Judith, Lady Montefiore (née Barent Cohen; 20 February 1784 – 24 September 1862) was a British

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

, musician, travel writer, and philanthropist. She was the wife of Sir

Moses Montefiore Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, 1st Baronet, (24 October 1784 – 28 July 1885) was a British financier and banker, activist, Philanthropy, philanthropist and Sheriffs of the City of London, Sheriff of London. Born to an History ...

. She authored the first Jewish cook book written in English.

Early years

Judith Barent Cohen, fourth daughter of Levy Barent Cohen and his wife, Lydia Diamantschleifer, was born in London on 20 February 1784. The father, of Angel Court, Throgmorton Street, was a wealthy

Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...

Jew.

Career

She married Sir

on 10 June 1812. Marriages between

Sephardim Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendan ...

and Ashkenazim were not approved by the Portuguese Synagogue; but Moses believed that this caste prejudice was hurtful to the best interests of

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

, and was desirous of abolishing it. There is little doubt that that marriage did more than anything else to pave the way for the present union of English Jews. They were married on 10 June 1812, and took a house in New Court, St. Swithin's Lane, next door to one Nathan Maier Rothschild, living there for 13 years. This was likely Nathan Mayer Rothschild, founder of the Rothschild banking family of England, whom one of her sisters, Hannah (1783–1850), had married in 1806. A keen traveller, she noted the distress and suffering around her, more particularly in the "Jewish Quarters" of the towns through which she passed, and was ever ready with some plan of alleviation. Her privately printed journals, threw light upon her character, and showed her to be cultured, imbued with a strong religious spirit, true to the teachings and observances of the Jewish faith, yet exhibiting the widest acceptance of those espousing other beliefs. She was quick to resent any indignity or insult that might be offered to her religion or her people. She wrote the first English language Jewish cookbook, ''The Jewish Manual'', published in 1846.

Later years, death and legacy

For some years her health had been so bad that they had spent much of their time in Europe in the hope of improving it, but she had at last become too weak to undertake the journeys, and her last years of her life were spent alternately in London and

Ramsgate Ramsgate is a seaside resort, seaside town and civil parish in the district of Thanet District, Thanet in eastern Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2021 it had a population of 42,027. Ramsgate' ...

. Only a few months prior to her decease, the couple had celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, and this period was marked by what seemed a partial restoration of her health. On 24 September 1862, after exchanging blessings with her husband, she died. After her death, Sir Moses founded in her memory the Judith Lady Montefiore College at Ramsgate.

References

Attribution

* * * * *

Bibliography

*''Jew. Chron''. 3 October 1863 * Kayserling, ''Die Judischen Frauen'', pp. 272–275, 1308 * Loewe, L. ''Diaries of Sir Muses and Lady Montefiore'', 1890. * Morals, ''Eminent Israelites'', pp. 240–312 * Wolf, Lucien. ''Life (of Sir Moses Montefiore)'', pp. 189–212

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Montefiore, Judith 1784 births 1862 deaths Linguists from England Musicians from London English travel writers British women travel writers British women linguists English Jews Judith English cookbook writers British women food writers Wives of baronets 19th-century British women writers Jewish women writers Jewish linguists English food writers Jewish women philanthropists British Ashkenazi Jews British people of Dutch-Jewish descent Cohen family