Nathan Straus (January 31, 1848 – January 11, 1931) was an American businessman and philanthropist who co-owned two of New York City's largestdepartment stores,R. H. Macy & Company andAbraham & Straus.^[1] He was the namesake for the Israeli cityNetanya.

Nathan Straus
Straus in 1922
Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health
In office January 1, 1898 – March 3, 1898
Mayor	Robert Anderson Van Wyck
Preceded by	Charles G. Wilson
Succeeded by	Michael C. Murphy
Personal details
Born	(1848-01-31)January 31, 1848 Otterberg,Palatinate,Kingdom of Bavaria (now Germany)
Died	January 11, 1931(1931-01-11) (aged 82) New York City, U.S.
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Lina Gutherz
Children	6, includingNathan Jr.
Relatives	Straus family Isidor Straus (brother) Oscar Straus (brother)
Occupation	Businessman, philanthropist
Known for	Co-owner ofR. H. Macy & Company andAbraham & Straus

Nathan Straus was born to aGerman Jewish family inOtterberg in the formerPalatinate, then ruled by theKingdom of Bavaria (now part of present-day Germany), the third child ofLazarus Straus (1809–1898) and his second wife, Sara (1823–1876). His siblings were Hermine Straus Kohns (1846–1922),Isidor Straus (1845–1912), andOscar Solomon Straus (1850–1926). The family moved to the U.S. state ofGeorgia in 1854. After losing everything in theAmerican Civil War the family moved to New York City, where his father formed L. Straus & Sons, acrockery andglassware firm.^[1] The Straus family owned slaves and conducted business with other slave owners, taking several formerly enslaved people to the North with the family following the defeat of the Confederacy.^[2]

On April 28, 1875, Straus married Lina Gutherz (1854–1930), with whom he had six children: Jerome Nathan Straus (1876–1893); Sara Gutherz Straus (1877–1878); Sara "Sissie" Straus (1879–1950), married toIrving Lehman (1876–1945), Chief Judge of theNew York Court of Appeals from 1940 until his death; Roland Straus (1881–1884); State SenatorNathan Straus Jr. (1889–1961); and Hugh Grant Straus (1890–1961).^[1]

Straus and his brothers sold crockery toR. H. Macy & Companydepartment store. The brothers became partners in Macy's in 1888 and co-owners in 1896.

In 1893, he and Isidor bought Joseph Wechsler's interest in the Abraham and Wechsler dry-goods store inBrooklyn, New York, which they renamed asAbraham & Straus.^[1][3]

In the late 1880s, Straus began a period of philanthropy and public service in New York City. He served as a member of theBoard of Education from 1889 to 1891,^[4] as a parks commissioner from 1890 to 1894,^[5] and as president of the Board of Health andcommissioner of the Department of Health in 1898.^[6] In1894 he was selected byTammany Hall to run forMayor on the Democratic ticket, but withdrew from the race when his friends in society threatened toshun him if he did.^[7]

In 1892, he and his wife privately funded the Nathan Straus Pasteurized Milk Laboratory to providepasteurized milk to children to combat infant mortality andtuberculosis. In his battles with the disease he opened theTuberculosis Preventorium for Children atLakewood Township, New Jersey (later it was moved toFarmingdale, New Jersey) in 1909. Their book,Disease in Milk: The Remedy Pasteurization: The Life Work of Nathan Straus records that unclean, unpasteurized milk fed to infants was the chief cause of tuberculosis, typhoid, scarlet fever, diphtheria and other diseases that were the main cause of a 25% infant mortality rate in the U.S. in 1890, 15% in 1903 (but 7% in New York in 1900, where pasteurized milk had already become the norm) (it is now below 1% in the U.S.). Straus is credited as the leading proponent of the pasteurization movement, which eliminated the hundreds of thousands of deaths per year then due to disease-bearing milk.^[1]

During the economicpanic of 1893, Straus used his milk stations to sell coal at the very low price of 5 cents for 25 pounds to those who could pay. Those who could not received coal free. He also openedhomeless shelters^[8] for 64,000 people, who could get a bed and breakfast for 5 cents, and he funded 50,000 meals for one cent each. He also gave away thousands of turkeys anonymously. At Abraham & Straus he noticed that two of his employees were starving themselves to save their wages to feed their families, so he established what may have been the first subsidized company cafeteria.^{[citation needed]}

In 1898, during theSpanish–American War, Straus donated an ice plant toSantiago, Cuba.^[1] He was appointed by PresidentWilliam Taft as the sole United States delegate to the International Congress for Protection of Infants, in Berlin 1911, also delegate to the Tuberculosis Congress, in Rome, Italy, 1912.^[9]

Straus retired in 1914 to devote his time to charity. During the winter of 1914–15, he served 1,135,731 penny meals for the unemployed from his milk depots in New York City.^[9] In 1916, asAmerican entry into World War I loomed, he sold his yachtSisilina to the Coast Guard, and used the proceeds to feed war orphans. Later he fed returning American servicemen atBattery Park.^[1]

Shortly after World War I, Straus traveled toAsheville, North Carolina, to lay a wreath at the ConfederateVance Monument as a "debt of gratitude" forZebulon Baird Vance's opposition toantisemitism. Straus paid for a "suitable fence" to be built around the monument.^[10]

Straus donated money to theNew York Public Library, specifically targeting young people. The Young People's Collection at theDonnell Library Center is named for him. He also helped the city's poorer inhabitants by building a recreational pier, the first of many on the city's waterfront.^[11]

Upon touring the Mediterranean with Lina in 1904, the couple stopped over inPalestine, expecting it to be but one stop of many. He wrote, "On reaching Jerusalem, we changed our plans. All that we saw in the Holy Land made such a deep impression on us that we gave up the idea of going to other places. Visiting the holy sights of which one hears and reads since childhood, watching the scenes in life as pictured in the Bible, was most soul-stirring. From that time on we felt a strange and intense desire to return to the land." Nathan and Lina became staunch Zionists. He built soup kitchens for the aged and the blind and the physically defective from 1912-1917. He supported workrooms so that unskilled laborers could find employment. He built health stations that ministered to the victims ofmalaria andtrachoma. He believed strongly in palliative care. He provided $250,000 for the establishment of the Jerusalem Health Center and made possible the founding of a Pasteur Institute. He lent moral and material support to the farmers and colonists of Israel and labored in the interests of the Hebrew University.^[12]

Straus broke his leg on a 1912 visit to Palestine and was unable to join his brother, Isidor, on theRMS Titanic. Isidor died in the sinking.

The Israeli city ofNetanya (Hebrew:Natan, for Nathan), founded in 1927, was named in his honor. The city's founders had hoped that he would contribute towards the development of the city, but Straus didn't have anything to give, having contributed his money elsewhere.^[13] Rehov Straus (Straus Street) in Jerusalem, which was Chancellor Avenue during the British Mandate, was also named for him.

Nathan Straus died on January 11, 1931, in Manhattan, New York City. Twenty years earlier, at a dinner in his honor, he had given what could have been his own eulogy.

I often think of the old saying, "The world is my country, to do good is my religion. ... This has often been an inspiration to me. I might say, "Humanity is my kin, to save babies is my religion." It is a religion I hope will have thousands of followers.

He is interred at Beth El Cemetery, also called New Union Field Cemetery, inRidgewood, Queens.