Levi, Nathaniel:

By: Joseph Jacobs

Australian merchant and politician; born at Liverpool, England, Jan. 20, 1830. In 1853 he went to the gold-fields in Victoria; in 1858, having settled in Melbourne, he joined the firm of John Levi & Sons. In 1860 he was elected member of the Legislative Assembly for Maryborough, being the first Jew elected to Parliament in Victoria. While in the Legislative Assembly he took great interest in the abolition of the tea and sugar duties, in the taxation of uncultivated lands, and in the forming of labor loan-laws. In 1892 he was elected member of the Legislative Council. In 1885 he founded "The Melbourne Daily News." Levi was treasurer and president of the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation for many years, and has been connected with all the chief Jewish communal institutions of the city.