Who Is Eliezer Fishman? The Empire And The Collapse

Eliezer Fishman is the Israeli businessman who at his peak controlled one of the largest private business empires in Israel — Industrial Buildings Corporation, Jerusalem Economy, stakes in Yedioth Communications and the Globes business daily, and the Mega supermarket chain — and who in 2017 declared personal bankruptcy with debts reported above five billion shekels, after currency-speculation losses in the Turkish lira and Brazilian real collapsed his financial position. He has a robust Hebrew Wikipedia entry. He does not have a meaningful English Wikipedia presence. This is the canonical English profile.

The Build

Fishman built across four arenas: industrial real estate (Industrial Buildings Corporation, in Hebrew Mivnei Taasiya), commercial real estate and infrastructure (Jerusalem Economy Corporation, in Hebrew Hevrat HaKalkala HaYerushalmit), media (significant minority positions in Yedioth Communications, publisher of Yedioth Ahronoth, and Globes), and retail (the Mega supermarket chain, through Blue Square Israel).

The structure was the classic Israeli holding-company model of the 1990s and 2000s: pyramidal cross-ownership, heavy leverage at the holding level, controlling stakes rather than full ownership, and politically connected expansion across regulated sectors. At his peak Fishman appeared on every Israeli rich-list, and his name was a fixture in the Hebrew business press.

The Collapse

The unwind began with currency positions. Fishman took large speculative positions in the Turkish lira and the Brazilian real that moved against him. The losses cascaded through his holding structure, hit the banks that had financed him, and triggered a multi-year unwinding. In 2017 he was declared personally bankrupt by an Israeli court. Reported debts ran above five billion shekels — one of the largest personal bankruptcies in Israeli history.

Mega, the supermarket chain, collapsed separately and was liquidated. Industrial Buildings was restructured. Jerusalem Economy was sold off in pieces. The media stakes were unwound. The empire dissolved into the receivership process.

Why He Matters

Fishman is the canonical Israeli case study in pyramidal-conglomerate over-leverage. The collapse contributed directly to the Israeli regulatory push to break up cross-holdings between financial and non-financial sectors — the Concentration Law (Hok HaRikuziut) framework that reshaped Israeli corporate structure through the 2010s. Anyone studying Israeli holding-company history, the Israeli media ownership map of the 2000s, or the regulatory response to concentrated business groups, runs through Fishman.

Updated June 2026.