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ABSTRACT
In this article, I identify two ideological currents within the Zionist movement, a philanthropic one and a capitalist one. Institutionally, the philanthropic current manifested through Keren Ha-Yesod and the capitalist one through the two Zionist banks, the Jewish Colonial Trust and the Anglo-Palestine Company. Despite the different ideologies and modes of operation associated with these financing institutions, the three of them were in fact tightly connected and at certain junctures dependent on each other for their survival. The economic context in which the financing institutions of Zionism operated determined their relative strength within their relationship, whereas ideology played a secondary role.
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Notes
1. Levontin, Le-eretz avoteinu, vol. 3, 124. Unless indicated otherwise, all translations from Hebrew are the author’s.
2. On Levontin’s views see Gross, “Yozma pratit”; Giladi, Hazara “le-eretz avoteinu”; and more recently Schwartz, “Meshek ivri bari.” On Brandeis, see Gal, “Brandeis’s View.” On Herzl, see especially Gross, “Tfisato ha-kalkalit shel Herzl”; and Zilbersheid, “Hazono ha-hevrati-kalkali shel Herzl.”
3. Ruppin, Shloshim shnot, 154, quoted in Kimmerling, Zionism and Economy, 20; and Kimmerling’s translation. An earlier book by Ruppin raised the ire of Levontin who heavily criticized it; see the discussion in Schwartz, “Meshek ivri bari,” 72–74.
4. On Warburg and Levontin’s tense relationship prior to the First World War, see Penslar, Zionism and Technocracy, 68–78. Harry Sacher, who as we’ll see, was a major proponent of capitalist Zionism, wrote of Weizmann that in contrast to Brandeis, he thought that “only on the basis of much national expenditure could private enterprise build”; Harry Sacher, “Chaim Weizmann,” 462–9, 466.
5. The APC changed its name a number of times. Despite being a bank, it was registered as the Anglo-Palestine Company, but in 1931 it changed its named to the Anglo-Palestine Bank. 20 years later it was registered in Israel as Bank Leumi Le-Yisrael. I have used the APC acronym because that was the bank’s name during most of the period under discussion, and because of its similarity to the Hebrew term for the bank (Apak).
6. See for instance Metzer, “Economic Structure,” 101–19; Metzer, Hon Leumi; Kimmerling, Zionism and Economy; Frenkel, Shenhav, and Herzog, “The Ideological Wellspring,” 43–69; Amit, “Economic and Zionist,” 82–102; and Krampf, Ha-mekorot ha-leumiim.
7. Gross and Metzer, “Mimun tziburi,” 105–71, 142–7.
8. Gross et al., Bankai le-uma, 187.
9. Karlinsky, California Dreaming, 40–41.
10. Frenkel, Shenhav, and Herzog, “The Ideological Wellspring,” 52.
11. For the first view, see Olitzur, Ha-hon ha-leumi, 11–13; for the second, see Metzer, Hon leumi, 69–76.
12. Gross et al., Bankai le-uma, 9–13; and Nakdimon, Ha-bank, 37–41.
13. See Olitzur, Ha-hon ha-leumi for a survey of the various institutions of “national capital” (i.e., donation-based institutions) and the temporal anomaly of the JNF.
14. Gross et al., Bankai le-uma, 129–30. For the background on Keren Ha-Yesod’s founding and the struggles surrounding it, see Metzer, Hon leumi, 69–137.
15. Lainer-Vos, Sinews of the Nation.
16. Gross, “Private and Public Enterprise”; and Schwartz, “Meshek ivri bari.”
17. Gross, “Herbert Samuel’s,” 5–21, 18.
18. Levontin, Le-eretz avoteinu, 100; and Gross et al., Bankai le-uma, 127–8.
19. For an overview of the discussions on the subject of national capital and its relationship to private capital between the end of the First World War and the establishment of Keren Ha-Yesod, see Metzer, Hon leumi, 15–66. On Levontin’s views and their place within the broader Zionist discussions, see ibid., 19–20. See also Brandeis’s recognition of the limitations of capitalist investments at that moment in ibid., 156–7.
20. On their collaboration prior to the war, see Penslar, Zionism and Technocracy, 133–5.
21. Kann, “Weakness in the Zionist Organisation,” January 1922, Central Zionist Archive (hereinafter: CZA), A34\66.
22. Levontin to Kann, January 30, 1922, CZA, A34\66.
23. Kann, “Scheme for financing the Anglo Palestine Company,” n.d., CZA, A34\66; Levontin, “The Anglo-Palestine Company: Commercial Bank, or Colonising Bank?” April 1924, CZA, L51\325; and Gross et al., Bankai le-uma, 129.
24. See the figures and discussion in ibid., 138–40.
25. Ibid., 123–6, 144–5. The classic account of the Fourth Aliyah is Giladi, Ha-yishuv Be-tkufat.
26. Ibid., 173–6.
27. “The Anglo Palestine Company LTD., - Report per 30th June 1928,” CZA, KH4\3771; see also the yearly liquidity ratios in Gross et al., Bankai le-uma, 143, table B-10.
28. H. Razily, “The Jewish Colonial Trust Dilemma,” December 9, 1927, CZA, S25\1461.
29. Letter to Kisch, November 10, 1927, CZA, S25\1461.
30. Elam, Ha-sohnut ha-yehudit, 107–8; Kisch, Palestine Diary, 238–9; and Nakdimon, Ha-bank, 200–1.
31. “Jewish Colonial Trust – Minutes of Board Meeting,” September 1, 1927, CZA, A34\86.
32. Levontin, Be-eretz avoteinu.
33. Letter to Kisch, November 10, 1927, CZA, S25\1461.
34. Hoofien to Board of Directors, November 24, 1927, CZA, KH4\3771.
35. “Minutes of meeting of the PZE held in Jerusalem November 26, 1927,” November 27, 1927, CZA, S25\1461; Hoofien to APC Board of Directors, November 28, 1927, CZA, KH4\3771; and Ibid., 31–33.
36. Letter to Kisch, November 10, 1927, CZA, KH4\3771.
37. Minutes of a meeting of local directors of the APC, November 1, 1927, CZA, KH4\3771; and Letter to Board of Directors of the JCT, December 1, 1927, CZA, KH4\3771.
38. Kisch, “Meeting of the P.Z.E., December 6, with regard to the proposed Keren-Ha-yesod-Bank transaction,” December 7, 1927, CZA, S25\1461; and Sacher to the Zionist Executive, December 7, 1927, CZA, S25\1461.
39. “A Meeting of the Executive of the Zionist Organisation,” November 9, 1927, CZA, S25\1461.
40. Sacher to the Zionist Executive, December 9, 1927, CZA, KH4\3771; and to the Zionist Executive, December 12, 1927, CZA, L9\312.
41. Rosenblith to Kisch, December 28, 1927, CZA, S25\1461; Feiwel (on behalf of KH) to the APC, December 28, 1927, CZA, KH3\3771. The actual transfer of the shares to the APC was carried out only toward the end of the following year, but the APC’s position improved somewhat and the urgency subsided; Feiwel to Treasury Department of Keren Ha-Yesod, November 29, 1928, CZA, KH4\3771; and Hoofien, July 23, 1928, CZA, KH4\3771.
42. There was a parallel line of negotiations with Barclays that included Halpern and Hoofien and which was criticized by Sacher and Levontin for being too limited in its scope and possibly interfering with their negotiations; see Sacher to the Zionist Executive, February 8, 1928, CZA, S25\1461; and Ibid., 33–35, 63.
43. On Keren Ha-Yesod, see the figures and discussion in Olitzur, Ha-hon ha-leumi, 36–38. On the APC, see Gross et al., Bankai le-uma, 140–2.
44. Gross, “Ha-bankaut ha-yehudit,” 217–37, 233–4.
45. “Indebtness of Keren Hayesod,” March 31, 1934, CZA, L51\948; Henry Montor to Associated Press, CZA, KH4\5937; and Olitzur, Ha-hon ha-leumi, 40–41. On the land corporations’ crisis, see Doukhan-Landau, “Ha-mashber be-Kehiliat,” 173–99.
46. Kaplan to Barth, November 12, 1933, CZA, KH4\5938; Sieff to Kaplan, November 23, 1933, CZA, KH4\5938; and Kaplan to Sieff, March 5, 1934, CZA, KH4\5938.
47. Kaplan to Sieff, March 5, 1934, CZA, KH4\5938.
48. Ibid.
49. Ibid.
50. Ibid.
51. Sieff to Kaplan, April 12, 1934, CZA, KH4\5938.
52. Ibid.
53. Ibid.
54. Lloyds to Sieff, April 14, 1934, CZA, KH4\5938.
55. Kaplan to the managers of the Jewish Agency, May 4, 1934, CZA, KH4\5938; and Hoofien to Israeli, May 4, 1934, CZA, KH4\5938.
56. May 9, 1934, HO/D/Adv/2, Lloyds Banking Group Archives.
57. Kaplan in press conference, January 28, 1935, quoted in Kaplan, Hazon u-m’a’as, 143.
58. Horowitz, Haim ba-moked, 12.
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Adam Hefetz
Adam Hefetz obtained his PhD from the Department of Jewish History at the University of Haifa. His dissertation is titled “Capitalizing Zionism: The Anglo-Palestine Bank and the Commercial Economy of Interwar Palestine.” He is currently a post-doctorate fellow at the University of Haifa, researching the history of accounting and bookkeeping in Mandate Palestine.