Jewish Colonial Trust
The Zionist Organization's bank, incorporated in London in 1899; parent of the Anglo-Palestine Company, forerunner of Bank Leumi
| Jewish Colonial Trust
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Bank and holding company of the Zionist Organization (Jüdische Colonialbank; Otzar Hityashvut ha-Yehudim) |
| Founded | 20 March 1899, incorporated in London |
| Founder(s) | Theodor Herzl; Zionist Organization |
| Status | Converted into an Israeli company in 1955; sold to private investors in the late 1980s |
| Headquarters | London (converted into an Israeli company in 1955) |
| Services | Banking; holding company for Anglo-Palestine Bank / Bank Leumi shares from 1934 |
| Key people | Theodor Herzl |
The Jewish Colonial Trust (JCT; German Jüdische Colonialbank, Hebrew Otzar Hityashvut ha-Yehudim) was the first Zionist bank. It was incorporated in London on 20 March 1899 under decisions of the First and Second Zionist Congresses, as the financial instrument of the Zionist Organization.[1][2] In 1902 it set up the Anglo-Palestine Company as its subsidiary in Palestine. That company became the Anglo-Palestine Bank and then Bank Leumi.[3]
The Trust was Zionist by design. Its statutes set out to promote "colonization schemes" and "immigration... in particular of persons of the Jewish race into Palestine, Syria and other countries in the East", and to obtain "concessions, grants, decrees, rights and privileges" from any state. Founder shares kept control of the Trust with the bodies of the Zionist Organization.[1]
Origins
Theodor Herzl was the leading advocate of the bank. In The Jewish State (1896) he had proposed a "Jewish Company" to manage the liquidation and transfer of emigrants' property.[1] Louis Lipsky wrote in his introduction to the 1946 edition that "'The Jewish Company' became the Bank; then more specifically, the Jewish Colonial Trust and later the Anglo-Palestine Bank."[4] In 1897 Herzl published an article titled "Jüdische Colonialbank" in the Zionist paper Die Welt. He argued there that the movement needed financial institutions to support Jewish settlers in Palestine.[5]
The Encyclopaedia Judaica says that Herzl's diaries "repeatedly spoke of the need for a strong financial instrument able to offer aid to Turkey in return for the granting of the desired 'charter'", and that his model was "an organization like the East India Company, which had achieved a para-governmental status".[1] The Jewish Virtual Library likewise says the Trust "was to obtain capital and credit to help attain a charter for Palestine".[2]
Capital
The Trust's authorised capital was £2,000,000 in £1 shares. It took until 1902 to raise the statutory minimum of £250,000 needed to start business.[1] Bank Leumi's own history says that leading Jewish bankers refused to co-operate with Herzl's plan, so he raised the money from small shareholders, who were allowed up to 80 instalments for each share.[5] According to the Jewish Virtual Library, only £395,000 was raised against an £8 million target, far too little for the charter plan.[2]
Banking and the Anglo-Palestine Company
In 1902 the Trust incorporated the Anglo-Palestine Company in London as its subsidiary for operations in Palestine.[1] Its first chairman was David Wolffsohn, Herzl's successor as leader of the Zionist movement, and its first general manager was Zalman David Levontin.[5] Banking, which the statutes treated as incidental, became the Trust's main business. It planned branches in Jewish centres such as New York and Odessa, but opened only one, in Whitechapel, in 1905. It lost heavily in Russia during the First World War.[1]
Under the British Mandate the Trust invested in new ventures in Palestine, among them the General Mortgage Bank, the Workers' Bank (Bank Hapoalim) and the Palestine Electric Corporation. It also put money into Jewish banks in Eastern Europe, such as the Lodz Deposit Bank and the Jewish Central Bank in Kovno. In the Depression most of these Eastern European assets, worth more than £550,000, were frozen or doubtful.[1]
Holding company
After a reorganisation, the Trust handed its banking business and its Palestine investments to the Anglo-Palestine Bank on 1 January 1934. From then on it was only the holding company for the bank's shares.[1][2] In 1955 it became an Israeli company under its Hebrew name, Otzar Hityashvut ha-Yehudim. In 1969 it held 23.5 per cent of Bank Leumi's share capital but 88.3 per cent of the controlling ordinary shares.[1] The Jewish Virtual Library says it was sold to private investors in the late 1980s.[2]
See also
- Anglo-Palestine Bank
- Bank Leumi
- The Anglo Palestine Company Limited
- Theodor Herzl
- World Zionist Organization
- Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael - Jewish National Fund
- Jewish Colonization Association
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Kurt Grunwald, "Jewish Colonial Trust", Encyclopaedia Judaica, via Encyclopedia.com, accessed 23 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Jewish Virtual Library, "Zionism: Jewish Colonial Trust" (source: Israeli Foreign Ministry), accessed 23 October 2026.
- ↑ Leumi UK, Our History, accessed 23 October 2026.
- ↑ Theodor Herzl, The Jewish State, New York: American Zionist Emergency Council, 1946 (Project Gutenberg ebook 25282), introduction by Louis Lipsky, accessed 23 October 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Bank Leumi, The History of Bank Leumi, archived 22 January 2014, accessed 23 October 2026.