The Bite Magazine - Spring/Summer 2025 - Issue 37

bitejewellery Bernard Abbey clothing program for displaced Euro- peans. In 1945, he was elected commander of the Al- abama Department of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, a few years before he was also named commander of the Jewish War Veterans. Following Joe’s death in 1972, the store was managed by his wife, Ethel and son Charles, an attorney. “As my father started to age, I began to take a more active role in the business in 1968-69.” Charles learned the importance of a business and having a close, personal relationship with each customer from his father. “He taught me to treat every person who walked through the door like family, whether they were spending $10 or £10,000.” This mindset formed the tagline, ‘It’s like having a relative in the jewellery business.’ His sister, Rhoda, moved back to Birmingham from Chicago to help with the business and married Mar- vin Link, a prominent jeweller from New York who helped train staff and allowed Levy’s to pursue a more jewellery-focused business model. Through her expe- rience in native American jewellery acquired from ar- tisans in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, which grew into a storefront selling fine accessories, clothing, and estate jewellery, Rhoda updated Levy’s store and introduced period estate pieces. Other family members involved in the business in- clude Jared Nadler, Rhoda’s son from her first mar- riage, who, alongwith her second husband, helped him fall in love with diamonds and gemstones. Charles’ son, Todd Denaburg, a former radio advertising seller who loves the outdoors, followed a year later, in 1990. Joseph Denaburg, the founder’s great-grandson who completed several jewellery and gemstone-related courses, joined in 2013 and manages the brand’s so- cial media, website, and online activities. Levy’s Lineage Collection bridges the past and pres- ent by creating vintage-inspired pieces honouring historic design movements such as Art Deco, Belle Époque, and Edwardian styles. It allows collectors to experience the beauty of antique craftsmanship in newly designed pieces that can be cherished for gen- erations. Diamond or gemstone inheritors can work with Levy’s expert artisans to set them into a custom vintage-inspired design to maintain their sentimental treasures in a meaningful and wearable way. The pieces include the Art Deco-Inspired Platinum Diamond and Emerald Necklace, set with three French-cut, five princess-cut, and one trillion and one mine-cut diamonds weighing 3.47 carats. It’s accent- ed by 24 European-cut diamonds weighing .44 carats and calibre-cut emeralds of 1.55 carats. The Modern