Herman Ginsberg, owner of Ginsberg Jewelers in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, died on April 20, 2025 at age 99. Ginsberg was the 3rd generation, entering his family business in 1948 immediately upon graduating from the University of Iowa on the GI Bill. Herman and his brothers Louis and Stanley expanded their single shop into a five-store chain. Ginsberg loved the business, and worked well into his mid 90s.
One Christmas season he advertised that, “Ginsberg’s is open on Christmas Day for the real procrastinators!” He was so busy that he conscripted a customer and friend to get behind the counter and help other customers. An irate phone call that day castigated Ginsberg for being open on “the Lord’s day,” to which Ginsberg retorted ala Groucho Marx, “So, you’re not coming in?” Toward the end of day, a customer asked what he as a Jewish person typically did on Christmas day. Ginsberg replied, “We dance around the cash register singing ‘What A Friend We Have In Jesus’.”
Ginsberg’s subsequent 4th generation family includes his son Steven, the current owner in Cedar Rapids, having recently moved the business out of their storefront building and into an office as an appointment-based paradigm. Herman’s nephew Mark Ginsberg and his brother Doug and daughter Lizzie have operated MC Ginsberg in Iowa City since 1984, and Herman’s niece Nancy Ginsberg is currently with James Free Jewelers in Dayton, Ohio.
Ginsberg is predeceased by his brothers, Louis and Stanley, who also spent their lives in the family stores.
