Rich 200 getting richer – and more generous (May 25, 2006)

Rich 200 getting richer – and more generous (May 25, 2006): "Rich 200 getting richer – and more generous
Melissa Singer

THEY may be getting richer, but some of the 30-plus Jews on this year’s BRW magazine Rich 200 list are also among the country’s most generous philanthropists.

Australia’s richest Jew, Westfield boss Frank Lowy, increased his wealth this year to $5.4 billion. Lowy, 74, who fled Nazi-occupied Europe, retains his number-two position on the list behind James Packer, who inherited his father Kerry’s media empire following his death in December 2005.

In third position, cardboard king Richard Pratt increased his wealth by $500 million to $5.2 billion in the same year he received an honorary doctorate from Israel’s Ben-Gurion University for philanthropy and his contribution to water research in the southern Negev. Pratt, 71, also supports a range of Jewish and non-Jewish causes through the Pratt Foundation, which donates an estimated $12 million each year."