Sigmund Sternberg

Sir Sigmund Sternberg, KCSG, GCFO, JP (Hungarian: Sternberg Zsigmond; 2 June 1921 – 18 October 2016) was a Hungarian-British philanthropist, interfaith campaigner, businessman and Labour Party donor.

Sternberg was born in 1921 in Budapest, Hungary. He was Jewish. He emigrated to England in 1939, and was naturalised as a British citizen in 1947.

Sternberg worked in the scrap metal trade. After the war, he founded Sternberg Group of Companies. By 1965, he retired from the scrap metal trade and focused on property investments.

Sternberg worked in promoting dialogue between different faiths. For example, he relocated a Roman Catholic convent at Auschwitz. Moreover, he organised the first papal visit to a synagogue in 1986. Additionally, he negotiated the Vatican's recognition of the state of Israel

Sternberg established The Sir Sigmund Sternberg Charitable Foundation in 1969 and was one of the co-founders of the Three Faiths Forum. He was the founding Chairman of CRU Group. Sternberg was Life President of the Movement for Reform Judaism. He was chairman of the Sternberg Interfaith Gold Medallion.

In 1976, Sternberg was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, and in 1985 he was made a Papal Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great (KCSG) by Pope John Paul II. He was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1998 for his interfaith work worldwide. In November 2005, Sternberg was promoted to the highest rank within the Royal Order of Francis I to the grade of Knight Grand Cross (GCFO), this in recognition of his contributions to furthering the interfaith activities of the British and Irish Delegation. In 2008, he received the FIRST International Award for Responsible Capitalism, lifetime achievement medal.

Sternberg married Ruth Schiff in 1949. They had a son, Michael Sternberg QC, and a daughter, artist Frances Aviva Blane. They divorced in the 1960s, and he later married Hazel Sternberg, who died in 2014. He died on 18 October 2016.