Cause of death heart attack Spouse(s) Dina Hettena Parents Leon Yehuda Recanati | Nationality Israel & United States Children Michael Recanati | |
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Born 1924 Salonika, Greece Occupation Businessman, banker, philanthropist Died 1999, New York City, New York, United States | ||
Raphael Recanati (1924-1999) was a Greek-born Israeli-American businessman, banker, and philanthropist. He was the founder and chairman of the Overseas Shipholding Group. He was the chairman of the Israel Discount Bank from 1982 to 1986. He made large donations to civic and education organizations in New York City and Israel.
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Raphael recanati international school full graduation ceremony class of 2014
Early life
Raphael Recanati was born in 1924 in Salonika, Greece, the son of Leon Yehuda Recanati, and of Italian and Spanish ancestry. He moved to Mandatory Palestine with his family in 1935, where he was educated. Meanwhile, his family founded the Israel Discount Bank in 1935.
Recanati served in the Palmach, when he helped bring Egyptian Jews into Palestine (modern-day Israel).
Career
Recanati founded the Israel-America Shipping Line, later known as the Overseas Shipholding Group, in 1948. He served as its founding chairman. He subsequently served as the "chairman of its finance and development committee".
Recanati served as the Managing Director of his family bank, the Israeli Discount Bank, in 1965. By then, the bank had an office in New York City. By 1970, he founded its investment banking subsidiary. He subsequently co-founded two more subsidiaries, the Discount Investment Corporation and the PEC Israel Economic Corporation New York. He served as the chairman of the Israel Discount Bank from 1982 to 1986.
In 1986, Recanati was suspended by the Bank of Israel over his role in the 1983 Israel bank stock crisis. The suspension was recommended by its chairman, Michael Bruno, and twelve ministers. Meanwhile, he was tried and sentenced to an eight-year prison sentence in Jerusalem over allegations of fraud. However, he was acquitted on trial.
Recanati subsequently founded a subsidiary of his family bank in New York City known as the Israel Discount Bank of New York.
Philanthropy
Recanati was a large Jewish philanthropist in New York City and Israel.
In New York City, Recanati made large charitable contributions to the Beth Israel Medical Center, a hospital based in New York City where the Recanati Cardiology Research Fund and the Recanati/Horowitz Cardiology Diagnostic Research Fund are named in his honor. Additionally, he endowed the Recanati/Miller Transplantation Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital. Further donations went to the UJA-Federation of New York.
Recanati supported education. He endowed the Recanati Israel Student Exchange Fellowships at Yeshiva University, where he was a guardian. He also endowed the Recanati course at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. Additionally, he endowed the Dana and Raphael Recanati Professorship in Medicine at the Harvard Medical School, which is held by Professor Jerome Groopman.
In Israel, Recanati served on the boards of trustees of the Weizmann Institute of Science, the American Friends of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and the American Friends of Tel Aviv University, where he endowed the Recanati School of Business. He also endowed the Raphael Recanati Genetic Institute at the Beilinson Hospital, in the Petah Tikva-based Rabin Medical Center.
Personal life
Recanati married Dina Hettena. They had two sons, Oudi and Michael. They resided on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, and in Herzliya near Tel Aviv in Israel.
Death and legacy
Recanati died of a heart attack in 1999. He was seventy-five years old.
The Raphael Recanati International School at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya was named in his honor.