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Pm* 28 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE September 9, 1
P HPPPY NEW YEPR
TO THE JEWISH COmmUNITY
from
1160 Moores Mill Road, Northwest
Atlanta, Georgia 30327 (404) 351*8700
Jtassdt—dtsae^asOf i
World center
I ■) MV*
Diamonds ($) are still
Israel's best friend!
$
NEW YEAR
GREETINGS
FARBAND
Labor-Zionist
Ben Gurion Branch No. 71
JACK STORCH
Chairman
MAX TUCKER
Treasurer
MRS. NATHAN KARLICK
Co-Chairman
EMANUEL ROHALD
Secretary
by James Kraus
Ramat Gan — Looming up
over the low surrounding four
and five story buildings in this
north Tel Aviv suburb on the
Mediterranean Sea stands a
new, 28-story modern building
encased in bright aluminum
sheeting. This is the Israel Dia
mond Exchange, whose size
alone testifies to the growing
power and importance diamond
polishing and exports have
assumed for Israel.
In 1976, sales of polished
diamonds from Israel reached a
record $712 million, a staggering
increase over the $5 million sold
in 1948 just after the industry
was first set up. Within these
three decades, Ramat Gan has
succeeded in overtaking
Antwerp as the world's leading
diamond center and the industry
now employs more than twenty
thousand workers.
New plants and workshops are
almost daily being added to the
740 now existing, and
membership in the Israel Dia
mond Exchange exceeds 1,500 —
as compared to 210 ten yean
ago. What accounts for this
sudden and enormous expansion
in the diamond industry and in
diamond exports from Israel? ;
“Jews were always important
in the gem trade,” explains
Joseph Nadel, one of the
founders of the industry in
Israel;: The Belgian born in
dustrialist first learned the
trade from his father, a diamond
cutter in Europe and after spen
ding a brief spell on a kibbutz he,
like many others, returned to
this original vocation. To this day,
in spite of the havoc wrought
among Jewish communities dur
ing World War II, 70 per cent of
the diamond world’s traders and
workmen remain Jewish and it
was in part only natural that
they should gravitate to Israel.
But that is only part of the
Diamond cutters often wear yarmulkes at work.
reason. The rest is accounted for
by the nature of diamond
trading in Israel, where the ex
change is run as a virtually
autonomous country within a
country with its own rules,
traditions and even a court to
decide disputes. There is tight
security, firm control over
membership, a huge network of
services provided including
trading offices, diamond con
trollers, speedy customs, banks
add a courier service. MSst Im
portant, however, is the secrecy
and quality control in a business
where there are no written con
tracts.
The scrupulous reliability in
doing business is and always has
been vital to the industry.
Although by far the greater part
of the finished products are in
dustrial diamonds, a large por
tion of the stones are precious
gems which eventually find their
way ino) troubled parts of the
world, places like South Africa,
Southeast Asia or South
America. There, political in
stability and inflation are
prompting growing numbers of
the middle and upper classes to
put their money into easily
transportable stones. This, in
addition to expanding world in
dustries, partly accounts for the
enormous jumps in sales that
have taken place annually.
The rough diamonds which
arrive in Israel are purchased
through the Diamond Trading
Company of London, otherwise
known as “The Syndicate." They
are then cut in half by a disc
smeared with diamond powder
sinee no other substance is hard
enough to do this job. Following
the cutting, the diamonds are
“polished” in two stages. In the
• first, the cut stone is rotated
against another diamond until it
is round. In the second, it is
ground against a sort of potter’s
wheel smeared with diamond
powder to obtain the desired
number of facets. Finally, it is
boiled in acid until it emerges,
smooth and sparkling, and
passes on to the trading rooms
for sale.
There, amid the rapid ex
change of bids and offers, sit
hundreds of salesmen and
buyers peering intently through
eyeglasses — businessmen from
all over the world in neat suits,
extra-orthodox Jews in their
black coats and long side curls,
and tanned,tough Sabra Israelis
in their open-collared shirts and
sandals. Scattered in front of
them, lies a veritable dream —
small piles of hundreds and hun
dreds of glittering white stones.
In Your New Year, Give
Israel A-New School Bus
The Talmud Torah of Kiryat Malachi has been set up for the pur
pose of bringing to the Israeli children of Kiryat Malachi a true op
portunity to develop their knowledge of their Jewish heritage and
their talent for Torah study.
We are situated In a newly developing town of 20,000 people
with a large share of the common sociological and economic
problems. The staff has to combat the growing rise of juvenile
delinquency, inter-child conflict, and a
lack of moral judgment
In simpler terms, teaching children not to steal, curse or frit their neighbors.
We have built our efforts for 3 years and have become known in the city as the
source of free education and guidance on a daily person to person level.
We need your help to buy this school bu6 to pick up and return the children from
the various neighborhoods. We are a private school which lives through the help of
our friends in America.
We appeal to the Jewish community of Atlanta to combine their efforts and make
this school bus your gift to the future of the Israeli people. . ■■«
If you pare what kind of a country Israel win be In 10 years then make your invest
ment now In this school bus which oosts $10,000 to make the expansion of Opr
Talmud Torah possible. Every donor, will be inscribed on the Scroll of Honor at the
school. And all contrlbutibns of $100 or more will receive a special citation.
Semi your Contribution to:
The Talmud Torah of Kiryat Malachi
c/o Rabbi Joshua Futterman
4171 Waterloo Circle
Tucker, Ga. 30084
For more information call 939-2135
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