Israel Sieff, Baron Sieff

The ashes of Israel Sieff placed with Simon Marks, Golders Green Crematorium

Israel Moses Sieff, Baron Sieff (4 May 1889, Prestwich, Lancashire – 14 February 1972, Marylebone, London) was an English businessman and Zionist. He was born in Manchester, where his father, a migrant from Lithuania, founded a prosperous business.

Sieff was the son of Ephraim Sieff.^[1] He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Manchester University. One of the theatres at Manchester Grammar School is named in his honour.

In 1918 Sieff was a member of the Zionist Commission which visited Palestine under the leadership of Chaim Weizmann.

Sieff was president of the Political and Economic Planning think-tank from its foundation in 1931 and its chairman until 1939. He was chairman of the British retailer Marks & Spencer from 1964 to 1967. On 18 January 1966 he was created a life peer as Baron Sieff, of Brimpton in the Royal County of Berkshire.^[2]

Upon the death of his son Daniel—and with the financial support of his business partners and relatives by marriage, the Marks and Sacher families—Sieff endowed the 1934 creation, by Chaim Weizmann, of the Daniel Sieff Research Institute in Rehovot in present-day Israel. Renamed the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1949 with the Sieff family's consent, it is Israel's premier research university in the natural sciences.

Sieff was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium and his ashes were placed next to those of Simon Marks.

The second of Sieff's three sons, Marcus, was also created a life peer, becoming Lord Sieff of Brimpton.

References

1. "Person Page 19183". Thepeerage.com. 2006-11-01. Retrieved 2015-08-01.
2. The London Gazette: no. 43877. p. 666. 18 January 1966.