ATRAN, FRANK Z.

ATRAN, FRANK Z. (1885–1952), U.S. businessman and philanthropist. Atran was born in Russia. He immigrated to Belgium in the wake of the Russian Revolution and established a textile business there. Subsequently he moved the firm to France and then to New York City, where it was highly successful. Toward the end of his life Atran contributed generously   to various charitable causes and Jewish organizations, particularly to the Jewish Labor Committee, which established the Atran Jewish Culture House. In 1950 he contributed a million dollars for a laboratory building for Mount Sinai Hospital. Several months before his death he established a chair in Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture at Columbia University. (Hillel Halkin)