Moses Montefiore: Jewish Liberator, Imperial Hero by Abigail Green - review by Leslie Mitchell

Leslie Mitchell

Uniting The Diaspora

Moses Montefiore: Jewish Liberator, Imperial Hero

By

Harvard University Press 540pp £24.95
 

Once a year, apparently, there are strange rustlings in Ramsgate. Members of the Haredi sect descend on the town to honour a man who was from a very different Jewish tradition. Quite simply, Sir Moses Montefiore was a man of such formidable reputation that all strands of Jewry would be happy to claim him as their own. This intriguing and well-researched book explains why.

Montefiore was allegedly one of the richest men in nineteenth-century Britain. He had come to great wealth by working prodigiously hard, and by marrying a Barent Cohen, who was in turn related to the Rothschilds. The clan carried the financial burden of the Napoleonic Wars on behalf of

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter