Menachem Nuchim Torczyner

Born in 1885, Brody, Galicia, died 1948, Amsterdam. Businessman and activist in Zionist movement. In 1910 he moved to Antwerp, where he was in the diamond trade, but with the start of World War I returned to Austria for military service. He fought on the eastern front, was taken prisoner by the Russians and held until 1920, and for a time remained in Siberia. During that time, his wife ran the diamond business in Antwerp.

He was a leading member of the Committee to Defend the Rights of the Jews in Belgium, commencing in Antwerp in 1933. (Details on the Committee's anti-Nazi efforts are contained in "Belgium and the Holocaust: Jews, Belgians, Germans," by Dan Michman. He also was president of the Belgian Jewish Com. of Reps, assoc. with World Jewish Congress; president of the Zionist Organization of Belgium; president. Belgian Jewish communal relief organization; member of the Consistoire Central of Jews of Belgium.

According to his niece Esther Lerner, he left Belgium for the United states with an envelope of diamonds in each of his pant pockets. One was stolen en route, but the other helped him on arrival as an immigrant and he joined the Diamond Bourse in New York City.

He came to the United States in 1940 and became president of the Diamond

Center, Inc., N. Y. City. He was a member of the national boards of the United Jewish Appeal, the United Palestine Appeal, and the Jewish National Fund. He was a member of the Zionist Actions Committee, served as consultant for the American-Israeli diamond trade; was specially honored for service to the Zionist Actions Committee at the World Zionist Congress in 1946 for association with the movement for more than 45 years

He died in Amsterdam, Holland, Oct. 8, 1948, during return trip to U. S. from Israel. In honor of his lifelong leading work in Zionism, a street in Tel Aviv and a forest near the entrance to Jerusalem have been named for him.