Lew Awnerowitsch Lewiew

Lev Awnerowitsch Lewiew (born July 30, 1956 in Tashkent , Soviet Union ; also: Lev Leviev ) is an Uzbek billionaire , industrialist and philanthropist in Israel. He owns shares in the diamond, real estate and chemical industries and is involved in building Israeli settlements in the West Bank . With private wealth that, after major losses, was still around 1.19 billion US dollars in January 2018, he is one of the richest Israelis .

His involvement in diamond mining in Angola , which was partly responsible for human rights violations, the cooperation with DeBeers during apartheid and his financial participation in the controversial Israeli settlement construction were and are the target of protests. Some critics attribute the initiation of business in Angola to personal relationships with the presidential family there, especially Isabel dos Santos, and the help of dubious Russian businessmen.

Life

Lewiev's parents, Rabbi Avner and his wife Chana, were members of the Bucharian Jewish community in the Uzbek SSR . In 1971 the family emigrated to Israel , where the son, without ever having graduated from high school, learned cutting and polishing techniques in a diamond grinding shop. After his military service with the IDF , he opened his own grinding shop and quickly became very successful with his business activities.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in early 1990, he expanded his business into the transition countries . He received personal support for his philanthropic activities from the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson . Lew Lewiew is a practicing Orthodox Jew and donates at least US $ 30 million annually to the Chabad organization.

He now lives in Hampstead with his wife Olga and daughter Ruthie and has nine children.

Business areas

Lewiew is the managing director of Africa Israel Investments Limited (AFIL), an oil and real estate investor with a market value of $ 7 billion at the end of 2007. He owned the company, his only publicly traded company, for $ 400 million ten years earlier -Dollars bought. It holds shares in shopping centers, the energy industry, the textile industry, the telecommunications and media sectors, owns diamond mines in Russia and Africa and is the main competitor of the De Beers diamond cartel . In 2007, Lewiew was Israel's largest exporter in the sector, with diamonds valued at US $ 522 million.

In 2005, his company built an apartment complex with 5800 apartments valued at US $ 230 million in Modi'in Illit . On Valentine's Day 2008, the New York civil rights organization Adalah -NY, which works for justice in the Middle East, protested against the purchase of Lewiew diamonds in front of his store in Manhattan on Madison Avenue .

Lewiew also owns the Israeli Russian-language television station Israel Plus and a jewelery store on London's Old Bond Street .

Lewiew is President of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS (FJC), an umbrella organization for Jewish communities in Russia, and he founded the Jewish-religious educational institution, the Ohr Avner Foundation, named after his father .

Web links

• Leviev Diamonds
• Africa Israel is to Africa and Israel as Apple is to fruit . In: Haaretz. February 3, 2007.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb4803/is_199906/ai_n17437220
2. ^ Forbes Profile: Lev Leviev
3. ^ Meet the Mogul New York Magazine, May 7, 2007
4. ↑ Adalahny.org: Lev Leviev ( Memento of the original from March 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ Lev Leviev's Angola Connection February 2002 (English)
6. ↑ Afigroup Homepage (English)
7. ↑ Diamond Mogul Receives Angry Valentine ( Memento of the original from March 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. February 15, 2008