Identifer: CJF-RFC2013170a

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In honor of Jewish/Israeli Banks & Financial Institutions

Description
Leon Recanati passed away in Tel Aviv on October 13th, 1945.  To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Discount Bank, an official award medal was issued by the IGCMC in 1985.  

            Yehuda Lieb Recanati was born in Salonika in 1890, the son of Shmuel Recanati and scion of a distinguished line of rabbis descended from the noted sage, Menahem Recanati.  The surname, Recanati, is derived from the town of their original residence.
           
He received a traditional education, graduating from a commercial school from where he went on to complete his higher education in Paris.  In addition to making an impressive business career in Greece, he devoted much of his time to public causes.  He was a member of B’nai Brith and, from 1928 onwards, its president.  He represented Greek Jewry on the Board of Jewish Agency and was an outstanding member of the Zionist Organization and the Jewish community of Salonika.
           
In 1934, he was elected President of the community and earned widespread appreciation for his services on its behalf with the Greek Government.  In 1936, he was elected as a delegate for Greek Jewry to the World Jewish Congress in Geneva.
           
Recanati visited Palestine in 1934, eventually settling in Tel-Aviv where he founded the Palestine Discount Bank Ltd. in 1935.  This bank became one of the three largest banks in the country and contributed substantially to the economic development of Israel.  He succeeded in attracting considerable capital from Egyptian Jewry and others, for investment in Palestine, enabling the rapid growth of the bank into one of the largest financial institutions in the country.  He played a personal active role in many economic projects which fostered the development of the economy by private enterprise.
           
Recanati was very active in Palestine in public affairs, both national and communal.  He was a member of the Board of Keren Hayesod, the Board of the Friends of the Hebrew University, Chairman of the Kadima Association (established to foster the active participation of Sephardic Jews in all aspects of the country’s national life), Chairman of the Council of Sephardic Jews in Tel Aviv, founder and Chairman of Banim Ligvulam, and chairman of the Board of the Students Fund Keren Lemitlamedim, (which he set up to support deprived talented students).  He was also a member and supporter of numerous other charitable and cultural institutions.
           
In Palestine he chose to devote most of his time and personal interest to the promotion of public welfare activities.  He was concerned with many aspects of the cultural and artistic life of the community always exhibiting those aristocratic traits that had characterized the Jews of Salonika since the “Golden Age” of Spanish Jewry.