Israelan Fashion Diamond Engagement Rings 79

Israelan Fashion Diamond Engagement Rings.

By Farzana Aamir.

Since the fifteenth century, when an Antwerp Jewish diamond cutter Lodewyk van Berken invented the scaif, diamond cutting was one of traditional Jewish crafts. The Israeli diamond industry began in 1937, before the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, when the first diamond polishing plant was opened in Petah Tikva by refugee experts from the Netherlands.[2] In 1938 the 15% import duty on imported rough stones was removed. By 1944 the industry employed 3,300 workers in 33 factories, with £P.1,320,000 capital investment, entirely Jewish. The value of exports was over £P.3,200,000 mainly to the United States, Canada, 

and India; It was the largest value of any single commodity exported from Palestine that year.[3] Between 1944 and 1948 the industry suffered from the increasing lawlessness and in February 1948 closed down completely.[4] After a state was declared, the consumer economy was shifted to a war economy. This came at the height of a diamond crisis, as many war torn economies were struggling to re-establish. Since then, the industry has continued to grow, producing a world leader in the diamond industry.