When Max and Clara Fortunoff, Russian immigrants to the United States, founded the 'pots a pans' business bearing their family name on Livonia Avenue in Brooklyn, they could hardly have envisioned the silver lining of the Fortunoff future sixty-seven years later. As the early business grew to eight shops with hand painted signs hanging from the ceilings and counters piled high with house and silver wares accommodating the needs of a burgeoning neighbourhood, Max and Clara's three children Lester, Marjorie and Alan joined the family business distributing their respective skills in the specific areas of their interests. Today, with five locations dotted around New York State, including a 20,000 square foot, three level store on Fifth Avenue, Fortunoff has come to be known as 'The Source' for quality.

Whilst renowned for their fine silver and flatware, the Fortunoff fortunes took an added turn upwards, when Alan met and married a young woman from his real estate appraisal class at New York University's business Management School. Helen Fortunoff is now the head of the Fortunoff fine jewellery division after having established this new facet of the family retailing empire in 1957. "Max and Clara were anxious to have the business expand as much as possible. They were young people, very much alive when they handed us the reigns, but they were very forward thinking people and they wanted to give their children a sense of independence. My husband and I were just married and we found ourselves in business", recalls Mrs. Fortunoff. "Alan was attending Law School and at the time I was busy having babies, so we decided that we would simply add to a business that was already involved in fine silver and china, by bringing in the dimension of fine jewellery.