The month of May is American Jewish History Month, so for this entire month I will continue share the stories of important Jewish figures in American finance. Today, I will discuss Zalman Bernstein whofounded the investment management firm Sanford Bernstein and was a noted philanthropist.
Zalman Chaim Bernstein was born in 1926 in Brooklyn. At the age of eighteen, he joined the United States Navy and fought in the Second World War. He then received a bachelor's degree in economics from New York University, followed by a master's degree in economics from the Harvard Business School.
He worked as an economic advisor for the Marshall Plan. In 1967, he founded the investment management firm Sanford C. Bernstein. When he first founded the firm, his brother Paul Bernstein was his sole partner.
Sanford Bernstein's assets under management grew to over $80 billion. The firm was eventually sold to Alliance Capital Management and is part of what is known as AllianceBernstein today, which has over $780 billion under management.
In the 1980s, Bernstein became an Orthodox Jew and dropped his English name, Sanford, for his Hebrew one, Zalman. He attended Lincoln Square Synagogue and became a friend of its rabbi, Shlomo Riskin. In 1989, he made Aliyah. He also founded the Jewish organizations Avi Chai Foundation and Tikvah Fund.