Shabtai Levy (1876–1956) was the first Jewish mayor of Haifa. He held office from 1941 to 1951.
Shabtai Levy was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1876. Trained as a lawyer, he made Aliyah in 1894. He studied in the PJCA school in Petah Tikva. He was then employed as a clerk for the Baron Edmond James de Rothschild. In 1905 he moved to Haifa and managed the law and land departments of the PJCA and JCA.[1]
When the British established a Haifa city council in 1920, Levy was appointed along with Raphael Hakim. In 1924, Levy was elected along with David HaCohen as an independent. Starting in 1934, he served as vice-mayor of Haifa. In 1941, when Hassan Bey Shukari died, Levy became the acting mayor of Haifa, and the city's first Jewish mayor. During the Israeli War of Independence, he tried to use his influence to try to keep the Arab population from expulsion & from leaving the city.
