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The famous Bevis Marks congregation in London, the oldest synagogue still operating, was a fairly modest congregation, not a fancy building, but it was the beginning of Jewish life in England again. With the rise of the Rothschilds, one of the bankers in London in the City of London, a Rothschild had as a secretary a man by the name of Moses Montefiore. Montefiore, as the name indicates, was a Sephardic Jew. By the time he was 30, he had made a fortune for himself, and he retired from commercial life and devoted the rest of his life to the Jewish people and the cause of the Jewish people.
In 1840, there was a blood libel in Damascus. Jewish people were arrested and tortured, and all sorts of things happened. Montefiore rose to defend them. He had influence with Queen Victoria, so that Britain stood on the side of the persecuted Jews. He visited the Land of Israel many times. He built the Tomb of Rachel in Bethlehem, as well as other places. He is well known for the neighborhood of Yemin Moshe, one of the first neighborhoods built outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. The great windmill, which for many, many years was the symbol of Jerusalem, was Montefiore's.
His charitable works were known throughout the Jewish world. He lived to be over a hundred, and he was blessed with great accomplishment. People in the 19th century and even later, when they thought of a great Jew who was devoted to the Jewish people, thought of Montefiore. Therefore, all over the world there are hospitals named for him, schools named for him, and institutions named for him. His estate at Ramsgate even today remains a source of pride not only for Jewish England but for Jews throughout the world.
Thank you for watching. I'm Barl Wine. For more on Jewish history, go to JewishHistory.org.