Shlomo Eliahu

Shlomo Eliahu was born in 1936 in Baghdad

Eliahu was born in Baghdad in 1936. In 1950 he moved to Israel with his parents and 8 siblings. The family lived in a transit camp before settling in Kiryat Shalom.

He began working for the Migdal insurance company soon after arriving and was fired in 1953. He then became an insurance agent for Binyan, and in 1955 he opened an independent insurance agency in the Shapira neighborhood of Tel Aviv. In 1966 he founded the Eliyahu insurance company, which started with car insurance and later expanded.

He joined the Democratic Movement for Change and entered the Knesset in 1978 as a replacement for Meir Zorea. After the party split, he joined the Democratic Movement, and in 1980 he left it to form the Ahva faction. He lost his seat in 1981.

After leaving politics he bought shares in the Phoenix insurance company and took control of Union Bank in 1993. In 2012 he completed the purchase of control of Migdal, and he chaired its board until January 2022. In 2011 the Israel Tax Authority imposed a fine of 2.8 million shekels on him for failing to report bank checks moved in and out of Israel.