Sassoon family facts for kids

The Sassoon family, sometimes called the "Rothschilds of the East," became incredibly wealthy through banking and trade. They were originally a Jewish family from Baghdad, Iraq. Over time, they moved to Mumbai (Bombay) in India, and then spread out to China, England, and other countries.

By the 18th century, the Sassoons were one of the richest families in the world. Their business empire reached across all of Asia.

What's in a Name?

The Sassoon family name suggests they came from Mesopotamia, which is modern-day Iraq and parts of Turkey. Many Armenian and Kurdish families also share this name. They come from a mountainous area called Sason in Turkey. It's also possible that some Spanish Jewish heritage mixed with the Mesopotamian Sassoons.

How the Family Business Began

Sassoon ben Salih (1750–1830) and his family were the main treasurers for the rulers of Baghdad. His sons, David Sassoon (1792–1864) and Joseph Sassoon (1795–1872), left Baghdad because of a new, unfriendly ruler.

In 1832, David Sassoon moved to Bombay, India, with his large family. There, he started an international business called David S. Sassoon. He made sure to hire people from Baghdad to work in his company's branches. These branches were located in India, Myanmar, Malaysia, and East Asia.

David Sassoon's business grew to include trade with China. The Sassoon House in Shanghai became a famous building on the Bund waterfront. His business also reached England. David Sassoon was known for his great wealth and generosity. He built schools, orphanages, hospitals, and museums across Asia. When he died, people from many different religions praised him.

Joseph Sassoon's Family Branch

Joseph Sassoon, David's brother, went to Aleppo, Syria. He started a trading company there. Later, his business grew to include shipping and money exchange in places like Alexandria, Egypt, and Greece.

His son, Moses Sassoon (1828–1909), returned to Baghdad before moving to Egypt. In Egypt, he built a financial company called Joseph Sassoon & Sons. This company later became an agent for a large French bank.

Moses's son, Jacob Sassoon (1850–1936), became one of the biggest cotton plantation owners in Egypt by 1871. During the American Civil War, his older brother, Nissim (1840–1917), made a lot of money exporting Egyptian cotton to England. This made Nissim Egypt's largest cotton exporter.

In 1927, Jacob Sassoon helped start the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company in Egypt. He owned a large part of the company. Jacob Sassoon also helped create Egypt Crédit Foncier, another financial company. His grandson, Eliau Joseph Sassoon, was an architect and real estate investor. He bought properties in growing areas of Cairo.

In 1952, Eliau's grandson, Eliau (Elias) Nissim Eliau Joseph Sassoon (1928–2010), co-founded Banque Du Caire, a bank in Egypt.

Elias Sassoon's Influence

Elias Sassoon was one of Joseph Sassoon's most important and wealthy descendants. He was born in Aleppo, Syria, in 1928. His father, Nassim Eliau Sassoon, was a rich merchant and banker. Elias went to a famous boarding school in Alexandria, Egypt. In 1946, he joined his family's business in Egypt.

The Sassoon family owned parts of many companies. These included oil companies like Burmah Oil and Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. They also had a textile factory, a large cotton export business, and interests in shipping companies.

In 1947, Elias focused on oil, shipping, and banking. He borrowed money from his father and invested in Standard Oil. That same year, he married Hannah Rochel Jacque Sassoon.

His great-grandfather, David Solomon Sassoon (1871–1956), had invested in an oil company that later worked with Standard Oil. This helped provide oil from the Middle East to markets. In 1906, David Solomon Sassoon helped finance the first fuel terminals in Alexandria.

Elias Sassoon was a strong supporter of Zionism, which is the movement for a Jewish homeland. He felt the British government had not helped Jewish people during World War II.

In 1952, Elias co-founded Banque Du Caire with his friend Moise Joseph Maurice Cattaui. By then, Elias Sassoon had expanded his family's business to France, Brazil, South Africa, and the United States. The family had been trading cotton and other goods in these places since the 1800s.

The Sassoons believed that Mesopotamia (now Syria and Iraq) had a lot of oil. David Solomon Sassoon was one of the first to get German banks interested in building the Berlin–Baghdad railway, which he helped finance. Later, he also became an agent for the Rothschild family in the Ottoman Empire, bringing British interests into the region. In 1911, Sassoon formed a group of British investors to combine British and German interests in the area.

In 1953, Elias Sassoon used these connections to invest in mining in Africa.

Changes in Egypt

In 1957, the new Egyptian government took control of all European companies and banks, especially British and French ones. The government also started forcing foreigners and the Jewish community to leave Egypt. Many Jewish people had contributed a lot to Egypt, but they were harassed. Many had to leave the country with very little and had their money and properties taken by the government.

The Sassoons were among those whose properties were taken. In 1966, Elias Sassoon and his wife were sent to the port in Alexandria and expelled from the country. His wife, who was an Egyptian citizen, was declared not a citizen. Elias's Syrian citizenship was also taken away. They were given travel documents and put on a ship to Greece. However, their son, Edouard Elias Sassoon, who was a medical student, was not allowed to leave.

The government accused Elias Sassoon of helping Jewish community members move their money out of the country. They demanded he return his money held in Europe before his son could leave. After paying a large amount of money (about £4 million) and with help from the French and Greek governments, Edouard Sassoon joined his family in 1971. His wife, Josephine Celine Esther, also had trouble leaving Egypt after her family was expelled in 1964.

In 1961, Elias Sassoon and Moise Cattaui started a private investment fund called Sassoon Cattaui Investment Holding in Switzerland. This fund used money from the Sassoon Family Trust, which had been set up in 1910. In 1970, they moved the company to Curaçao. This private family investment group did not have to report its finances publicly. It is said that in 1961, the fund managed about £25 million.

The fund invested in real estate in the U.S., Canada, and Greece. It also invested in precious metals, oil, gas, and stocks. It also traded in currency markets. Some of its many investments included companies like BHP, American Express, General Motors, Wells Fargo, HSBC, ExxonMobil, Microsoft, and Fendi. It is rumored that when Elias Sassoon died, the fund had over $100 billion in assets, mostly belonging to the Sassoon and Cattaui families.

David S. Sassoon's Children

David Sassoon had eight sons who also started many different ventures. The Sassoon family was very involved in shipping and trade between China and India. Elias David Sassoon (1820–1880), one of his sons, was the first to go to China in 1844. He later returned to Bombay and started his own company, E.D. Sassoon & Co., in 1867.

Another son, Albert Abdullah David Sassoon (1818–1896), took over the family business after his father died. He famously built the Sassoon Docks in Mumbai, which was the first modern dock in western India. Albert and two of his brothers became important figures in England. The family was friends with the Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VII.

One daughter of the family, Rachel Sassoon Beer, helped run several British newspapers with her husband. She managed The Sunday Times and The Observer, and also edited The Observer.

Sassoons in England

Sir Edward Albert Sassoon (1856–1912), Albert's son, married Aline Caroline de Rothschild. He was a member of Parliament from 1899 until his death. His son, Sir Philip Sassoon (1888–1939), took over his seat in Parliament in 1912. Philip served in World War I as a military secretary. In the 1920s and 1930s, he was Britain's undersecretary of state for air.

The famous 20th-century English poet, Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967), who wrote about World War I, was David Sassoon's great-grandson.

Another descendant, James Meyer Sassoon, is a British banker and former government official.

Scholarly Sassoons

The Sassoon family also had members who continued a tradition of religious scholarship. Rabbi Solomon David Sassoon (1915–1985) moved from England to Jerusalem in 1970. He was the son of David Solomon Sassoon (1880–1942), who collected many Jewish books and manuscripts. This collection is now mostly kept at the British Library in London. Some parts are also at the University of Toronto Library in Canada.

David Sassoon was the son of Flora Abraham, who moved from India to England in 1901. She had a famous gathering place in her London home. Solomon Sassoon had two sons, Isaac S. D. Sassoon and David Solomon Sassoon, both of whom are rabbis.

The famous hairstylist Vidal Sassoon was distantly related to the family through his father.

Images for kids

• 

  David Sassoon (seated) and his sons Elias David, Albert (Abdallah) & Sassoon David

• 

  The Sassoon Docks, Mumbai, India

• 

  Sir Philip Sassoon, by John Singer Sargent, 1923

• 

  Tomb of David Sassoon, Pune, India

• 

  Portrait of Siegfried Sassoon by Glyn Warren Philpot, 1917. Fitzwilliam Museum