Amzalak, Ḥayyim

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AMZALAK, ḤAYYIM

AMZALAK, ḤAYYIM (1824–1916), notable of the Jewish community in Ereẓ Israel. Amzalak, who was born in Gibraltar, went to Jerusalem with his parents in 1830. He became a grain merchant and banker, settled in Jaffa, and was appointed British vice consul for that town. He advised and guided the first emissaries of the Ḥovevei Zion (*Hibbat Zion) associations who came to Ereẓ Israel in 1882 from Russia, and was elected honorary president of the Committee of the Yesud ha-Ma'alah pioneers. This committee had been established in Jaffa by Z.D. *Levontin to organize the activities of the settlers' associations. In 1882 when Jews of Russian origin were forbidden to purchase land in Ereẓ Israel, the Rishon le-Zion land was registered in Amzalak's name. At the beginning of World War i, Amzalak refused to renounce his British nationality and was exiled to Egypt.

bibliography:

Z.D. Levontin, Le-Ereẓ Avoteinu, 1 (1924), 48, 115; M.D. Gaon, Yehudei ha-Mizraḥ be-Ereẓ Yisrael, 2 (1938), 105–6; Tidhar, 2 (1947), 816; I. Klausner, Be-Hitorer Am (1962), index.

[Yehuda Slutsky]

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