| Stef Wertheimer | |
|---|---|
Stef Wertheimer
|
|
| Born | 16 July 1926 Kippenheim, Germany |
| Occupation | Honorary Chairman, IMC |
| Net worth |  US$ 5.6 billion (2015) |
Stefan “Stef” Wertheimer (Hebrew: סטף ורטהיימר, born 16 July 1926) is a German-born Israeli industrialist, investor, philanthropist and former politician. He is a former Member of the Knesset, and is well known for founding industrial parks in Israel and neighboring countries. The Wertheimers are Israel’s richest family as of 2013.
Early life
Wertheimer was born in Kippenheim, Germany. His family fled to Israel in 1937 to escape Nazism and settled in Tel Aviv.
He studied in the Tel-Nordau School but dropped out of school at age 16 and started working in a camera repair store. At the same time, he began studying optics with Professor Emanuel Goldberg, a researcher and inventor who contributed significantly to different aspects of imaging technology in the first half of the twentieth century.
In 1943, during World War II, Wertheimer joined the British Royal Air Force. Wertheimer served as an optical equipment technician. He was sent to Bahrain where he repaired optical equipment installed in Britain’s military aircraft.
In 1945 he joined the Palmach, where he served as a technical officer in the German Unit – a special guerilla force trained with British cooperation to participate in combat operations against the German army, should it reach Palestine. In 1947, he joined the Haganah and worked in the development and improvement of cannons. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, he served as a technical officer in the Yiftach Brigade.
After the war, Wertheimer started working at RAFAEL, only to be dismissed shortly thereafter because of his lack of formal education. Following the war, he and his wife briefly lived on kibbutz Yir’on, but left, as he did not agree with the socialist economic model adopted by the kibbultimate.
Wertheimer is founder and honorary chairman of Iscar Metalworking, a Tefen, Israel-based toolmaker. The Wertheimer family sold 80 percent of the company to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway for $4 billion in 2006. They sold the remainder to Berkshire for $2 billion in 2013. They also have six industrial parks in Israel.
Source: