Israel Gyarmathai Derera

1827, Timișoara - April 3, 1908, Timișoara

Great grain merchant and manufacturer. President of the Sephardic community

Israel Derera is a descendant of a family of Spanish Jews (the name Derera comes from "de Herrera") who were expelled in 1492 from Castile, and after a stay in Thessaloniki they arrived in Timișoara.

In his youth he participated in the Revolution of 1848-1849 as a fighter in the Hungarian revolutionary detachments. Back in Timișoara, he dealt mainly with the grain trade and did business with the Balkan countries, Germany and Switzerland. In 1873 he made great efforts to save merchants from a severe financial crisis.

On February 17, 1897 it was ennobled by Emperor Franz Joseph I, taking, as of July 11, 1898, the name of Gyarmathai or von Gyarmath (of Giarmata). The Habsburgs awarded titles of nobility to Jews who stood out for their special economic or cultural merits. On his heraldic coat of arms, which included, among others, four red roses and a pelican feeding its young, he wrote the motto:A munka nemesit (Work ennobles, from Hungarian).

Derera participated in many public activities. In 1896 he was part of the organizing committee of the exhibition Millennium of Hungary (1000 years of existence of the Hungarian state) in Timișoara. He was the president of the Sephardic community and one of the founders of the Society of History and Archeology of Southern Hungary. He was known as a philanthropist.

He was married twice: to Zsófia Elias (in 1859), then to Perla Bochory (from 1868). From each marriage he had 3 children, a total of six.

Sources

Derera (gyarmathai).

A nemességet 1897. febr. 17. D. Izráel temesvári terménykereskedő kapta. – Előnév adományozása 1898. julius 11. – Czímer: arany pólyával vágott kék paizsban; a felső mezőben keresztbe tett görbe kard és egy arany horgony; az alsó mezőben zöld halmon fészkében négy fiát vérével tápláló pelikán; a pólyában négy vörös rózsa; sisakdísz: a pelikán– takarók: kék-arany; jelmondat: A munka nemesit. Leszármazás:

Izrael * 1827 Temesvár † 1908 IV/3 1) 1859 Éliás Zsófia, 2) 1868 Bochory Perla; 1 : Ármin * 1860 II/2 † 1905; Ráhel * 1861 X/6 Abelsberg Leo; Berta * 1866 VIII/21 Fischl Lajos; 2 : Ede * 1872 XII/78 Neuwirth Mária; József * 1874 V/8; Henrik * 1875 X/31 orvos 1904 IX/15 : Ágoston Olga; Edit; Henrik; Erich; István;