Israel Polack
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Israel Polack (1909-1993) was a textile industrialist in Romania, Chile and Israel.
Polack was born in Borşa, Transylvania, Romania in 1909. In 1925, he moved to Gura Humorului, Bukovina, and later to Cernăuţi (Czernowitz).
In Czernowitz, he studied at yeshiva and at a textile plant. In 1935, he founded a textile plant in Czernowitz.
After World War II, he emigrated to Chile where he founded a textile plant. In 1960, Pinhas Sapir, then Minister of Industry of Israel, invited Polack to establish a textile plant in Israel at Kiryat Gat. Polack's new company, "Polgat", grew into the largest textile, clothing and knitwear company in Israel. It eventually became a public corporation whose shares were traded on the Tel Aviv stock exchange.
Because of his contributions to the State of Israel, he was awarded the Israel Prize in 1960. In 1992, he was honoured by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.