— The open sale of State of Israel Government Bonds will begin in Britain later this year for the first time. They will be sold by a newly established company under the presidency of Sir Isaac Wolfson, the Jewish millionaire philanthropist known for his strong support for Israel.
The bonds are sold by the government of Israel to help in its economic development. However, although they have been available all over the world for the past 30 years, they have never been sold in Britain. But the way has been cleared following the British government’s abolition of foreign currency controls.
They will be sold in dollars by the newly formed Israel Development Company (UK) headed by Sir Isaac as president and Stanley Berwin, as chairman. Berwin, a lawyer, has been involved in negotiations with the British government and Bank of England for a long time on behalf of the Bonds Organization.
The development company has applied for a license to the British Department of Trade and it expects to receive one in about three months. Until then the bonds can only be sold indirectly by brokers in the City of London. But even then it will initially sell only to financial institutions rather than to individuals and according to Yigal Meerovich, the Bond Organization’s manager in Britain, “We will keep a low profile.”
This is to avoid competing with the well established Joint Israel Appeal which has recently been raising about 10 million Pounds Sterling a year. Much of the Joint Israel Appeal money is spent on communal Zionist activity in Britain rather than exclusively in Israel.
PREVIOUS ATTEMPTS OPPOSED
The first public statement about the launching of bonds here is expected this week at a reception to be attended by Sam Rothberg, the general chairman of the Israel Bonds Organization in the United States. Since Israel bonds first went on sale in the U.S. 30 years ago, they have netted $5.1 billion, of which just under half has been redeemed. They have a life of 50 years and attract annual interest of four percent.
Long before the lifting of exchange controls in Britain, there had been attempts to sell Israel government bonds here. But the British Treasury and Bank of England said they were opposed to any foreign government raising money here in this way.
One plan put to them in recent years had been for the sale of bonds in Sterling on the understanding that the cash would be spent in Britain. With the ending of currency controls, however, it has become possible for British investors and supporters of Israel to buy the development bonds in U.S. dollars.
It is probably only a matter of time, too, before the bonds go on sale publicly as they are in America and other Western countries with substantial Jewish communities.
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.
