Summary
Albert Ehrenfeld (1896–1957), an Antwerp-born banker who became the Palestine government’s chief advisor on diamonds in 1947 and Israel’s first Diamond Controller in 1948 (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.307).
Details
- Born in Antwerp, he moved to Amsterdam in 1914 and became a member of the executive of the Zionist organization in the Netherlands; he immigrated to Palestine in 1936, entered banking, and was among the founders of the Palestine Corporation and Bank Igud, which gave credit and safe services to the diamond industry (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.307).
- He joined the Diamond Control Board after its establishment in August 1943 and wrote a confidential memorandum for it in February 1944 (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.145, p.306).
- In spring 1948 he was appointed diamond controller, with Jacob van Amerongen as his deputy, and the two established the Department of Diamond Control in April 1948 (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.259).
- His December 1946 memorandum, “The Problem of Reorganization of the Diamond Industry in Palestine in the Light of the Present Crisis,” advised the Jewish Agency’s half-million-dollar allocation and loan guarantees that restarted supplies in March 1947 (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.246-247, p.305).