Joseph Oppenheim (1810-1884)

Banker, President of the Consistory (1875-1884)

A partner with his brother in the Banque Oppenheim-Emden, he was also one of the founders of the Banque de Bruxelles. Joseph Oppenheim was a director of the Antwerp-Ghent Railway, the Compagnie centrale de Construction et de Matériel de Chemin de Fer, the Compagnie pour l'Éclairage et le Chauffage par le Gaz and the Chemin de Fer Bruxelles-Lille-Calais; he was also commissioner of the Belgian paper mills, and was one of the initiators of the aborted attempt to create a Crédit mobilier in Brussels in 1856, alongside Jonathan-Raphaël Bischoffsheim. Under the influence of his brother, he became interested in railway and industrial securities, as well as in certain French municipal loans, for which he collaborated with Erlanger.

In 1830, during the Belgian Revolution, Joseph Oppenheim joined the horse hunters, notably during the battle of Pellenberg. He became a Belgian citizen in 1845 and was a liberal provincial councillor for Brabant (1860), elected in Brussels on the lists of the Liberal Association. A deeply religious man, he certainly belonged to the Liberal party, but he resigned his political mandate because his party was in favour of the secularisation of cemeteries; he himself, very respectful of the Jewish religion, was of the opinion that denominational cemeteries should be maintained. The brothers Adolphe, Joseph and Maurice Oppenheim were among the subscribers of the Free University of Brussels at its creation in 1834. Joseph Oppenheim was a member of the Central Israelite Consistory of Belgium from 1836 onwards, and was its president from 1875 to 1884, having been its vice-president since 1842. He was also a member of the central committee of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, elected in 1883, and a major donor to the Brussels Israelite Community, promoting in particular the building of the synagogue in the rue de la Régence.