It all began slightly more than 120 years ago, before the first days of Zionism. At that time, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, the famous philanthropist, was involved in salvaging the land in Israel, in establishing towns, in developing industry and in encouraging farming.

Immediately after establishment of Israel, the Rothschild family made an extraordinary decision - to transfer all of its land in Israel (hundreds of thousands of dunams), including the Caesarea property that it owned (Caesarea itself occupies 35,000 dunam) as a donation to the State of Israel. At the same time, the family wished to continue its philanthropic activity and set up a foundation that would be involved in donations to education, culture and welfare - the Caesarea Edmond Benjamin de Rothschild Foundation.

Foundation sources, it was decided, would be the property in the Caesarea region that it would develop and improve. The foundation, according to the Baron's proposal, would be controlled equally by the Rothschild Family and the State of Israel.

In order to develop Caesarea, improve the real estate in the area and to manage an affluent town - the Palestine Jewish Colonisation Association, headed by the Baron, set up in 1952 the Edmond Benjamin de Rothschild Caesarea Development Corporation Ltd. With establishment of the Rothschild-Caesarea Foundation, the Caesarea Development Co. became the executive branch of the Foundation.

Both the Foundation and the Corporation assumed responsibility for fulfilling the Baron's dream of using private means to develop Caesarea land, without government support, and transfer the profits of the town's development to the Caesarea Foundation so that it could donate money to organizations and institutions involved in the advancement of culture and higher education in Israel.

The Baron Rothschild continues to donate to the State of Israel to this very day - a double and even triple donation. Fifty years ago - he donated hundreds of thousands of dunam to the State of Israel. Later the State become partner in the Rothschild-Caesarea Foundation and to this day, contributes through the Foundation to educational, cultural and welfare institutions across the country.
In recent years, the Rothschild-Caesarea Foundation donated over NIS 100 million. Among the organizations benefiting from the funds: institutions of higher education, schools, special education schools, theaters, museums and disadvantaged populations. Also benefiting are towns neighboring Caesarea such as Or Akiva and Jisser a Zarka.