Farewell to Stef Wertheimer –  a feisty ‘warrior’ for peace and prosperity who has died at age 98.

By David E. Kaplan

I was privileged to interview  Stef Wertheimer in 2010 as editor then of the Hilton Israel Magazine. As Israel’s leading industrialist and second largest metalworking tool manufacturer in the world, Stef had been under the international spotlight since 2006 when Warren Buffet’s, Berkshire Hathaway acquired 80% of his company ISCAR Metalworking for a staggering four billion US dollars, the largest then ever buy-out of an Israeli company. Not only was it a resounding vote of confidence in the Israeli economy but also a break in the mindset of Israel being mainly a market Mecca for hi-tech investors.  Industry was instantly up there in the vanguard of the pack – its stature restored.

I naturally felt that this should be the main focus of the interview but how radically off base I was. As we began casually chatting, Stef made it clear that he did not want to talk about the Buffet deal, saying dismissively:

“that’s only about money.”

Seeing my obvious surprise, he explained, “money can cloud what is really important. The real significance of the deal did not happen in 2006 but in 1952.”

What did he mean?

Public fascination, he explained, falsely gravitates to the Buffet deal because of the staggering sum, but “this is not the true barometer of success. To tell you the truth, my first deal operating out of my kitchen in Nahariya was far more significant and therefore more meaningful to me.”

Son of a musician and decorated First World War veteran, Stef Wertheimer was born in Kikenheim, Germany in 1926. In 1936, with the Nazis entrenched in power, the Wertheimer family fled Germany for Palestine.  “I was 10 years old, so they did not ask me,” he says, chuckling.

Learning a trade as an apprentice to a refugee, Stef, at age eighteen, joined the newly established Israel Air force flight school. Although he graduated as a pilot, the army was far more interested in “my skills in metal processing.” Given the important task of developing weapons, no one in those days would have imagined that young Stef was well on his way to becoming a global industrialist and ‘warrior’ for peace.

When the state of Israel came into being and the battles ended, he started his cutting-tool factory from his home in Nahariya with a borrowed lathe and a loan from a local butcher.

He tells the story:

“Living in Nahariya, I used to ride my motorbike to kibbutz Hanita where I paid for the use of a machine. I then decided in 1952 to work at home and started with small blade sharpener which cost forty lirot. My ‘factory floor’ was the balcony off our kitchen. I called my business ISCAR. Family and employees shared the same premises and as the business expanded, I ‘invaded’ the bedroom and shifted the beds into the corridor. My baby daughter used to ride her tricycle taking bites of food from my workers. That is how she grew to enjoy spicy cuisine from my Mizrahi (Jews of Middle Eastern ancestry) workers.”

Deflecting any discussion “about money,” Stef steers the interview to that which he is most proud of  – his unofficial title as the ‘Father of Israel’s industrial parks’. Promoting nothing less than a new ‘Industrial Revolution’ for the Middle East, Stef’s vision was about transforming the industrial and political landscape of Israel and beyond. “A successful society is a skilled society,” he asserted.

Stef went on to establish seven industrial parks in Israel, with the goal of fostering economic growth and job creation to help “create stability in the region.”

His first, built in 1982, set the tone encompassing everything from transportation to cultural and educational facilities. Establishing them specifically in peripheral areas, these complexes of export-oriented factories generated annual sales of $2.7 billion and provided employment to its surrounding areas. Stef’s attitude was clear:

“There is no unemployed, only people who are unlucky to find a job.”

A visionary for regional peace, he posed the question: “Imagine if there were hundreds of these “Pockets of Peace” all over the Middle East? Who would have the time or the interest for war? People would be too busy creating instead of destroying.”

In response to my question whether he was proposing mass industrialization as a tool for regional harmony, he replied:

“Yes, if people are highly skilled, earning good salaries and enjoying job satisfaction, then there will be no urge for individuals or nation states to resort to violence to achieve their aspirations. Religious fanatics only flourish where poverty and despair rule. However, to achieve an industrial revolution, we need a revolution in our educational system as well. For too long we have been obsessed with professional degrees, steering our children towards becoming bankers, doctors or lawyers. We have been short-sighted with little thought as to how our small country can absorb these professions. When we award too many degrees with no jobs to support them, we create an export market of our finest commodity – our talented youth. The sad result is that Jewish and Arab families, who both cherish close family ties, are reduced to talking to their loved ones over Skype [Before the age of WhatsApp] instead of over the kitchen table. We should train our youth for jobs that will keep them here in Israel.”

And to the question whether this would not require a change of mindset towards technical education, Stef replied:

“Sure; we prefer to pursue the ‘clean’ professions because we are pressured by our parents. This has been embedded into our culture. We have an aversion to rolling up our sleeves and getting our fingers dirty. Jews gravitate to commerce and the professions rather than into industry. This needs to change.”

Questioning how we break from tradition if it’s so imbedded in our culture, he replied:

“One needs to look no further for a shining example than one of our revered Zionist pioneers, A.D. Gordon. Was he suited to work in the fields? Definitely not. He was an elderly intellectual, of no great physical strength and with no experience doing manual labor, but he took up the hoe and worked in the fields. By personal example, he provided the inspiration for generations of Zionist pioneers to create a Jewish economy by physically working the land. He showed how manual labor – so essential to the creation of the state – was honorable and enriching work.

Today, we need the same insight and spirit of A.D. Gordon to move new generations not to the fields but to our factory floors. In the same way that tilling the land in early days was considered honorable, today we need to correct the erroneous notion that manual labor is ‘low’. Nations with the most dynamic economies such as China, India, Singapore, Switzerland, Denmark and France have introduced a dual system of technical education that combines classroom learning with on-sight internships in various industries. We need to do the same.”

Having such bold visions, it was only natural for Stef to try out politics which he did in 1977 when he  was amongst the founding members of Dash, (Democratic Movement for Change) a new centrist political party. The party was highly successful, winning 15 seats in the 1977 elections, with Wertheimer taking one of the seats. The party was a combination of capitalists and socialists, doves and hawks that aimed to bring about a transformation in Israeli politics, especially by introducing a constitution and changing the voting system. The goal was to break the deadlock induced by ideologically oriented parties and to separate religion and state. The party split in 1978, and Wertheimer joined the liberal, free-market party Shinui. However, by 1982, now exasperated with politics – more faking than making –  he resigned and returned to his business ventures.

Did he have any regrets for not persevering longer in politics, I asked.

“No regrets; I found the routine of politics dominated by too many lawyer-types who spend endless amounts of time clashing over budgets and how to spend rather than generate money.

However, the experience was not a waste as it paved the way for me to create the Industrial Parks and what I call, ‘Islands of Peace.’ As a member of the Knesset Economic Committee, I was asked to help several small companies that were experiencing financial problems. How could I prevent them from closing down? I came up with the idea that each company on its own could not survive, but if they were placed together and shared the same facilities, infrastructure, and access to top business guidance, they would have a better chance of survival. To this end, I brought in experts from Harvard University and MIT. A sum of $120 million was allocated for this project and supported by the Minister of Finance, Pinchas Saphir.”

However, all did not proceed according to plan, politics being what it is. Of the $120 million, $100 million found its way to the financially troubled but politically more attractive and larger companies, while Stef was allocated $20 million to focus on the smaller companies.

“Was this not disillusioning?” I asked.

“I was only too happy,” Stef replied. “Let them waste money on decaying behemoths… I will focus on the small companies, with young people who have the passion and the vision to forge ahead.’ History records what was wasted with the $100 million and what was achieved with the $20 million.”

With the seed money, Stef established in 1982 – the year after he left the Knesset – Tefen Industrial Park in the northern Galilee. At the time of the interview in 2010, Stef was currently developing his seventh park, located in Nazareth. “Although it will be managed by Arabs it will be a place where Jews and Arabs will work together. It will be a model for coexistence, where people of different cultures and religions will work with rather than against each other. The battlefield today should only be the market place.”

One can only sigh acknowledging Stef’s farsighted perspective amidst Israel’s current war.

Based on the large-scale economic program for Europe following World War II, Stef had promoted a similar Marshall Plan for the Middle East. His idea was to set up industries on a mass scale to provide training, create jobs, alleviate poverty and raise the per capita income of those living in the region. “People don’t know this,” said Stef, “but the money the government spends on ONE fighter plane could pay for FIVE industrial parks. Think of it – which offers a better return on investment?”

In pursuance of his vision, Stef drew up plans in the 1990s for an industrial park in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian and the Israeli governments both offered support, but one week before the groundbreaking ceremony, the Second Intifada broke out and that plan was indefinitely shelved. Decades later, instead of industrial parks, it’s the city where Israeli hostages were held and where the mastermind of the October 7 massacre Yahya Sinwar  was killed on the 17 October, 2024.

As Stef Wertheimer leaves us, he also leaves us with his vision to be still pursued and achieved :

 “The battlefield today should be only the market place of tomorrow.”

While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).