Gem dealer and author Benjamin Zucker reminisces about his rich professional journey – the extraordinary stones, illustrious publications and meaningful relationships.

Welcome to the Jewelry Connoisseur Podcast, and now your host Sonia Esther Soltani.

Welcome to this new episode of the Jewelry Connoisseur Podcast. I'm your host, Sonia Esther Soltani, editor in chief of Rapaport. For the last episode of Season 3, I couldn't think of a better guest than Benjamin Zucker to close our series. Benjamin is a passionate dealer, collector, and writer whose eye for gems and talent to share their stories is unparalleled. In this episode, you will hear some names mentioned. There's a one month baby, Melissa Wolfgang Amenc, who was our guest on season two, discussing how to make meaningful connections in the industry. That's a very apt topic as she has been instrumental in setting up this podcast. So was Alan Bronstein, who Benjamin mentions. Alan is a world renowned colored diamond expert, and he shares our guest's approach to gemstones. Both always prefer beauty over value. It's an inspiring episode about gems, books, and friends. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as we did recording it with our wonderful guest Benjamin Zucker.

Sonia: Hi Benjamin. I'm so happy to have you on this podcast is the closing episode of season three of the Jewelry Connoisseur podcast. we're so honored to have you with us. We wanted to have you on this podcast for a long time. So thanks for being with us. Welcome Benjamin.

Benjamin: Thank you so much. Acharon, acharon, chaviv. So I'm very flattered that you chose me for the last one.

Sonia: It's very special. So this podcast is for jewelry collectors, jewelry connoisseurs, people who love jewelry, who love diamonds, and you have had such a rich life in the jewelry industry, in the diamond industry. You've written books, you've been dealing with beautiful stones. so where do we start with you, Benjamin? We have so much to say. So tell me first, how did you start in this industry that we all love so much?

Benjamin: I had a conversation with my father. I said, Dad, I want to be a novelist, a writer. And he said, well, you could write about jewelry. I said, Dad, it's not the same thing. I want to write novels. He said, Well, but you could still write about jewelry. What about a trip to, India? And I had been to Yale College and Harvard Law School and got degrees. And so I thought, Okay, I'll give it a try. I went to India and I was completely overcome by the light. By the jewels I saw, day after day, hour after hour, I saw fabulous gems, and I joined the firm.

Sonia: When was that, Benjamin?

Sonia: What was your next book after that? You carried on writing about gems first and then you moved to the life of a very special, colorful character?

Benjamin: Thank you. I continued writing books and my father had only gone to the fourth grade in Europe. He was a soldier in the French army after having been born in Poland, emigrated to Paris, and because he only went to the fourth grade, he loved education, and he kept on saying, anytime you want to write books, anytime you want to read books, whatever you want to do in the business, go ahead and do it, and you'll learn. If it's a mistake, you'll learn from the mistake. If it's good, you'll feel strong. So, I think of my life in the gems as friends. and jewels, friends and books. But in order to write, you can't come even close. Gems are so amazing. If you have one and look at it every single day, let's say, for example, I wrote a novel, called Blue, but the Green, had the Taj Mahal emerald on it. And I realized when it was offered to me that the way it was cut, and I recognized it as a Moghul jewel, and I was friends with a person who was the head of Moghul art at Harvard. He came down and saw the gem. He said, well, it was cut in a way that you push down with a diamond stylus on the emerald. And I exclaimed, but if it breaks the emerald, the emerald is so soft, that's it. He said, yes, that's it. And since the cutter or the engraver would have been in a Moghul court in the 17th century, that would not have been a good day for the jeweler because he would have had to reckon with Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal. So I have a great friend who's also a great gem dealer and it was Jesse Wolfgang. And what I was so thrilled about from a family point of view was when you interviewed Melissa, I saw Melissa in Geneva when she was a month old. I mean, this is an extraordinary thing. So when you get to be 83 and if you really look through the glasses, you have your own family history. Often you see, the parents, and you can sometimes see the grandchildren. so here I see Melissa and Jesse active in the business. And, Jesse said to me, well, if this stone is what you say it is, and you're the professor, let's go together on it. And. It was that friendship and that confidence. But I mean, it's a difficult thing to have a gem that you a little bit understand, but don't fully understand. I mean, there's a sentence in Job, which says, look to the earth and it will teach you. And in Job 8, 12. So what can a gem really teach you? Well, the heart of the gem is when you see it on the ground, it's a little pebble. You wouldn't pick it up. I wouldn't pick it up, but a few people would pick it up. So if one finds a rough diamond or one finds a rough, emerald, for example, unless you're a real expert on rough, well, you wouldn't know what it was. So on the one hand, you have the earth. if you take that rough stone to a great cutter. And my grandfather, Gutman Gutwirth HaCohen, understood rough diamonds, for example. he could look into a diamond crystal and figure out what it could become. Because just like he was able to take the rough diamond and suggest how it could be cut and made a great living at it, he was one of the really respected diamond dealers in the 20s and 30s. Thank then he escaped to, Cuba, and finally he came to America, and he lived with us. I was able, with my novels, to put the story in the center, like a page of the Talmud, and then write around it a commentary, and on the right hand side, work with pictures of works of art. So, you start out, and with the rough diamond. The earth has given you this. And then you have a great person who recognizes it. And then he gives it to a cutter and then the cutter cuts it. My father would say. for the red stone, is this a ruby? He had no idea of what the stone was. But if I said to my father, this is a ruby. It's three carats. He'd say, I don't know what $22,000, he'd hit the cost within 10%. But when I started in the business, it seemed to me like it was, very strange that people seem to agree on prices for things, but They were so arbitrary, and if you had, let's say, a, ruby, you could have variations that it was worth $22,000, or 32,000 or 42,000 From the start, I tried to write How to Invest in Gems, that the New York Times published, to teach the public, and especially to teach the jewelry stores, what the standards were for rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and diamonds. 50 percent of the people on 47th Street said, you're doing a bad thing. You're educating the customer. It's the same thing. I should separate myself from Martin Rapaport. They said to him, you're doing a bad thing by making it too clear what the price of diamonds is. But he sailed ahead and thank God, it's, so far it's done very well.

Sonia: Did you have also life threats on you? The same way as Martin had?

Benjamin: No, no, no, no, no.

Sonia: That's good.

Sonia: I love it. that's a big perspective. We started with going into the ground with a million years, so billion years diamond. And we look at the stars with you and Benjamin has been so fascinating. And I love the way you put things in perspective, the color gemstones, the artwork, everything together. and the friendships along the way as well. You've taught us something you don't need to bargain to be a successful dealer people are Benjamin, it is been such a honor to have you on this podcast. Thank you so much for sharing your passion, your history, your fascinating stories, and I encourage everyone to go and look out for the books. Um, check your novel and your, teaching on, color gemstones and diamonds. Thank you so much, Benjamin.

Benjamin: It's a great pleasure, and obviously any of these books that you would want to take pictures of, I'm happy to drop them off again in the office and so forth.

 Thank you for listening to the Jewelry Connoisseur podcast by Rappaport Jewelry Pro. This episode was hosted by Sonia Ester Soltani and produced and edited by Vanina You can find all our episodes on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and read more about diamonds, colored gemstones, high jewelry designers, estate jewelry, and the latest jewelry trends on Rappaport. com slash Jewelry Connoisseur. Please subscribe to get all our new episodes and if you liked this one, leave us a review.