Aaron Gutwirth came from a family that had served as rabbis in Europe for 13 generations that originated in Jerusalem. The Zionism of these scholars was rooted in prayer and a great longing to return to the Holy Land. It was a dream within a dream. Aaron’s love for the Holy Land was not religious but deeply heartfelt.
He, his three brothers (Bernard, Henri, and Hendrik), and four sisters, including Marguerite Stolz and my mother, Lotty Gutwirth-Zucker, attended many Zionist conferences in both Switzerland and Antwerp (where they were born in the early years of the 20th century). Their father, Gutman Gutwirth, was one of the leading diamond dealers and a great Kabbalist.
Following in his father’s footsteps, my uncle Aaron traveled to Singapore to sell diamonds with his brother and partner, Hendrik Gutwirth, and became one of the most successful businessmen in Singapore. In 1939, Aaron was the head of the Dutch Red Cross (a volunteer position). He vowed not to leave Singapore until each Dutch citizen in British Singapore managed to leave.
The Japanese arrested Aaron, imprisoned him, and sent him to a slave labor camp in Indonesia, where there were 1,500 prisoners of war. Through the strength of his personality, Aaron was the spokesman for all the prisoners to the Japanese head of the camp.
Suspected of enabling Indonesian guerrillas to terrorize the Japanese army, Aaron was thrown into solitary confinement and tortured. He weighed 98 pounds when he miraculously was released when the Japanese army surrendered.
In 1945, Aaron began to rebuild his fortune in Singapore. At the same time, his best friend in the 1930s was an Iraqi Jew, David Marshall, who had been imprisoned by the Japanese. Marshall was a criminal lawyer who helped Chinese people in British Singapore seek independence from the British.
When Singapore achieved independence, Marshall was appointed chief minister of Singapore. He is regarded today as one of the founders of Singapore. After WW II, Aaron continued his conversations with David Marshall. Aaron’s dream was to create a business in the
Holy Land that would be a charitable foundation for education and continue as an ongoing business after his death. Marshall also had a dream of what could be a partnership between Jewish people abroad and in the Holy Land. Their conversations were meaningful and prophetic.
In 1960, my uncle sold his business in Singapore and moved to Israel. His health had been greatly damaged due to his days in Indonesia. Rather than retire to a large house, he took a room in the Hilton Hotel in Tel Aviv. He never owned any personal property in Israel.
At that time, diamonds were Israel’s primary export. When the diamond exchange was created, the head of the Persian Jewish community, Mr. Elganyan, went to my uncle and said: “Mr. Gutwirth, would you be the first tenant in the bourse? You have a good hand.”
That is how my uncle opened the first office in the diamond exchange. My uncle’s face inspired confidence. More and more entrepreneurs turned to him, and he became involved with companies in different sectors in the young State of Israel.
In 1977, he established a trust to manage the various businesses and philanthropic activities in which he was involved. Alongside building businesses, Aaron remained true to his vision to build Israel and contribute to society. When I was 10, I visited my blind grandmother with my father and mother. Aaron was coming to visit.
At that time, he was concentrating on his own diamond business. When he came in, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a gray pebble. I remember it being half the size of a golf ball. He put it on the table and said, “Benny, what is this?” Quiet in the room.
I said, “Is it a diamond?” He said, “Yes, it is an uncut diamond.” “It doesn’t look pretty,” I said. “Yes,” replied my uncle with a smile, “but it will!” The same was true for the State of Israel. My uncle would see into the past of our Jewish people’s history among the people and nations of the world, and he could also look into the future.
When Amos Horev, a hero of the Six Day War and later head of the Technion, asked my uncle to contribute to the Technion, my uncle replied, “I would like you to agree to build a building and call it a science-based building. You can have members of the Technion conduct basic and applied research.
The building will also be open to businesses wanting to do scientific research. When discoveries will be patented, part of the profits will go to the Technion, which will raise money for the second building.” There are now 30 science-based buildings at the Technion.
Among my uncle’s marks of genius – and I believe that he was a genius – was his selection of another organizational business genius, Haim Rubin. Rubin was a kibbutznik from Sdot Yam. He was born in Russia and dreamed of building up the Land of Israel.
As a kibbutznik, he was especially attuned to creating and growing businesses under my uncle’s direction, which were, first and foremost, sources of income for workers. Workers were not to be fired. Workers were to be treasured.
The businesses were to be run carefully, not recklessly, to prepare for the fierce ups and downs in business cycles in Israel. Rubin was appointed as the first chairman of the trust. One of the important contributions of Haim Rubin was asking Prof. Itzhak Swary to join Allied Investments.
While Itzhak would not want to be described as a genius, I am within my rights as an 83-year-old to use my own description of him. Swary’s family immigrated to Israel from Iraq. They had to leave all their wealth behind, fleeing from Baghdad. The family grew up in the early days of terrible housing for the Iraqi Jewish community.
Itzhak trained as an accountant, taught, and has been an incredible part of the new Israel, one that is founded on education and hi-tech. His instincts were conservative and academic. After Haim Rubin passed away, Itzhak became the chairman of the trust.
Allied Investments, my uncle and Haim Rubin’s businesses, have been substantially and carefully expanded by Itzhak Swary. The company’s profits have partly gone to pay for 15,000 scholarships in every university in Israel. My uncle had no children of his own, but he had many students.
Many people have also been associated with Allied Investments over the years. So many of Aaron Gutwirth’s beliefs have been continued by many people. Two years ago, Prof. Swary had an idea, and with the enthusiastic support of Prof. Alon Chen, head of the Weizmann Institute, we will establish the Gutwirth Medical School.
Instead of a five-year medical school program, it will be six and a half years of medical school, and medical students will receive a degree in science and medicine. Doctors will be much less likely to leave Israel because they will be so sought after in Israel.
Medicine fits into my uncle’s vision of what Israel should be. His name, Aaron, is similar to the original Aaron in the Bible – a lover of peace and a seeker of peace. In our time, it is not enough to simply love peace. One must search for peace; one must pursue peace.
My uncle Aaron believed in the vision of David Ben-Gurion that all who live within the State of Israel – Jew, Muslim, Christian, women, and men – all have equal rights. A hospital dispenses health. It is an employer of all sectors of the population. Members of all religions go to the hospital to be cured. This new medical school will be the best ambassador for my uncle’s values.
The writer is Aaron Gutwirth’s nephew.