Lot #834
Days
Hrs
Min
Sec
Palestine - means of payment, Anglo Palestine Bank, Straus Fund (1914-1918 ?) - extremely rare,...
Palestine – means of payment, Anglo Palestine Bank, Straus Fund (1914-1918 ?) – extremely rare, the only one known
Nathan Straus, was a Jewish-American businessman, one of the owners of the department store chain "Macy’s". a philanthropist who contributed a lot to Zionist causes; and among them the founding of the city of Netanya, which is named after him.
In 1909 he met with Aharon Aharenson, who was a Zionist activist, botanist and agronomist, and it was he who influenced Strauss to contribute to agricultural causes in the Land of Israel. This is how he contributed to the founding of the agricultural farm in Atlit, and helped to promote other settler agricultural enterprises.
In the clinic he founded, he also founded the Pastor Institute and encouraged the establishment of health centers throughout the country. He also contributed greatly to the activities of the Hadassah Zionist Organization, and laid the foundations for the public health system in Israel, by establishing the Strauss Health Center in Jerusalem (inaugurated in 1929) and in Tel Aviv at 14 Balfour Street, (1930). The two health centers were named after him and his wife Lina. Both houses were designed by the Jewish-British architect Benjamin Chaikin.
He returned to Israel in 1923-1924 and 1927. Initially, a relationship was established with the people of the old settlement in Jerusalem, to whom he donated to Beit Tamhui (on Hasalshelet Street in the Muslim Quarter), and founded a clinic that provided health services to the poor of Jerusalem. In 1928, Strauss met with two of the heads of the "Bnei Binyamin" Histadrut, Itamar Ben-Avi and Oved Ben Ami (who later became the mayor of Netanya), and they promised him that they would name the new settlement in Sharon after him "Natan-Ya". Strauss contributed a considerable amount to the establishment of the colony.
This means of payment, we are not sure if it was in circulation or not (we were unable to find any information about it), was supposed to be used as a means of payment that was distributed to the poor, which they could use to purchase groceries, while the shop owners could go with the means of payment to the Anglo Palestine Bank and receive the nominal value, the value will be cleared from the Strauss fund, which Straus gave and financed.
Face: the symbol of the Anglo-Palestine company, without a serial number, in the center is the inscription in English: "Received from Natan Straus Relief Fund, the amount of"
Below is the inscription: The shop keepers are asked to accept this receipt at the price of food and the bank will reimburse it into their account.
Back: handwritten scribbles seems to be accounting for coupons distributed or to be distributed , in Hebrew.