American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has received a bequest of about $400 million from the estate of Howard and Lottie Marcus, a San Diego couple who were early investors in Berkshire Hathaway.
The couple earmarked most of the money to support the work of the university’s Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research.
Howard Marcus, who died in 2014 at age 104, was a dentist when he left Germany in 1933 as Adolf Hitler took power. He moved to Italy and eventually became a medical doctor.
Dr. Marcus was able to help one of his sisters move to the United States, and he followed her in 1939 as Hitler’s forces bore down on Italy. The rest of his family — his parents, two other sisters, and a niece — died in a concentration camp in Lithuania.
Lottie Marcus left Germany for the United States in 1934. Her older brother was shot by the Nazis, and her parents died in concentration camps.
She met Mr. Marcus in New York in 1942, and they soon married. Ms. Marcus died last December, two months before her 100th birthday.
Meeting Warren Buffett
It was Ms. Marcus’s connections that led to the couple’s fortuitous meeting with a very young Warren Buffett.
A secretary at a Wall Street investment firm, Ms. Marcus had met and become close friends with the legendary investor Benjamin Graham, Mr. Buffett’s economics professor and mentor at Columbia University.
Mr. Graham introduced the Marcuses to Mr. Buffett in the early 1960s, and the couple invested in the partnership that would eventually become Berkshire Hathaway.
“Knowing them, it comes as no surprise that they elected to use their financial success to enhance the lives of thousands of Israeli young people,” Mr. Buffett said of the Marcuses in a news release announcing the bequest.
American Associates is the U.S. fundraising arm of Ben-Gurion University, which was established in 1969 in Beersheba, Israel. The Zuckerberg Institute carries out research in hydrology, water engineering, and water sciences to develop solutions for people living in dry environments. One of Ben-Gurion University’s five campuses is named the Marcus Family Campus in honor of a $200 million gift from the couple, their daughter, and their granddaughter in 2005, according to Israeli media reports at the time.