Levy Jewelers Records

Levy Jewelers began in 1900 as A. Levy & Son, a watch repair business at 211 West Congress Street across from City Market in Savannah, Georgia. It was opened by Aaron Malitz Levy (1864-1929), a Russian immigrant watchmaker with a wife and eight children. A. Levy & Son expanded in 1911 by buying out E. Figuris, a shop selling eyeglasses and jewelry on 20 E. Broughton Street and moving to that location. A second move was made in 1923, taking the shop to the southwest corner of Drayton and Broughton streets (27 E. Broughton Street). In 1937, they moved across Drayton to the southeast corner of the intersection, making 101 E. Broughton St. their main store. The business name changed to Levy Jewelers in 1941.

Aaron M. Levy died in 1929 and management of the store went to his son, Jack Malitz Levy (1908-1988). (Aaron’s wife Rachel Gold Levy [1876-1951] was president of the business at that time.) In the early 1930s, Jack Levy brought such changes to the store as merging with jeweler H. Wills at 406 West Broad Street (1931), selling radios (1931), opening an optical department (1933), selling General Elehctric appliances (1934), and offering radio repair (1934). By 1934, the store had a staff of 16. Three years later, it employed 30 people. As of 1987, Aaron M. Levy (b. 1941), grandson of the original Aaron Levy, served as president of the company and his wife Dayle (b. 1943), whom he married in 1963, became the vice president.

There were four locations: the main store at 101 E. Broughton Street, Oglethorpe Mall location at 7804 Abercorn Street, Medical Arts Shopping Center location at 4711 Waters Avenue, and the Savannah Mall location at 14045 Abercorn Street. The Waters Avenue shop closed in 2002. The business was sold to Lowell Kronowitz (b. 1963), Aaron’s cousin and great grandson of the original owner Aaron Levy, in March 2004. Aaron and Dayle retired in 2009.

Notable Jewish community leader Dr. William A. Wexler (1911-1985) worked at Levy Jewelers as an optometrist in 1938. Other optometrists that offered service through Levy’s were Dr. H.A. Mathis and Dr. G.M. Keene.