Abram L. Sachar

He was born in New York City to Samuel Sachar, a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania, and Sarah Abramowitz, a native of Jerusalem.

[2] From 1920 to 1923 he studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge University, England, where he received his doctorate in history for his thesis on the Victorian House of Lords.

[4] During World War II, Sachar worked as a radio news analyst in Chicago and New York, commenting on contemporary affairs.

[2] In 1948, trustees of the newly formed, Jewish-sponsored, nonsectarian Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, asked Albert Einstein to be their first president.

Their third choice was Sachar, who had displayed his scholarly credentials and devotion to the Jewish people through previous leadership of the Hillel organization at the University of Illinois, and through his 1930 work, History of the Jews.

[5] During his 20-year tenure, Sachar's leadership and fund-raising skills were largely credited for building Brandeis into a major research institution.

[1] His wife of 67 years,[1] Thelma, survived him; she died in 1997 and was interred beside him at a special plot, created at their request, near the Sachar International Institute at Brandeis University.