Moses Montefiore: Jewish Liberator, Imperial Hero

by Abigail Green

Overview

Humanitarian, philanthropist, and campaigner for Jewish emancipation on a grand scale, Sir Moses Montefiore (1784–1885) was the preeminent Jewish figure of the nineteenth century—and one of the first truly global celebrities. His story, told here in full for the first time, is a remarkable and illuminating tale of diplomacy and adventure. Abigail Green’s sweeping biography follows Montefiore through the realms of court and ghetto, tsar and sultan, synagogue and stock exchange.

Interweaving the public triumph of Montefiore’s foreign missions with the private tragedy of his childless marriage, this book brings the diversity of nineteenth-century Jewry brilliantly to life—from London to Jerusalem, Rome to St. Petersburg, Morocco to Istanbul. Here we see the origins of Zionism and the rise of international Jewish consciousness, the faltering birth of international human rights, and the making of the modern Middle East. With the globalization and mobilization of religious identities now at the top of the political agenda, Montefiore’s life story is relevant as never before.

Mining materials from eleven countries in nine languages, Green’s masterly biography bridges the East-West divide in modern Jewish history, presenting the transformation of Jewish life in Europe, the Middle East, and the New World as part of a single global phenomenon. As it reestablishes Montefiore’s status as a major historical player, it also restores a significant chapter to the history of our modern world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674064195
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	05/07/2012
Pages:	560
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Abigail Green is Tutor and Fellow in History, Brasenose College, University of Oxford.

Table of Contents

List of Maps vii

List of Illustrations ix

Preface xi

Note to Readers xv

Introduction 1

1 Livorno and London 9

2 Making a Fortune 24

3 A World beyond Business 43

4 The Road to Jerusalem 60

5 Rise, Sir Moses 85

6 The Land of Milk and Honey 112

7 The Damascus Affair 133

8 Unity and Dissent 158

9 Winds of Change in Russia 174

10 Trial and Error 199

11 The Crimean War and After 228

12 The Mortara Affair 258

13 Grief and Sore Troubles 282

14 Mission to Marrakesh 300

15 Building Jerusalem 320

16 Crisis in Romania 339

17 Fading Glory 359

18 The Final Pilgrimage 380

19 End of an Era 403

Conclusion 421

Appendix A Barent-Cohen Family Tree, Showing Judith's Cohen and Rothschild Relatives 426

Appendix B Montefiore Family Tree 428

Notes 431

Archives Consulted 517

Index 519

What People are Saying About This

David Feldman

An elegant, accessible, and intellectually impressive book. Sir Moses Montefiore was a dominant presence in Anglo-Jewish society, a towering figure pressing Jewish interests on the international stage. Green explores Montefiore's public work as well as his family life and religious beliefs, and provides an innovative account of Jewish politics in nineteenth-century Europe.
— David Feldman, author of Englishmen and Jews

Todd Endelman

An absolutely first-rate biography of the nineteenth-century champion of imperiled Jews. Green's account of Montefiore's faith and his attachment to the land of Israel is especially compelling. Written in a lively manner, this book will have broad appeal.
— Todd Endelman, author of The Jews of Britain, 1656-2000

Derek Penslar

This magisterial biography illuminates the life of one of the most important, yet least understood, figures in modern Jewish history. Green shows that European religious sensibility, liberal humanitarianism, and Great Power politics were indispensable preconditions for Jewish emancipation and twentieth-century Jewish politics. Gracefully written, yet supported by massive erudition, Green's book deserves a wide readership.
— Derek Penslar, author of Shylock's Children

Niall Ferguson

Abigail Green is without doubt the most brilliant rising star in modern European Jewish history. Her biography of Moses Montefiore, one of the great torch-bearers of Jewish emancipation, redefines the role played by Jews in the prehistory of globalization, as well as the history of philanthropy. She is a profound historical thinker and a marvelous writer into the bargain. This is a masterpiece of scholarship and historical imagination.

Editorial Reviews

Abigail Green is without doubt the most brilliant rising star in modern European Jewish history. Her biography of Moses Montefiore, one of the great torch-bearers of Jewish emancipation, redefines the role played by Jews in the prehistory of globalization, as well as the history of philanthropy. She is a profound historical thinker and a marvelous writer into the bargain. This is a masterpiece of scholarship and historical imagination.

Niall Ferguson

If one of the most famous men of his age is now barely a name, that may in part be because his astonishing life's story has never been properly told before; as Abigail Green's splendid biography shows, it is as rich, complex and absorbing as a nineteenth-century novel...This is a marvelous book, as absorbing as it is learned.

Times Literary Supplement - Geoffrey Wheatcroft

The achievement of this book is in combining sumptuous production, with over five hundred large format pages; especially the fascinating illustrations and quality of content, given the meticulous scholarship, delving into dusty archives in many languages, the clear empathy with and celebration of her subject's warmth and self sacrifice stylishly described. As a scholar of early humanitarianism, Abigail Green has risen to the challenge of describing the life of the man who molded what was then a novel idea.

Jewish Tribune - Yerachmiel Rubin

Abigail Green (an Oxford don who is also a Sebag-Montefiore) has brilliantly synthesized a wealth of other sources, many of them never before used by Montefiore scholars. The picture that emerges is sombre and in some respects shocking.

Jewish Chronicle - Geoffrey Alderman

[An] intriguing and well-researched book.

Literary Review - Leslie Mitchell

This magisterial biography illuminates the life of one of the most important, yet least understood, figures in modern Jewish history. Green shows that European religious sensibility, liberal humanitarianism, and Great Power politics were indispensable preconditions for Jewish emancipation and twentieth-century Jewish politics. Gracefully written, yet supported by massive erudition, Green's book deserves a wide readership.

Derek Penslar

It would be hard to find words grand enough to describe Abigail Green's history of her relative Sir Moses Montefiore. "Admirable," "dignified," "comprehensive": all of them are true and so much more.

Jewish Telegraph - Rabbi Brian Fox

A well-researched and beautifully written biography, Abigail Green's Moses Montefiore: Jewish Liberator, Imperial Hero presents for the first time the full story of the preeminent champion of Jewish emancipation on a global scale. Green illuminates Montefiore's life in the UK and his engagement in European and Middle Eastern diplomacy on behalf of his Jewish brethren in all its complexity.

Jewish Book World

[An] erudite, intelligent, and graceful biography of Moses Montefiore...A daughter of a Sebag-Montefiore herself, [Green] has had access to some family archival sources not available to her scholarly predecessors, but her kinship to her subject is never uncritical. When Moses Montefiore waxes pompous in his proconsular grandeur (a not infrequent occurrence); when he dons rose-tinted glasses about the prospects of his Palestinian enterprises; when he fails to treat his underlings with the consideration and remuneration they merited; when he intolerantly slams the door of acceptance against those, including members of his own family, who wanted to reform contemporary Judaism; when the trail of the great patriarch leads to extramarital dalliances—Green tells it like it most certainly was. The result of this sympathetic candor is a portrait rich in human complexity from which Montefiore's profound importance for the history of the Jews rises at last above mere ritual veneration...Green's book is a rich gift to history—and not just Jewish history—for its account not just of what Moses Montefiore did or did not do, but also of what he was. Her pages are most memorable when they simply bring the old boy to vivid life amid all the complexities and perplexities of his great self-imposed calling.

New Republic - Simon Schama

An absolutely first-rate biography of the nineteenth-century champion of imperiled Jews. Green's account of Montefiore's faith and his attachment to the land of Israel is especially compelling. Written in a lively manner, this book will have broad appeal.

Todd Endelman

An elegant, accessible, and intellectually impressive book. Sir Moses Montefiore was a dominant presence in Anglo-Jewish society, a towering figure pressing Jewish interests on the international stage. Green explores Montefiore's public work as well as his family life and religious beliefs, and provides an innovative account of Jewish politics in nineteenth-century Europe.

David Feldman

Green writes deftly and tells Montefiore's story with an admirable thoroughness...Moses Montefiore is mercifully free of academic theory. It is exactly what a good biography should be—fair and illuminating without ever descending to hagiography.

Wall Street Journal - Walter Laqueur

Green's account is often entertaining...Green, herself a twig on the Sebag Montefiore family tree, is more interested in historical themes she thinks have been neglected: how Montefiore used piety, philanthropy and publicity to rally sympathy on a global scale, paving the way for today's campaigns and interventions on behalf of humanitarian causes.

The Economist

This massive and absorbing biography by Abigail Green does [Montefiore] full justice. In a brief review, however, it is impossible even to enumerate all the issues in which Montefiore was deeply committed. The sheer range of his activities in many countries made him one of the first truly global superstars, and it is astonishing that no full biography of him has previously been written.

Canberra Times - Robert Wilson

Deeply impressive...Green never allows the reader to lose sight of Montefiore's truly pioneering achievements, or of his courage, generosity, and farsightedness. In writing about this incomparable life, Green has produced an incomparable book. More than a biography, Moses Montefiore takes its place as one of the essential works on modern Jewish history.

Tablet Magazine - Adam Kirsch

[An] extensive and engaging biography...Moses Montefiore's remarkable life is both a Jewish story and an international one, even if today, Montefiore, if he is remembered at all, is remembered almost exclusively in Jewish circles.

Haaretz - Shalom Goldman

[A] mammoth warts-and-all account of Montefiore and his times.

Washington Times - Priscilla S. Taylor

The name [Moses Montefiore] alone conjures up story-book images of a horse-drawn carriage from which a pious Victorian benefactor alights to bribe a local official, endow an orphanage, or dedicate a windmill. Abigail Green's brilliant new biography—elegantly conceived, exhaustively researched, crisply written—presents a far more complicated and fascinating picture.

Jewish Ideas Daily

It would be hard to find words grand enough to describe Abigail Green's history of her relative Sir Moses Montefiore. "Admirable," "dignified," "comprehensive" all of them are true and so much more.--Rabbi Brian Fox "Jewish Telegraph" (1/29/2010 12:00:00 AM)

[An] erudite, intelligent, and graceful biography of Moses Montefiore...A daughter of a Sebag-Montefiore herself, [Green] has had access to some family archival sources not available to her scholarly predecessors, but her kinship to her subject is never uncritical. When Moses Montefiore waxes pompous in his proconsular grandeur (a not infrequent occurrence); when he dons rose-tinted glasses about the prospects of his Palestinian enterprises; when he fails to treat his underlings with the consideration and remuneration they merited; when he intolerantly slams the door of acceptance against those, including members of his own family, who wanted to reform contemporary Judaism; when the trail of the great patriarch leads to extramarital dalliances--Green tells it like it most certainly was. The result of this sympathetic candor is a portrait rich in human complexity from which Montefiore's profound importance for the history of the Jews rises at last above mere ritual veneration...Green's book is a rich gift to history--and not just Jewish history--for its account not just of what Moses Montefiore did or did not do, but also of what he was. Her pages are most memorable when they simply bring the old boy to vivid life amid all the complexities and perplexities of his great self-imposed calling.--Simon Schama "New Republic" (6/10/2010 12:00:00 AM)

[An] extensive and engaging biography...Moses Montefiore's remarkable life is both a Jewish story and an international one, even if today, Montefiore, if he is remembered at all, is remembered almost exclusively in Jewish circles.--Shalom Goldman "Haaretz" (8/1/2010 12:00:00 AM)

[An] intriguing and well-researched book.--Leslie Mitchell "Literary Review" (6/1/2010 12:00:00 AM)

[A] mammoth warts-and-all account of Montefiore and his times.--Priscilla S. Taylor "Washington Times" (3/26/2010 12:00:00 AM)

A well-researched and beautifully written biography, Abigail Green's Moses Montefiore: Jewish Liberator, Imperial Hero presents for the first time the full story of the preeminent champion of Jewish emancipation on a global scale. Green illuminates Montefiore's life in the UK and his engagement in European and Middle Eastern diplomacy on behalf of his Jewish brethren in all its complexity.-- "Jewish Book World" (4/1/2011 12:00:00 AM)

Abigail Green (an Oxford don who is also a Sebag-Montefiore) has brilliantly synthesized a wealth of other sources, many of them never before used by Montefiore scholars. The picture that emerges is sombre and in some respects shocking.--Geoffrey Alderman "Jewish Chronicle" (3/4/2010 12:00:00 AM)

Deeply impressive...Green never allows the reader to lose sight of Montefiore's truly pioneering achievements, or of his courage, generosity, and farsightedness. In writing about this incomparable life, Green has produced an incomparable book. More than a biography, Moses Montefiore takes its place as one of the essential works on modern Jewish history.--Adam Kirsch "Tablet Magazine" (3/9/2010 12:00:00 AM)

Green offers a perceptive, solidly researched biography with expressive period illustrations attesting to Montefiore's global celebrity.-- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)" (1/25/2010 12:00:00 AM)

Green writes deftly and tells Montefiore's story with an admirable thoroughness...Moses Montefiore is mercifully free of academic theory. It is exactly what a good biography should be--fair and illuminating without ever descending to hagiography.--Walter Laqueur "Wall Street Journal" (4/29/2010 12:00:00 AM)

Green's account is often entertaining...Green, herself a twig on the Sebag Montefiore family tree, is more interested in historical themes she thinks have been neglected: how Montefiore used piety, philanthropy and publicity to rally sympathy on a global scale, paving the way for today's campaigns and interventions on behalf of humanitarian causes.-- "The Economist" (3/27/2010 12:00:00 AM)

If one of the most famous men of his age is now barely a name, that may in part be because his astonishing life's story has never been properly told before; as Abigail Green's splendid biography shows, it is as rich, complex and absorbing as a nineteenth-century novel...This is a marvelous book, as absorbing as it is learned.--Geoffrey Wheatcroft "Times Literary Supplement" (8/10/2011 12:00:00 AM)

The achievement of this book is in combining sumptuous production, with over five hundred large format pages; especially the fascinating illustrations and quality of content, given the meticulous scholarship, delving into dusty archives in many languages, the clear empathy with and celebration of her subject's warmth and self sacrifice stylishly described. As a scholar of early humanitarianism, Abigail Green has risen to the challenge of describing the life of the man who molded what was then a novel idea.--Yerachmiel Rubin "Jewish Tribune" (2/17/2011 12:00:00 AM)

The most impressive book I've read this year is Moses Montefiore: Jewish Liberator, Imperial Hero...Green's book, however, is not just the biography of a Jewish worthy: it is a wide-ranging study of Britain's liberal imperialism at the zenith of its moral influence, and of the emergence of a modern Jewish consciousness.--Adam Kirsch "Times Literary Supplement" (12/3/2010 12:00:00 AM)

The name [Moses Montefiore] alone conjures up story-book images of a horse-drawn carriage from which a pious Victorian benefactor alights to bribe a local official, endow an orphanage, or dedicate a windmill. Abigail Green's brilliant new biography--elegantly conceived, exhaustively researched, crisply written--presents a far more complicated and fascinating picture.-- "Jewish Ideas Daily" (4/16/2010 12:00:00 AM)

This massive and absorbing biography by Abigail Green does [Montefiore] full justice. In a brief review, however, it is impossible even to enumerate all the issues in which Montefiore was deeply committed. The sheer range of his activities in many countries made him one of the first truly global superstars, and it is astonishing that no full biography of him has previously been written.--Robert Wilson "Canberra Times" (7/3/2010 12:00:00 AM)

An absolutely first-rate biography of the nineteenth-century champion of imperiled Jews. Green's account of Montefiore's faith and his attachment to the land of Israel is especially compelling. Written in a lively manner, this book will have broad appeal.--Todd Endelman, author of The Jews of Britain, 1656-2000

An elegant, accessible, and intellectually impressive book. Sir Moses Montefiore was a dominant presence in Anglo-Jewish society, a towering figure pressing Jewish interests on the international stage. Green explores Montefiore's public work as well as his family life and religious beliefs, and provides an innovative account of Jewish politics in nineteenth-century Europe.--David Feldman, author of Englishmen and Jews

This magisterial biography illuminates the life of one of the most important, yet least understood, figures in modern Jewish history. Green shows that European religious sensibility, liberal humanitarianism, and Great Power politics were indispensable preconditions for Jewish emancipation and twentieth-century Jewish politics. Gracefully written, yet supported by massive erudition, Green's book deserves a wide readership.--Derek Penslar, author of Shylock's Children

Abigail Green is without doubt the most brilliant rising star in modern European Jewish history. Her biography of Moses Montefiore, one of the great torch-bearers of Jewish emancipation, redefines the role played by Jews in the prehistory of globalization, as well as the history of philanthropy. She is a profound historical thinker and a marvelous writer into the bargain. This is a masterpiece of scholarship and historical imagination.--Niall Ferguson

From the Publisher

The achievement of this book is in combining sumptuous production, with over five hundred large format pages; especially the fascinating illustrations and quality of content, given the meticulous scholarship, delving into dusty archives in many languages, the clear empathy with and celebration of her subject's warmth and self sacrifice stylishly described. As a scholar of early humanitarianism, Abigail Green has risen to the challenge of describing the life of the man who molded what was then a novel idea.
— Yerachmiel Rubin

Jewish Tribune

If one of the most famous men of his age is now barely a name, that may in part be because his astonishing life's story has never been properly told before; as Abigail Green's splendid biography shows, it is as rich, complex and absorbing as a nineteenth-century novel...This is a marvelous book, as absorbing as it is learned.
— Geoffrey Wheatcroft

Times Literary Supplement

[An] extensive and engaging biography...Moses Montefiore's remarkable life is both a Jewish story and an international one, even if today, Montefiore, if he is remembered at all, is remembered almost exclusively in Jewish circles.
— Shalom Goldman

Haaretz

This massive and absorbing biography by Abigail Green does [Montefiore] full justice. In a brief review, however, it is impossible even to enumerate all the issues in which Montefiore was deeply committed. The sheer range of his activities in many countries made him one of the first truly global superstars, and it is astonishing that no full biography of him has previously been written.
— Robert Wilson

Canberra Times

[An] intriguing and well-researched book.
— Leslie Mitchell

Literary Review

[An] erudite, intelligent, and graceful biography of Moses Montefiore...A daughter of a Sebag-Montefiore herself, [Green] has had access to some family archival sources not available to her scholarly predecessors, but her kinship to her subject is never uncritical. When Moses Montefiore waxes pompous in his proconsular grandeur (a not infrequent occurrence); when he dons rose-tinted glasses about the prospects of his Palestinian enterprises; when he fails to treat his underlings with the consideration and remuneration they merited; when he intolerantly slams the door of acceptance against those, including members of his own family, who wanted to reform contemporary Judaism; when the trail of the great patriarch leads to extramarital dalliances—Green tells it like it most certainly was. The result of this sympathetic candor is a portrait rich in human complexity from which Montefiore's profound importance for the history of the Jews rises at last above mere ritual veneration...Green's book is a rich gift to history—and not just Jewish history—for its account not just of what Moses Montefiore did or did not do, but also of what he was. Her pages are most memorable when they simply bring the old boy to vivid life amid all the complexities and perplexities of his great self-imposed calling.
— Simon Schama

New Republic

Green writes deftly and tells Montefiore's story with an admirable thoroughness...Moses Montefiore is mercifully free of academic theory. It is exactly what a good biography should be—fair and illuminating without ever descending to hagiography.
— Walter Laqueur

Wall Street Journal

[A] mammoth warts-and-all account of Montefiore and his times.
— Priscilla S. Taylor

Washington Times

Deeply impressive...Green never allows the reader to lose sight of Montefiore's truly pioneering achievements, or of his courage, generosity, and farsightedness. In writing about this incomparable life, Green has produced an incomparable book. More than a biography, Moses Montefiore takes its place as one of the essential works on modern Jewish history.
— Adam Kirsch

Tablet Magazine

Abigail Green (an Oxford don who is also a Sebag-Montefiore) has brilliantly synthesized a wealth of other sources, many of them never before used by Montefiore scholars. The picture that emerges is sombre and in some respects shocking.
— Geoffrey Alderman

Jewish Chronicle

It would be hard to find words grand enough to describe Abigail Green's history of her relative Sir Moses Montefiore. "Admirable," "dignified," "comprehensive": all of them are true and so much more.
— Rabbi Brian Fox

Jewish Telegraph

A world-famous humanitarian, philanthropist, and campaigner for Jewish emancipation, Sir Moses Montefiore (1784–1885) was born into London’s Sephardic merchant elite and knighted by Queen Victoria. Aided by his brother-in-law Nathan Rothschild, Montefiore made a fortune on London’s stock exchange by age 40 and dedicated the rest of his active life to aiding Jewry around the world. He sailed to the Middle East to intercede for Damascus and Rhodes Jews accused of blood libel; to St. Petersburg to lobby Czar Nicholas I for Jewish emancipation; and to the Vatican to plead for the release of Edgardo Mortara, a Jewish Bolognese boy seized by the Catholic Church after a forced baptism. The private Montefiore painted by Green is not without warts. Though happy in his marriage, he may have fathered several illegitimate children, and the Orthodox Montefiore cut a brother off for joining a Reform synagogue. An Oxford history fellow and descendant of Montefiore’s nephew, Green offers a perceptive, solidly researched biography with expressive period illustrations attesting to Montefiore’s global celebrity. His image graced the cover of Harper’s Weekly for his 99th birthday. 46 b&w photos, 4 maps. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Deeply impressive...Green never allows the reader to lose sight of Montefiore's truly pioneering achievements, or of his courage, generosity, and farsightedness. In writing about this incomparable life, Green has produced an incomparable book. More than a biography, Moses Montefiore takes its place as one of the essential works on modern Jewish history.
— Adam Kirsch

The Tablet