Abraham Haas (1847 – August 8, 1921) was an American businessman, co-founder of Hellman, Haas & Co. (later Haas, Baruch & Co., which ultimately merged with Smart & Final), and patriarch of the Haas family, the primary shareholders of Levi Strauss & Co.
Biography
Haas was born to a Jewish family[1] in Reckendorf, Kingdom of Bavaria in 1847[2] and immigrated to Portland, Oregon at the age of 16 where he worked at a grocery store founded by his cousins, Charles, Samuel, and Kalman Haas.[3][4]
In the 1880s, Jacob Baruch, married to Haas's niece Jeanette Weiler, and his brother Herman Baruch, also married to a niece, Jeanette Meertief, bought out the other partners and the company changed its name to Haas, Baruch & Co. in 1889.
" concept in Los Angeles (before, clerks would gather the groceries for the customers) and by 1895, benefiting from rapid population growth in the region thanks to the building of the
Haas was a benefactor of the Eureka Benevolent Society (later the Jewish Family Service), the Federation of Jewish Charities, and the Pacific Orphans’ Asylum and Home Society.[2]
Personal life
Abraham Haas married Fanny Koshland, a daughter of Simon Koshland, one of the leading wool merchants in San Francisco,[2] with whom he had four children: Charles Haas (1888-?), Walter A. Haas Sr. (1889-1979) (married Elise Fanny Stern, daughter of Sigmund Stern,[8] a nephew of Levi Strauss, and granddaughter of David Stern), Ruth Haas Lilienthal (1891-1975) (married Philip N. Lilienthal Jr., son of banker Philip N. Lilienthal and grandson of rabbi Max Lilienthal), and Eleanor Haas Koshland (1900-1959)[9] (married her cousin Daniel E. Koshland Sr., the son of her maternal uncle, Marcus Koshland).
