Sir Moses Montefiore (1784-1885) was arguably the most important Jewish figure in the 19th century. As President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Montefiore dominated the development of Anglo-Jewry in the Victorian era. His uniquely close involvement with the Jews of Palestine has led many to see him as a founding father of modern Israel. With the support of the British Foreign Office, Montefiore pioneered a diplomatic approach to the problem of Jewish persecution through high-profile personal interventions in Russia, Morocco, Romania and elsewhere. The extraordinary breadth of his contacts with individual communities brought the Jewish world together in a new way, for his travels and philanthropy played a crucial role in the formation of modern Jewish consciousness. By his death he had become a ‘national’ symbol.

Amazingly, this pivotal figure in modern Jewish history has received hardly any scholarly attention. Funded by the British Academy, the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation, the Oxford University Research Development Fund and a Fellowship from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, this new biography by Dr Abigail Green of Montefiore will be the first scholarly account of his life. The bulk of Montefiore’s papers were burned after his death, but this biography has located a substantial amount of important documentary material in two private archives which has never received serious scholarly attention. Generous funding has underpinned an ambitious research programme using material in twelve different languages scattered throughout France, Israel, Italy, Morocco Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Romania, Russia, Turkey and the United States.

The approach will not be narrowly biographical. Instead, Montefiore’s life will serve as a platform to explore issues such as the birth of Jewish nationalism, the interaction between Jewish politics and British imperialism, and the emergence of international humanitarianism in a trans-Atlantic public sphere.

 

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