Adolphe Oppenheim (1793-1870)

Banker, first president of the Central Jewish Consistory of Belgium (1832-1834)

Adolphe Oppenheim came to Brussels in 1809 because of a draconian regulation that allowed only twelve Jewish marriages per year in the city of Frankfurt: the number of Jews could not exceed five hundred out of thirty-two thousand inhabitants, and each birth meant that an adult had to emigrate. He began his career with the merchant Salomon Neustadt (1777 - 1833), who was a partner in a trading house with the Oppenheims of Frankfurt. He married Salomon Neustadt's niece, Sophie Emden, and from then on her name was linked to his, so that he became known as Oppenheim-Emden. Initially a commissionaire in public funds, Adolphe Openheim founded the financial house that bore his name in 1815, under the name of Banque Oppenheim-Emden. He was then one of the founders of the Bank of Belgium, where he was treasurer and commissioner from 1835 to 1870. He was a member of the discount committee of the National Bank of Belgium (1852-1870), commissioner of the Ougrée Ironworks, the Belgian Worsted Wools Factory, the Antwerp-Ghent Railway, the Belgian Paper Mills and the Méline, Cans and Company Printing Works; he was also a director of the Bleyberg Mines. Parnas, then president and treasurer of the Brussels Israelite Community in 1817-1819, he became president of the Central Israelite Consistory of Belgium at its creation (1832-1834).

Abbreviated from : Jean-Philippe Schreiber, Dictionnaire biographique des Juifs de Belgique. Figures du judaïsme belge XIXe-XXe siècles, De Boeck & Larcier, 2002, pp. 263-264.