NJ philanthropist’s $10 million gift is largest ever to U.S. Holocaust Museum

by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer

Eric F. Ross, a philanthropist from South Orange and Palm Beach, was feted in Washington, DC, at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on April 26 for his gift of $10 million to the institution, making him the largest single donor to the museum; the gift is also the largest he has made to any organization.

The money, given over a period of time, has been used to mount an exhibition on Anne Frank — the first display of her writings outside Amsterdam — and a current exhibit on anti-Semitism and the history of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The Eric F. and Lore Ross Administrative Center at the museum is named in honor of Ross and his wife; it was dedicated in memory of his parents, Albert and Regina Rosenberg. The rest of the funds went into the museum’s endowment.

“He’s a true partner to the museum,” said its director, Sara J. Bloomfield. “He doesn’t just write a check and walk away or say, here’s what you should do. He wants to be a part of the museum.”

At the April 26 event, the Rosses marched into the museum rotunda with soldiers as a military band played. Inside, they were given two founder’s medals and a specially created framed memento that includes photographs of important moments in the history of the museum and their donations. On the occasion, a United States flag was flown outside the museum in honor of the Rosses and later presented to Eric Ross.

“He wants to ensure the museum is vital and viable long after he’s gone and after I’m gone. He’s worked to do that,” said Bloomfield, who added, “It’s so important that the first donor of $10 million is someone whose life was shaped by World War II.”

“There is no museum or organization like the Holocaust Museum that reflects and teaches the barbarism that most people forget,” Ross said in an interview with NJ Jewish News last week.

Ross, 87, a native of Dortmund, Germany, was 19, working and living in Hamburg, when Kristallnacht erupted on Nov. 9, 1938. He escaped that week to the United States via France and England, arriving on the SS Washington. Although he had hoped to bring his parents here as well, he did not succeed. They were deported from Frankfurt, where they lived, to Theresienstadt and were murdered at Auschwitz.

In the United States, Ross worked in the rubber industry before serving in the United States Army during World War II. Following his service, he started his own vinyl scrap dealership and eventually began recycling the material. He ultimately developed a process to manufacture virgin vinyl compounds. His company, Alpha Chemicals and Plastics Corp., located in Newark, became the leading supplier of specialty PVC compounds for a variety of industries and manufacturers. He started a second company, Mercer Plastics, in Florida. Both companies were eventually purchased by a Fortune 500 company.

Ross has been a significant benefactor of institutions in New Jersey, including United Jewish Appeal of MetroWest NJ where he is a donor at the highest level. He is also a major contributor to the Jewish Community Foundation. The upper school of the Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union is located on the Eric F. Ross Campus in West Orange, and the Leon & Toby Cooperman JCC is located on the Ross Family Campus in West Orange. They have also been generous donors to Newark’s New Jersey Performing Arts Center, whose entranceway in 2002 was named the Eric F. and Lore Ross Rotunda.

For Bloomfield, what is remarkable is that Ross never grew bitter about the loss of his parents. “Instead, he has taken what he worked so hard to earn and used it for a source of good,” she said. “That’s why it’s so meaningful.”