Abraham Spiegel, 97; Donated to Many Causes

Abraham Spiegel, a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to Los Angeles and became a prominent real estate developer, formed Columbia Savings & Loan and was a major philanthropist, has died. He was 97.

Spiegel died of pneumonia April 10 at his home in Beverly Hills, according to publicist Warren Cowan.

Formed by Spiegel in 1974 and based in Beverly Hills, Columbia Savings & Loan was for many years considered one of the nation’s best-run thrifts. But under the stewardship of his son, Thomas, the institution collapsed in the savings and loan debacle of the 1990s.

Abraham Spiegel and his wife, Edita, grew up in Ukraine and in 1944 were imprisoned in Auschwitz, where their 2-year-old son, Uziel, died in a gas chamber.

After the war, the family moved to the United States, where Spiegel built tract homes in the San Fernando Valley and Orange County and went into the savings and loan business.

The Spiegels became philanthropists. Among their projects were the Children’s Memorial at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, the Spiegel Family Building at the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora in Tel Aviv and the Spiegel Family Park in Tel Aviv.

Spiegel also donated funds to Bar-Ilan University in Israel, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1978 and a lifetime achievement in philanthropy award in 1995.

In Los Angeles, he was instrumental in establishing the Yeshiva University of Los Angeles high school and Yavneh Hebrew Academy and served on the city’s 1984 Olympics Commission and other civic bodies.

Spiegel was an early and staunch supporter of Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, whom he backed in reaction to the appeals to racial prejudice by Bradley’s opponent, Sam Yorty, during the 1969 mayoral campaign. After Bradley won his rematch against Yorty in 1973, Spiegel became Bradley’s “point man” in the city’s Jewish community.

Columbia Savings & Loan, under the stewardship of Spiegel’s son, Thomas, who became chief executive in 1977, eventually suffered huge losses and the close scrutiny of federal regulators.

In 1982, the younger Spiegel met Michael Milken at Drexel Burnham Lambert, from whom he learned about junk bond investments. In time, Columbia became Drexel Burnham Lambert’s best customer for junk bonds.

At first, the investments made Columbia very profitable.

But when the value of junk bonds began to tumble in the late 1980s, Columbia suffered huge losses and in December 1989 Thomas Spiegel resigned from the thrift. His father, who had retired in March 1989, returned as chairman in January 1990.

Columbia was seized by federal regulators in January 1991 and nine months later its assets were sold at a loss to taxpayers of more than $1 billion. In December 1994, a jury acquitted Thomas Spiegel on federal criminal charges arising from the failure of Columbia.

In addition to his son, Abraham Spiegel is survived by his daughter, Rita Spiegel; five grandchildren; a great-granddaughter; a brother; and two sisters.

Public memorial services are planned in Los Angeles and Tel Aviv.