The Israel Discount Bank, Ltd., Israel’s largest private bank, opened its first branch in the United States on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue today in a ceremony at which Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt cut two ribbons placed across the front doors. The Israel bank has been licensed by the New York State Banking Department to accept deposits and conduct commercial banking operations.
After Mrs. Roosevelt cut the ribbons, one in the national colors of the United States and the other in the colors of Israel, Mayor Robert Wagner opened the doors as a gesture of good will from the people of the city. Mrs. Roosevelt then opened the first account in the branch and received the first passbook from R. Recanati, resident director.
Other notables participating in the opening included former Senator Herbert H. Lehman; New York State Attorney General Louis Lefkowitz; New York State Comptroller Arthur Levitt; Oren Root, New York State Superintendent of Banks; Michael Comay, Israel Ambassador to the United Nations; Arieh Manor, Economic Minister of Israel to the United States and Arieh Eshel, Israel Consul General in New York. Messages were read from Israel Finance Minister Levi Eshkol, Commerce Minister Pinhas Sapir, Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, and others.
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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.
