Business and technologyמשולם ריקליס

Meshulam Riklis

Meshulam Riklis was an Israeli American financier and businessman who built a large group of companies in the United States through acquisitions.

1923 to 2019Founding Rapid-American CorporationLeveraged corporate acquisitionsFinancing Pia Zadora's filmsDonations to Israeli institutions

Born: 2 December 1923, Istanbul
Died: 25 January 2019, Tel Aviv
Occupation: businessperson, art collector, writer, philanthropist
Education: Ohio State University
Wars: World War II

Meshulam Riklis was born in 1923 in Istanbul

Riklis was born in Istanbul in 1923 to a Russian Jewish family. He grew up in Tel Aviv and attended the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium.

In 1947 he moved to the United States with his first wife, Judith Stern. He studied mathematics at Ohio State University and graduated in 1950. He later returned there for a master's degree.

He began as a stock analyst at Piper Jaffray in Minneapolis. In 1966 he formed the Rapid-American Corporation and used it to acquire many companies, including McCrory Stores, Schenley Industries and the Riviera hotel in Las Vegas. Forbes reported that his companies left creditors unpaid for over US$2.9 billion in debt.

In 1977 he married actress Pia Zadora and financed films in which she starred. He donated to institutions in Israel, including the Herzliya Gymnasium and Hadassah Mount Scopus, and lent Ariel Sharon money to buy the Shikmim farm in 1972.

After his divorce from Zadora in 1993, he later married Tali Sinai and returned to live in Israel in 2010. He died in Tel Aviv in 2019.