Jonathan-Raphaël Bischoffsheim (26 April 1808 – 5 February 1883) was a Belgian banker, businessman and philanthropist.

Family

He descended from the

Bischoffsheim family The Bischoffsheim family is a family of German-Belgian Jewish descent known for their success in banking. It can be traced back to Raphaël Nathan Bischoffsheim, an army contractor native of Tauberbischofsheim, in the Electorate of Mainz. The fami ...

, which was endowed with an exceptional European network. On 11 June 1832, he married Henriette Goldschmidt (1812–1892) in Brussels, and together they had four children:

Claire Clair or Claire may refer to: *Claire (given name), a list of people with the name Claire * Clair (surname) Places Canada * Clair, New Brunswick, a former village, now part of Haut-Madawaska * Clair Parish, New Brunswick * Pointe-Claire, Q ...

(1833–1899), Regine (1834–?), Ferdinand Raphaël (1837–1909), and Hortense Henriette (1843–1901).

Career

In 1827, he co-founded the bank of ''Bischoffsheim & Goldschmidt''. He played an important role for the finances and the institutions during the early years of Belgian independence. Bisschoffsheim was a Director of the ''Banque de Belgique'' and was one of the founders of the

National Bank of Belgium The National Bank of Belgium (NBB; nl, Nationale Bank van België, french: Banque nationale de Belgique, german: Belgische Nationalbank) has been the central bank of Belgium since 1850. The National Bank of Belgium was established with 100% pr ...

, the regional tramways and managed the Communal Credit (Dutch: ''Gemeentekrediet''; French: ''Credit Communal'') and the Caisse générale d'épargne et de retraite. Together with his brother

Louis-Raphaël Bischoffsheim Louis-Raphaël Bischoffsheim (; 22 June 1800 – 14 November 1873) was a German-born international banker and a member of the prominent Bischoffsheim family. Early life Louis-Raphaël was born on 22 June 1800 and was the eldest son of Nathan-Ra ...

(1800–1873), he founded the bank which eventually developed into

Paribas The Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas (“Bank of Paris and the Netherlands”), generally referred to from 1982 as Paribas, was a French investment bank based in Paris. In May 2000, it merged with the Banque Nationale de Paris to form BNP Paribas ...

bank. From 1862 until 1883, he was also a Liberal member of the Belgian Parliament, and as such was influential in the development of the public education network.

Sources

* Youssef Cassis, ''Capitals of Capital, A History of International Financial Centres, 1780–2005'', Université de Genève,
The jewish community of Belgium
- Jewish figures of note

(Origins of Paribas) * Meeuwissen, Eric. ''Richesse oblige. La Belle Epoque des Grandes Fortunes''. Préface de Jean Stengers, Brussels, Editions Racine, 1999, pp. 315–318.
The Jewish Encyclopedia
* Cilli Kasper-Holtkotte, ''Im Westen neues: Migration und ihre Folgen: Deutsche Juden als Pioniere jüdischen Lebens in Belgien, 18./19. Jahrhundert'', BRILL, 2003. 1808 births 1883 deaths Businesspeople from Mainz Belgian businesspeople Belgian Jews Belgian philanthropists Belgian bankers Belgian people of German-Jewish descent 19th-century philanthropists Jewish philanthropists German emigrants to Belgium German people of Belgian descent {{Belgium-business-bio-stub