Birth: NULL/NULL/1890 Death:NULL/NULL/1974
Born in Beit Hanina, Jerusalem, in 1890; emigrated to the USA in 1911 and worked as a salesman; soon owned a textile factory for ready-to-wear clothes in New York; was also active in Arab organizations, incl. the Palestinian Revival Association, founded in 1921; returned wealthy to Palestine in 1929; proposed establishing a joint Egyptian-Palestinian bank but the idea was untenable at the time; founded the Arab Bank in Jerusalem in May 1930, which established branches in all major towns in Palestine and in the capitals of neighboring Arab countries and became the most prestigious private Arab banking institution in the Arab World; had a close relationship with Mufti Haj Amin Al-Husseini and was twice detained by the British during the 1936-1939 Revolt for his support of the national cause, incl. in the Sarafand Prison in 1937; helped establishing the Palestine National Fund and reconstituting the Arab Higher Committee in 1945-46; father of Abdul Majid Shoman; died in Czechoslovakia in 1974 and was buried at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
