characterized the different Jewish communities, who ran their own separate organizations. For many years the Jerusalem Sephardic community was led by the Sephardic Community Council, normally headed by senior rabbis who served as official representatives of the community with the Ottoman authorities. Jacob Valero was nominated to the Council in 1870, the first person not a rabbi to bear the title ‘President of the Kollel’. He handled the committee's financial affairs and came to be known as ‘trustee of the poor’. His eldest son continued this activity, to be followed in the 1880s by Haim Aharon. Valero was one of the representatives of the Moses Montefiore Memorial Trust, founded in 1874 with the aim of housing Jerusalem Jews. The trust made loans for building in Mazkeret Moshe (1882), Ohel Moshe (1882), Yemin Moshe (1892), Zichron Moshe (1904) and Kiryat Moshe (1924). He supported a number of charitable causes, including the donation of land on Jaffa Street for the building of a Sephardic old people's home, opened in 1908. Commemoration At a cost of over $2.-Million, the Valero compound – a chaotic parking lot that houses the city's annual Succot "lulav and etrog market" – is being redeveloped into an urban square. The project, designed by architects Rachel Weiner and Vered Singer, is being carried out by the Jerusalem municipality's Eden Company with funding from the municipality and the Transportation Ministry. The new Valero Square, illuminated by decorative lighting and surfaced in granite and limestone, will provide both shade and sitting corners for Mahaneh Yehuda shoppers as well as serving as a venue for cultural events. The square preserves the memory of Jacob Valero (1813–1874), the founder of the first private bank in Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem, Jacob Valero & Company, and his son Haim Aharon Valero (1845–1923), who was also a banker and served as head of the city's Sephardi kollel. The alley bordering the new square on the north is named after Haim Valero. See also Aaron Valero (1913–2000), grandson of Haim Aharon Valero, Israeli physician and educator. References Bibliography Freiman, Nahum Dov (1913). Jerusalem Memory BookVol 1, Jerusalem; Ariel,1980 (Reprint of 1913 edition)(Hebrew). Kark, Ruth and Glass, Joseph (2007). Sephardi Entrepreneurs in Jerusalem: The Valero Family 1800-1948 (English Translation Edition)"". Gefen Publishing House. Kark, Ruth and Glass, Joseph (2005). The Valero Family: Seven Generations in Jerusalem, 1800-1948 (Original Hebrew Edition). Gefen Publishing House. "Guide to Palestine and Egypt", by