Israeli Billionare Inspired by the Rebbe

A few days ago, on Erev Yom Kippur, Israeli media reported the passing of Mr. Efraim Ilin.

Almost a year ago to the day, Mr. Ilin was interviewed as part of the My Encounter with the Rebbe oral history project about a yechidus he had with the Rebbe in 1950, before the Rebbe assumed leadership of the Lubavitch movement. After Henry Ford folded to the boycott of the Arab League, the Rebbe allayed Ilin’s fears, urging him to invest in Israel. Eventually, the Rebbe’s prediction about the company’s fate came true, as well.

Mr. Efraim Ilin was born in Kharkov, Ukraine in 1912. He was 98 at the time of the interview. He is remembered as the peron who built Israel’s first automobile assembly plant, Kaiser-Frazer of Israel, which was single-handedly responsible for a creating huge part of Israel’s industrial output.