S. Daniel Abraham, the American entrepreneur and philanthropist who made his fortune through Slim-Fast Foods, a line of dietary supplements popular in the late 1980s, and who championed the cause of peace between Israelis and Palestinians, died on Sunday at 100. 

Abraham, a prolific donor to the Democratic Party and Middle East peace initiatives, was born in New York in 1924. In the 1940s, Abraham served as an infantryman in the U.S. Army, completing his service in 1947. Shortly after, he purchased Thompson Medical Company, the company that would later introduce Slim-Fast Foods.

He was particularly drawn to the cause of establishing lasting peace in the Middle East, believing strongly that Israel’s security was dependent on good relations with neighboring Arab countries. Between 1988 and 2002, he made over 60 trips to the Middle East alongside Utah Rep. Wayne Owens, a Democrat, meeting with Arab leaders including Prince Abdullah of Jordan and Yasser Arafat, and Israeli prime ministers including Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Ariel Sharon.

In 1989, Abraham and Owens established the Washington-based S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, a nonprofit advocacy group that “works to improve the lives of Israelis and Palestinians, narrow the conflict, advance rights and build popular support for peacebuilding,” according to the center’s website. Abrahams also donated heavily to the left-leaning New Israel Fund.

“A brilliant, humble businessman who experienced the destruction of war as a combat soldier in World War II, Mr. Abraham exhibited a tireless and selfless dedication to achieving peace, security and prosperity for all peoples of the Middle East,” Robert Wexler, the president of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, wrote in a statement after Abraham’s death.

“When peace comes to the Middle East — and it will — we will have Dan Abraham to thank. Dan, though, never sought any thanks or recognition. Mr. Abraham was righteous and just — a tzadik,” Wexler wrote. 

In 2006, Abraham published Peace is Possible: Conversations with Arab and Israeli Leaders from 1988 to the Present, a book detailing his experiences, which included a foreword by former President Bill Clinton, with whom he maintained a close relationship. 

“The obituaries will call him ‘billionaire founder of SlimFast.’ But we, first congregants of the Palm Beach Synagogue (1994), knew him as a funny, approachable man,” Elaine Rosenberg Miller, a member of Abraham’s congregation in Florida, wrote in a piece in The Times of Israel. 

Abraham made significant contributions to causes within the Jewish community and beyond. According to an obituary by the American Friends of Bar-Ilan University Board of Directors and Board of Trustees, his philanthropy spanned Jewish education, Holocaust remembrance and medical research. In the early 2000s, Abraham donated to the Mayo Clinic, creating the Dan Abraham Healthy Living Center, which opened in 2007.

Abraham also donated extensively to the Democratic Party and the Clinton Foundation, giving $3 million to a super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid in 2016, according to Forbes. In 2018, he was ranked by OpenSecrets as a top individual Democratic donor. 

In addition to his domestic political donations, Abraham also supported Israeli political movements. Ahead of Israel’s 2015 elections, Abraham was a major donor to the V15 movement, an ultimately unsuccessful effort to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Abraham also donated heavily to institutions of higher education in the United States and Israel, endowing chairs at Harvard University Medical School and Princeton University. At Yeshiva University, he funded the S. Daniel Abraham Israel Program and the S. Daniel Abraham Honors Program at Stern College for Women, receiving an honorary doctorate for his contributions. In Israel, Abraham funded the Daniel Abraham School for Business Administration and Economics at Bar-Ilan University. 

“Mr. Abraham’s life was guided by purpose, generosity and a deep love for the Jewish people and the State of Israel, and his influence will be felt by current and future generations,” Yeshiva University’s president, Ari Berman, and its board chair, Ira Mitzner, wrote in an obituary.  

He is survived by his wife, Ewa, and his children: Rebecca Gridish, Leah Pinck, Tammy Wolchok, Simi Ganz, Sarah Abraham and Sam Abraham, and their families.

Ed. note: An earlier version of this report incorrectly identified Abraham’s age. He was a few weeks short of his 101st birthday.