A total of $56,000,000, provided by Americans, has been invested in business ventures in Israel during the past 10 years by AMPAL-American Palestine Trading Corporation. Abraham Dickenstein, its president, declared today at the company’s tenth anniversary celebration. He also revealed that AMPAL has shipped to Israel American goods and machinery valued at $50,000,000 since 1942, when it was organized.
When AMPAL was founded, Mr. Dickenson reported, it operated from desk space rented for $10 a month. It began operations with a registered share capital of $99,000. Today, AMPAL’s total resources exceed $25,000,000, including its own $100,000 building. One of AMPAL’s newest projects, Mr. Dickenstein said, was to finance the purchase of drilling machinery and casings for the Mekoroth Oil Company which will initiate oil exploration and drilling in Israel in the near future.
He also disclosed that Rudolf G. Sonneborn had been elected chairman of AMPAL’s board of directors, and that the board had been enlarged to include five new members.
Leon Keyserling, chairman of President Truman’s Council of Economic Advisors, who also addressed the celebration, praised AMPAL for interesting Americans to invest in Israel, citing the fact that the corporation has mobilized 15,000 investors in this country. Mr. Keyserling said Israel is building a “twentieth century economy with modern techniques.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
