Eitan Wertheimer
About Atidim: Aditim is working to create a healthier, stronger, more tolerant society, through striving for excellence, equality and shared opportunities for talented young people from every background, throughout Israel. Our Mission: A national program to broaden and boost Israel’s infrastructure of human capital – the country’s major natural resource and primary asset – by enriching and empowering young people living in development towns and underprivileged areas, narrowing the socio-economic gap, and creating a more diverse, dynamic and productive Israeli society. Our Vision: To create a healthier, stronger, more tolerant society, through striving for excellence, equality and shared opportunities for talented young people from every background, throughout the country.
Nomination in Brief
Eitan Wertheimer ardently support Israeli-Palestinian businesses and peace initiatives. With his family he’s invested over $100 million to build six Arab workplaces around Israel and tens of millions of dollars toward creating jobs. He says, “When people work together they … are too tired at night to commit terrorist acts. They work together, not against each other.”
Read Eitan Wertheimer 2018 Nomination form (Word Doc)
Bio
Eitan inherited the company ISCAR from his father Stef Wertheimer. He served as President of Iscar Ltd and is Chairman of Iscar Metals Inc. He co-founded Erez College in Shlomi and the Atidim program and has helped to minimize socio-economic inequalities, specifically in the fields of engineering and exact sciences. In addition, Mr. Wertheimer is credited for establishing the Experimental School at Tefen, for children ages 3 – 12. Over the years, he has received many awards, including Putstanding Exporter Award in 1990, the Rothschild Prize in 1991 for product innovation and export, the Pinhas Sapir Prize for Manufacturing in 1996, the Hugo Ramniceanu Prizein Economics in 2002, and most recently the Prime Minister’s Prize for Economic Achievement in 2006. In 1970, Mr. Wertheimer graduated from Bosmat Junior College, with a diploma in the study of machine tools. ISCAR is the largest of the 15 companies comprising the IMC (International Metalworking Companies). Together, they supply a dynamic comprehensive line of precision carbide metalworking tools. These companies produce a wide range of carbide inserts, carbide endmills and cutting tools, covering most metal cutting applications. IMC also provides engineering and manufacturing solutions to major industries throughout the world. Many innovative products, designed specially for customer requirements, have made the IMC a world leader in the major manufacturing industries such as automotive, aerospace and die & mold production.
More Detail
Eitan has been an ardent supporter of joint Israeli-Palestinian businesses and peace initiatives. Along with his family they have invested over $100 million to build six Arab workplaces around Israel. He also has intended to push his idea of a “New Marshall Plan” where he has advocated before congress for US funding to revitalize the Middle East producing industrial parks. Eitan views work opportunities as a way to defeat terrorism in the region. He has built 100 industrial parks, one of which he is particularly proud of, is located in Arab Nazareth, Israel. He claims, “When people work together they have no time for nonsense. They are too tired at night to commit terrorist acts. They work together, not against each other.”
Eitan has spent tens of millions of dollars toward creating jobs and training programs around the Israel’s fringes for blue-collar jobs that he says serve as a base for coexistence. He continues to devote much of his time to charity through Atidim, whose objective is to help young people from underprivileged Israeli communities into higher education. And currently dedicates funds for both education in the Arab and Haredi sectors and small businesses in the Galilee and Negev.
Eitan and his family have invested millions in industrial parks. The parks are philanthropic ventures intentionally focused on creating economic prosperity that will lead to Arab-Jewish coexistence.
Iscar is now one of Tefen’s 60 companies that employ about 4,000 workers, many of them Druze and Arab. Atidim and the Daroma Company are also projects of Wertheimer dedicated to the development of young minds. This program not only gives the youngsters the tools to succeed, but Iscar gives them the jobs.
Eitan believes creating more jobs will “usher in an era in which production, exports, education, and an advanced quality of life can replace terrorism and poverty.” His “Marshall Plan” focuses on the need to bring stability in the Middle East.
Nominated by:
- Robert Nicholson
- Founder & Executive Director
- The Philos Project