The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-08-01 00:00:00

DEATH OF SIR MOSES MONTEFIORE.

The death of Sir Moses Monteflore took place
from physical exhaustion on Tuesday afternoon, at
half-past four, at his house near Ramsgate. Sir
Moses Monteflore was the eldest son of Joseph Elias
Montefiore, a descendant of an Italian family which
settled in England in the last century, and had
attained a respectable though not a foremost position
in London as merchants. He was born on the 24th
October, 1784, while his mother was on a visit to
Florence. He received an English commercial educa-
tion, and was early admitted a member of the Stock
Exchange. ffe married, in 1812, Judith, daughter of
Levy Barent Cohen, whose sister became the wife
of Nathan Meyer de Rothschild, founder of the
house, and to this alliance it was partly due that
Moses Montefiore was able to retire early from
business with an ample fortune. In 1812 he
became Gabay or Treasurer, of the Portuguese Syna-
gogue, and in 1828 he was elected a member of the
Board of Jewish deputies, the iiresidency of which
board he held from 1835 to 1875. He was Sheriff of
London in 1837, and received the honour of knight-
hood on the occasion of the Queen's visit to the City
after her accession. In the same year he made his
first important visit to the Holy Land, though he had
previously been there in 1827. In all he paid seven
visits to Palestine between this earlier one and his
last, in the 89th year of his age. The country in
1837 was suffering from a visitation of the plague,
and the philanthropic mission had to encamp on
the Mount of Olives. His next mission in 1840 was
on behalf of the Jews of Damascus, who were the
subject of barbarous persecution, excited by the French
consul on the astounaing, pretext that they had mur-
dered a French priest in order to mingle his blood
with their sacrifice. Sir Moses Montefiore obtained
from Mehemet Ali a promise of protection for the
Jews in future, and on proceeding to Constantinople
he obtained from the Sultan, through Reschid Pasha,
the Hatti Hornayon, which has been styled the Magna
Charta of the race in Turkey, granting full equality
of religious rights and permission to hold land. This
latter privilege was doubly important, because it was
evident to Sir Moses Montefiore that the regenera-
tion of the Jews depended on their being induced to
follow agricultural and other industries, instead of
devoting themselves exclusively to retail trade. His
services were duly acknowledged on his return. He
was privileged to bear arms, and adopted as his motto
•• Think and thank," with tha inscription " Jeru-
salem " on a banner borne by a lion. In 1845 he was
Sheriff of Kent, and in the following year he re-
ceived, on the recommendation of Sir Robert Peel,
the honour of a baronetcy. This was in recogni-
tion of a service to humanity which Sir
Moses Montefiore had just performed.. The 1,
Emperor Nicholas of Russia had revived 11
several old edicts and issued new ones against the '
Jews, which rendered their position absolutely intoler-
able. Sir Moses Montefiore, accompanied by Lady
Montefiore, and Dr. Leowe, proceeded to St. Peters-
burg, and had an interview with the Emperor.
Though no formal concession was made, the obnoxious
decrees were first suspended and then allowed to fall
into disuse. On the suggestion of the Emperor, Sir
Moses Montefiore made a tour throughout the large
towns chiefly inhabited by Jews, and induced several
thousand families to devote themselves to agriculture,
affording them the means to do so. In 1854 the
distress of the Jews in Palestine called forth an
appeal from the Chief Rabbi, and Sir Moses again
went to Jerusalem to superintend the distribution
not only of the funds subscribed in England,
but of a bequest of £lO,OOO by an American Jew,
Judah Touro. A portion of land near the Jaffa
shore was purchased for agricultural opera-
tions; twenty almshouses for the needy were
founded, and loan and building societies established.
A cotton factory and a windmill were also erected,
and various benevolent institutions were set on foot.
Dr. Neumann, in his work on the Holy City (1877),
states that the success of these undertakings was but
partial, the factory in particular having failed through
the inexperience of the native managers appointed.
But Sir Moses himself, visiting the scene 20 years
after this commencement, appears not to have been
dissatisfied with the total result. The next important
matter in which Sir Moses Montefiore engaged on be-
half of his co-religionists was in the case of the
abduction of the Jewish child Mortara in 1858. He
proceeded to Rome, but his intercession with Car-
dinal Antonelli was a failure, and he was not
even admitted to an audience of the Pope. In
1862 Lady Monteflore died leaving no children,
pnd Sir Moses founded in memory of her an
institution at Ramsgate devoted entirely to
the study of Hebrew. He paid another visit
to Constantinople in the following year to obtain the
confirmation of the edict of the late Sultan, allowing
him to possess land. In 1863 his services were again
called for by the persecution of the Jews in Morocco.
Although verging on his eightieth year, he sought
interviews with Napoleon 111. and Isabella 11., and,
fortified with due authority, he next proceeded to
Tangier in a French frigate, and secured the release
of those of his fellow-countrymen who had not suc-
cumbed to the horrible tortures inflicted on the most
transparent pretexts. Then, in an English man-of-
war, he sailed to Mogador, and made the long inland
journey to Morocco, where the Sultan conceded a
promise of full protection to Jews in the future. In
1866 again he made a journey to Bucharest to inter-
cede with Prince Charles of Roumania on behalf of
the Jews of that Principality, but with no marked
results. His last journey to Jerusalem was made in
1875, and a record of it, printed for private circulation,
gives details of the results of so many years' labour.
On his return he was received with an enthusiasm
seldom paralleled, not only by his co-religionists, but
by the influential and benevolent classes everywhere.
A testimonial fund of .ClO,OOO was raised and, ac-
cording to his known wish, no portion of it was to be
given in alms, but the bulk was invested in the pur-
chase of land and houses in Palestine, in establishing
a loan fund, and in aiding the abj,beal inhabitants
to engage in agricultural and trading pursuits. Some
regretted that, according to the terms of the appeal
made to the public, no part of this fund could be de-
voted to the secular education of Jews in Palestine.
The closing years of this long and beneficent life were
spent at East Cliff, Ramsgate, once the residence of
the Duchess of Kent and her present Majesty. Resi-
dents and even casual visitors to that town do not
need to be told how much his munificence, stimu-
lated by the memory of his deceased wife, has ac-
complished for the benefit of the community. Sir
Moses was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and re-
ceived from ths Sultan the distinction of the order of
the Medjidie.