National magazine pays tribute to three local families

They are among nearly 200 other families honored by the New York-based mainstream publication. Avenue sought families that have established a record of achievement and continued their legacy through succeeding generations, according to the introduction by the editor in chief, Sandra Bass.

Avenue, with a circulation of 81,000, publishes nine monthly issues, plus three special issues annually. This year, special issues include Avenue Asia, Avenue Home and Avenue Legacy; the latter is the first issue in the publication's history to focus on American Jews.

The publication cites the head of the Lowenberg clan, William -- a survivor of Auschwitz and Dachau and presidential appointee to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council -- for achievements that include leadership in Holocaust remembrance.

Chair of the Lowenberg Corp., a San Francisco real estate firm, Lowenberg immigrated to this country in 1949, the only survivor in his family. "I found my job through a Jewish community agency that hired refugees," says the German-born Lowenberg. "I'm grateful to this city and feel I owe something back."

Today, Lowenberg is vice chair of the international board of governors of the Shaare Zedek Medical Centers in Jerusalem and serves on the boards of the American Jewish Committee and Holocaust Center of Northern California.

Underscoring the breadth of Jewish geography, Lowenberg says he knows 90 percent of those listed in the Avenue issue. "The majority are self-made people, some first generation, some second, but not much more," he points out.

Among those with a rags-to-riches story is Simon Swig. Arriving from Lithuania alone at age 13 with no money or education, he taught himself English, made it through school and managed to bring his parents here.

Eventually, he went on to establish a successful banking business and to serve in the Massachusetts Legislature. On a three-day trip to San Francisco in 1945, his son Benjamin bought a hotel, sold it at a profit and bought the nearby Fairmont.

Thus began the Swigs' migration west and the family's prominent position in the hotel business. Benjamin Swig, a founding trustee of Brandeis University, engaged in a plethora of philanthropic activities, passing the charitable ethos on to children Richard, Betty and the late Melvin.

The Haas family, among the oldest Jewish clans in San Francisco, also is honored. Family patriarch Walter Haas Sr. married Levi Strauss' grandniece, and together with his brother-in-law Daniel Koshland Sr. he helped develop the apparel company into the empire it is today.

Haas marriages turned the family -- recently identified as one of the nation's wealthiest -- into what Avenue Legacy dubs the Strauss-Stern-Haas-Koshland-Goldman clan. The tribe earned a write-up for its extensive role in getting San Francisco Jewish charities on their feet in the late 19th century and for supporting a range of projects to this day.

The magazine wanted to acknowledge those who support Jewish interests as well as the secular community at large. To compile the list, the magazine staff fanned out across the country asking Jewish leaders and institutions for their advice and counsel.

Among other families mentioned in Avenue Legacy are those headed by director Steven Spielberg and by Michael Milken, the king of '80s junk-bond trading who has become a leader in funding prostate cancer research, education and a range of Jewish groups.