Moshe Schnitzer
| Moshe Schnitzer | |
|---|---|
Schnitzer in 2004
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| Born | 1921 Romania |
| Died | August 16, 2007 (aged 86) Israel |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Occupation | Diamond trader |
| Known for | President of the Israel Diamond Exchange (1967-1993) |
Moshe Schnitzer (1921 – August 16, 2007) was a Romanian Jewish immigrant to Israel who became a key player in the international diamond trade. From 1967 to 1993 he was President of the Israel Diamond Exchange (IDE), which became the world's largest diamond exchange.
Schnitzer was born in Chernowitz, then in Romania, in 1921. He emigrated to the British Mandate for Palestine in 1934, and studied history and philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1942, pushed by his father, he entered the diamond business. He left university to work in a diamond polishing plant only under protest. Schnitzer learned sawing and cutting at Pickel's factory in Tel Aviv, where he became a work manager in 1944. In 1945 he and Shlomo Vinikov founded the Society for the Development of the Diamond Industry in Palestine. He was editor of Hayahalom (The Diamond), the diamond industry's journal. In 1946 Schnitzer and Elhanan Halperin co-authored an instruction book on Diamonds in Hebrew.
Schnitzer also fought in the Irgun, a Zionist paramilitary group that was seeking to establish the state of Israel. The connections he made there with future leaders helped him later in his business life. In 1947 he was one of the founders of the Israel Diamond Exchange. Schnitzer and a partner launched the firm of Schnitzer-Greenstein in 1952. In 1960 he opened his own firm, M. Schnitzer & Co., with his son Shmuel Schnitzer and son-in-law Shai Schnitzer.
From 1967 to 1993 Schnitzer was President of the Israel Diamond Exchange. During his long tenure the exchange was transformed from an organization with a relatively marginal position in the international market into the largest and most modern exchange in the world. Annual exports on polished diamonds from Israel grew from $200 million to $3.4 billion.
There were political aspects to his position. Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Golda Meir both used Schnitzer to convey messages to the Soviet Union under the disguise of conducting diamond transactions. Under Indira Gandhi, India had been highly critical of Israel's policy in Palestine, and public hostility persisted after her death in 1984. For this reason, when India applied to join the World Federation of Diamond Bourses in July 1986, Moshe Schnitzer said Israel was against admitting India. However, the next month officials of the Israel Diamond Exchange said the application had not been rejected.
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