Almost every headline over the past week announcing Daniel Lurie as San Francisco’s next mayor includes some variation of the phrase “Levi Strauss heir” — our publication included.
But just what is Lurie’s connection to the near-legendary founder of the American denim empire Levi Strauss & Co.? And what does the Haas family have to do with it?
The answer is woven into the fabric of San Francisco’s Jewish history.
Before he became a brand, Strauss was a man. Loeb Strauss, the son of a peddler, was born in 1829 in the German Kingdom of Bavaria. He traveled to the U.S. to join family in New York around the age of 18, then headed west during the California Gold Rush in 1853. Soon after he arrived in the U.S., he started going by Levi.
San Francisco at that time had become a mecca for German Jewish traders and merchants who built a prosperous middle class in the city (and at times looked down on the subsequent waves of Jewish immigrants from Russia-ruled lands as uneducated and superstitious).
There Strauss began to manufacture and sell workwear. One of his customers, Jewish tailor Jacob Davis, came to him with the idea of durable denim pants with rivets. They patented that idea in 1873.
Strauss died a rich man in 1902, but he never married and had no children. He left his company, fortune and legacy of philanthropy — including donating to create UC Berkeley’s first 28 scholarships — to his sister’s four sons who had the last name Stern.
That’s where the Haas family comes in.
The Haas family, also from Bavaria, became a successful Jewish mercantile family in San Francisco in the second half of the 1800s. Wolf “William” Haas and his brother Abraham Haas built Haas Bros. grocery into a thriving business.
Abraham’s son Walter Haas married Elise Stern, the daughter of one of Strauss’ nephews. Meanwhile, Wolf’s son Charles Haas, married Elise’s cousin Fanny (Fannie) Stern.
Too many names? Here’s a visual.
This merger of two major German Jewish families in San Francisco became the nexus of a vast fortune — one behind many major philanthropic gifts and one that will indirectly influence San Francisco’s future for the next four years.
OK, let’s skip ahead.
Generations have passed, and the Haas family remains extremely wealthy and extremely philanthropic.
You might know the name Haas from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and Haas Pavilion, Stanford’s Haas Center for Public Service and Jerusalem’s Haas Promenade. (There are also quite a few Stern buildings that are part of the extended legacy of Levi Strauss, including two at Stanford and, of course, San Francisco’s Stern Grove). Even more donations have been made through a network of family foundations.
How does Daniel Lurie fit into all this?
Lurie was born in 1977. His mother is Miriam “Mimi” Lurie Haas. His father is Rabbi Brian Lurie, a familiar Jewish leader in the Bay Area for decades. Brian Lurie first came to the city as an assistant rabbi at Temple Emanu-El and later headed the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation for 17 years.
Brian Lurie and Mimi Ruchwarger wed in 1968 after they met on a trip to Israel: “We had an Israel romance,” Brian Lurie said in a 1991 oral history.
They split up when Daniel Lurie was a toddler.
Both Brian and Mimi remarried. Mimi married Peter Haas in 1981 when Daniel was preschool age.
Peter Haas, who was born in 1918, is the son of Walter and Elise Haas, making him the great-grandnephew of Levi Strauss. Peter Haas was a noted philanthropist who gave to everything from Jewish institutions to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to the United Way to Cal scholarships. Peter Haas died in 2005 at the age of 86.
Peter Haas was also involved in the family business, serving in executive roles at Levi Strauss from 1958 to 1989, after which he became chair of the executive committee.
He and his brother Walter Haas Jr. are credited with the immense success of the clothing retailer — and with refusing to use segregated factories during the Civil Rights Era.
Levi Strauss & Co. first went public in 1971. The Haas family later took it private in the 1980s before once again going public in 2019.
Haas family members are still the largest shareholders. Mimi Haas’ net worth depends on the value of her stock, but it’s been reported that she is a billionaire.
Daniel Lurie and his older brother, Ari, were left some money by Peter Haas directly when he died in 2005, according to the SF Standard, but it’s really through his mother that he’s gained the sobriquet of “Levi Strauss heir.”
Lurie himself has joined the long history of his family’s philanthropy. In 2005, he founded Tipping Point Community, a nonprofit dedicated to combating poverty, where he served as CEO for 14 years. The organization has given away more than $440 million since its launch, according to its website. Last year, he also co-founded the Civic Joy Fund with Jewish activist and café owner Manny Yekutiel with the mission of reversing the negative reputation of post-Covid San Francisco.
Lurie’s stepfather, Peter Haas, described in a 1992 oral history the tradition of philanthropy that runs in his family.
“It had come from my forebears,” he said. “It was part of my father and mother. …They were both very much involved in philanthropy and helping in the community. That was rather an inheritance, I guess.”