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Sam Zell, Jewish billionaire whose media purchase tarnished a legendary career, dies at 81
(JTA) — Sam Zell, a Chicago real estate magnate and son of Holocaust survivors who led a tumultuous leveraged buyout that bankrupted the Tribune media company in the early 2000s, died Thursday. He was 81.
Before buying the Tribune Co. in 2007, the billionaire was known for his gift for reviving moribund companies. He developed an office-tower company that he sold to the Blackstone Group for $39 billion in 2007. His firm also invested in manufacturing, travel, retail, healthcare and energy. He pioneered the use of REITs, real estate securities that trade like stocks on the major exchanges.
But Zell appeared to lose his magic touch in 2007 after buying the Tribune company and its assets, which included televisions stations, the Chicago Cubs baseball team and major newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. The company foundered in what Zell himself called the “deal from hell,” and filed for bankruptcy in December 2008, one year after Zell took the company private in a heavily leveraged $8.2 billion deal. The deal took place at a time of declining fortunes in the media industry, Zell’s personal leadership and decision to saddle the company with debt were widely blamed for the failure.
“The ‘grave dancer’ of real estate development was now the ‘grave digger’ of the newspaper world,” a Forbes columnist wrote at the time.
Zell was a major donor to Jewish causes, including the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center in Israel, the Israel Center for Social and Economic Progress, the American Jewish Committee and the Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School, named for his father, in Chicago. (Its alumni include former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and actor Ike Barinholtz; a Jewish high school in Chicago is named for Zell’s mother Sophie.)
According to a 2007 profile in the Forward, Zell would regale campers as a Jewish summer camp counselor with tales of his parents’ escape from the Holocaust. According to his 2017 autobiography, “Am I Being Too Subtle? Straight Talk From a Business Rebel,” Zell’s parents, then known as Ruchla and Berek Zielonka, escaped from Poland at the onset of the Nazi invasion and embarked with their 2-year-old daughter on a circuitous, 21-month journey that took them through Lithuania, Russia and Japan before they made it to the United States. They travelled on transit visas supplied by Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat in Vilnius who saved thousands of Jews.
Zell was born on Sept. 28, 1941, in Chicago. He graduated in 1963 from the University of Michigan, where he was also a member of the Jewish Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. He managed student housing apartments as an undergraduate and founded his chief investment vehicle, Equity Group Investments, in 1968.
“Sam Zell was a self-made, visionary entrepreneur. He launched and grew hundreds of companies during his 60-plus-year career and created countless jobs,” Equity Group Investments said in a written statement on Thursday. “Although his investments spanned industries across the globe, he was most widely recognized for his critical role in creating the modern real estate investment trust, which today is a more than $4 trillion industry.”
Zell was married three times. His survivors include his wife, Helen, three children and nine grandchildren.
Zell credited his own drive to the lessons he learned from his parents. In his memoir, he remembers seeing footage of the concentration camp atrocities that his parents escaped.
“Those unforgettable images were my introduction to the Holocaust,” Zell wrote. “Looking back, I can see that they accelerated my maturity and gave me a sober awareness of the world. That film also went a long way toward helping me understand my parents’ orientation toward life — why they pushed so hard and were so determined for their children to succeed. Economic success had been critical in securing their freedom. They had escaped Poland in part because they had the means to do so — my father’s prescience in storing away money.”
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Czechs Investigate Fire After Reports of Anti-Israel Group Claiming Responsibility
Police officers and firefighters stand in front of a burned production hall at an industrial area in Pardubice, Czech Republic, March 20, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/David W Cerny
Czech investigators are probing an overnight fire at an industrial complex as potentially being a deliberate attack, officials said on Friday, following media reports that a group protesting against Israeli weapons claimed responsibility.
Firefighters said on X that they had responded to a fire at a storage hall in a complex in Pardubice, 120 km (75 miles) east of Prague. No one was injured in the fire, which spread to another building.
Czech news website Aktualne.cz reported that a protest group said it had set fire to a “key manufacturing hub” for Israeli weapons in Pardubice to end its role in the “genocide in Gaza.”
Czech defence firm LPP Holding in a statement on its website said it had confirmed that a fire broke out at one of its facilities on Friday and it was cooperating with authorities.
The company, with a location in the complex, announced plans in 2023 to cooperate with Israeli company Elbit Systems on drone production.
“At this time, we will not speculate on the causes or circumstances of the incident and will await the official conclusions of the investigation,” LPP said.
Police initially said they were investigating whether the fire was intentional and checking public claims of a “concrete group,” without naming it.
They later said investigators with security services were probing the incident under a section of the criminal code dealing with terrorism.
“Based on what we know so far, it is likely the incident may be related to a terrorist attack,” Interior Minister Lubomir Metnar said.
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Trump Calls NATO ‘Cowards’ Over Lack of Support in Iran War
US President Donald Trump speaks on the day he honors reigning Major League Soccer (MLS) champion Inter Miami CF players and team officials with an event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, March 5, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
President Donald Trump assailed NATO allies on Friday over their lack of support for the US-Israel war against Iran, calling the longtime US allies “cowards.”
“Without the U.S.A., NATO IS A PAPER TIGER!” Trump said in a social media post.
Trump has been calling for major US allies and others, none of which were consulted or advised on the war, to help secure the safety of shipping through the Iran-controlled Strait of Hormuz. The conflict has roiled global markets since US-Israel strikes began on Feb. 28.
The US president complained NATO countries did not want to join the fight against Iran, yet still complain about high oil prices.
“Now that fight is Militarily WON, with very little danger for them, they complain about the high oil prices they are forced to pay, but don’t want to help open the Strait of Hormuz, a simple military maneuver that is the single reason for the high oil prices. So easy for them to do, with so little risk,” he wrote.
“COWARDS, and we will REMEMBER!”
Germany, Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, and Canada pledged in a joint statement on Thursday to join “appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait.” But German Chancellor Friedrich Merz made clear that this presupposed an end to combat.
French President Emmanuel Macron said after a European Union summit in Brussels that defending international law and promoting de-escalation was “the best we can do,” adding: “I have not heard anyone here express a willingness to enter this conflict — quite the opposite.”
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Ukraine Deploys Units to Five Middle East Countries to Intercept Drones
A Sting interceptor drone by the Ukrainian company Wild Hornets flies at an undisclosed location in Ukraine, March 16, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Ukraine has deployed military units to five Middle Eastern countries to help protect critical and civilian infrastructure against drones, Ukrainian security council secretary Rustem Umerov said on Friday after visiting the region.He said the teams had been sent to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and Jordan, which have come under fire during the Iran war. Further steps for “long-term security cooperation” have been outlined with each of the five nations, he said, without giving details.
“Ukrainian military specialists are operating in each of these countries under the coordination of the National Security and Defense Council,” Umerov wrote on X.
Kyiv has said nearly a dozen countries have sought its help and advice in defending against cheap kamikaze drones, which Iran is using against its Gulf neighbors. Russia has launched similar drones at Ukraine since its 2022 invasion, and Kyiv has developed its own advanced interceptor drone capabilities.
Although Gulf states operate sophisticated US-made air defense systems, the missiles they use are in short supply and they cost much more than Iran’s Shahed drones.
Moscow has bombarded Ukraine with nearly 60,000 Shaheds and similar systems. It initially bought thousands of them from Iran, before establishing its own production facilities to make them under license. Ukraine has also launched drone attacks at Russia, although on a smaller scale.
UKRAINE WANTS MONEY AND TECHNOLOGY IN RETURN
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last week Kyiv wanted money and technology in return for its help in the Middle East although this still had to be agreed.
Zelenskiy has said the United States was among nations that sought Kyiv’s help, and that Ukrainian specialists had been sent to a US military base in Jordan.
He said Friday that Kyiv has deployed 228 Ukrainian military experts to help Middle Eastern countries with drone defense and is working with Middle Eastern leaders to sign “serious agreements.”
Zelenskiy also told reporters that Ukrainian and US working groups would continue work on bilateral documents between Kyiv and Washington and discuss a wide-ranging drone deal at a meeting in the US at the weekend.
US President Donald Trump, who has a rocky relationship with Zelenskiy, has denied Washington needs Kyiv’s help in downing drones.
Umerov said on Friday that drone interception units were initially protecting civilian and critical infrastructure, and work was under way to expand their coverage areas.
The teams were using Ukrainian technology to counter drone attacks and partners were consulting with them, he said.
Zelenskiy said he had ordered Umerov, the military and the foreign ministry to assess “the real readiness” of countries to join international initiatives to secure the Strait of Hormuz, an important waterway for global energy supplies effectively closed since US-Israeli attacks began on Iran on Feb. 28.
“It is important that Ukraine‘s global significance in ensuring security and the quality of Ukrainian security expertise in safeguarding lives are recognized by all partners,” he wrote on Telegram.