Joseph Koret

Koret was born in 1900 to a Jewish family in Odessa, Russian Empire (now Ukraine). He immigrated to the United States with his family as a baby in 1901 where he grew up poor on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Koret moved to San Francisco at age 17, Due to a series of unsuccessful corporate acquisitions the company was near bankruptcy in 1973, when the Korets convinced their friend, Tad Taube, to take over as CEO. Taube began increasing their fortune through further company growth and successful real estate investment. After a series of expansions, divestitures, and a public offering, Koret of California was sold for $71 million in 1979 to its first patent licensee, Levi Strauss & Company. The company was spun off by Levi's in a LBO in 1986, and after further corporate changes is now an Oakland, California-based subsidiary of Kellwood Company, distributing mid-priced clothing to department stores throughout the United States. ==Philanthropy and awards==

In the late 1970s Taube convinced the Korets, who had no children, to donate their estate to charity, the Koret Foundation. Koret received the community service award of the American Jewish Congress and was to receive the Gates of Jerusalem medal from the State of Israel Bonds but died before he could receive the award. ==Personal life==

Koret married twice. His first wife was Stephanie Brown, a Jewish immigrant from Romania, whom he married as a teenager; She converted to Judaism. with Koret writing "I have given much thought to the future of the Koret Foundation and it is my desire, as well as Susan’s, that she prepare herself to become a director and moving force in the foundation." ==References==