Shabtai Levy (; 1876–1956) was the first Jewish

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

. He held office from 1941 to 1951.

Biography

Shabtai Levy was born in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

in 1876. Trained as a lawyer, he made

Aliyah ''Aliyah'' (, ; ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from Jewish diaspora, the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel or the Palestine (region), Palestine region, which is today chiefly represented by the Israel ...

in 1894. He studied in the

Palestine Jewish Colonization Association The Palestine Jewish Colonization Association (), commonly known by its Yiddish acronym PICA (), was established in 1924. It played a major role in purchasing land and building Jewish settlement in Palestine and later the State of Israel until t ...

(PJCA) school in

Petah Tikva Petah Tikva (, ), also spelt Petah Tiqwa and known informally as Em HaMoshavot (), is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv. It was founded in 1878, mainly by Haredi Judaism, Haredi Jews of the Old Y ...

. He was then employed as a clerk for the Baron

Edmond James de Rothschild Baron Abraham Edmond Benjamin James de Rothschild (; 19 August 1845 – 2 November 1934) was a French member of the Rothschild banking family. A strong supporter of Jewish settlement in Palestine, his large donations lent significant support to ...

. In 1905 he moved to

and managed the law and land departments of the PJCA and

Jewish Colonization Association The Jewish Colonisation Association (JCA or ICA; ) was an organisation created on September 11, 1891, by Baron Maurice de Hirsch. Its aim was to facilitate the mass emigration of Jews from Russia and other Eastern European countries, by settling ...

. Levi was one of the founders of the Herzliya neighborhood in Haifa in 1907.

Public office

When the British established a Haifa city council in 1920, Levy was appointed along with Raphael Hakim. In 1924, Levy was elected along with

David HaCohen David Hacohen (; 20 October 1898 – 19 February 1984) was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset between 1949 and 1953, and again from 1955 until 1969. He fought with the Ottoman Army in World War I. After the war he studie ...

as an independent. Starting in 1934, he served as vice-mayor of Haifa. In 1941, when Hassan Bey Shukri died, Levy became the acting mayor of Haifa, and the city's first Jewish mayor. During the

1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight In the 1948 Palestine war, more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs – about half of Mandatory Palestine's predominantly Arab population – fled from their homes or were expelled. Expulsions and attacks against Palestinians were carried out by the ...

, he tried to use his influence to try to keep the Arab population from leaving the city.

Legacy

In the 1940s the Shabtai Levy Home was established in Haifa, providing a wide range of services to undepriviledged children of all faiths. When it was founded, The Shabtai Levy Day Care Center served the families of soldiers in the Volunteer

Jewish Brigade The Jewish Infantry Brigade Group, more commonly known as the Jewish Brigade Group or Jewish Brigade, was a military formation of the British Army in the World War II, Second World War. It was formed in late 1944 and was recruited among Yishuv, Y ...

during World War II. Over the intervening years, services have expanded to include a recuperation center for sick babies which later became a residential home for babies and toddlers, an Emergency Center specializing in the emergency care of babies and very young children, and a Satellite Foster Families Program. There was also the addition of a mother-baby residential facility to rehabilitate mother-child pairs, to enhance mothering skills and bonding. The "Shalom Hayeled" Ambulatory Unit provides out-patient treatment for at-risk and abused children from the entire Northern District of

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Levy, Shabtai 1876 births 1956 deaths Deputy mayors of Haifa Mayors of Haifa Jews from the Ottoman Empire Turkish emigrants to Israel Istanbul University Faculty of Law alumni