Today in 1902, the Anglo-Palestine Bank was founded, the economic basis for the Zionist movement.
The bank was founded by Jacobus Khan, a young and enthusiastic Dutch Zionist who dealt with banking and land acquisition, and even served as the official ambassador of the Netherlands to the Land of Israel (he would later be killed along with most of his family in the Holocaust). The Bank was founded in order to install a suitable tool to encourage investments for the Zionist movement, and to provide loans to support entrepreneurship in the renewed Jewish community. Initially, the bank encountered difficulties and almost collapsed, but within a decade it had already opened branches throughout the Land of Israel, the Middle East and Europe. The bank cooperated in a productive way with the British Mandate, and basicly founded the Jewish industry and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange by itself During the 30s. With the establishment of the state in 1948, the bank functioned as a central bank, printing notes for the state and influencing its monetary policy; but in the early 50s, the government established the Bank of Israel, which took these powers, and the Anglo-Palestinian Bank became the basis of the new national bank.
Photo Source: Wikipedia
