José Mindlin

Who was José Mindlin?

José Ephim Mindlin was a Brazilian lawyer, businessperson and bibliophile, born to Russian Jewish parents from Odessa. He was the owner of the largest private library in Latin America, with more than 38,000 titles. A large number of the collection was donated to the University of São Paulo in May 2006, mostly regarding Brazilian studies. In March 23, 2013 a building was built in the university's campus specifically to maintain this massive library, named after the Guita and José Mindlin Foundation, who made the donation. Mindlin had said he wanted to keep the library alive through the continuous growth of the collection and scientific contributions by academics.

Son of dentist Ephim Mindlin and of Fanny Mindlin, both born in Odessa, he graduated from the University of São Paulo law school. He worked as a lawyer for 15 years, until he founded with some friends Metal Leve, an automobile piston company, which went on to become a large international player in the automobile parts industry.