Judith Montefiore: A Woman of Unparalleled Faith and Influence

Few are as familiar with Lady Judith Montefiore as they are with her husband, Sir Moses Montefiore, who is renowned for his influence in both Jewish and non-Jewish circles. Yet it was he who said, “I am no great man…the little good I have accomplished or intended to accomplish, I am indebted for it to my never-to-be-forgotten wife.”¹ Despite facing external pressures and community division, Judith Montefiore used her devout religious beliefs to drive and partner in his global impact and success.

Judith was born in London (d. 1862) in 1784, and the greatness of Lady Montefiore is better appreciated with an understanding of the political, social, and religious changes in England’s Victorian era². The Jewish population numbered around 8,000 before her birth but climbed to approximately 20,000 by 1815³. With it came greater polarization between the Ashkenazi and Sefardi communities; at the time, more than 75% of English Jews were mostly lower-class Ashkenazi⁴, while the Sefardim were more affluent and integrated into English society⁵. As well-to-do and prominent Ashkenazim, Judith’s family, the Barent-Cohens, were among the exceptions⁶. Judith’s mixed marriage to the Sefardi Moses Montefiore initially caused an uproar, but the merger between two of the wealthiest and most important London families increased integration between the communities.

In the late 1700s and early 1800s, England was more religiously tolerant than other European countries, but there were strong undercurrents of anti-Semitism in society, business, politics, and literature⁷. Jews did not have full civil rights and were banned from most employment for the first few decades of the 1800s; they could not work in retail trade until 1830, as lawyers until 1833, and were not allowed to hold local political office until 1845⁸. British-born Jews were allowed to become English citizens and acquire more rights than foreign-born Jews, who were restricted until the mid-1800s. Non-citizens were banned from owning ships or land, leading some to convert to Christianity for better economic and social opportunities⁹. Furthermore, there were strong proselytizing efforts targeting poor, Ashkenazi schoolchildren, who were enrolled in Christian schools by the hundreds¹⁰.  

Lady Judith’s Spiritual Influence

Contrasting to the high number of prominent London Jewish families who converted to Christianity or intermarried before and after that era, during the Victorian period, the elite inner circle maintained loyalty to their faith and Orthodox traditions¹¹. Those higher class families include the Montefiores, Rothschilds, and Barent-Cohens, and their abstention from assimilation is primarily attributed to the spiritual drive of the women of the home¹². Judith mastered six languages and excelled in literature, music, and art, yet also focused on her spiritual growth. Judith was far ahead of her time in questioning and exploring Jewish theology and incorporating increased practices into their daily lives and their home¹³, and even her diary notes her joy that her husband is “religiously inclined”¹⁴. Her global travels, philanthropy, and community work were an internal spiritual journey; even her regular synagogue attendance was more meaningful than her status as Lady Montefiore in high society circles.

While they were both committed to Orthodox Judaism, Judith’s ongoing spiritual growth, and particularly her re-awakening during their trip to Palestine, influenced her husband to increase his commitment and practices¹⁵, He took a very firm and steadfast stand against family and colleagues who were succumbing to the expanding Jewish Reform movement, and more staunchly advanced Orthodox Judaism ahead of his social and political interests, fearing that both the British political reform giving greater emancipation to Jews and the growing religious Reform movement would adversely harm Orthodox practices¹⁶. In 1837, the year Moses Montefiore was honored with the appointment of London Sherif as well as to be the second Jew in London to be knighted, he wrote in his diary, “I am most firmly resolved not to give up the smallest part of our religious forms and privileges to obtain civil rights.”¹⁷

Repairing the World

While she also participated in England’s Christian society, Judith was a board member of various Jewish organizations, including the Jews’ Orphan’s Society and the Ladies’ Loan and Visiting Society. The driving force of their Chesed, Judith was the inspiration behind the man who was likely the “most celebrated Jewish philanthropist of the nineteenth century.”¹⁸ When the marriage between Judith’s sister, Hannah, and Nathan Meyer Rothschild, the head of the London branch of his family’s banking business, brought the two brothers-in-law together in business and investment opportunities, the significant increase of their wealth allowed for greater distribution of tzedaka, in London and Israel, by the Montefiores.

Chained to her fortitude and withstanding tremendous challenges around her, Judith Montefiore demonstrated that amidst conflict and diversity, Orthodox Jewish women can profoundly influence Jewish and non-Jewish societies without compromising religious beliefs.

Lady Judith likely brought the compassion and high moral standards, fundamental tenets of Judaism, to play a role in her husband’s activities. Likely due to Judith’s influence, and initially against the Rothschild’s financial interests¹⁹, Moses Montefiore partnered with his brother-in-law to loan the English government funds to compensate British Empire plantation owners who freed their slaves²⁰. And after Judith took him to visit Palestine, he redirected much of his time away from business interests to more charity giving and communal work, including intervening in Romanian and Russian persecution against Jews and aiding Jews falsely arrested in Morocco and during a blood libel in Damascus.

A Role Model for Generations

In England’s upper society at that time, women were partners as “coworkers and co-creators” in the successful careers of Victorian husbands.”²¹ Judith was more. Unable to have children, she devoted full attention to bringing a religious influence to positively impact all aspects of their lives. Chained to her fortitude and withstanding tremendous challenges around her, Judith Montefiore demonstrated that amidst conflict and diversity, Orthodox Jewish women can profoundly influence Jewish and non-Jewish societies without compromising religious beliefs.

¹ Page, Judith W., “Jerusalem and Jewish Memory: Judith Montefiore’s Private Journal”, Victorian Literature and Culture, 27(1), 1999, p. 137.

² The era under Queen Victoria, approximately from the 1830s to the early 1900s.

³ Smith Robert Michael, “The London Jews’ Society and Patterns of Jewish Conversion in England, 1801-1859”, Jewish Social Studies, Vol. 43 (3/4), 1981, p. 282.

⁴ Black, Dr. Gerry, “Jewish London”, Breedon Books, 2003, p. 40.

⁵ Smith, p. 282.

⁶ Black, p. 38.

⁷ Ragussis, Michael, “Review: The “Secret” Of English Anti-Semitism: Anglo-Jewish Studies and Victorian Studies”, Victorian Studies, Vo. 40, No. 2, 1997.

⁸ Smith, p. 281.

⁹ Black, 40.

¹⁰ Smith, p. 282.

¹¹ Endelman, Todd M., “Communal Solidarity Among the Jewish Elite of Victorian London”, Victorian Studies, Vol. 28 (3), 1985, p. 492.

¹² Endelman, p. 501.

¹³ Page, p. 125.

¹⁴ Breger, Jennifer. “Judith Montefiore.” Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women. 31 December 1999. Jewish Women’s Archive.

¹⁵ Page, p. 125.

¹⁶ Page, citing David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo Jewry, 1841 – 1941, Cambridge, 1994.

¹⁷ Moses Montefiore Diary (I, p. 111), as cited by Stuart Cohen, “Sir Moses Montefiore and Anglo-Jewry: A Reassessment”, Proceedings of the World Congress of Jewish Studies, Volume 9 Division B, Volume 3, 1985, p. 130.

¹⁸ Page, p. 125.

¹⁹ Manjapra, Kris. “The Scandal of the British Slavery Abolition Act Loan.” Social and Economic Studies, vol. 68, no. 3/4, 2019, pp. 165–84. 

²⁰ Kimathi, Sharon. “Bank of England Apologises for Role of Former Governors Linked to Slave Trade.” FinTech Futures, 23 June 2020, www.fintechfutures.com/2020/06/bank-of-england-apologises-for-role-of-former-governors-linked-to-slave-trade/.

²¹ Page, 135.