York.[3] In 1989, he funded the expansion of the White Plains campus of the Solomon Schechter School of Westchester to help accommodate the demands of Westchester's largest Jewish day school.[5] The Gruss Life Monument Fund was founded in 1991 to continue his charitable activities after his death.[1] The Joseph S Gruss Yeshiva High School in Brooklyn, New York bears his name.

In 1934, he married Caroline Zelaznik (died 1987), a lawyer.[1] They had two children: Martin David Gruss,[6] and Dr. Evelyn Gruss Lipper. His daughter was married to Hollywood producer, author, and former New York City deputy mayor, Kenneth Lipper.[2]

Gruss died on July 3, 1993. His grandson, Joshua Carl Gruss married fashion designer Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss.[7]