Salvador J. Assael passed away peacefully after a brief illness on April 1, 2011. Born in 1923, Salvador fled Italy with his family in 1938, first to Paris , then to Portugal, where they boarded a ship to Cuba. The family lived in Havana until the communist revolution in 1957, when they moved via Miami to New York where they continued their diamond and jewelry business.
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A World War II veteran, as a member of Cannon Company, 311th infantry Regiment, 78th Infantry Division, he participated, endured and survived the Battle of the Bulge, December, 16th, 1944 - January 25, 1945, The U.S. campaign in Africa, and the Battle of Remagen in March 17-25, 1945. He received the Purple Heart and other medals for distinguished service from the U.S. Government. 1949 Mr. Assael began trading in left over U.S. Army watches with Japan. He was paid in pearls, which is how he started the pearl business. In 1972 he took over the business from his family, and founded Assael International. In 1973, he became a producer of the Tahitian Black pearls together with Frenchman, Jean Claude Brouillet in French Polynesia. Today Assael International is one of the leading pearl Houses in the world. In June 1998, he became a Chevalier of the Order of Tahiti Nui. He received the GIA League of Honor Sovereign in 1996 and 1998. Mr. Assael was a founding member of the South Sea Pearl Consortium.
Mr. Assael was involved in many charities. In 1993 he purchased land for the founding of Temple Dorette Assael in Papeete , Tahiti , the only Sephardic Synagogue in the South Pacific. He gave the only Sephardic exhibit at the Jewish Museum in New York; built the Azata Library in Beer Sheba, Israel; donated a wing of the Sephardic Home’s Adult Health Care Center in Brooklyn, New York; donated the Atrium of the GIA World Headquarters in Carlsbad, California and donated a room at “Our House” Hospice in Los Angeles, California. Mr. Assael is mourned by his wife, Christina Lang Assael, his children, Sophia and Robert Lang Assael, and Arlette Assael and his loyal staff Alex Rodrigues, Elisabetta Golonko and Yaneli Gusman.
