Moshe Sanbar (Hebrew: משה זנבר; March 29, 1926 – October 1, 2012) was an economist and Israeli public figure. He served as Governor of the Bank of Israel (1971–76) and chairman of Bank Leumi (1988–95). Sanbar was born in Hungary, surviving the Second World War as a prisoner at Dachau Concentration Camp. In the State of Israel, he began his professional work as an economic researcher and became gradually involved in the work of the Ministry of Finance as head of the research division (1958–60), deputy director of the State Income Directorate (1960–63), head of the Budget Directorate and economic advisor to the minister (1963–68). He served as a professional consultant to finance ministers Levi Eshkol and Pinhas Sapir, also acting for the latter in his post as Minister of Trade and Industry (1970–71). In the years 1977 to 1981, he was chairman of the Sanbar Commission concerning the local authorities in Israel and its relations with the central government. Initially, he was an academic and researcher in economics and statistics. However, after leaving the civil service, he became more associated with his roles in the private sector as chairman of various financial and industrial institutions, and even more so in the public sector, engaging in activities related to education, culture, sports, and science. He was for many years involved with Habima Theatre, the College of Management and headed ICC in Israel. In the late 1980s he began his involvement in benefiting Holocaust survivors, founding the Israeli umbrella organization of holocaust survivors in Israel, bringing together more than 50 independent organizations. He was the world treasurer and the chairman of the executive in the Claims Conference, member of international commissions on property restitution and a champion for the needs of holocaust survivors.
Biography
Early life Sanbar was born as Gusztáv Sandberg on March 29, 1926, in Kecskemét, Hungary to Salomon Sandberg and Miriam (Margit) née Klausner, both of whom perished during the Holocaust in Hungary in 1944. His father had been in Hungary representing the family business of import and export of agricultural produce and poultry. The father had first been arrested by the Nazis and taken to a labor camp in 1941 but was released due to his old age, until his later arrest in 1944. His mother had died in 1944 in Auschwitz. In his youth he was active in various sports: table tennis, fencing, wrestling and soccer. As a competitive wrestler he was champion of the high school league in Southern Hungary. Shortly after the Nazi occupation of Hungary and in response to the removal of Jewish players from the various sport teams, Sanbar founded a national soccer league for Jewish players. Prior to the war, he was a right midfielder in the youth soccer league for Southern Hungary. In early June 1944, Sanbar was recruited to the labor battalions of the Hungarian Army. In October 1944 his unit was marched to the Austrian border and taken to Dachau concentration camp in Germany. He was released by the Allied forces on May 2, 1945 near Seeshaupt, while on transport via Holocaust trains to an extermination camp. Upon his liberation, Sanbar contracted typhus while in a field hospital. His experiences during the war were later recorded in his book My Longest Year, one of the first memoirs printed in Israel by a survivor of the holocaust. Prior to the war Sanbar was a member of a social club founded by Erik Molnár, where he was exposed to various economic theories. Following his return to Hungary and a recuperating period, Sanbar studied economics at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. In Budapest, he was a member of Hapoel sports association. During this time, Sanbar joined the HaOved HaTzioni movement and headed the emigrant training programs in Hungary. He was a member of the executive of the Zionist organization in Hungary. Earlier and prior to WWII, at the age of seventeen, he won a writing competition in his hometown on a play focused on the Land of Israel. In early 1948, Sanbar joined the Hagana and headed a group of 60 emigrants to the British Mandate of Palestine in Aliyah Bet. He arrived in Israel in May 1948, was drafted to the IDF and badly injured during the Battle of Latrun in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. His MA studies at the Hebrew University of economics, statistics and sociology were completed in 1953.
Professional career
Research and academia In 1951, Sanbar began work as a researcher and statistician at the Institute for Social Applied Research headed by Louis Guttman, becoming deputy director of the institute in 1956. From 1957 to 1962 he was also a member of faculty in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was a pioneer researcher in the fields of consumer economics and the division of income. His research on the latter was groundbreaking and valuable for being one of the first of its kind worldwide based on a wide public survey. Its comprehensive findings served as a basis for a series of articles printed in The Economic Quarterly.
Ministry of Finance In 1958 Sanbar entered the civil service, working at the Ministry of Finance as founding director of the research division of the Income Directorate (1958–59) and appointed as a professional deputy director of the directorate (1960–63). He was involved in ministry's work concerning taxation and headed many of the governmental committees on these matters, including the 1962 devaluation. Sanbar continued to research on division income and apply it to his professional work, among other things in his capacity from 1962 to 1966 as coordinator of the government's commission for national income division. During these years Sanbar was involved with financial legislation and headed multiple government committees of financial concern. He was also a government representative in various boards of directors of government corporations such as Mekorot, also serving for several years chairman of the finance committee for El Al and in 1967 the founding chairman of the Israel Sports Betting Board in charge of the national football pool.
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