Shaul Eisenberg

Shaul Nehamia Eisenberg (Hebrew: שאול אייזנברג‎; 1921–1997) was a Jewish businessmen and a billionaire tycoon.[1]

Early life

Eisenberg was born in 1921 in Munich to a religious Jewish family from Poland. Shortly after the uprising of the Nazis in the government, he fled and wandered as a refugee around Europe.[2]

He later moved to Japan. In 1941, he married a local woman. During World War II he worked with industrial factories, associating with the Axis Power countries. After the war ended, he began working with American businesses, importing iron products for the Japanese steel industry, when at the same time exporting a variety of Japanese-made products to India.[3]

At the start of the 1950s, Eisenberg expanded his business to other countries in the Far East, especially South Korea, where he invested money while mediating between the local authority to manufacturers from the East that were also doing business there. Among them were: British Electric, Siemens, MAN SE, and Fiat Automobiles. Within a decade, he managed to mediate a vast variety of projects, such as developing production lines for recycled paper and purchasing airplanes and trains. He got an award from the Korean government for his actions. Until the mid-1960s, Eisenberg was the primary factor and catalyst in the commerce between South Korea and Japan to Western countries. He got high brokerage commissions, and therefore a few of which led to local and international scandals.[4]

Eisenberg Law and his activity in Israel

Eisenberg founded the company Israel Corporation, and a new law was enacted for him, allowing the company to have a tax break for 30 years. The law, which got its nickname from Eisenberg, was meant to encourage entrepreneurs. Upon getting these benefits, Eisenberg began mimicking his international actions and do them in Israel as well, which led him to settle in Savyon, Israel. With Israel Corporation he began purchasing some holdings in the companies Zim Integrated Shipping Services, Oil Refineries, and others.[5]

At the same time he took advantage of his connections to do military transactions between the Far East and Israel,[6] and also became an exporter of weapons from Israel to countries in Africa and South America. Later on he was the first person to do commercial business between Israel and China. Eisenberg is considered a significant donor to political parties, influencing the Israeli politics.[7]

In 1979, Eisenberg founded "Beit Asia" in Tel Aviv, which he also got special tax-cuts for, where he located his stock market investments' headquarter, owned by Eisenberg's Group. Jonathan Zohovsky, his daughter's husband, as well as Michael Albin, who was the manager of the group, assisted him. After the Israeli 1983 stock market crash, the group had significant losses, and later on the police found that the company had been hiding information from its stockholders and Albin was found guilty. He later died in tragic reasons, and Eisenberg disconnected his relationship with his daughter and her husband. In the 1990s, his business activity began to slow down, due to involvement of other markets in the Far East and other factors. Eisenberg died in Beijing in 1997, two years before the expiration of the Eisenberg Law.[8]

Family

Eisenberg was married to Leah, and the couple had five daughters and a son. His death caused a (rather public) legal controversy over the inheritance - valued at around 1 billion dollars. His son eventually got the largest portion, and continued operating the family business. Eisenberg's brother, Refael, who was a Hasidic scholar, died in 1976, leaving twelve children behind him.

References
  1. "Shaul Eisenberg". "The Blade". March 28, 1997. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
  2. "BILLIONAIRE SHAUL EISENBERG DIES AT 76". March 27, 1997. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
  3. "Shaul Eisenberg in a New York Times article". New York Times. March 26, 1997. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
  4. "Shaul Eisenberg on". 1997-03-20. Archived from the original on May 8, 2006.
  5. "Eisenberg plans to concentrate in Israel. (Shaul Eisenberg) (Conglomerates)". April 18, 1990. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
  6. "The Evolving Israel-China Relationship" (PDF). RAND Corporation. 2019: 15. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. Norman Kaplan. "The Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between Israel and China". Retrieved March 20, 2013.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  8. Mitch Abrams (June 5, 1997). "Israel industrialist Shaul Eisenberg dies". Retrieved March 20, 2013.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
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