Some information extracted from the historical press archive of The National Library of Israel, the Israel State Archives, and other Israeli websites:
- Although an advertisement for the Oakland brand of General Motors in ‘The Palestine Bulletin’ of 30 May 1928 points to an earlier existence of a ‘Palestine Motors Co.’ in Jaffa (now part of Tel Aviv), the establishment of ‘Palestine Motors Limited’ in Haifa was announced in ‘The Palestine Post’ of 5 June 1935:
https://www.nli.org...."-------------1
ASSEMBLING MOTOR CARS
Link With Great Britain
The latest addition to the factories established in the Haifa Bay is the “Palestine Motors Limited”, formed by a number of Jews in London.
The Company assembles imported parts of “Standard cars”, Albion trucks and buses, and the Scammell Mechanical Horse; all of which have a very high reputation of British Automobile Engineering on the English market.
It is intended at a later date to incorporate in these vehicles such parts as can be produced locally, thus achieving the Company’s double object of expanding Palestine industry and developing closer commercial relations between this country and her best customer — England.
The Company has brought out from England a few expert mechanics. The works are under the technical direction of Squadron Leader J. Kemper, M.B.E. Mr. Alexander Sperling is the Sales Director.
The assembly of the first cars is nearing completion and it is expected that the first model of the Company’s products will be seen on the road within a few days.
- A Hebrew site, ‘Made in Israel’, briefly discussing early car industry in Israel gives some further information:
https://www.bennyavi...-made-in-israel
[Google Translate]
National Pride: Production lines in the Israeli car industry in its infancy
The first to produce cars in the country were two Jewish brothers living in Germany, Zvi and Alexander Sperling, who met in London in the 1930s Joseph Kemper, who was a squadron commander in the First World War. From the random meeting in London, which took place with a lot of whiskey and quality cigarettes, the idea arose to produce cars in Palestine. The Sperling brothers received a franchise from Standard to assemble the new model known as the Flying Standard.
In 1935, they built a factory near Gesher Paz in Haifa called the Eretz Israel1 Carrier Company, and began accepting shipments of dismantled English cars by sea and assembling them here. The 'Standard 20' was the largest of the models, with a power of 64 horsepower from a volume of 2,664 cc. Two units were assembled from it in 1936, two more cars were a 'Standard 10' model and two a Model 12. The local contribution was marginal and the main thing in the system: electricity, upholstery and carpentry.
The name given to the new car was 'Carmel', but there is no connection with the name that Yitzhak Shubinsky later gave to his car made by Autocars, as a tribute to his friend Moshe Carmel (according to Ephraim Ilin). This experience came to an end after only about twenty cars were produced. In addition to the Carmel, two three-wheeled trucks from Scammell and another four-wheeled truck were assembled in the workshop. On the way to Tivon, the truck inflated its soul and therefore it was decided not to assemble it again. Due to the events2 of 1936, the Sperling brothers' workshop was finally closed.
[…]
1 Until the establishment of the independent state of Israel in 1948, ‘Eretz Israel’ (‘Land of Israel’) was a formal Hebrew name of Mandatory Palestine
2 Arab revolt in Mandatory Palestine
- Mandatory Palestine naturalization documents reveal that the Sperling brothers had the Polish nationality before they became naturalized Palestine citizens in 1939:
https://www.archives.gov.il/en/
[search for ‘Sperling Alexander’ and ‘Sperling Hirsch’]
Zvi and Alexander were born in Bochnia, on 24 April 1907 and 28 January 1909, respectively. They were given the first names Hirsch (Yiddish for Zvi, - gazelle or deer) and Sender (Yiddish diminutive for Alexander).
- After 1936, occasional advertisements in ‘The Palestine Post’ and Hebrew journals indicate that the company continued to exist as a garage business. Then, in 1939, the firm started the import of Standard cars, which they continued after the war:
https://www.nli.org...."-------------1
The Palestine Post, 22 October 1945:
FIRST BATCH OF BRITISH CARS ARRIVE
MORE COMING IN THREE WEEKS
Palestine Post Reporter
HAIFA, Sunday. – The first consignment of British cars arrived in Palestine today, when a number of demonstration models manufactured by the Standard Motor Company in much-bombed Coventry were unloaded from the s.s. Richmond Hill this morning.
The new cars include saloons, drop-head coupés and saloon de luxe models of eight and 12 horse-power design. Though outwardly there is no striking change in the familiar line of Standard cars, certain technical improvements have been introduced and all models are leather-upholstered and have pre-war finish.
Mr. A. Sperling, Director of Palestine Motors Ltd. (sole agents for Standard in Palestine and Trans-Jordan), who has just returned from Coventry, told The Palestine Post that he had secured a high quota of supplies to Palestine. The next consignment will arrive within three weeks and further shipments are scheduled to come at regular monthly intervals.
[...]
- Shortly after the war Palestine Motors also obtained the sole distributorship for the renowned Coles mobile cranes, battery-electric industrial trucks, and electric hoists produced by Steels & Co. of Sunderland, as well as for the bakelite radios of Ultra Electric Ltd., London. But more importantly, in 1948 the company – then renamed Israel Motors – became the sole representative of Ferguson (later Massey-Ferguson) tractors and farm implements. In the following three decades, import and marketing of the popular Massey-Harris products must have been the company’s most lucrative activity.
- In the 1960s and ‘70s, Israel Motors was the distributor of Triumph cars. In 1976 the company also advertised for Austin. [Later information is not available from the online press archive].
- Additional information about the Sperling brothers is rare. Announcements and condolences related to the death of Alexander on 20 February 1968 appeared in Maʻariv and other Hebrew journals. Zvi Sperling is mentioned as the ‘Israel Motors owner’ in 1966. He died on 23 January 1998, at age 91.
- It seems likely that Joseph Kemper returned to the UK after the assembly of Standard cars had to be terminated in 1936. His military career is well documented; he died on 18 December 1945:
https://www.jewsfww....er-mbe-3088.php
https://www.remember.../kemper-joseph/
