Magazine Archive
Magazine Archive
March/April 2000
The Life and Times of Luria Brothers
In its 111 years, Luria Brothers has survived the Depression, been the largest scrap company in the country, faced a federal antitrust suit, been sold four times, and lived to tell its story. This is it.
By Andrew Claster
Andrew Claster is a great great grandson of Hirsch Luria, founder of Luria Brothers and Company, Inc., and a grandson of Joel Claster, former chairman of the company. He lives in Arlington, Va.
It was once the mightiest scrap company of them all.
Luria Brothers and Company, Inc.
was born, like so many scrap firms, from an immigrant’s dream for a better life. Unlike other scrap companies, however, Hirsch Luria’s humble dream grew into the largest scrap company in the United States and perhaps the world.
That success came with a price, however, in the form of an antitrust suit by the federal government. This suit ended the firm’s golden era and forced it to give up its monopolistic position in the industry.
Despite that setback, Luria Brothers continued to succeed and, in fact, remained one of the top two scrap processors and brokers (along with David J. Joseph Co.) into the 1990s. And it continues to operate today as part of Philip Services Corp.
This chronology tells the tale of this scrap giant.
1882-1884: Hirsch Luria, a wheat dealer, emigrates from Joniskis, Russia (Lithuania today),
following pogroms and facing a growing threat that the Russian Army would draft his sons. Russian restrictions on Jewish emigration convince Hirsch to smuggle his eldest son Levi out first. Levi makes his way to Reading, Pa., where the family has relatives or friends. A year later, Levi sends word to the family to come to Reading. Hirsch and the rest of the family leave Russia via Poland from the port of Gdansk by bribing border guards during a nighttime crossing. The family travels to America in steerage.
1889: Hirsch Luria establishes a scrap business in Reading that later becomes known as Luria Brothers.
Piemēram, Višķos 1895. g. reģistrēta vairs tikai viena šīs dzimtas ģimene:
LURIA Beinus M Head of the house 65 Trader.Peddler trinket products.
LURIA Kisa F Wife 50
LURIA Berka M Son 10
