Diamonds Are Forever

During my recent trip to New York City, I wandered down 47th Street, where I was struck by the overwhelming presence of Jews from various sects and lots of signs in Hebrew and Yiddish. I didn't realize until happening across this article on the Diamond District that 47th between 5th and 6th Avenues is one of the world centers of the diamond trade. If you have given or received a diamond ring, you've probably handled a stone that passed through the district. It's a place where,

according to the Diamond Dealers Club bylaws, “Any oral offer is binding among dealers, when agreement is expressed by the accepted words ‘Mazel and Broche’ [‘good luck and a blessing’] or any other words expressing the words of accord.” Even more remarkably, since the Talmud prohibits resolving conflicts in non-Jewish courts, disputes on 47th Street are not handled by civil courts but upstairs at the Diamond Dealers Club, where a board of arbiters presides over oral hearings (notes are never taken and the hearings are never recorded) and deliver judgments based on common sense, trade customs, and principles of Jewish law. For generations, this is how diamond dealers throughout the world have conducted business, and it continues to be the principal mode of operation on 47th Street.

The irony of a modern-day block fueled by old-fashioned trust, of course, is that every single inch of diamond district is nevertheless under video surveillance. The extreme security exists for good reason: 95 percent of the diamonds imported into the United States pass through New York, and most of those are handled and cut on this block. And while deals on the street are still based on oral blessings, handshakes, and Talmudic arbitration, transactions in the retail shops are backed up by extensive legal paperwork.

The full article is a glimpse into a tiny but fascinating and important slice of America.