Philip Belz, a business and community leader, philanthropist, and patron of the arts, died of heart failure Friday morning at Baptist Memorial Hospital East. He was 96. Belz was chairman emeritus and founder of Belz Enterprises, one of the largest commercial real estate companies in Tennessee and a leader of downtown redevelopment. Funeral services will be at 11:30 a.m. Sunday at Baron Hirsch Synagogue, said Rabbi Rafael Grossman, who will officiate. Burial will follow at Baron Hirsch Cemetery. He was a past president of the Baron Hirsch Synagogue and led in the construction of the previous Baron Hirsch Synagogue at 1750 Vollintine. Belz's charity included schools, hospitals and medical research facilities in Israel, Memphis and elsewhere. Kemmons Wilson, founder of Holiday Inns, was a joint venture partner with Belz in a number of businesses including their first Factory Outlet Mall at Interstate 40 and Canada Road and the Wimbleton Sportsplex at 6161 Shelby Oaks. Belz was an organizer of The Memphis Opera Theater and supported the arts all his life. He and his family sponsored an Artists Ascending concert series, which has brought exposure to up-and-coming musicians through the years at Baron Hirsch Synagogue. In 1971, he was named a Master of Free Enterprise by Junior Achievement of Memphis. In 1995, he received an honorary degree in music from Rhodes College in recognition of his founding of the Belz School of Music at New York's Yeshiva University. He especially enjoyed music. He played the flute frequently with the late Edwin Hubbard in dining rooms at The Peabody and at outlet malls, said his sole surviving son, Jack A. Belz. Belz came to Memphis as a small immigrant child in 1910 from Poland with his mother, Mary, to join his father, Moses, who had arrived earlier to work and save money for the ticket for them to join him. His father initially worked as a peddler from a wagon in the Raleigh Springs area and on Beale Street. Later, he started a dry goods and grocery store in the Pinch district, where Philip worked as a boy and young man, according to Margaret Sacks, who authored Life On A High Note, a biography of Philip Belz. Young Philip sang in the choir at Baron Hirsch Synagogue as a young man, where he was recognized as a gifted tenor. He studied voice and sang opera in Memphis at the Hotel DeVoy. Recognition of his talent led to an opportunity in the 1930s to study voice in New York under Emilio Roxas, who felt Philip had a tremendous future as a cantor or opera star, Sacks wrote. After a few months in New York, he decided to return to family obligations in Memphis and focused on business. He and his father and his cousin Sam Belz started a furniture factory and continued to operate the dry goods business. By the early 1940s, he began acquiring, renovating and selling duplexes, and later entered industrial park development. In the late 1940s, Jack Belz joined his father in the business and together they developed commercial and industrial real estate and developed business and properties that today are included under the umbrella business Belz Enterprises. The privately owned company develops, owns and operates a real estate portfolio of 25 million square feet of commercial and residential real estate in several states. Locally, the company is best known for its leadership role in downtown redevelopment efforts, which started with the reopening of The Peabody in 1981. Peabody Place, a continuing extension of The Peabody to add and interconnect with office, retail, apartment, parking and other developments, is continuing to evolve. An estimated $2 billion plus has been invested in the redevelopment of downtown Memphis since The Peabody reopened. Belz Enterprises' real estate portfolio includes hotels, shopping centers, office buildings, office and distribution parks, factory outlet malls and apartment properties, which together have more than 3,000 employees. Belz's wife, Sarah Thomas Belz, died in 1991. Two of their sons, Paul and Leslie Belz, died in a plane crash Nov. 6, 1963. In addition to his son, Jack, he is survived by 10 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren. The family requests that memorial gifts be made to a charity of the donor's choice. (Published in The Commercial Appeal 8/5/2000)

Additional information provided by Tevye: "Here lies my dear husband and our dear father, reb [Mr.] Shraga Feivel, son of reb [Mr.] Moshe. Died 3 Av [5]760 [2/3 Aug 2000.] May his soul be bound up in the bond of everlasting life." Note that "reb" is an honorific title of respect, like "mister"; it does not mean "rabbi." Also, the inscribed Hebrew year is 760, with the millennial year 5000 implied. Finally, Hebrew days begin at sunset; thus the 3rd of the month of Av 5760 actually began at sunset on 2 Aug and ended at sunset on 3 Aug.