Chaim Frenkel – One of the Most Successful Lithuanian Entrepreneurs of All Time

A popular Lithuanian proverb claims that ‘the one who does not listen to his parents eats dry bread.’ However, success is often determined by the courage to rebel and the determination to follow new paths. For example, Chaim Frenkel (1851–1920) would certainly not have become the owner of the largest and most innovative leather and footwear factory in Lithuania if he had listened to his parents.

Frenkel's parents wanted their son to become a rabbi, a Jewish spiritual leader. However, he dropped out of rabbinical school, yeshiva, and went to Białystok to learn the craft of leatherwork. At the age of just 25, he bought leather tanning workshops in Šiauliai and built brick buildings for the future factory by the Kulpė stream which have survived to this day. The factory flourished quickly and by 1901 was already processing 100.000 skins a year. The success was due to the fact that Frenkel was always interested in innovations and looking for better ways to work the leather. When he purchased the factory, all production was done manually. But a few years later, leather processing machines were installed in the factory, and the first electric generator in Šiauliai was installed. The industrialist was the first not only in Lithuania, but also in the whole of Russia to start importing wood from South America for tanning. Frankel's son Jacob, who graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Berlin, also contributed to the modernization of the company. Frenkel factory leathers were awarded a gold medal at the Paris and Brussels World Exhibitions for cleverly applied modern technology.

The beginning of the twentieth century was the greatest period of prosperity for the Frenkel factory. Before World War I, the factory was made up of 48 brick buildings and employed about 1.000 workers. Due to the success of the factory, Šiauliai had become one of the largest leather industry centers in the world, and Frenkel one of the richest people in Lithuania. He generously shared his wealth with others, founding and maintaining the Šiauliai Retirement Home and opening the first Šiauliai City Hospital. He didn’t forget the Jewish community either: he built and maintained a religious Jewish school for boys, and later a school for girls, as well as helping to acquire premises for the Šiauliai Jewish Gymnasium. His son Jokūbas also became a patron: he supported the cultural, educational and social projects of an independent Lithuania.

The successful operation of the factory and the quiet life of the Frenkel family was interrupted by World War I, which began in 1914. The factory was closed, the family moved to Russia and later to Germany. After returning to Šiauliai after the war, Jokūbas Frenkel resumed production, but his pre-war success did not continue. Chaim Frenkel, the founder of the factory, died in 1920, and World War II put an end to the Frenkel leather empire. The fate of this wealthy Jewish family is tragic, as is that of most Lithuanian Jews who were killed or scattered around the world during World War II. In the autumn of 1941 Jokūbas Frenkel's wife Rosa was taken to the Ghetto of Vilnius, where she was later murdered. Jokūbas Frenkel managed to escape to the United States of America.