Politicsשבתי לוי

Shabtai Levy

Shabtai Levy was a jurist and politician who was the first Jewish mayor of Haifa, serving until 1951.

1876 to 1956First Jewish mayor of HaifaFounding Haifa's Herzliya neighborhoodLand purchases in northern Israel

Born: 10 April 1876, Istanbul
Died: 1 November 1956, Israel
Occupation: politician, jurist
Education: Istanbul University Faculty of Law
Founded: The new Commercial area in Haifa (1936), Ora cinema, Haifa

Shabtai Levy was born in 1876 in Istanbul

Shabtai Levy was born in Istanbul in 1876. He trained as a lawyer and moved to the Land of Israel in 1894.

He worked in Petah Tikva and later as a clerk for Baron Edmond James de Rothschild. In 1905 he moved to Haifa, where he ran the law and land departments of the PJCA and the Jewish Colonization Association.

In 1907 he was one of the founders of the Herzliya neighborhood in Haifa. He was appointed to the Haifa city council in 1920 and became deputy mayor in 1934.

After the death of mayor Hassan Shukri, Levy became Haifa's mayor, the first Jew in the post. During the War of Independence he tried to persuade the city's Arab population not to leave.

He served as mayor until 1951 and stayed on the city council until his death in 1956. In 1953 he became the first head of the Grand Lodge of Freemasons in Israel.