Haïm Benchimol
# Haïm Benchimol

Haim Benchimol (Hebrew: חיים בן-שימול, 1834-1915) was a journalist, banker, philanthropist, and Jewish community leader in Tangier, Morocco.

## Biography

Haim Benchimol was born in 1834 in Tangier. Like other members of his family, he first worked as an interpreter and fixer for the French diplomatic delegation in Tangier, for which he was awarded protégé status. He then became the manager of the Tangier branch of the Banque Transatlantique, and also served as a local representative of international trading companies such as the Paquet shipping company of Marseille (founded by Nicolas Paquet [fr] and a predecessor entity of the Chargeurs group). He accumulated a large fortune during his lifetime.

For his service to the French diplomatic mission in Tangier, he received the Legion of Honor. Benchimol was one of the founders of the Association of Freemasons in Morocco.

In 1886, the French writer Edouard Drumont in his anti-Semitic polemic La France juive accused Haim Benchimol of undermining the French diplomatic delegation in Tangier. Benchimol in turn ran a campaign against Drumont and his anti-Jewish propaganda.

In 1888, Benchimol purchased the newspaper Le Réveil du Maroc, the first French-language newspaper in Morocco, after the death of its previous editor Abraham Levi-Cohen. The newspaper under his management supported Jewish causes, even though it was not an ostensibly Jewish newspaper, and continued to defend pro-French positions as it had done before Benchimol's acquisition. Benchimol also served as a local correspondent for the Agence France-Presse wire service and for La France, a Paris-based financial daily.

In 1890 he was elected to head the Jewish community committee in Tangier, known as the Junta. He was one of the prominent Jewish community leaders of his times in Morocco. In addition, he engaged in extensive philanthropy and donated to the institutions of the Jewish community.

He died in Tangier in 1915.

## Benchimol Hospital

One of Haim Benchimol's greatest undertakings was the establishment of a modern Jewish hospital in Tangier (French: hôpital Benchimol). He dedicated the institution to the memory of his wife, a daughter of the Jewish Toledano family, who had died a few years before. The hospital was established in 1905 in a large building, and spread over an area of ​​about two square kilometers. Its main mission was to provide free medical care to Jews of modest means who could not afford medical care for themselves; it sometimes provided medical care to poor Muslims as well.

Haim Benchimol dedicated much energy to the hospital and brought advanced equipment and personnel. One of the prominent doctors at the hospital was Moshe Mani, born in Hebron and a member of the illustrious Mani family.

The Benchimol Hospital continued to operate decades after the death of its founder, treating thousands of patients every year. Benchimol had bequeathed it a considerable part of his assets, estimated to be worth millions of francs. The hospital building stood until April 2010, when it was demolished by the Moroccan authorities, 105 years after its establishment. This step provoked much criticism among preservationist and Jewish circles in Morocco and abroad.

