Marc Rich Z"L

Born in Antwerp, Belgium, Marc Rich’s family fled the Nazis and immigrated to the United States, where he was educated and began his business career with the Phillips Brothers. Marc Rich went on to found the Marc Rich Company, which became the largest commodities trading company in the world. A devoted Zionist and international philanthropist, Marc Rich’s generosity reached across the globe and touched countless lives. Over the past three decades Marc Rich has invested substantial efforts and resources through the Marc Rich Group of Foundations, which have greatly contributed to the improvement of education, culture, the arts, social welfare and healthcare, and empowered the less fortunate segments of society by encouraging the development of skills and self-reliance.

Marc Rich furthermore ensured that individual talent in the arts, business and educational fields would be nurtured by providing support for academic research, cultural exchange programs, competitions and workshops. The Marc Rich Foundation supports Ph.D. scholarship programs in scientific research, countering the “brain drain” of talented Israeli scientists and promoting their return to Israel. A strong proponent of higher education and the development of institutions of excellence, Marc Rich led his foundations to partner with leading universities, fostering strategic initiatives to improve management studies in both business and civil society.

​His foundations were also involved in groundbreaking projects with hospitals, cultural centers, universities and other educational institutions, among them the cardiology and cancer departments at several major Israeli medical centers, the Gabrielle Rich Wing at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Tel Aviv Cinematheque and Israel Cinema Center, the Marc Rich Library at IDC Herzliya, and many others. Marc Rich was awarded the Ben Gurion Negev Award, Honorary Doctorates from Ben Gurion and Bar Ilan Universities and Honorary Fellowships from Tel Aviv University, the Israel Museum and the City of Tel Aviv. In recognition of his outstanding contribution to the future of the State of Israel and the Jewish People, Marc Rich was named an Honorary Fellow of the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in 2008.