Alan B. Slifka

Education Slifka was born on October 13, 1929, in New York City. His father was Joseph Slifka, who owned textile and real estate businesses, was a developer of apartment buildings, and died in 1992. Slifka and his twin sister Barbara were initially home schooled by their mother, Sylvia. This provided an opportunity for the twins to learn the importance of moral values and the basics of coexistence. In the fourth grade, the twins began studying at the Ethical Culture Society's Fieldston School.

Slifka graduated from Yale University in 1951, where he worked on the business staff of campus humor magazine the Yale Record. He then went on to earn a Master's degree in Business Administration at Harvard University in 1953. In 1993, he became founding chairman emeritus.

Together with sociologist Eugene Wiener, Slifka was a co-founder in 1989 of The Abraham Fund Initiatives, named for the common ancestor of Arabs and Jews, and served as chairman of the organization since its founding. This was the first nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering coexistence between Israel's Arab and Jewish citizens.

The Slifka Program on Intercommunal Coexistence at Brandeis University, create by Slifka in 2001, seeks to build professional expertise and creative leadership in the field of coexistence and offers a master's degree in coexistence and conflict. The Sylvia and Joseph Slifka Israeli Coexistence Scholarship at Brandeis, which Slifka funded in honor of his parents, is awarded each year to two citizens of Israel (one Jewish, one Arab) who are committed to fostering coexistence and harmony.

Alan B. Slifka Foundation The Alan B. Slifka Foundation was established in New York in 1965. The foundation's goals include harmony not only among Jews and Arabs but also between religious and secular elements of Israeli society. In addition to fostering Jewish values and education, the foundation also promotes biomedical research on sarcomas and autism spectrum disorders.

At the time of his death on February 4, 2011, aged 81, from cancer, he was married to Riva Ariella Ritvo-Slifka. In 2017, they claimed that their elderly aunt had orchestrated a power grab against their interests, and they sued their aunt Barbara; that case was thrown out. After Alan's death, his son Randy Slifka sued in March 2023 seeking $37 million in connection with the sale; that case was also dismissed. A Paul Weiss spokesman, speaking of the more recent suit, said "Mr. Slifka is a serial litigator who filed a nearly identical claim that was summarily dismissed last month in the same court. This lawsuit is equally frivolous ..."