Helene Fortunoff November 8, 2021
Miami-Beach, Florida - Helene Fortunoff passed away in Miami Beach, Florida on November 8, 2021. She was a trailblazing jewelry merchant who took a few showcases in Brooklyn, NY, and grew them into a multi-million-dollar jewelry business with its crown jewel on 5th Avenue in New York City. She was 88. The cause was a non-Covid respiratory illness.
She was born in 1933 to Samuel and Tillie Finke in Paterson New Jersey. After a childhood where she enjoyed singing and excelled as a student, she graduated from New York University cum laude with a degree in business administration. In a real estate class at New York University, she met her first husband, Alan Fortunoff, with whom she had 6 children. Her jewelry career began when she entered Alan’s family housewares business, started in 1922 by Max and Clara Fortunoff. Alan, also considered a visionary retailing pioneer, passed away in 2000.
After being introduced by a mutual friend in 2001, she married Robert Grossman in 2006.
In addition to Robert, she is survived by 5 children, Esther, Andrea, Rhonda, Ruth, and David. Her son Louis passed away in 2012. She is also survived by 9 grandchildren and 1 great-grand-child. Her brother Leon Finke pre-deceased her.
A past trustee of the North Shore Family and Child Guidance Association, she was honored as their 1996 Woman of Achievement. Mrs. Fortunoff is a past Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Hofstra University. She was honored by the UJA Federation of New York, Diamond and Jewelry Division, as well as this same division by ORT. She was a charter member of the UJA Women of Distinction and a Lion of Judah of that organization. In addition, Mrs. Fortunoff served as an advisory board member of the Women President Organization.
She has recently supported The Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University, which records, preserves, and provides access to testimonies of survivors, witnesses, bystanders and liberators of the Holocaust, The Lustgarten Foundation, and Mount Sinai Medical Center Foundation.
After retiring, she and Robert Grossman moved to Florida and assembled a world class collection of 19th century British ceramics, making sizable donations currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chicago Arts Institute, Yale University, and The Wolfsonian–Florida International University. She also enjoyed playing cards with a large circle of friends.
Donations in Helene’s memory may be made to Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, or The Lustgarten Foundation: Pancreatic Cancer Research, or North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center.