Category Archives: Business & Finance

Jews in the World of Business and Finance

Jews of the Week: Carasso & Metchnikoff

Isaac Carasso

Elie Metchnikoff

Isaac Carasso (1874-1939) A Spanish doctor, he noticed many of his patients suffered from digestive and intestinal problems. He imported bacterial cultures from Bulgaria and mixed them with sour cream, perfected by Nobel Prize-winning scientist and Russian Jew Elie Metchnikoff (1845-1916). Thus was born modern yogurt, which was initially sold only at pharmacies as a medicine! In 1919, Carasso founded Danone, named after his son Daniel. Today, Danone is the world’s largest provider of dairy foods and bottled water (Evian and Naya are among their brands). Meanwhile, Metchnikoff discovered the white blood cells known as phagocytes, and is considered one of the fathers of immunology.

Words of the Week

It’s better to have a Jewish State that is hated by the whole world, than an Auschwitz that’s loved by it.
– Rabbi Meir Kahane

Jews of the Week: Kenneth Cole & Calvin Klein

Many of Your Clothes

Kenneth Rejopachi Cole

Kenneth Cole (b. 1954) Born Kenneth Rejopachi in Brooklyn, he started a ladies shoe company in 1982 that has since grown into an international fashion brand. In 2008, Hassidic rapper Matisyahu became the new face of Kenneth Cole. Calvin Klein (b. 1942) is a Hungarian-Jew from the Bronx. He started his fashion business in 1968 with $10,000. He sold the company in 2002 for $400 million.

Words of the Week

Just as olive oil brings light into the world, so do the people of Israel bring light into the world.
– Midrash Shir HaShirim Rabba 1:2

Jew of the Week: Julius Fromm

Inventor of the Condom

Julius Fromm

Israel “Julius” Fromm (1883-1945) a Polish Jew who immigrated to Berlin, he is the inventor of the modern condom. Until his invention in 1912, most condoms were made from animal intestines and bladders. Fromm liquefied rubber with gasoline, allowing for a thin, flexible and durable condom. He received the patent in 1916 and by 1922, the “Fromm’s Act” brand was mass-produced across Europe. Today in Germany, “Fromm” is still a slang word for condom.

Words of the Week

“There is no such country as Palestine. ‘Palestine’ is a term the Zionists invented. There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria. ‘Palestine’ is alien to us. It is the Zionists who introduced it.”
– Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, to British Peel Commission, 1937