Jonathan-Raphaël Bischoffsheim

Jonathan-Raphaël Bischoffsheim , also called Nathan Bischoffsheim , (born April 26, 1808 in Mainz , † February 5, 1883 in Watermael-Boitsfort / Watermaal-Bosvoorde ) was a German - Belgian private banker , entrepreneur , philanthropist and patron .

Life

Bischoffsheim was the second son of the Jewish trader Raphaël Nathan Bischoffsheim (1773-1814) from Tauberbischofsheim and his wife Helen Cassel (1773-1853). Raphaël Nathan Bischoffsheim was court factor of the Elector of Mainz and, as an army supplier to the Elector and then to the French army, became one of the wealthiest citizens of the city of Mainz and chairman of the Jewish community.

At the age of 13, Jonathan Bischoffsheim began to work and study with his father. Two years later he was sent to his older brother Louis-Raphaël Bischoffsheim (1800–1873) in Amsterdam . In 1827, Louis Bischoffsheim and his future father-in-law, Hayum Salomon Goldschmidt, founded the Bischoffsheim & Goldsmidt bank in Antwerp , of which Jonathan Bischoffsheim took over the management. He also took care of the reorganization of the Jewish community in Antwerp and represented it in the regional Consistoire from 1833.

After the Belgian Revolution in 1830 and Belgium's independence, Jonathan Bischoffsheim founded his own financial institution in Brussels and married Henriette Goldschmidt from Frankfurt am Main (1812-1892) in Mainz in 1832 . She was the seventh of ten children of the Frankfurt banker Hayum Salomon Goldschmidt (1772–1843) and his wife Caroline (Gelchen) Gans (1779–1847). Henriette's brother was Benedikt Hayum Goldschmidt (1798–1873), founder of the Frankfurt bank BH Goldschmidt and father of Maximilian von Goldschmidt-Rothschild . The couple had four children. Claire (1832–1899) married Maurice de Hirsch . Ferdinand (1837–1909) also became a banker and married the American Protestant Mary Paine (1850–1900). Regine (1834–1905) married her cousin Leopold Benedict Goldschmidt (1830–1904) and Hortense (1843–1901) married Georges Montefiore-Levi . From 1837 to 1848 Jonathan Bischoffsheim was a member of the Consistoire central israélite , chairman until 1840 and after 1848 honorary member.

Thanks to the family connections, Bischoffsheim became a successful entrepreneur in the up-and-coming Kingdom of Belgium. From 1836 he was a member of the board of the Banque de Belgique , which competed with the Société Générale . In 1839 he participated in the founding of Bank Cassel, which later became the Sofina financial group . In 1841 he saved the Banque de Belgique from bankruptcy by subscribing 10 million shares . In 1848 he became a councilor of Brussels and remained so until his death. In the difficult years after 1848 he succeeded in founding the Union du Crédit de Bruxelles and the Union du Crédit de Liège . He received full citizenship in 1859 and was elected to the Belgian Senate as a liberal for the Brussels district in 1862 . He kept the seat until his death, after which his son Ferdinand succeeded him.

Bischoffsheim became the government's financial advisor and King Leopold I. Following Bischoffsheim's proposal, the Belgian National Bank was founded in 1850 and he was its director until 1870. In 1875 he made a proposal to found a National Railway Company to unite the various railway companies. On the basis of his proposal, this society was realized in 1884–1885. He was interested in the Congo Basin and was a member of a study commission for the Upper Congo .

Bischoffsheim founded the Ligue de l'Enseignement and the Association pour l'enseignement professionnel féminin with others in 1864 to promote women's education . Thanks to his support, the vocational schools for women Institut Bischoffsheim (1867), École professionnelle Funck (1873) and École ménagère Auguste Couvreur (1878) were founded in Brussels . He supported a variety of charities and the Philanthropic Association of Brussels. From 1870 to 1883 he was director of the Université libre de Bruxelles , of which he was one of the founders in 1834. He gave scholarships and established a professorship for Arabic in 1874 . He was a member of a Masonic Lodge . He was a member of the Central Committee of the Alliance Israélite Universelle and supported the Jewish community in Brussels. He made a major contribution to the construction of the synagogue in the Regentschapsstraat in Brussels.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Isidore Singer, Maurice Bloch, Julien Weill: BISCHOFFSHEIM, RAPHAEL JONATHAN . In: The Jewish Encyclopedia . 1906 ( BISCHOFFSHEIM, RAPHAEL JONATHAN [accessed September 12, 2017]).
2. ↑ Geneanet: Jonathan-Raphaël Bischoffsheim (accessed September 12, 2017).
3. ^ Jewish figures of note ( Memento of February 12, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed September 12, 2017).
4. ↑ Fondation et histoire de l'école Bischoffsheim ( Memento of September 13, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on September 12, 2017).