Gershon Zalkind

Gershon Zalkind, born Georg Salkind, (October 16, 1928–September 26, 2017) was an Israeli industrialist and business leader who helped shape the country’s commercial and industrial landscape during the second half of the twentieth century. As chief executive and controlling shareholder of Elco, he guided the company from a business focused on transformers and electricity meters into a substantial holding group whose companies included Electra, Electra Real Estate and Electra Consumer Products. His career reflects Israel’s transition from a young state dependent on locally built infrastructure to a more diversified and sophisticated economy.

From Germany to Mandatory Palestine

Zalkind was born in Germany to industrialist Alexander Salkind. In 1933, after the Nazis came to power, his family fled to Mandatory Palestine. He studied at the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium, an institution closely associated with the development of modern Hebrew culture and public life, and later took part in the struggle that led to Israel’s establishment.

Zalkind served in the Haganah’s field units and in the Mishmar, participated in the 1948 War of Independence, and was wounded in the Battle of the Nabi Daniel Convoy. His early life connected two demanding forms of nation-building: defending the Jewish community and developing the enterprises and infrastructure on which the future state would depend.

Scientific training and Israeli industry

After his military service, Zalkind studied at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, where he earned a master’s degree in nuclear physics under the supervision of physicist Wolfgang Pauli. This advanced scientific education gave him an analytical and technological foundation that he later brought to Israel and to the family business. In 1955, he returned to Israel and joined the enterprise founded by his father.

In 1949, Alexander Salkind established Electro-Mechanical Industries Israel, later known by the abbreviated name Elco. In its early years, the company manufactured transformers and electricity meters and was the sole supplier of such equipment to the Israel Electric Corporation. It also produced other electrical appliances. This activity mattered beyond its commercial value: local production of electrical equipment helped a young country develop infrastructure, reduce dependence on imports and build industrial expertise within Israel.

Turning Elco into a holding group

Zalkind assumed control of Elco in 1970. Under his leadership, the company gradually changed its character and expanded its reach. In 1987, he purchased Discount Investment Corporation’s entire holding in Elco, and in 1988 he acquired the remaining Elco shares from the receiver of Danot.

Beginning in 1989, Elco undertook a long-term transformation involving acquisitions, the sale of holdings and a reorganization of the group. By the end of this process, Elco had become a holding company controlling several publicly traded businesses, including Electra, Electra Real Estate and Electra Consumer Products. Zalkind therefore did more than manage a single industrial operation: he created a corporate framework through which Israeli activity in industry, services, consumer markets and real estate could grow on a broader scale.

His central achievement was strategic as well as managerial. He recognized that an established industrial company had to adapt to changing economic conditions and used acquisitions, divestments and restructuring to build a diversified group. That transformation helped secure Elco’s continuity and its lasting place in Israeli business life.

Business and family legacy

Zalkind died on September 26, 2017. At the time of his death, Elco’s market capitalization was approximately 2.4 billion shekels and its annual turnover had reached approximately 8.8 billion shekels. These figures show the scale of the company’s development since its beginnings as a manufacturer of transformers and electricity meters.

He was survived by his sons, Daniel and Michael Zalkind, who became co-chief executives of Elco and inherited his shares in equal portions. His daughter, Dr. Dafna Sessler, inherited real estate and cash. After his death, his children established a foundation bearing his name, extending his legacy beyond the business he built during his lifetime.

Why Gershon Zalkind’s legacy belongs in Moreshet

Gershon Zalkind merits inclusion in Moreshet because his life documents a crucial stage in Israel’s development: the transition from enterprises created to meet the basic needs of a young state to complex business groups with a broad effect on everyday life. He combined scientific training, the experience of Israel’s formative years and long-term entrepreneurial leadership to guide Elco through decades of economic change.

His legacy can be seen both in the industrial infrastructure to which Elco contributed and in the business institutions that developed under the group. For Moreshet.com, Zalkind is an important figure for understanding how private enterprise, local manufacturing and sustained strategic management helped shape Israeli society and the economy. Elco’s continuing activity and the foundation established by his children give his work an enduring dimension, linking his achievements to the generations that followed.