Baron Edmond de Rothschild, scion of banking family, is dead

GENEVA, Nov. 4 (JTA) – Banker and philanthropist Baron Edmond de Rothschild died here this week at 71. A scion of the French branch of the famous Jewish banking family, Rothschild was president of his Geneva-based bank and was the former owner and president of the Israel General Bank in Tel Aviv. Along with the Israeli government, Rothschild established the Caesarea Foundation, to which he transferred some land in Caesarea. He inherited the land from his grandfather, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, who supported early Zionist settlements to the tune of millions of dollars in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Over the years, the foundation gave millions of dollars to various cultural and educational projects. His son, Benjamin, 34, is expected to replace him as one of the foundation’s two governors. Israel’s finance minister, a position currently held by Ya’acov Ne’eman, serves as the other governor. “The loss of Edmond de Rothschild is a great loss for the Jewish people, Switzerland and the Jewish community of Geneva,” Richard Smouha, president of the Jewish Community of Geneva, said Tuesday. The Rothschild family, which was founded in the 16th century, established within 200 years a banking empire that stretched across Western Europe, with family members in London, Paris, Vienna, Frankfurt and Naples. Edmond de Rothschild’s family played a significant role in French business and culture, helping make Paris one of the most important of Europe’s financial capitals. The family also owned famed wineries in France’s Bordeaux region. Rothschild’s father, Maurice, moved the family to Geneva after opposing the pro-Nazi Vichy regime during World War II.