Susan Wakil AO (1933–2018), philanthropist, came to Sydney at fifteen from Bessarabia (Moldova/Romania). Her father had been interned in a Siberian gulag, and her mother had died in a Soviet concentration camp. Living with her aunt, and later joined by her father, she proved a dedicated student, quickly learning English. In Sydney she met her future husband, Isaac Wakil AO, who had experienced the anti-Jewish Farhud in Iraq. Together, they built up a clothing business. The couple appeared regularly in the social pages in the 1970s, Susan immaculately groomed and dressed in French couture. Over time, they purchased many unprepossessing properties across the Sydney CBD. The Susan and Isaac Wakil Foundation was established in 2014, when they began selling off properties. They subsequently donated a record $35 million to the University of Sydney for construction of the Susan Wakil Health Building and a record $24 million toward the Sydney Modern wing of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. They funded scholarships for disadvantaged students at public schools to undertake tertiary or vocational education and an Opera Australia initiative to bring new audiences to the opera through inexpensive tickets. They were also major benefactors of the Sydney Jewish Museum. When Susan died in 2018, the couple had been partners for 62 years.
