Julius Kravitz, a prominent business executive and local Jewish community leader, died here this morning of gunshot wounds inflicted by two men who kidnapped him and his wife, Georgina, from their Shaker Heights apartment yesterday. Kravitz was 68 years old. Mrs. Kravitz, 56, was reported in satisfactory condition today with bullet wounds in both arms. The kidnappers had demanded $1.5 million in ransom for himself and his wife. According to reports, the kidnappers shat Kravitz and his wife after the business tycoon failed to raise the ransom money.
Kravitz, a lifelong resident of Cleveland, was board chairman of First National Supermarkets, Inc. which operates a chain of supermarkets in the northeast and mid-west. He was a senior executive of the Pick-n-Pay Supermarkets, owned by First National.
Active for many years in Jewish affairs, Kravitz was a past general co-chairman of the Jewish Welfare Fund Appeal of Cleveland and past co-chairman of its Special Gifts Division. He was also a past general chairman of the Cleveland State of Israel Bonds campaign and a former president of the Jewish Community Council of Cleveland. Several years ago he was a recipient of the B’nai B’rith Humanitarian Award, the Herbert Lehman Award and the State of Israel Prime Minister’s Medal. Active in the Jewish National Fund, Kravitz helped raise a record-breaking $300,000 here which resulted in the planting in his name of a forest of 100,000 trees in Israel. He and Mrs. Kravitz were due to visit Israel this summer to dedicate the forest.
Cleveland police were reportedly on the trail of two suspects today. According to Shaker Heights police chief George Lamboy, two men gained entry to the Kravitz’s apartment in the wealthy Shaker Heights suburb early yesterday morning, one of them posing as a police officer. They held the couple at gunpoint and demanded the ransom. Later, they forced the couple into the Kravitz’s car and after driving around for a time, shot them when the ransom money could not be raised. Mrs. Kravitz escaped. Her husband was found later in the afternoon with three bullet wounds in his chest in the car which was abandoned in a field. He was rushed to a Cleveland hospital where surgery was performed. He died at 8:15 this morning.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
