Moses Montefiore

And you can look at it, Lot 45, together with that Mizrach, Lot 43.

And then La 44 is a letter of Moses Montefiore to Baron Rothschild about Tsar Nicholas I on behalf of the Russian Jews, and they're trying to intervene in Asconas, if you will.

Yeah, and this letter, which is an important letter, it's written in Yiddish or German by Moses Montefiore's personal secretary, a German Jew by the name of Dr.

Levy, English of German extraction.

And so he wrote it to Baron Rothschild.

And Moses Montefiore signs the letter, but then he adds his own English postscript signed again by him.

And it has, it carries also his, it's come with the envelope and the seal.

So I love those.

I think wealth is equally, and I think we all need to rise up to be superheroes in the same way that, that those that other gifts to do it in the right way.

You know, you just reminded me with your beautiful answer about that story of Sir Moses Montefiore.

Are you familiar with that story? Yes.

It was his 100th birthday, I think, and the journalist asked him, they were doing a spread for the London Times, the journalist asked Sir Moses, how much are you worth? And he cited a figure that was clearly much less than his net worth, right, in asset sense.

From the early 19th century until the First World War, English Jewry was ruled by a tightly connected oligarchy.

Daniel Gutwein states that the Anglo-Jewish elite comprised some 20 interrelated Ashkenazi and Sephardic families, including the houses of Goldsmith, Montague, Nathan, Cohen, Isaacs, Abrahams, Samuel, and Montefiore.

Some of these names have featured already and will feature again in the Windrush story.

At its head, of course, stood the house of Rothschild.

I illustrated in my previous essay by pointing out that, quoting his previous essay, In 1870, the treasurer of the London Jewish Board of Guardians was Viennese-born Ferdinand de Rothschild, 1838 to 1898.

Ferdinand had married his cousin Alvina, who was a niece of the president of the London United Synagogue, Sir Anthony de Rothschild, 1810 to 1876.

Meanwhile, the Board of Deputies was at that time headed by Moses Montefiore, whose wife, a daughter of Levi Barrett Cohen, was related to Nathan Meyer Rothschild.

Nathan Meyer Rothschild's wife was also a daughter of Levi Barrett Cohen, and thus Montefiore was uncle to the aforementioned Anthony de Rothschild.

There's some kind of a committee of the Sephardim.

He's the chair of it, and he was asked about moving the the bones, basically, exhuming Rav Moshe Montefiore, Moses Montefiore.

He calls him, Rav Yosef calls him Sarhat Tzadik, the righteous official, Rav Moshe Montefiore.

And they want to bring his remains, that's the right word, that's the delicate, proper word, his remains to Eretz Yisrael and bury it in Harazetim.

Bury them on Harazetim, on the Mount of Olives.

So back to the Rubea Omer.

So therefore, it's clear that it's a myth to be buried in Eretz Yisrael because there's a deep value to being buried in Eretz Yisrael, even if one didn't manage to get there in one's lifetime.

The revelation continues, and that's all the more so true for Moses Montefiore, because it's well known how much he valued Eretz Yisrael, what connection he felt to Eretz Yisrael, what connection he felt to the inhabitants of Eretz Yisrael.

During his tenure of office, the Fiji Islands were annexed, Cyprus was ceded to Great Britain, and Russia's power was greatly reduced in the Balkans.

Two other Jews held positions of importance under Victoria, Sir Moses Montefiore, the Queen's financial advisor and founder of the Provincial Bank of Ireland, and Sir Rufus Isaacs, the first Chief Justice of England.

The latter was subsequently knighted to serve as Viceroy of India.

An additional factor that heaped upon Britain, countless blessings, was a tremendous number of missionaries sent out to proclaim the gospel of salvation to the uttermost parts of the empire.

You have prophecies where God said that one day, after 2,000 years of exile, that one day he would put his people back in the land.

And so when we get to hear these stories of people making a return to the land of Israel after years of their family not being in Israel, those are interesting stories.

So would you entertain us and share with us about your family history and, you know, some of these amazing ancestors that you, you know, follow the footsteps of?

Well, to start with, uh, you know, just to take, take your lead, I mean, the Bible, both the Old Testament and the New Testament, if, if that's what you call it.

Yeah.

I'm...

So you, you came into the wine industry in 1989, and you're following in the footsteps.

I mean, at that point, did you even understand, like, did, did you have cognizance of, of your ancestors and, and Moses specifically, and, and did, was that a driving force for you in getting into-

I also wanted to ask him about his family history because...

Moses Montefiore was a big deal in the 19th century.

And it's funny, if you go to his Wikipedia page, I'm talking about Moseses, or as I like to call him, Moesha, who lived from 1784 to 1885.

And as I'm talking to Simon, I'm looking at these pictures of Moses, and the family resemblance is strong.

Okay, if we move along to some of my other tours in the center of the city, such as the Nach La'ot Mach Nehuda tours, The Shari Chesed Rechavia tours, the Geula tours, and a few others in the center.

Yemin Moshe, the first Jewish settlement on the outside of the walls of Yerushalayim, funded by the great Moses Montefiore, really from the estate of the great Judah Turow.

So it's the estate of an American Jewish philanthropist, and it's launched by a British Jewish philanthropist, and the brave souls who settle it are the Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jewish communities of the old Yishuv in 1860.

So Yamin Moshe is a fascinating tour as well.