Péreire brothers
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The Péreire brothers were prominent 19th century financiers in Paris, France, who were rivals of the Rothschilds. Like the Rothschilds, they were Jews, but unlike them the Péreire brothers were Sephardi Jews of Portuguese origin.
Émile (1800–1875) and his brother Isaac Péreire (1806–1880) founded a business conglomerate that included creating the Crédit Mobilier bank. They also had large investments in a transatlantic steamship line, railways, insurance, gas lighting, a newspaper and the Paris public transit system.
Eugène Péreire (1831–1908), son of Isaac, joined the enterprise and took over the running of the business empire on his father's death. He was the founder, in 1881, of the Banque Transatlantique, which still operates today and is one of the oldest private banks in France. In 1909, Eugène's granddaughter Noémie Halphen married banking competitor, Maurice de Rothschild.
Jacob Rodrigues Pereira, one of the inventors of manual language for the deaf, was their grandfather. He was born in Portugal and established himself in France in 1741, where he became an interpreter for King Louis XV.
See also
- Pereire (Paris Métro), a métro station named after the brothers
- Crédit Mobilier of America scandal
- Second French Empire
- Jewish Encyclopedia, with detailed biography
