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Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, 1st Baronet, FRS (Leghorn, Italy, 24 October 1784 – 28 July 1885) was a British financier and banker, activist, philanthropist and Sheriff of London. Born to an Italian Jewish family, he donated large sums of money to promote industry, business, economic development, education and health amongst the Jewish community in the Levant (modern day Israel), including the founding of Mishkenot Sha'ananim in 1860, the first settlement of the New Yishuv. As President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, his correspondence with the British consul in Damascus Charles Henry Churchill in 1841-42 is seen as pivotal to the development of Proto-Zionism.〔Notes on the Diplomatic History of the Jewish Question with texts of protocols, treaty stipulations and other public acts and official documents, Lucien Wolf, published by the Jewish Historical Society of England, 1919 ()〕 ==Biography== Moses Montefiore was born in Leghorn (Livorno in Italian), Tuscany in 1784, to an Italian Jewish family.〔(Sir Moses Montefiore at Jewish History )〕 His grandfather, Moses Vita (Haim) Montefiore had emigrated from Livorno to London in the 1740s, but retained close contact with the town, then famous for its straw bonnets. Montefiore was born while his parents, Joseph Elias Montefiore and his young wife Rachel, the daughter of Abraham Mocatta, a powerful bullion broker in London, were in the town on a business journey; he was their first child. The family returned to Kennington in London, where Montefiore went to school and began his career as an apprentice to a firm of grocers and tea merchants. He then entered a counting house in the City of London, and ultimately became one of the twelve "Jew brokers" licensed by the city. His brother Abraham joined him in the business, and their firm gained a high reputation. In 1812, Moses Montefiore married Judith Cohen (1784–1862), daughter of Levy Barent Cohen. Her sister, Henriette (or Hannah) (1783–1850), married Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1777–1836), for whom Montefiore's firm acted as stockbrokers. Nathan Rothschild headed the family's banking business in Britain, and the two brothers-in-law became business partners. Montefiore retired from his business in 1824, and used his time and fortune for communal and civic responsibilities. Physically imposing at , he was elected Sheriff of London in 1837 and served until 1838. He was also knighted that same year by Queen Victoria and received a baronetcy in 1846 in recognition of his services to humanitarian causes on behalf of the Jewish people. Though somewhat lax in religious observance in his early life, after his first visit to the Holy Land in 1827, he became a strictly observant Jew. He was even in the habit of traveling with a personal ''shohet'' (ritual slaughterer), to ensure that he would have a ready supply of kosher meat. Following this shift he exerted a strong influence in limiting the growth of the Reform Jewish movement in England of the time. In 1831, Montefiore purchased a country estate with twenty-four acres on the East Cliff of the then fashionable seaside town of Ramsgate. The property had previously been a country house of Queen Caroline, when she was still Princess of Wales. It had then been owned by the Marquess Wellesley, a brother of the Duke of Wellington.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Montefiore Synagogue and Mausoleum at Ramsgate - Sir Moses Montefiore )〕 Soon afterwards, Montefiore purchased the adjoining land and commissioned his cousin, architect David Mocatta, to design a private synagogue, known as the Montefiore Synagogue. It opened with a grand public ceremony in 1833.〔 Montefiore died in 1885, at age 100. He had no known children and his principal heir in both name and property was a nephew, Joseph Sebag Montefiore. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Moses Montefiore」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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