Israel Diamond Exchange

The Israel Diamond Exchange is located at Jabotinsky 3 in Ramat Gan, in the northwestern part of the city beside Tel Aviv. The Exchange’s buildings sit within Ramat Gan’s business center, among skyscrapers, a hotel, and high-tech businesses; the Jewish Agency’s description of the district also lists the 240-metre Moshe Aviv Tower, which it identifies as Israel’s tallest building.[1][2] The Exchange is thus both an industry institution and a prominent commercial complex in the metropolitan area.

Israel’s diamond-sector institutions have distinct roles. The Israel Diamond Exchange is separate from the Israel Precious Stones and Diamonds Exchange and the quasi-governmental Israel Diamond Institute. In the 1980s, the Exchange supported marketing by larger export firms, while numerous smaller manufacturing units concentrated on cutting.[3]

The Exchange describes its complex as a secure, interconnected environment for diamond firms and related services. Its Shimshon and Maccabi buildings and diamond floors in the Yahalom building are connected by internal bridges; the Exchange’s subsidiary, Israel Diamond Exchange Enterprises (1965) Ltd., manages the complex. The organization lists about 1,000 offices for diamond companies and industry bodies, alongside trading halls, government offices, banks, shipping and insurance firms, a post office, and other services.[4]

The history of the Exchange is rooted in diamond-trade institutions established in Tel Aviv before and during the Mandate period. The Israel Diamond Exchange’s own commemorative account dates its inception to 1937 and says its committee produced a history covering 1937–2007 for its seventieth anniversary.[5] A government embassy account similarly traces its modern history to a Diamond Traders Club begun in 1937 in a small room on Herzl Street in Tel Aviv. Dealers could display diamonds for sale there for a symbolic fee, and the club repeatedly outgrew its premises.[6]

The Diamond Club was an association and meeting place, not the same institution as the exchange company later established to create a bourse. A historical account says the club was set up in Tel Aviv in November 1937 with support from the Jewish Agency’s Trade and Industry Department. It brought merchants and manufacturers together for business and social activity and discussion of an ethical code for the sector. The club had 40 members in 1938, with membership limited to people directly involved in dealing in or manufacturing precious stones.[7]

A separate historical account describes the Palestine Diamond Exchange as founded in Tel Aviv in late March 1946 as a stock company under the presidency of Ben Schafferman. It comprised 180 importers, manufacturers, and traders, with the stated purpose of creating a diamond exchange. At its founding it had no trading hall of its own: members conducted business at the Diamond Club, the Palatine café, and the Bank Igud hall, all in Tel Aviv’s main commercial center.[7]

The company’s 31 March 1946 Memorandum of Association, under the name Eretz Israel Diamond Exchange, set out share capital and twenty objectives. These included managing a bourse, resolving disputes, establishing arbitration courts, and promoting honest trade and shared trade rules. The account situates the institution amid a changing trade structure: in spring 1946, it lists 79 members in the Exporters’ Association of Palestine Polished Diamonds, 125 in the Palestine Diamond Club, and 39 importers in the Diamond Traders Association. It associates the new exchange with liberalization and the weakening of the Palestine Diamond Manufacturers Association’s monopoly position.[7]

Accounts give different dates and names for the institution’s beginnings. One Globes historical article says the Israel Diamond Exchange was founded in 1936 by several families of European diamond merchants who had immigrated to Palestine; it says many came from the Low Countries and had begun as polishers in their fathers’ firms. That account places the Exchange initially in Tel Aviv’s old Herzliya Gymnasium. A separate Globes topic page gives 1947 as the establishment date of the incorporated Israel Diamond Exchange Ltd. The available accounts do not explain whether these dates refer to different organizational milestones.[8][9]

The sources do not explicitly establish legal or organizational continuity between the 1946 Palestine or Eretz Israel Diamond Exchange and the later Israel Diamond Exchange.[3][7] The earlier names belong to the institutional setting of Mandate Palestine, while the Library of Congress study describes the Israel Diamond Exchange as a distinct organization in its account of the 1980s. The documented succession of related trade organizations is therefore clearer than the precise corporate relationship among them.[3][7]

By the late 1950s the Exchange was operating in Tel Aviv on Achuzat Bayit Street. In 1958, 600 members elected Avraham Lipschitz as its third president. He founded an aid fund in memory of his brother-in-law Pinchas Hollander and established the Diamond Insurance Corporation in 1961. After temporarily leaving the presidency in 1964, Lipschitz returned to the post and resigned in December 1966; the Exchange made him a lifelong honorary president.[10]

Moshe Schnitzer, a major figure in the Exchange’s institutional history, initiated and published HaYahalom (The Diamond) in 1944, described by the Exchange as the diamond industry’s first periodical. He helped unify institutions established by the Exchange in 1947, was elected vice president in 1949, and became its fourth president in 1967. Schnitzer resigned in 1993 after serving in the role for more than two decades.[11]

The Exchange is governed by a president and Board of Directors, which set policy and oversee its ongoing work. Elected board members chair committees responsible for assigned areas, working with Exchange staff. Each committee includes an Audit Committee representative, and the president may establish ad hoc committees for particular issues or projects.[12]

Its Judicial Committee advises the Exchange’s institutions, updates its articles of association, and is responsible for enforcement bodies that include an Arbitration Tribunal, Disciplinary Committee, and Committee of Experts. The Exchange describes arbitration as an alternative to lengthy court proceedings for disputes between diamond dealers. Arbitrators are diamantaires who belong to the Exchange, and the organization says tribunal verdicts have stood up in the Israeli judicial system.[13]

For valuations in arbitration disputes, the Judicial Committee can choose three specialists from a list of about 60 diamond dealers, based on the case’s requirements and the experts’ knowledge. The Exchange also says these specialists may provide valuations when asked by a court.[13] A 2018 report said the Exchange had introduced a formal, binding written ethical code about a year earlier, alongside an internal arbitration body for complaints involving diamond traders.[14]

Trust and personal relationships have been described as part of the trading culture. In a 2014 report, then-president Shmuel Schnitzer said deals were often completed with a handshake even when written contracts existed. He said “mazal u’bracha” had become a phrase associated with sealing a deal in distant trading centers, including Dubai and Bombay. The same account quoted New York Diamond Exchange president Reuven Kaufman describing handshake-based transactions as cost-effective.[15]

Membership has had formal admission requirements as well as institutional rules for participation. In 2016, managing director Eli Avidar said applicants needed eight years of experience in the diamond business and had to pass polygraph tests and background reviews. In 2024, Exchange president Nissim Zuaretz said membership stood at 3,200, about 10% below its earlier level, and that annual departures, including deaths among older members, had for the first time outnumbered new entrants. The Exchange eased admission conditions and reduced the reported registration cost, including the purchase of a membership share, from NIS 100,000 to NIS 50,000.[16][17]

In a 2025 interview, Zuaretz said the Exchange had retained trustworthiness as a threshold while cutting its membership fee by half to NIS 50,000 and easing other conditions. He reported 50 new members in three months—more than in the previous three years—and another 100 on a waiting list. He said he wanted to attract younger members, arguing that people in their 30s and 40s approach technology and marketing differently. The Exchange identifies Zuaretz as its president, elected in 2024, and notes that he had previously served as treasurer and chair of the Security Committee.[18][19]

The Exchange grew alongside an Israeli diamond industry established in Palestine before the Second World War by immigrants from the Low Countries. They brought technical knowledge and commercial connections. During the war, the industry received rough stones from the De Beers central selling organization and sold polished diamonds mainly to the United States. At its wartime peak, it employed about 4,000 polishers and exports reached approximately $16 million annually.[20]

After the war, renewed competition from Belgium and the Netherlands, reduced supplies of rough diamonds, and the War of Independence sharply contracted the industry. By 1949 it was described as “almost at a standstill.” The industry revived in 1950, and by the early 1960s Israel had become the world’s second-largest diamond gem center after Belgium, accounting for between one-quarter and one-third of world polished-diamond trade and a similar share of polishers.[20]

Securing rough stones was an important part of the sector’s development. The De Beers Syndicate held its direct sales to Israel near $7 million annually from 1950 to 1959, while the share of supplies from other sources rose from 24% in 1950 to 84% in 1959. From 1961, Israeli agencies sought direct supply sources in West Africa and negotiated with the Syndicate for an adequate allocation; the Syndicate’s share of Israeli imports subsequently rose to more than half.[20]

In the late 1960s, Israeli production focused on small “melee” stones and medium-sized octahedral rough stones. These were sawn and polished through a chain of six specialists to produce round brilliant-cut diamonds with 57 facets; some stones were made into fancy shapes such as marquises and baguettes. More than half of the industry’s enterprises and workers were then located in and around Tel Aviv, where the Exchange was situated. More than a quarter were in Netanya, with the remainder in Jerusalem and development areas.[20]

The industry then comprised about 400 enterprises. Roughly half employed fewer than 15 workers, 45 employed more than 50, and three employed more than 100. These figures describe the industry in the late 1960s, not the present-day number of firms or employees.[20] A later, undated ministry-based account describes approximately 700 production facilities, most of them small workshops employing an average of 10–20 people. It says all Israeli diamond output was earmarked for export and most commercial activity took place at the Ramat Gan Exchange; because the figures are undated, they should not be treated as current statistics.[21]

In the 1970s, Israel passed Antwerp as the world’s largest diamond wholesaler, supplying more than half of all cut and polished diamonds.[3][20]

The sector’s business model relied on importing rough diamonds, cutting and polishing them in Israel, and exporting the finished goods. It was exposed to external factors beyond Israeli control. Until the early 1980s, a handful of large firms dominated the industry. After a slump from 1980 through 1982, it was restructured in fiscal year 1984, creating about 800 smaller manufacturing units. By mid-1986, the smaller firms concentrated on cutting while larger export firms handled marketing, with the Israel Diamond Exchange helping support that commercial activity.[3]

Net diamond exports stood at $905 million in 1982, 18% of Israel’s total exports; by 1986, diamond exports had reached nearly $1.7 billion, about 24% of the national total. Industry sales reached $5.5 billion by 2003 and $6.3 billion in 2004, after nearly 15% growth that year. These are historical industry figures, not current Exchange turnover.[3][20]

Institutional accounts and press reports have provided different measures of the Exchange’s membership and reach. The Library of Congress study recorded 2,000 members in the mid-1980s.[3] A 2000 report gave a membership of 2,300,[8] while a 2008 report cited 2,600.[22] In 2020, the Exchange’s president said it had more than 3,000 members and was one of the world’s top four diamond trading centers.[23] These numbers belong to different reporting dates; the ranking is an attributed characterization, not an independently established comparison.

A 2014 report attributed to Exchange executives the claim that every second diamond over half a carat worldwide passed through the Ramat Gan complex. It also reported annual turnover of $28 billion and rough-diamond trade of about $8–10 billion, described as roughly a quarter of Israel’s annual industrial exports. Those figures are claims reported at the time, rather than current statistics or independently verified estimates. The report said the Israeli government listed diamond trade separately in economic reports to avoid distorting other figures.[15]

The Exchange moved from Tel Aviv to Ramat Gan in 1968, when it relocated to one of the first two skyscrapers built on the boundary between the cities. The move followed repeated growth beyond earlier premises. The city entry identifies the bourse as opening in Ramat Gan in 1968, in a city that was also one of Israel’s foremost manufacturing centers.[6][24]

The complex developed into a group of interconnected high-rise buildings. A 2008 report described four towers linked by bridges and covering 100,000 square metres, while a 2017 Israeli government embassy page gave a combined area of 90,000 square metres for four high-rises. The cited accounts do not clarify whether their measurements use the same method or refer to the same date.[22][6] In 2013, a plan presented to Ramat Gan proposed expanding three Exchange-owned buildings at 1–3 Jabotinsky Street without demolishing them or vacating tenants. The proposal would have added space to bring the complex to 350,000 square metres, including 30,000 square metres of commercial space, and raised the tallest building to 76 floors; the report described a proposal, not a completed development.[25]

The Exchange’s trading infrastructure includes separate halls for rough and polished diamonds, and a technology wing with diamond-testing equipment. The halls have communications, computer, and internet systems, as well as official diamond-weighing services. A government account describes gemological examination, precise electronic weighing, and inspection instruments among the complex’s services.[26][6]

The Exchange’s own account lists roughly 2,500 square metres across its two trading halls, one for rough stones and the other for polished diamonds. A 2014 report described trading tables allocated equally, with 120 centimetres of display space and a standard lamp for each trader. Entry to the trading floor involved fingerprint scans, armed guards, and double-locking revolving doors.[6][15]

The complex also operates as a workplace and service center beyond the trading floor. A 2014 account described six banks, synagogues, doctors’ offices, workout facilities, restaurants and cafés, a customs office, and a post office. The Exchange lists the Ministry of Economy’s Diamond, Special Stones and Jewelry Administration, including the Diamond Controller’s offices, among the institutions on site. It also describes a Partner service center serving 20,000 subscribers, including more than 8,000 tag owners working in the complex and their families.[15][27]

Reported measures of the site’s scale vary by source and date. A 2008 report gave 2,600 members and about 15,000 people entering the complex daily, and described its trading floor as the world’s largest. In 2013, the Exchange’s president said it had 3,500 members, 100,000 square metres of space, and around 20,000 daily entrants, including 13,000 employees. These figures are dated reports and are not directly comparable with one another or with current conditions.[22][25]

The Exchange has used trade events to connect Israeli firms with overseas buyers. Its Exhibitions Committee organizes trade and sales events intended to diversify members’ marketing channels. The Exchange lists a Blue and White exhibition and Israel Week events in New York and China among its initiatives, and identifies International Diamond Week in Israel as its flagship event.[28]

At the fifth International Diamond Week in 2015, the Exchange reported that more than 300 Israeli diamond companies were exhibiting polished goods and that 400 buyers from more than 20 countries were attending. A 2020 report said the next International Diamond Week was expected to bring more than 200 Israeli exhibitors and hundreds of international buyers and delegations from dozens of countries; this was an advance expectation reported before the event.[29][23]

Technology has been a strand of the Exchange’s efforts to respond to industry pressures. An Israeli government account described the use of computer-assisted diamond design, laser-cutting equipment, and polishing technology by Israeli diamond businesses. It also said the Exchange participated in the Kimberley Process and that Israel chaired the process in 2010.[6] These statements describe the government account of the industry and its participation in the process.

In 2017 the Exchange bid for an Israel Innovation Authority franchise to establish Diamond Tech, a technology incubator for early-stage Israeli and foreign startups. Its proposed areas included diamond and jewelry technologies, robotics, software and hardware, medical, financial, retail, and space technologies. Planned strategic partners named in the announcement included UK company I Hennig & Co., Sarin Technologies, the World Jewellery Confederation, Brinks, the Technion, and Plus Ventures. Exchange president Yoram Dvash said technological development was needed to compete with centers that had abundant low-cost labor; Globes reported that the Exchange intended to proceed even if it did not win the tender.[30]

The Exchange established Diamond Tech to support and finance early-stage technology ventures for the diamond industry. One of its first participants, Inova, was developing augmented-reality software that enabled customers to preview how jewelry would look on their hands, with plans to extend the software to other jewelry. The initiative was presented as part of an effort to use Israeli technology entrepreneurship to address low profitability and competition from countries with lower production costs.[31]

In July 2021, the Exchange held what a Jerusalem Post report described as its first Innovation Fair, attended by eight high-tech and technology companies. Examples included green diamond-cleaning technology, augmented reality and artificial intelligence for viewing jewelry, and online diamond sales. Exchange president Boaz Moldavsky said the aim was to integrate technology into the industry, make trading easier, and reach new audiences.[32]

The organization has also pursued online sales channels. In 2018, it planned an Alibaba-linked business-to-business storefront involving 150 diamond businesses. The proposed store would show diamonds through photographs and technical details, be managed from an operations room at the Ramat Gan Exchange, and allow trade buyers and jewelers to purchase without traveling to Israel. The initiative was presented as a response to declining sales and a means of improving the Exchange’s international standing.[14]

The Exchange has developed commercial links with the United Arab Emirates. It and the Dubai Diamond Exchange signed a cooperation agreement on 17 September 2020, agreeing to open offices at each other’s headquarters. The Dubai exchange opened an office in Ramat Gan that year, and the Israel Diamond Exchange opened its Dubai office in February 2022. A 2022 report said the relationship between the exchanges predated the agreement and that trade between Israel and the UAE dated back nearly two decades.[33]

The Exchange has faced changes in trading activity, profitability, competition, and membership. In 2017 it announced that it would lease offices in its Maccabi and Shimshon buildings to service providers as well as diamond traders, for the first time since 1969. Potential tenants included insurers, accountants, travel agencies, software and hardware companies, and jewelers; applicants would have to pass security checks and demonstrate business ties to Exchange members. The decision was attributed to falling trading activity and vacant space. Exchange president Yoram Dvash said the change would make services easier for members to access in their day-to-day work.[34]

The Exchange’s efforts to diversify have included incubator projects, technology fairs, online sales, and proposals to bring related service providers into the complex. The 2017 incubator initiative was framed as a way to encourage technologies relevant to the diamond trade and jewelry, while the online storefront and innovation events were presented as ways to respond to declining sales, low profitability, and international competition.[14][30][32]

National export figures provide context for the industry’s shifting conditions but should not be confused with turnover at the Exchange itself. Israel’s Ministry of Economy and Industry described 2017 as a challenging year amid a decline in global sector trade. Net polished-diamond exports were $4.5 billion, down from $4.6 billion in 2016; the United States accounted for almost 47% of the polished-diamond export market, followed by Hong Kong at 28%.[35]

A 2025 report gave figures for the Israeli industry in the previous year: net rough-diamond imports fell about 13% to approximately $800 million; polished imports fell about 33% to approximately $1.5 billion; net rough exports fell about 24% to approximately $630 million; and polished exports fell about 35.6% to approximately $1.8 billion. Zuaretz said about 60% of diamond exports went to the United States and described even a 10% tariff as significant for the industry. The report said the industry’s exports accounted for about 8% of Israeli merchandise exports.[18]

The same 2025 interview described recruitment as part of the Exchange’s response to contraction. Zuaretz said the organization had gained 200 members a year in good years but only 30 in the preceding year, before the changes to admission terms were followed by 50 new members in three months and a waiting list. These statements concern the Exchange’s membership, while export statistics in the article refer to the national diamond industry.[17][18]

Plans for the Exchange’s own buildings and plans for the wider district are separate developments. In 2013, the Exchange presented a proposal to expand three buildings on Jabotinsky Street to 350,000 square metres, including commercial space, and to increase the tallest building to 76 floors. The report did not establish that the proposal was completed.[25]

A different plan concerns the broader Diamond Exchange area in Ramat Gan. According to a September 2026 Globes report, an outline plan for the district was approved in February 2022. It allowed for up to 3.7 million additional square metres of above-ground space: up to 2.98 million square metres of offices, 200,000 square metres each of commercial and public space, 1,750 housing units, 500 student dormitory rooms, and 1,500 hotel rooms. The report described a district-wide plan intended to introduce mixed uses and make the area more active in the evenings, not an expansion of Exchange-owned buildings.[36]

Published accounts differ over the Exchange’s institutional beginnings. The Exchange’s commemorative history and a government account trace its origins to 1937, while a Globes historical article says it was founded in 1936.[5][8] A separate Globes page dates the incorporated Israel Diamond Exchange Ltd. to 1947, while a historical account identifies a 1946 company as the Palestine Diamond Exchange and describes its memorandum under the name Eretz Israel Diamond Exchange.[7][9] The sources reviewed do not establish the exact legal continuity among these bodies, so their dates and names should not be treated as a single unambiguous founding record.

Reported measurements of the complex and membership counts also vary across dated accounts. The 2017 government embassy page gives 90,000 square metres for the four buildings, whereas a 2008 report gives 100,000 square metres.[6][22] The 2008 account reports 2,600 members, while the Exchange president reported more than 3,000 in 2020.[22][23] The differences may reflect varying dates or measurement methods, and the sources do not resolve them.

Some prominent claims about global throughput and ranking are attributed to Exchange executives or institutional sources rather than presented as independent assessments. A 2014 report, for example, attributed the claim that every second diamond over half a carat passed through the complex to Exchange executives. Likewise, a 2020 report quoted the president describing the Exchange as one of the world’s top four trading centers.[15][23]

A 2016 report covered allegations of large-scale embezzlement involving Exchange members. It said an internal arbitration process led to a complaint being referred to the Exchange’s legal department, which asked police to open a criminal investigation. The article reported allegations against dealer Hanan Abramovich and also included his lawyer’s denial of illegal activity; the allegations should not be treated as established findings.[16]

A 2000 Globes report described a long-running tax arrangement negotiated between the Income Tax Commission and industry representatives. It said most participating diamond merchants paid 36–38% on 1% of turnover, while members could instead report independently. The article recorded criticism that the arrangement could be open to abuse as well as an industry defense of its usefulness for tax collection. This is a historical account of a contested arrangement, not a description of current tax practice.[8]