Sephardi Community Council

According to tradition, the committee was established by Nachmanides, which served as a community binder for Jews for many years during Byzantine and Ottoman occupation of the Land of Israel. The organization was led by the Sephardic chief rabbi. Beginning in the 19th century, it was led by the Hakham Bashi, who was seen as the authority representative of the community in Israel towards the authorities of the Ottoman Empire, as well as the supreme authority in Jewish matters. During the mid-19th century, the committee suffered from fracturing due to ethnic differences, and the split, followed by many other groups. By the beginning of the 19th century, the influence of the Sephardi Council was greatly weakened due to the fact that most of the people who were making Aliyah were Ashkenazi, reducing the large majority the Sephardi community previously had. Following WWI, the president of the committee was lawyer . During WWII, the president of the committee was lawyer . and the Misgav Ladach Hospital. == Committee assets ==

The community committee owned a lot of real estate in Jerusalem. They owned a plot of land at the Mount of Olives for burial of their members, residential buildings for housing, and shops in Jerusalem. In the Old City, they included: Beit Gebul Almana, houses purchased for the poor, Beit Tamhui, Talmud Torahs for poor children, and the courtyards around four Sephardic synagogues, one in the name of Yohanan ben Zakkai, and the Misgav Ladach. They also owned properties in the New City, such as houses by the Tora sanctuary in Mishkenot Sha'ananim, as well as many other houses in Yemin Moshe, Ibn Israel, Beit Israel, Mahane Yehuda, Zikhron Moshe, Rehavia, Shemaa, Kfar Shiloh, and Shimon HaTzadik. By the 1930s, about 530 people lived in apartments provided by the council. A large number of wealthy Jews entrusted large endowments to the community board, the largest of which was Sima Balilius of Calcutta's, who, in 1926, left 80,000 lira to the Yohanan ben Zakkai synagogue, along with dedicated funds for the purchase of four buildings for apartment complexes. Large endowments were also given by Haim Aharon Valero and Raphael Aharon Gabay, as well as from the Sephardic orphanage of the Borochoff and Wissachharoff families. The Committee continued to manage the Misgav Ladach even after the establishment of the State of Israel and built a new building for it in Katamon despite opposition from the Ministry of Health. It operated as a private hospital without public support. The building was initially built with donations from wealthy Sephardi benefactors, such as Nissim Gaon and Leon Taman. The hospital went into debt and was sold to Kupat Holim Meuhedet; the liquidation of the hospital lasted many years and a lot of its endowment was sold to recuperate costs. == References ==