Paul Reichmann: Millions of Lights Paul Reichmann: Millions of Lights One of the greatest philanthropists of the century passes away. by Sara Debbie Gutfreund Mr. Paul Reichmann passed away this past Friday at the age of 83 in Toronto. Mr. Reichmann was a Canadian businessman who built Olympia and York Developments into a multi-billion dollar empire and donated millions of dollars each year to build Jewish schools, synagogues and yeshivas throughout the world. Some of the major financial complexes that Mr. Reichmann built were Canary Wharf in London, the World Financial Center and First Canadian Place, the tallest skyscraper in Toronto. With his signature full beard, business suit and yarmulke, Reichmann had a sterling reputation for integrity, a humility that led him and his brothers to shun all publicity, and an unwavering commitment to Orthodox Judaism. Paul Reichmann was born in Vienna in 1930 to Samuel and Rene Reichmann. The family escaped the Nazi occupation of Austria because they fortuitously left the country on the day of the Anschluss to visit Pauls grandfather in Hungary who had suffered a stroke. The Reichmanns made their way from Hungary to Paris and later fled to the neutral city of Tangier. After the war, Paul went to learn in yeshiva in Gateshead, England and Ponovezh and Mir in Israel. In 1953, Paul became the Educational Director of Otzar HaTorah in Morocco. There he transformed the schools religious curriculum, improved its teaching staff and traveled across Morocco, building dozens of schools for thousands of children, including the first girls seminary in Tangier. In 1955, Paul married Leah Feldman, to whom he had been engaged from the age of 15. Together, they left Otzar HaTorah and settled in Toronto with the rest of the Reichmann family. There Paul and his brothers formed Olympia and York Developments which became the largest developer in the world, making the Reichmanns into one of the ten richest families. Still the brothers were often spotted flying in coach class and making sure that every single one of their building sites were closed before Shabbos began. A few years after the Canary Wharf project brought the firm into bankruptcy in 1992, Mr. Reichmann humbly remarked, The fact that I had never been wrong created character flaws that caused me to make mistakes. The Reichmanns went on to partially rebuild their fortune as they continued to give millions of dollars to Jewish schools and organizations. They paid overtime for Sunday labor in order to keep their business closed on the Sabbath and closed for Christian holidays as well out of respect for their non- Jewish workers.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 23:34:13 +0000
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