Sir Moses Montefiore: A benign Imperialist.
What had begun during the reign of George III, with the building of some fine synagogues,
Plymouth and Exeter being examples, Jews began to become increasingly prominent in British
society, reaching new heights under Queen Victoria. The galaxy of Jewish stars included
household names like Disraeli, Sassoon and Rothschild, but others excelled as authors, Israel
Zwangwill and Lily Montagu, to mention but two, and architects, one of the most famous being
David Mocatta; and in the visual arts Solomon Alexander Hart and Simeon Solomon. The
impression Victorian Britain was totally accepting of its Jewish population is, of course, a distortion
of reality; there was anti-Semitism, and ‘The Illustrated London News’ ran Joseph Pennell’s series
that was blatantly anti-Jewish; but the magazine also championed the right of Jews to be members
of Parliament. It is generally agreed the most outstanding Jew of the age was Sir Moses
Montefiore, because of his Philanthropic works and his enormous diplomatic influence.
Moses Montefiore was of Italian Sephardic ancestry. He was born in Livorno, Tuscany, in 1784. His
grandfather had emigrated to England and had established himself as a successful business man.
It was Moses’ uncle, Moses Mocatta, who invited him to settle in England and who secured the
young man’s position as broker on the London Exchange. Montefiore regarded the divide between
Sephardim and Ashkenazim as unimportant, in terms of peoplehood; to him the Jewish People
were one; so it was not surprising he married Judith Cohen, sister-in-law of Nathan Meyer
Rothschild. This proved to be a marriage of like minds, since Judith, an accomplished musician,
linguist and writer, and most importantly, a philanthropist, shared her husband’s keen interest in
charitable works. Aside from mutual interests, the union was greatly beneficial to Montefiore
because the Rothschild connection helped to make his fortune before the age of forty, when he
retired from the Stock Exchange to devote the rest of his life to championing the rights of poor,
oppressed Jews. Judaism does not regard wealth as an evil per se, it is how money is used that is
most important, and Montefiore exemplified the constructed use of assets to promote worthwhile
causes. At home he was active on the domestic scene, becoming in 1837 Sheriff of the City of
London, the second Jew so honoured. In the same year he was knighted and became a baronet in
1846; in the following year, he became High Sheriff of Kent.
Montefiore was somewhat lax in religious matters in his early life but became increasingly
observant, partly because of his many visits to Palestine and probably because of his witnessing
the destitution of Jews in Russia and the Ottoman Empire. He used his considerable influence in
helping to establish the nascent representative voice of British Jewry, later to become The Board of
Deputies of British Jews. In the 1830s the reputation of the Board was greatly enhanced when Sir
Moses became its President. Following the the Marriage Act of 1866, Parliament recognised the
President of the Board as the authority for certifying the marriage secretaries of synagogues. Sir
Moses is credited with being instrumental in drawing up the first constitution of the Board. As the
representative body of Anglo-Jewry the Board became known abroad and this helped significantly
in voicing concerns about the plight of Jews in countries that denied them civil rights. It is worth
mentioning that during Sir Moses’ tenure as President of the Board, finally stepping down in 1874,
he vigorously opposed progressive movements in Judaism, calling on the Chief Rabbi to
excommunicate those who established Reform communities. It is ironic that his great -nephew,
Claude Joseph Goldsmid Montefiore was a member of the Anglo-Jewish elite who founded Liberal
Judaism in Britain!
Montefiore took a very keen interest in the welfare of Jews living in Ottoman Palestine. He
acquired land to encourage Jews to become self-sufficient, inspiring the foundations of several
agricultural settlements. For many of us, who have visited Israel, the windmill in Yemen Moshe is
a reminder of Sir Moses’ presence in that land: his spirit endures to this day. In 1860 he built the
first Jewish residential settlement and almshouses outside the old walls of Jerusalem. Today it is
known as Mishkenot Sha’ananim, which became the model for future Jewish communities.
Montefiore intended Mishkenot Sha’ananim to be a new type of self-sufficient, sanitary settlement
where Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews lived together. Later on, Montefiore established adjacent
neighborhoods south of Jaffa Road, the Ohel Moshe neighborhood for Sephardi Jews and the
Mazkeret Moshe neighborhood for Ashkenazi Jews who had distinctly different traditions and
languages. Like the pioneering work of Charles Booth and Joseph Rowntree on social conditions
in England, Sir Moses conducted five censuses of the Yishuv (Jewish community) in Palestine to
assemble data on individuals, biographies, social status, family structure, origin and degree of
poverty. In all, Sir Moses made seven trips to Palestine, in which Lady Montefiore accompanied
him on five occasions, making his final journey to the Holy Land at the age of ninety-one. Sir
Moses’ love of Zion, the spiritual home of Jews, raises an important question: Was he a Zionist?
Did he promote Zionist ideas long before the movement became established? His values as a
benign imperialist opposed political Zionism. He feared, like many Jews after him, adherence to
Jewish nationalism would create doubts about Jews’ allegiance to their own countries, but also he
wanted to distinguish between Jews and Israelites. Yes, he fully supported Jews living in Palestine,
but the idea he wanted a Jewish Homeland is debatable.
Perhaps Sir Moses’ greatest achievement was on the diplomatic front. He had no official position in
diplomatic circles, but through his network of contacts in the Levant, he was able to secure
interviews with prominent leaders. In 1840 a group of Syrian Jews were accused of ritual murder.
Sir Moses led a deputation from the Jewish communities of England and France to offer a defence
against the charges. He pleaded the accused case before Mehemet Ali, the de facto ruler of Egypt,
and secured the prisoners’ release. After the hearing, he went to Constantinople for an audience
with the Sultan and obtained a firman (decree) that gave Jews the same rights as other aliens
living in the Ottoman Empire.
Montefiore was like a Victorian Henry Kissinger, travelling the world, emplyoying shuttlecock
diplomacy long before it became famous, to respond when diaspora Jewry needed a defender. It
was in 1846 the Russian government invited Sir Moses to visit Russia to discuss the Jewish
situation. The main thrust of the Tsarist regime was to hasten the assimilation of Jews into Russian
society. If the authorities thought they could use Montefiore to further their cause, they were
proved very much mistaken. While there he went to towns and villages where Jews lived,
compiling details of their lives. Most lived in dire poverty, living with the threat of expulsions,
economic sanctions, forced conversion, and ever fearful of the next pogrom. Sir Moses did
persuade the Russian government to abandon its plans for forced conversion and assimilation of
Jews. Although Jews experienced nothing comparable with the level of emancipation that was
taking place in Germany and Britain, nevertheless due to the efforts of Montefiore their economic
position did improve.
When Bismarck said of Disraeli at the Congress of Berlin, in 1878: Der alte Jude, das ist der
Mann (The old Jew, he is the man), those very words could be applied to Sir Moses Montefiore. An
exceptional man, an ambassador for Jewish emancipation, and a benign imperialist to boot! He
believed in spreading civil rights to Jews, and by implication to those who were oppressed. The
British Empire, much reviled by the Woke generation, was the solid ground on which Montefiore
stood, and through the aegis of enlightened imperialism, progress in changing attitudes to
minorities could be achieved. Although Montefiore’s life was dedicated to championing the rights of
Jews living under oppressive regimes, his endeavours would have spoken to many other peoples
that were denied civil rights. Sir Moses Montefiore was proud of his adopted country, and the
Anglo-Jewish population owe him a debt of gratitude. He died aged one hundred, at Ramsgate,
where as testimony to his devout life is his private synagogue, designed by David Mocatta.
Peter Beyfus