Leopold Stern, founder of the firm Stern Brothers & Company, New York, one of the pioneer, commercial, diamond-cutting firms in this city and honorary vice-president of the Montefiore Hospital, died on Saturday at the age of eighty.
The funeral was held Monday morning from Temple Emanu-El. Burial was in the family mausoleum in Beth-El Cemetery. Dr. Samuel Schulman, rabbi of Temple Emanu-El, officiated. The honorary pallbearers were Chief Justice Benjamin M. Cardoza of the Court of Appeals; August Oppeheimer, Charles Straus, William N. Rosendale, S. g. Rosenbaum, Samuel Sachs, Samuel Kridel, William Goldman, Otto Wormster and Harry Larter.
Mr. Stern was born in Monzingen, Germany, on April 19, 1848, where he received his education. He came to this country in 1863 and was followed the next year by other members of the family, who joined him in Philadelphia, where they were engaged in the manufacture of jewelry for eight years. In 1871 he came to New York City and, with his father, Nathan, and a brother, Isidor, opened the firm of Stern Brothers & Co.
The firm was at first devoted to the manufacture of jewelry, but at the death of his brother, Isidor, in 1907. Mr. Stern sold the manufacturing branch of the business, and since then the firm has been engaged in the importation and cutting of diamonds.
Mr. Stern was much interested in the work of the hospitals in New York. He was a director of the Montefiore Hospital for twenty-five years and was later made a vice-president. He also was a member of the board of trustees of Bellevue and Allied Hospitals for twenty-three years and a member of the board of the United Hospital Fund.
Mr. Stern was active in Republican politics and voted as a Republican elector for President McKinley and again for President Taft. At one time he was appointed as a member of the commission for the revision of the banking laws of the State of New York. He was a member of the Republican Club of New York for many years.
He was a member of the Bankers Club and a director of the Market and Fulton Bank and the Maiden Lane Savings Bank. He was president of the Manhattan Lodge of the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith and president of the Jewelers’ Board of Trade for many years.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
