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 Ashkenazi, 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 ...

, 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 (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