May/June 2002
Jake Farber is known the world over for his great work as a scrap executive, association leader, and Jewish-community supporter. Even now, at age 77, his amazing run continues.
By Si Wakesberg.
Once, while visiting Osaka, I happened to mention the name of Jake Farber to a Japanese businessman.
“Jake Farber!” the man replied immediately. “Everybody in the metals business in Japan knows and respects that name.”
It’s not only in Japan that you get that kind of reaction. Talk with scrap industry executives in the United States, Europe, and beyond, and you’ll hear similar praise for the chairman of Alpert & Alpert Iron & Metal Inc. (Los Angeles) and its related companies Vista Metals Corp., a secondary aluminum smelter, and Vista Sales, a primary aluminum distributor.
Such recognition makes sense given Jake Farber’s long and distinguished career in the scrap industry, which has included serving as president of both the National Association of Recycling Industries—an ReMA predecessor—and the Bureau of International Recycling. Through those positions and his 52 years (and counting) as an international scrap executive, Farber has established a worldwide reputation for his company as well as himself.
At 77, Farber dedicates most of his time to philanthropic activities, though he still keeps a hand in the scrap business, showing up at the office four days a week for a few hours a day. This internationally known scrap executive also continues to travel (as this article was being written, in fact, his plans involved jetting off to New York City, then onward to Israel). Fortunately, I was able to catch up with him during another of his recent trips—to the ReMA convention in Las Vegas. There, we talked about his life and times in and out of the scrap industry. Here’s what he had to say.
Rise of a Scrap Star
It’s important to note right off that Jake Farber is a born-and-bred West Coaster. That’s important because part of his contributions are tied to his efforts to improve the West Coast recycling business and its role in industry trade groups.
Farber was born in 1924 on the East Side of Los Angeles and grew up in that area. Upon graduating from the local Theodore Roosevelt High School in 1943, he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps and was sent to a remote emergency landing field in Alaska. There, he received his first hands-on business experience as manager of the base’s Post Exchange.
Following his discharge in 1946, Farber registered at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting. As fate would have it, however, he wasn’t destined to become an accountant (though he certainly used those skills in his career to come).
At a party, he met a woman named Janet Alpert, whom he married in 1950—“and we’ve been together ever since,” Farber says, offering that single-line summation of their 52-year marriage.
While Farber was certainly lucky in love, he found the going more difficult when it came to his career. “I didn’t know what I was going to do,” he remembers. “I had no definite goal in mind.” At one point, he passed the civil-service exam for an auditor position in California’s wine country, but he never accepted the job.
Why? Because Herman Alpert, Janet’s father, invited Farber to join the family scrap business. “I had never heard of scrap, knew nothing about it,” Farber says, “but my father-in-law was very persuasive.” Indeed, Herman took Farber to the Alpert & Alpert yard and convinced him that the scrap industry could offer him a good future—“and he was certainly right,” Farber says with a smile.
That same year—1950—Janet’s brother Raymond graduated from the University of California-Los Angeles (also with an accounting degree) and likewise joined the family firm, becoming Farber’s compatriot as the second generation in the business.
As a newcomer to the scrap world, Farber learned the business from the ground up, working the scale, laboring in the yard, learning about metals and yard management, mastering the skills of buying and selling ferrous and nonferrous metals, and more. In 1955, Herman Alpert reorganized the firm’s metal activities, giving Farber oversight of the aluminum department (and marking the beginning of his longtime affair with the light metal).
All was going well until Herman Alpert died suddenly in 1957. This tragic event was “a big shock for all of us,” Farber says, one that left the company in need of a new leader. After weighing the options, Ray Alpert and Farber agreed that Frances Brody—Herman’s sister-in-law and a longtime Alpert & Alpert employee—should become the company’s new president.
By that time, Farber was serving as a vice president of Alpert & Alpert and overseeing the firm’s exporting operations, a position that kept Farber on the road and in the air. “I was traveling, selling aluminum directly to consumers in the United States, while our export business was through New York brokers,” he recounts. “Later, we began to do business directly with consumers overseas, especially with Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. Afterward, I traveled often to the Orient.”
In 1968, Alpert & Alpert expanded its aluminum business into the smelting niche by establishing Vista Metals in Fontana, Calif., near Los Angeles. This operation—which continues to operate today—began by making specification ingot for the automotive industry and billet for the aircraft industry, Farber notes.
Meanwhile, Alpert & Alpert continued to build its business in copper, nickel, stainless, and ferrous. In 1968—the same year it launched Vista Metals—the company expanded its ferrous scrap operations by establishing Clean Steel Inc., a Carson, Calif.-based shredding joint venture with National Metal Co. (Baltimore).
These and other operations helped make The Alpert Group one of the largest nonferrous scrap recycling companies and exporters on the West Coast (if not the entire country). Much of the credit for this growth can be traced to the leadership and vision of Farber and Ray Alpert, who have enjoyed an unusually close and fruitful working relationship throughout the decades. “We’ve had a wonderful partnership for over 50 years, and it remains unbroken to this very day,” Farber states.
Success by Association
Farber’s work at Alpert & Alpert is only part of his success story in the scrap industry. The other part centers on his decades of service to trade industry associations such as the National Association of Recycling Industries (NARI) and the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), the Brussels-based international recycling association.
Farber credits two scrap industry statesmen—Maury Schwartz of Pacific Smelting Co. (Torrance, Calif.) and renowned scrap entrepreneur Mack Cottler—with encouraging him to become active in association work. Farber took their advice, acting on the belief that serving in such associations was the best way to solve the industry’s problems.
Farber attended his first NARI national convention in 1957, beginning as a “frightened novice,” he says, but quickly climbing the ranks in the group’s western division, serving as the division’s chairman from 1964-1966. His tenure in the division included 15 years on its ocean traffic committee, which worked to establish equitable ocean freight rates for scrap exporters.
On the national level, Farber served on NARI’s labor and safety committee as well as its national affairs committee. In addition, he worked on the NARI committees that dealt with export controls and specifications.
Not surprisingly, Farber’s contributions propelled him into the national NARI officer ranks, in which he served as vice president from 1974-1978 and—ultimately—president from 1978-1980. While his election was certainly a personal milestone, it also marked a victory for all West Coast recyclers, who were feeling somewhat ignored within the association. Says one scrap executive: “It was Jake who helped focus attention on the West Coast.”
During his term as NARI president—which Farber calls an “unforgettable experience”—the association secured a 10-percent tax credit for recycling-equipment purchases, helped ensure reasonable freight rates for scrap commodities, supported free-trade scrap export policies, emphasized the energy-saving benefits of scrap materials, established the association’s state and local program, promoted the message of “recycling,” which was a growing concept at that time, and much more.
Farber’s international business acumen as well as his experience as NARI’s leader prepared him perfectly for his next leadership role as president of BIR, a position in which he served for two terms from 1987-1991.
“That was a wonderful experience,” he says. “In that position, I could see how business occurred on a global scale and could meet interesting people from all over the world.”
During Farber’s two terms, the BIR mainly addressed “the effects of ill-conceived environmental legislation on the collection, processing, and consumption of secondary raw materials,” as he noted at the group’s 1990 meeting in Singapore. Many of these problems could be traced to the Basel Convention, which sought to prevent industrialized countries from shipping hazardous materials to developing countries but which failed to distinguish between scrap commodities and waste. This lack of distinction threatened to limit scrap trade and set up a clear challenge for Farber and the BIR: “We have to show that our industry deals in valuable commodities which should be traded freely,” he stated at the Singapore meeting.
Though the BIR and the international scrap industry continue to grapple with environmental legislative obstacles, Farber helped get both on the right track to fight such injustices.
Looking Back
As he reflects on his 52 years in the scrap industry, Farber can’t help but remember the people who influenced his career and the changes that have occurred in the business.
First, he notes the “three men who stand out when I look back on my involvement with the scrap industry”—Sidney Danziger of Alloys & Chemicals Corp. (New York City), a past BIR president who was a “powerful personality” and “always bigger than life”; Maury Schwartz, who “really paved the way for West Coasters when he became NARI president” in 1972; and Victor Rosenfeld of Calbag Metals Co. (Portland, Ore.), a “dear friend with whom I traveled everywhere and with whom I spent many happy times,” Farber says.
Reflecting on the changes he has seen in his long career, Farber recalls how Alpert & Alpert used to sell all of its exported scrap through brokers. That situation changed in the early 1960s when the company established its own overseas connections and network of representatives and offices. “The world has become closer,” Farber says. “We currently have an office in Tokyo as well as reps in many other Asian countries. The export business is an important part of our total volume of business. We buy and ship globally.”
Farber also points to the technological shift in the smelting industry over the years. In the past, he notes, “we were primitive testers of aluminum. Today, we have excellent equipment that readily tests the different kinds of aluminum alloys.”
Looking at the changes in his own company, Farber notes that while Alpert & Alpert is certainly a larger and different company than when he first visited Herman Alpert’s yard, its goals and standards have never changed. By that, he’s referring specifically to the company’s integrity. “We strive to be extremely ethical with everybody we deal with,” he states.
Another constant has been the company’s ability to weather difficult times, from the industry’s traditional economic cycles to the more recent challenges imposed by the Sept. 11 attacks. Fortunately, market conditions are beginning to improve, Farber says, and he feels that The Alpert Group continues to have great growth potential, thanks in large part to its employees. “We have a fine staff,” he declares, noting proudly that the company has rarely laid-off an employee and can boast some workers who have served for 40 years or more. “Turnover here is extremely rare,” Farber says with understatement.
An Optimistic Outlook
While Farber’s name and contributions are recognized and honored far and wide in the scrap industry—from the West Coast to Osaka to Brussels—it is in the Los Angeles Jewish community that his name is truly a byword.
Noting just a few of his many notable contributions, Farber was president of Camp Ramah of California and currently serves as chairman of the Jewish Federation Council of Los Angeles and as a member of the board of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. He has also been a vice president and board member of Adat Ari El synagogue and continues to serve as an honorary life member of the synagogue’s board.
In honor of the Farbers’ dedicated work—and their 50th anniversary—the synagogue held a grand party for the couple in 2000. On that occasion, the president of the synagogue said: “We honor Jake and Janet Farber for what they have done in the past and for the people they are today: two committed, selfless and tireless leaders of the entire Jewish community who have become models of devotion and generosity to all manner of Jewish causes.”
Indeed, Janet has been equally active in Jewish communal life, Farber points out, noting that she is president of the Bureau of Jewish Education in Los Angeles, an active participant in the Federation Campaign, and president of the Sisterhood of Adat Ari El synagogue. Plus, she has accompanied Farber on his 30-plus trips to Israel. Such devotion makes it easy to understand why the Farbers have received such honors as the David Ben Gurion Award from the State of Israel Bond Organization, among others.
The Farbers, of course, have been equally devoted parents to their three children—Nadine, Howard, and Rochelle—as well as dedicated grandparents to their seven grandchildren. Farber points proudly to the fact that Howard chose to follow his footsteps in the scrap business, helping Alpert & Alpert transition into its third generation of family leadership. Howard also continues the Farber-Alpert partnership tradition by managing the company hand-in-hand with Ray Alpert’s son Alan.
While Farber has received just about every honor offered by the Jewish community as well as the scrap industry—including the prestigious Phoenix Award—he remains modest and unaffected by the accolades heaped upon him. He is, as one fellow scrap executive once said, “a down-to-earth real human being.”
Farber may be down-to-earth, but his hopes and expectations for the scrap industry remain high in the sky. “I’m always optimistic,” he says. “I believe in the continuous growth of our industry. Yes, it will change. It will become different. It may take on a more corporate look. But fundamentally I know there will always be a real need for scrap.” •
Si Wakesberg is New York bureau chief for Scrap.
Jake Farber is known the world over for his great work as a scrap executive, association leader, and Jewish-community supporter. Even now, at age 77, his amazing run continues.