'Some people have left the State of Israel strange things'
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French Jew leaves Israel NIS 74 million
Donation is part of NIS 110 million inherited by state from Diaspora Jews in first nine months of 2014.
Diaspora Jews left Israel NIS 110 million (about $30 million) between January and September 2014. This sum includes the inheritance of a French Jew, who left the Jewish state as much as NIS 74 million. His only condition was to remain anonymous, Yedioth Ahronoth has learned.
The generous donor was Ignace Hellenberg, a French art dealer who died in 2004. Thanks to the activity of the Estates and Trusts Department in the Administrator General's Office, which got in touch with the deceased while he was still alive, the Administrator General's Office received part of his inheritance.
This was not the highest inheritance received by Israel. Several years ago, the state got through the Administrator General's Office a huge estate of more than NIS 200 million from one person, who had asked to donate his money to the establishment of a special rehabilitation hospital for disabled IDF veterans.
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According to a government decision made in 1955, the Administrator General's Office is authorized to handle inheritances and donations for the benefit of the state and its institutions. The inheritances and donations are designated to different organizations and institutions according to the donors' request.
A government decision made in 1990 determines that if the deceased did not mention a certain institution, a public committee would decide on the matter. Israel's current administrator general is Prof. David Hahn.
Some of the inheritances are received by the state out of the blue, but quite often donors contact Israeli representatives in advance and express their desire to leave money for the state after their death.
Former administrator general Adv. Shlomo Shachar told Yedioth Ahronoth in a 2012 interview, "A person I met in Monaco wanted to leave Israel several million dollars, but requested to know who the administrator general was. He told me he had two children who he had lost contact with and had no intention of leaving them anything. He asked us to take care of his burial arrangements and bring his bones to Israel.
"The average sums we received from such people every years was about 100-150 million shekels," Shachar added. "Some people have left the state strange things. There was once a person who left an estate in Colombia in which drugs are manufactured.
"A 90-year-old woman from Los Angeles, who lived on her own, showed me a picture of her children who had died in the Holocaust. She left a will stating that her entire property would be handed over to Israel."
