Norman Bernstein, D.C. real estate developer and philanthropist, dies at 100 Harrison Smith Norman Bernstein, a Washington real estate developer and philanthropist who championed Jewish causes and housing desegregation, encouraging local property owners to open their apartment buildings to African Americans in the early 1960s, died July 5 at his home in the District. He was 100. The cause was pneumonia, said his son Joshua Bernstein. A son of Jewish immigrants from present-day Lithuania, Mr. Bernstein launched his real estate career in 1940, at age 19, raising money from friends and family to buy rowhouses with his older brother, Leo. As the market took off after World War II, they started acquiring larger office and apartment buildings while aiming to buy, repair and sell homes within 90 days. Their slogan: “Your neighbor bought from us.”