FAMILY HISTORY

Robert Sylk credits much of his character and zest for life to his father, who he describes as being "one hell of a guy." Harry Sylk opened his first drug store in 1929 when he was in his mid-20s. Over 40 years, he built Sun Ray Drugs into a 400-store chain in six states. Says Robert of the early days, "My father taught me to treat everyone right. He firmly believed that every person deserved respect and that every success came with responsibility to one's community."

Throughout a colorful business career, Harry Sylk maintained businesses in the Caribbean, lived for a time in Cuba, owned the Philadelphia Eagles, and son Robert sported a pair of cufflinks given to him by Meyer Lansky, the so-called "Mogul of the Mob." While Sylk was a legitimate businessman and Lansky was a member of the Syndicate, they shared at least one thing in common - a passion to see Israel achieve independent rule and become sanctioned by the United Nations.

Harry Sylk was named president of the Jewish National Fund in the mid 1940s and became involved with fundraising and international diplomacy, often convening with Presidents Truman and Eisenhower on the Israeli statehood issue. When Israel needed water to use as a bargaining chip in a peace treaty with Jordan, Robert's brother Leonard Sylk was instrumental in building one of the largest reservoirs south of the Sea of Galilee. The Sylk Family was honored in 1995 by the Jewish National Fund with the Price of Peace - Water for Life tribute, presented by Former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

As Robert Sylk recalls fondly, "Once I came home from school to find Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in our kitchen chatting with my father. Another time, I went along for the ride to Albert Einstein's house in Princeton where my father and Mr. Einstein called the President to discuss some sensitive national security matters."

In fact, those visits with distinguished dignitaries were a part of history. Harry Sylk is credited with purchasing the ship that was memorialized in the 1960 movie "Exodus," starring Paul Newman as an Israeli resistance fighter who brings 600 European Jews from British-blockaded Cyprus into newly partitioned Palestine after World War II.

Robert's parents Harry and
Gertrude at the Sylk estate in Lower Merion, PA.

President Harry Truman with Harry Sylk.

Robert's dad with Marylin Monroe.

Harry and Gert with Bob Hope in the early years.