Heirs Ask Bulletin to Aid Hunt for ‘lost’ African Millionaire

Like a hunt for buried treasure is the quest for the reputedly fabulous fortune left by Isaac Kaminsky, who prior to his death about a decade ago is reported to have amassed millions in the South African diamond mines.

Yesterday heirs-apparent of Kaminsky, who is believed to have left no immediate family, appealed to the Jewish Daily Bulletin through their attorney, Julian N. Goldman, to help them to trace the slim thread of clues which leads them to believe Kaminsky’s vast wealth awaits its rightful claimant in South Africa.

Scattered through the United States, some of them in the Greater New York area, are nephews and nieces of the deceased diamond magnate. Their knowledge of their uncle’s exact history is hazy, since he segregated himself from the rest of his family at an early age.

BORN IN RUSSIA

They do know, however, that he was born in Tohonsha, Russia, in about 1840, and that he spent his youth in the Russian army. When he was approximately forty years old he migrated to South Africa, where fortune is reported to have smiled upon him.

The dusty archives of the past are curiously uninformative on the man’s subsequent activities. Relatives recall, however, that an item appeared in a local newspaper eight or ten years ago telling of his death.

Numerous rumors have come to the ears of the nephews and nieces who regard themselves as his lawful heirs. One such story declares that Kaminsky was knighted by the British government under the title “Sir Philip.” Another relates that he was converted to Catholicism and married a non-Jewish woman.

There is known to be a man named Kaminsky now residing in Johannesburg who is in the diamond business. He is a Belgian, originally from Antwerp, but representatives of the American branch of the family have decided to communicate with him on the chance that he is also a relative of the late Isaac Kaminsky.