Jewelry Matriarch Helene Fortunoff Dies

RAPAPORT… Fortunoff Jewelry founder and trailblazing entrepreneur Helene Fortunoff died on Monday at the age of 88 from a non-Covid-19-related respiratory illness.

Fortunoff began her jewelry career shortly after meeting her first husband, Alan Fortunoff. She entered his family’s housewares business, which Max and Clara Fortunoff started in 1922. Knowledgeable in the merchandising and design of fine jewelry, Helene established a division for luxury pieces at the company in 1957.

From there, she grew the firm into a network of stores, including a jewelry flagship on Fifth Avenue in New York. She developed a team of jewelry merchants who traveled the world together to find new and unique products for her clientele.

Fortunoff won several accolades over the course of her career. She was given the Women’s Jewelry Association (WJA) Hall of Fame award for retailing excellence in 1993, an organization of which she later became president. The American Gem Society (AGS) presented Fortunoff with its 2001 Triple Zero Award. She also served as chairman of the Gemological Institute of America’s (GIA) board of governors.

An avid advocate of charity, Fortunoff dedicated her time to community and religious organizations, including the North Shore Family and Child Guidance Association, the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research, and Mount Sinai Medical Center. She most recently supported the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University, which records, preserves and provides access to testimonies of Holocaust survivors, witnesses, bystanders and liberators.

Fortunoff is survived by her second husband, Robert Grossman, whom she married in 2006; five children, Esther, Andrea, Rhonda, Ruth and David; nine grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. Her son Louis died in 2012.

Services will be held on Wednesday in Long Island, New York.

Image: Helene Fortunoff. (Fortunoff family)