Jacob Valero

Jacob Valero (1813–1874) was the founder of the first private bank in Palestine, Jacob Valero & Company.

In 1839, Jacob (Ya'akov) Valero appeared in Jewish communal records as a ritual slaughterer of the Sephardi community in Jerusalem. In 1849, he was described as a "talmid hakham" (scholar). In 1835, his profession was listed as "moneychanger." He opened his bank in 1848 in the Old City of Jerusalem and managed it until his death.[1] The Valero Bank financed the building of a railway from Jaffa to Jerusalem.[2]

The Bank financed the building of the Prince Sergei Hostel in the Russian Compound and handled the money for Kaiser Wilhelm's grand entrance into Jerusalem in 1898.[3]

Valero was an Ottoman subject until 1860, and then became a subject of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The bank closed in 1915.[4]

  1. ^ Glass and Kark, "Sephardi Entrepreneurs in Jerusalem-The Valero Family 1800-1948"
  2. ^ "Post boxes and Power in Jerusalem". Parallel Histories. Retrieved 2020-02-19.
  3. ^ "Post boxes and Power in Jerusalem". Parallel Histories. Retrieved 2020-02-19.
  4. ^ Glass and Kark, "Sephardi Entrepreneurs in Jerusalem-The Valero Family 1800-1948"