The Holocaust Refugee Family That Redefined the Panama Hat

2023-08-17

CEO Dan Mariaschin talks with Alberto Dorfzaun, B’nai B’rith member and president of K. Dorfzaun, the most trusted name in the Panama Hat industry based in Cuenca, Ecuador. K. Dorfzaun was founded in 1939 by the first generation of the Dorfzaun family who arrived in Ecuador – among the 3,000-4,000 Jews who fled there, escaping the horrors of World War II and the Shoah. Famous for its history and quality, the K. Dorfzaun Panama toquilla straw hat’s traditional weaving became part of UNESCO’S ...

CEO Dan Mariaschin talks with Alberto Dorfzaun, B’nai B’rith member and president of K. Dorfzaun, the most trusted name in the Panama Hat industry based in Cuenca, Ecuador.

K. Dorfzaun was founded in 1939 by the first generation of the Dorfzaun family who arrived in Ecuador – among the 3,000-4,000 Jews who fled there, escaping the horrors of World War II and the Shoah.

Famous for its history and quality, the K. Dorfzaun Panama toquilla straw hat’s traditional weaving became part of UNESCO’S Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2012 as an important world artifact.

Alberto Dorfzaun is former president of the Jewish community in Quito, Ecuador, and a descendant of Holocaust refugees.

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