ABRAHAM

ABRAHAM, family of U.S. merchants. ABRAHAM ABRAHAM (1843–1911), son of a Bavarian immigrant, and Joseph Wechsler, himself an immigrant, established a dry goods store in Brooklyn, New York, in 1865. It became Brooklyn's largest department store, with six branches in metropolitan New York. On Wechsler's retirement in 1893 Abraham and the brothers Isidore and Nathan straus took over the firm, which they named Abraham & Straus. However, the straus ' main interest remained focused on Macy's. Abraham's son-in-law, SIMON F. ROTHSCHILD (1861–1936), succeeded to the presidency of A. & S. in 1925, and from 1930 to 1936 was chairman of its board. Another son-in-law, CHARLES EDUARD BLUM (1863–1946), was president from 1930 to 1937 and board chairman from 1937 to 1946. In 1937 WALTER N. ROTHSCHILD (1892–1960), a grandson of Abraham Abraham and son of Simon F. Rothschild, became A. & S. president and served as board chairman from 1955 to 1960. Subsequently A. & S. became a unit in the chain known as Federated Department Stores, Inc. Abraham's great-grandson, and son of Walter N. Rothschild, WALTER N. ROTHSCHILD JR. (1920–2003), was president of A. & S. from 1963 to 1969. He served as chairman of the New York Urban Coalition from 1970 to 1973 and as chairman of the National Urban Coalition from 1973 to 1977. The family participated actively through all the generations in general and Jewish philanthropies but became remote from Jewish life. (Hanns G. Reissner)