Judge Moshe Etzion of the Haifa District Court has awarded an estate of 90, 000, 000 Israeli pounds to Mathwei Ginzburg of London, 70, nephew of the testator, Michael Pollack, who died a bachelor in 1954 past the age of 90. The will had been contested by another nephew and a niece.
The decision recalls the career of Mr. Pollack who, together with a brother and their father, became pioneers in oil distillation in Baku, Russia, and later sold his interest in the Russian oil facilities to Shell Oil for Shell stocks. In 1920, Mr. Pollack came to Palestine to live, though he claimed he was no Zionist. He founded Nesher Cement Works, then the largest industry in Israel, and invested in hotels, industry and real estate.
Although he lived simply and was reticent about his philanthropies, Mr. Pollack gave the Nesher Works to the Palestine Jewish Colonisation Association and made substantial contributions to the Hebrew University, Technion, hospitals and other national institutions. He set up a “Humanitarian Trust” for the benefit of national institutions in Israel with an endowment of 1, 250, 000 pounds sterling.
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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.
