Hoofien, Eliezer Sigfried
HOOFIEN, ELIEZER SIGFRIED
HOOFIEN, ELIEZER SIGFRIED (1881–1957), Israel banker. Born in Utrecht, Holland, Hoofien became an accountant. He was a Zionist from his youth and in 1909 accepted David *Wolffsohn's invitation to move to Cologne and join the central Zionist bureau there. In 1912 Wolffsohn sent him to Ereẓ Israel as the deputy director general of the *Anglo-Palestine Bank, of which he was appointed director general in 1924. He held this post until 1947, when he became chairman of the board of directors of the bank, which, from 1949, was the Bank Leumi le-Israel. For many years Hoofien directed the financial affairs of the yishuv. During World War i he succeeded in preventing the dissolution of the Anglo-Palestine Bank as ordered by the Ottoman authorities. He issued "registered checks" on the bank, which served as a means of payment when confidence in Turkish banknotes collapsed. At the end of the British Mandate, Hoofien, in close cooperation with Eliezer *Kaplan, prepared the monetary system of Israel and issued notes of the Anglo-Palestine Bank, which became the official currency until the foundation of the Bank of Israel (1954). In the early years of the state, Hoofien was economic and financial adviser to the government.
bibliography:
Y.A. Levison, A.S. Hoofien (Heb., 1936).
[Yeshayahu Foerder]