Jacob Blaustein
President of the American Jewish Committee
Louis Blaustein immigrated to the United States from his parents’ home in Lithuania in 1883, at the age of fourteen. He became a peddler, traveling from farm to farm in eastern Pennsylvania. Later, he settled in Baltimore, where he married Henrietta Gittelsohn and had five children, three of whom survived into adulthood: Jacob Blaustein (1892), Fanny Blaustein Thalheimer (1895) and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg (1899).
In the early years of the twentieth century, Louis and Jacob Blaustein began delivering kerosene from a horse-drawn wagon through the streets of Baltimore. In 1910, they founded the American Oil Company (Amoco) in a one-room office in a converted stable. The company’s innovations included one of the first drive-in gas stations, the first gasoline pump to show the motorist the amount of fuel received, and the original antiknock gasoline that permitted the development of the high-compression engine.
Today, the Blaustein family is represented by three businesses: American Trading and Production Corporation (Atapco), Lord Baltimore Capital Corporation, and Rosemore, Inc.
Jacob Blaustein was an industrialist who was drawn into the complex world of diplomatic service. He participated in negotiations on behalf of two United States presidents, peacekeeping missions, and service at the birth of the nation of Israel. As President of the American Jewish Committee, he worked to protect the civil and religious rights of Jews and other minorities and to promote intergroup tolerance. Jacob Blaustein was a lifelong advocate for human rights and helped to promote the idea of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, a position that was established more than twenty years after his death in 1970.
Hilda Katz Blaustein shared with her husband the belief that hard work and a positive outlook could achieve wonders in America. She devoted herself to her family and to serving others, and held leadership positions in numerous organizations. She was a trustee of the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, the United Nations Association of Maryland, and the Women’s Advertising Club of Baltimore. Hilda Katz Blaustein died in 1977.
Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research
The Jacob Blaustein Instiutes for Desert Research is part of the Ben-Gurion University, and is located in the Midreshet Ben-Gurion campus in the centre of the Negev desert in Israel. The Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is the desert region of southern Israel.
The Institute was established in 1974 as a result of a recommendation made by the Israeli Council for Higher Education in 1972. It was renamed as the Blaustein Insititute for Desert Research in 1980 after a donation to the university by the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation.
The institute is currently home to 65 scientists, 60 technical and administrative staff members, and over 100 Israeli and foreign research students studying within the Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies. The prime areas of research are environmental physics, solar energy, water and wastewater resources, desert ecology and desert architecture.
