Abraham Dickenstein Dead at 76

Abraham Dickenstein, founder and past president of Ampal-American Israel Corporation, died today at his home in Tel Aviv at the age of 76. Born in Wishniewa, Poland, Dickenstein emigrated to Palestine in 1921 where he worked initially as a pioneering laborer in the draining of swamps and paving of roads. In 1925 he founded and managed the Audit Union of Credit Cooperatives and Consumers’ Cooperatives associated with the Histadrut. At the same time he joined the staff of Bank Hapoalim of which in later years he became one of its six managing directors.

In 1936. Dickenstein came to the United States on a capital raising mission for the bank and late in 1941, together with a small group of American Jewish businessmen, founded Ampal-American Israel Corporation with an initial capital of $99,000 for the purpose of mobilizing finance and investment capital for the fledgling Jewish economy. Until his retirement in April, 1972, the corporation developed into a financial instrument channeling tens of millions of dollars annually to economic enterprises in Israel. Dickenstein was also a past president of Israel Development Corporation which he helped to establish as well as past chairman of the board of the Israel American Industrial Development Bank, Ltd.