Anglo-Palestine Bank
Bank set up in 1902 by the Zionist Organization's Jewish Colonial Trust to finance Jewish settlement in Palestine; forerunner of Bank Leumi
| Anglo-Palestine Bank
| |
|---|---|
| Logo |  A 1913 cheque of the Anglo-Palestine Company Limited, drawn on its Hebron branch |
| Type | Bank; subsidiary of the Jewish Colonial Trust (Anglo-Palestine Company until 1930) |
| Founded | 27 February 1902, incorporated in London |
| Founder(s) | Jewish Colonial Trust (Zionist Organization) |
| Dissolved | Business taken over by Bank Leumi Le-Israel on 1 May 1951 |
| Status | The original 1902 company survives on the UK register as The Anglo Palestine Company Limited |
| Headquarters | Jaffa; Jerusalem from 1932 |
| Area served | Ottoman and Mandate Palestine, Beirut, then 'Israel' |
| Key people | David Wolffsohn (first chairman); Zalman David Levontin (first general manager); Eliezer Hoofien (general manager) |
The Anglo-Palestine Bank (APB), called the Anglo-Palestine Company (APC) until 1930, was the Palestine subsidiary of the Jewish Colonial Trust, the bank of the Zionist Organization. It was incorporated in London in 1902 and opened its first branch in Jaffa in 1903. In 1951 its business passed to Bank Leumi Le-Israel.[1][2]
The bank was an instrument of the Zionist movement. The Jewish Virtual Library says that in its early years it "conducted transactions in support of the Zionist enterprise such as land purchases, imports, and obtaining concessions".[3] It financed the founding of Tel Aviv, and in 1948 it became the new state's banker and issued its first banknotes.[2] Leumi UK says the bank "played a key role in financing the development of the State of Israel".[1]
Foundation
The Anglo-Palestine Company was set up in London on 27 February 1902 as a subsidiary of the Jewish Colonial Trust, with the help of Zalman David Levontin.[2] Bank Leumi's history gives its capital as £50,000. Its first chairman was David Wolffsohn, Herzl's successor as leader of the Zionist movement, and Levontin was its first general manager.[2] Companies House records the company as incorporated on 27 February 1902.[4]
Ottoman Palestine
The first branch opened in Jaffa on 2 August 1903.[2] The company lent to the Achuzat Bayit association, which built a Jewish suburb of Jaffa later renamed Tel Aviv.[2] The Jewish Virtual Library says it helped build the first 60 houses there. It also set up a network of credit unions in the moshavot (Jewish farming colonies) and gave farmers long-term loans.[3] Branches followed in Jerusalem, Beirut, Haifa, Hebron, Safed and Tiberias, and just before the First World War in Gaza.[2]
During the war the Ottoman government treated the company as an enemy institution, because it was registered in Britain. It ordered the branches closed and their cash seized.[3] According to the Jewish Virtual Library, the liquidation went "very slowly" and business continued in secret.[3]
The Mandate
The company was renamed the Anglo-Palestine Bank in 1930.[1] In 1932 its head office moved from Jaffa to Jerusalem.[3] On 1 January 1934 the Jewish Colonial Trust handed its banking business and Palestine investments to the bank, and the Trust became a holding company for its shares.[5]
Eliezer Hoofien became sole general manager in 1925. He set up a company, the Marine Trust, which financed the building of a port at Tel Aviv in 1936. Bank Leumi's history says this was done "at a time of severe riots, when the dockers of Jaffa port were boycotting the Jewish settlement", and that the new port "enabled the physical and economic survival of the Jews in Palestine".[2] In the Second World War the bank used its reserves to finance industries supplying the British army.[3]
1948 and Bank Leumi
On 16 August 1948 the bank signed an agreement with the provisional government of 'Israel'. A charter signed by Hoofien and Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion made it the government's financial agent. The new state's first banknotes, bearing the Anglo-Palestine Bank's name, were issued the same day.[2] In 1950 a new company, Bank Leumi Le-Israel ("National Bank of Israel"), was set up in Tel Aviv. On 1 May 1951 it took over the assets and obligations of the 1902 bank.[2][3] It acted as the central bank until the Bank of Israel was founded in 1954.[1]
The London company was not wound up. Companies House lists it as active, under the name Anglo-Palestine Bank Limited until 23 November 2000 and The Anglo Palestine Company Limited since then.[4] See The Anglo Palestine Company Limited.
See also
- Jewish Colonial Trust
- Bank Leumi
- The Anglo Palestine Company Limited
- World Zionist Organization
- Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael - Jewish National Fund
- Palestine Jewish Colonization Association
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Leumi UK, Our History, accessed 23 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 Bank Leumi, The History of Bank Leumi, archived 22 January 2014, accessed 23 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Jewish Virtual Library, "Zionism: Jewish Colonial Trust" (source: Israeli Foreign Ministry), accessed 23 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Companies House, The Anglo Palestine Company Limited (00072931): company overview, accessed 23 October 2026.
- ↑ Kurt Grunwald, "Jewish Colonial Trust", Encyclopaedia Judaica, via Encyclopedia.com, accessed 23 October 2026.