Shabtai Levy (1876–1956) was the first Jewish

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a 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 responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the 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 metropol ...

. He held office from 1941 to 1951.

Biography

Shabtai Levy was born in

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University ...

in 1876. Trained as a lawyer, he made

Aliyah Aliyah (, ; he, עֲלִיָּה ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel, which is in the modern era chiefly represented by the State of Israel. Traditionally descri ...

in 1894. He studied in the

Palestine Jewish Colonization Association The Palestine Jewish Colonization Association ( he, חברה להתיישבות יהודית בארץ־ישראל), commonly known by its Yiddish acronym PICA ( he, פיק"א), was established in 1924. It played a major role in purchasing land for ...

(PJCA) school in

Petah Tikva Petah Tikva ( he, פֶּתַח תִּקְוָה, , ), also known as ''Em HaMoshavot'' (), is a city in the Central District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv. It was founded in 1878, mainly by Haredi Jews of the Old Yishuv, and became a permanent set ...

. He was then employed as a clerk for the Baron

Edmond James de Rothschild Baron Abraham Edmond Benjamin James de Rothschild (Hebrew: הברון אברהם אדמונד בנימין ג'יימס רוטשילד - ''HaBaron Avraham Edmond Binyamin Ya'akov Rotshield''; 19 August 1845 – 2 November 1934) was a French memb ...

. 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, Yiddish ייִק"אַ), in America spelled Jewish Colonization Association, is an organisation created on September 11, 1891, by Baron Maurice de Hirsch. Its aim was to facilitate the mass emigratio ...

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 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 1948 more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs – about half of prewar Palestine's Arab population – were expelled or fled from their homes, during the 1948 Palestine war. The exodus was a central component of the fracturing, dispossessio ...

, 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 (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

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