subject: Chicago Jeweler Among Titanic Victims [print this page] In the plethora of articles and events commemorating the sinking of HMS Titanic, we are getting glimpses of some of the less famous people who sailed on the ill-fated luxury ship.
One such person is Ervin Lewy, a jeweler from Chicago.
Ervin Lewy was 31 and a partner in a family jewelry business, Lewy Brothers Jewelry Company. Although I have not found any records noting the date of the establishment of the company, a newspaper report of the time indicated he had been associated with the firm for fifteen years. If accurate, Lewy Brothers was established in 1897 and Ervin started work there at age sixteen. The Lewy brothers, Ervin, Marks, Jay, and Max, were following in the footsteps of their father, Bennot Lewy, who had established himself in Chicago in 1860 as "Lewy, the Jeweler.
In 1912, Ervin was on a trip to Amsterdam to buy diamonds for the Lewy Jewelry Company.
By the time of his visit, Amsterdam had long supplanted Antwerp as the center for diamond trade in Europe. Historically, Jews had been allowed to settle in Amsterdam after being expelled from Southern European countries and, in Amsterdam, they had been allowed to prosper. Although many of the craft guilds were closed to Jewish participation, diamond polishing was not. Their skill coupled with the vast infusion of diamonds into the city after the discovery of diamonds in South Africa in 1867 were among the major reasons Amsterdam was the world leader in diamond trade and polishing.
However, his business in Amsterdam apparently did not go well and he extended his stay in Europe. In a letter home he wrote, I willl be here about a week yet to see if I cannot do better. Cannot catch the Rotterdam as I expected but will probably sail on the Titanic from Cherborough the 10th.
The delay has caused some speculation by his descendants that he did manage to buy diamonds for the firm and that these diamonds went down with the Titanic and are perhaps in the captain's safe or bursar'ss pouch.
We do know that during that time he visited Paris because he purchased a carved sapphire from Cartier as a gift for his grandmother. The stone arrived after his death and his grandfather set it surrounded by diamond baguettes.
The Titanic sank on April 15, 1912 killing 1,514 people. On Tuesday, April 16, 1912, the Chicago Examiner reported that the family had not yet had word whether Lewy was among the dead. The last communication had been on April 11, a cablegram from Ervin stating he had left for the United States on the Titanic on April 10.
Ervin was not married. His estate was estimated at about $50,000 of which $20,000 was an insurance settlement. According to newspaper records, half of the estate went to the company and half was distributed to various relatives. The settlement did have the distinction of being the first insurance claim settled arising from the Titanic disaster, according to the May 11, 1912 Chicago Tribune.
The Lewy Brothers Jewelry Company lasted only a little over a decade after Ervin died. The New York Times reported on Tuesday, November 24, 1925 that an involuntary bankruptcy petition was filed against the company, the timing of which was apparently planned so that the company could conduct business during the Christmas rush under the supervision of a receiver.
We do not know much about Ervin's story apart from these small glimpses into his life and character. But so much of Titanic coverage is dedicated to well-known victims, it is perhaps instructive to take a moment to remember the young jeweler who went to Europe with high hopes for business success and whose apparent last gift was to his grandmother.
