Max Webb | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1917-03-02)March 2, 1917 |
| Died | October 23, 2018(2018-10-23) (aged 101) Los Angeles,California, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Real estate developer, philanthropist |
| Spouses |
|
| Children | Chara Webb Rose Webb |
| Relatives | Nathan Shapell(brother-in-law) David Shapell(brother-in-law) |
Max Webb (March 2, 1917 – October 23, 2018) was aPolish-born American real estate developer and philanthropist fromLos Angeles, California. AHolocaust survivor born to a Jewish family, he was the co-founder of one of the largest real estate development companies in Southern California. He supported charitable causes in the United States andIsrael.
Webb was born on March 2, 1917, inŁódź,Poland,[1][2][3] to a Jewish family. He was one of seven children and had a twin sister.[4] Collectively, he had five sisters and one brother.[1] He grew up in a poor family and stopped going to school at an early age to take odd jobs and support family needs.[2]
DuringWorld War II, he was deported to theAuschwitz concentration camp in 1943.[1][3] It was there that he met his future brother-in-law,Nathan Shapell.[1] Webb also survived the Death March 1944,[1][3] as well as twelve labor camps and six concentration camps.[2] However, both his parents as well as four of his sisters were murdered by the Nazis.[2] Webb was liberated on May 8, 1945.[1]
Shortly after his liberation, Webb moved toMünchberg with Nathan Shapell, where they established a textile business.[1] In 1951, he stayed onConey Island for ten months to get a visa for the United States.[1] By 1952, he moved to Los Angeles with his wife and brother-in-law, and started a career in real estate development.[1]
Webb established a real estate development company with his two brothers-in-law, Nathan and David Shapell.[1][3] It was first known as S&S Construction, later Shapell Industries, followed by Shapell & Webb.[1][3] In 1971, they moved into an office on the corner ofWilshire Boulevard andSan Vicente Boulevard.[1] After his brothers-in-law died, he retained the office.[1] The company became one of the largest real estate development companies in Southern California.[1]
Webb made charitable contributions to theCedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.[1] He was a founding donor of theUnited States Holocaust Memorial Museum inWashington, D.C.[3] He endowed a chair forDavid Wolpe, the Senior Rabbi ofSinai Temple.[2] In December 2007, he purchased a plot of land onPico Boulevard to erect a building home to two Jewish organizations in Los Angeles, IKAR and the Progressive Jewish Alliance (PJA).[5]
With his second wife Anna, Webb endowed the Max Webb Family School of Languages Building and the Anna and Max Webb Chair for Visiting Scholars in Yiddish atTel Aviv University.[3] They are the recipients of honorary doctorates from Tel Aviv University andBar Ilan University.[3]Bar Ilan’s Psychology Building is also named after him, as well as a street inGiv'at Shmuel.
In 2013, Webb featured in a fundraising video for Tel Aviv University alongside other prominent Jewish philanthropists from Los AngelesGuilford Glazer,Jona Goldrich andIzak Parviz Nazarian.[6]
Webb was married twice. He first married Sara Shapell in 1946.[1] They had two daughters, Chara and Rose.[1] After his first wife died, he married Anna Hitter, a businesswoman, in 1993.[1][3]
Webb was a member of Sinai Temple, a Conservative synagogue in Los Angeles.[2] He attended services at Congregation Beth Israel onBeverly Boulevard.[5]
Havingturned 100 in March 2017,[7] Webb died atCedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, on October 23, 2018. He was 101.[8][9]