Collection contains Foa’s published and unpublished writings; files and correspondence from positions he held including his term as a fellow at Princeton University (1940-1942), as Director of the Bureau of Latin American Research (1941-1943), on the Federal Reserve Board, as a consultant for other economics projects, and as professor and guest lecturer at several Universities; a memoir by Foa; his biography of the Foa family; and personal correspondence among his family members, travel documents, and memos about the destination during trips to Italy, Jerusalem, Spain, South America and Somalia.
Bruno Foa (1905-1999) was an Italian-born, Jewish economist, lawyer, consultant, and professor. Educated in Italy as an economist and lawyer, Foa became Italy's youngest full professor of economics at age 28. In 1937, he married Lisa Haimann, a refugee from Munich, and they moved to London in 1938. While in London, Foa worked for the British Broadcasting Company, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, and guest lectured at the London School of Economics.
In 1940, Foa moved his family to the United States. He began work at Princeton University on a Rockefeller Foundation Grant and later moved to Washington D.C. where he worked for the Rockefeller Foundation, the Office of Inter-American Affairs, the Bureau of Latin American Affairs and the Federal Reserve Board.
In 1945 he settled in New York City where he became an economic consultant focusing on Italian reconstruction and economic development after World War II. During this time he published his book on Italian monetary reconstruction and wrote many articles in both American and Italian journals about financial development. He taught at Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania among many other guest lecturer positions.
His work afforded him the opportunity to travel many times to Europe, especially Italy, and other destinations around the globe including Jerusalem, Somalia, and South America. In Europe and America, he encountered, knew, and worked with a variety of eminent men and women from a wide range of professions: economists, writers, architects, businessmen, politicians, labor leaders, and Zionists. His papers include his correspondence and works collected over 65 years.
