BDE: World Mizrachi President Kurt (Gershon) Rothschild Passes Away At Age 101

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — The religious Zionist world as well as many other Torah institutions mourn the passing of Mr. Kurt Rothschild, a philanthropist, businessman and Mizrachi activist who served as president of the World Mizrachi. The levaya will be at Har Hamenuchos in Jerusalem at 1:30 PM.

Kurt Rothschild was born in Germany in 1920. His parents sent him to England in 1937, and in 1940 he was banished by the British to Canada (along with thousands of other German refugees), where he was interned for 18 months behind barbed wire. After studying electrical engineering in Ontario, he began a business career, establishing a national contracting firm in Canada. His business dealings were marked by scrupulous honesty alongside energetic leadership of the religious-Zionist community.

For more than 50 years, Kurt was the quiet, unassuming philanthropic pillar of several key religious-Zionist institutions in Israel such as Yeshivat Hakotel (and many other hesder and Bnei Akiva yeshivas); the Jerusalem College of Technology (Machon Lev); Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem; and Bar-Ilan University.

In recent years, he devoted a great deal of attention and concern for young communities in Israel’s periphery, including towns established in the Negev, where many of the Israelis displaced by the Gaza expulsion have sought to rebuild their lives anew. He was also involved in Jewish educational initiatives in former Soviet Union countries.

Kurt was heavily involved in general community frameworks and institutions. This led him to life-long activity in the United Jewish Appeal-Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto, Canadian Zionist Federation, Canadian Jewish Congress, Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Jewish National Fund, Israel Bonds, Jewish Agency for Israel, World Zionist Organization and more. He was instrumental in helping Jewish day schools across Canada access Jewish community funding sources.

At the same time, his generosity of time and purse extends across the Jewish spectrum to include secular and chareidi institutions. How many philanthropists are there in the Jewish world whose worldview and involvements were so big-heartedly broad?

In his 90’s, Kurt immigrated with his wife to Israel but did not cease his hectic schedule, rising at 6 A.M. to daven and study Daf Yomi  and then going to World Mizrachi where he worked until 4:30 P.M., continuing his schedule until COVID-19 prevented him from being at the office.

MK Betzalel Smotrich eulogized Rothschild, stating that “a great man lived among us. Kurt Rothschild z’l dedicated his life to building Torah, the nation and the land of Israel. He was a man who lived Torah and chesed, a man whose entire life was devoted to spreading Torah and light. The residents of Israel and the entire Jewish world owe a debt of gratitude to Kurt z’l for his physical and spiritual activities on behalf of the Jewish nation. His loss will be felt in Israel and in the Diaspora. May his memory be blessed.”