Awards

• Commended for National Jewish Book Award (Biography/Autobiography) 2010
• Runner-up for Sami Rohr Prize 2012

Overview

Humanitarian, philanthropist, and campaigner for Jewish emancipation on a grand scale, Sir Moses Montefiore (1784-1885) was the preeminent Jewish figure of the nineteenth century - and one of the first truly global celebrities. His story, told here in full for the first time, is a remarkable and illuminating tale of diplomacy and adventure. Abigail Green's sweeping biography follows Montefiore through the realms of court and ghetto, tsar and sultan, synagogue and stock exchange. Interweaving the public triumph of Montefiore's foreign missions with the private tragedy of his childless marriage, this book brings the diversity of nineteenth-century Jewry brilliantly to life - from London to Jerusalem, Rome to St. Petersburg, Morocco to Istanbul. Here we see the origins of Zionism and the rise of international Jewish consciousness, the faltering birth of international human rights, and the making of the modern Middle East. With the globalization and mobilization of religious identities now at the top of the political agenda, Montefiore's life story is relevant as never before. Mining materials from eleven countries in nine languages, Green's masterly biography bridges the East-West divide in modern Jewish history, presenting the transformation of Jewish life in Europe, the Middle East, and the New World as part of a single global phenomenon. As it reestablishes Montefiore's status as a major historical player, it also restores a significant chapter to the history of our modern world.

Full Product Details

9780674048805

Table of Contents

Reviews

Green offers a perceptive, solidly researched biography with expressive period illustrations attesting to Montefiore's global celebrity. Publishers Weekly (starred review) 20100125 It would be hard to find words grand enough to describe Abigail Green's history of her relative Sir Moses Montefiore. Admirable, dignified, comprehensive : all of them are true and so much more. -- Rabbi Brian Fox Jewish Telegraph 20100129 Abigail Green (an Oxford don who is also a Sebag-Montefiore) has brilliantly synthesized a wealth of other sources, many of them never before used by Montefiore scholars. The picture that emerges is sombre and in some respects shocking. -- Geoffrey Alderman Jewish Chronicle 20100304 Deeply impressive...Green never allows the reader to lose sight of Montefiore's truly pioneering achievements, or of his courage, generosity, and farsightedness. In writing about this incomparable life, Green has produced an incomparable book. More than a biography, Moses Montefiore takes its place as one of the essential works on modern Jewish history. -- Adam Kirsch Tablet Magazine 20100309 Green's account is often entertaining...Green, herself a twig on the Sebag Montefiore family tree, is more interested in historical themes she thinks have been neglected: how Montefiore used piety, philanthropy and publicity to rally sympathy on a global scale, paving the way for today's campaigns and interventions on behalf of humanitarian causes. The Economist 20100327 [A] mammoth warts-and-all account of Montefiore and his times. -- Priscilla S. Taylor Washington Times 20100326 The name [Moses Montefiore] alone conjures up story-book images of a horse-drawn carriage from which a pious Victorian benefactor alights to bribe a local official, endow an orphanage, or dedicate a windmill. Abigail Green's brilliant new biography--elegantly conceived, exhaustively researched, crisply written--presents a far more complicated and fascinating picture. Jewish Ideas Daily 20100416 Green writes deftly and tells Montefiore's story with an admirable thoroughness...Moses Montefiore is mercifully free of academic theory. It is exactly what a good biography should be--fair and illuminating without ever descending to hagiography. -- Walter Laqueur Wall Street Journal 20100429 [An] erudite, intelligent, and graceful biography of Moses Montefiore...A daughter of a Sebag-Montefiore herself, [Green] has had access to some family archival sources not available to her scholarly predecessors, but her kinship to her subject is never uncritical. When Moses Montefiore waxes pompous in his proconsular grandeur (a not infrequent occurrence); when he dons rose-tinted glasses about the prospects of his Palestinian enterprises; when he fails to treat his underlings with the consideration and remuneration they merited; when he intolerantly slams the door of acceptance against those, including members of his own family, who wanted to reform contemporary Judaism; when the trail of the great patriarch leads to extramarital dalliances--Green tells it like it most certainly was. The result of this sympathetic candor is a portrait rich in human complexity from which Montefiore's profound importance for the history of the Jews rises at last above mere ritual veneration...Green's book is a rich gift to history--and not just Jewish history--for its account not just of what Moses Montefiore did or did not do, but also of what he was. Her pages are most memorable when they simply bring the old boy to vivid life amid all the complexities and perplexities of his great self-imposed calling. -- Simon Schama New Republic 20100610 [An] intriguing and well-researched book. -- Leslie Mitchell Literary Review 20100601 This massive and absorbing biography by Abigail Green does [Montefiore] full justice. In a brief review, however, it is impossible even to enumerate all the issues in which Montefiore was deeply committed. The sheer range of his activities in many countries made him one of the first truly global superstars, and it is astonishing that no full biography of him has previously been written. -- Robert Wilson Canberra Times 20100703 [An] extensive and engaging biography...Moses Montefiore's remarkable life is both a Jewish story and an international one, even if today, Montefiore, if he is remembered at all, is remembered almost exclusively in Jewish circles. -- Shalom Goldman Haaretz 20100801 The most impressive book I've read this year is Moses Montefiore: Jewish Liberator, Imperial Hero...Green's book, however, is not just the biography of a Jewish worthy: it is a wide-ranging study of Britain's liberal imperialism at the zenith of its moral influence, and of the emergence of a modern Jewish consciousness. -- Adam Kirsch Times Literary Supplement 20101203

Green offers a perceptive, solidly researched biography with expressive period illustrations attesting to Montefiore's global celebrity. Publishers Weekly (starred review) 20100125 It would be hard to find words grand enough to describe Abigail Green's history of her relative Sir Moses Montefiore. Admirable, dignified, comprehensive : all of them are true and so much more. -- Rabbi Brian Fox Jewish Telegraph 20100129 Abigail Green (an Oxford don who is also a Sebag-Montefiore) has brilliantly synthesized a wealth of other sources, many of them never before used by Montefiore scholars. The picture that emerges is sombre and in some respects shocking. -- Geoffrey Alderman Jewish Chronicle 20100304 Deeply impressive...Green never allows the reader to lose sight of Montefiore's truly pioneering achievements, or of his courage, generosity, and farsightedness. In writing about this incomparable life, Green has produced an incomparable book. More than a biography, Moses Montefiore takes its place as one of the essential works on modern Jewish history. -- Adam Kirsch The Tablet 20100309 Green's account is often entertaining...Green, herself a twig on the Sebag Montefiore family tree, is more interested in historical themes she thinks have been neglected: how Montefiore used piety, philanthropy and publicity to rally sympathy on a global scale, paving the way for today's campaigns and interventions on behalf of humanitarian causes. The Economist 20100327 [A] mammoth warts-and-all account of Montefiore and his times. -- Priscilla S. Taylor Washington Times 20100326 The name [Moses Montefiore] alone conjures up story-book images of a horse-drawn carriage from which a pious Victorian benefactor alights to bribe a local official, endow an orphanage, or dedicate a windmill. Abigail Green's brilliant new biography--elegantly conceived, exhaustively researched, crisply written--presents a far more complicated and fascinating picture. Jewish Ideas Daily 20100416 Green writes deftly and tells Montefiore's story with an admirable thoroughness...Moses Montefiore is mercifully free of academic theory. It is exactly what a good biography should be--fair and illuminating without ever descending to hagiography. -- Walter Laqueur Wall Street Journal 20100429 [An] erudite, intelligent, and graceful biography of Moses Montefiore...A daughter of a Sebag-Montefiore herself, [Green] has had access to some family archival sources not available to her scholarly predecessors, but her kinship to her subject is never uncritical. When Moses Montefiore waxes pompous in his proconsular grandeur (a not infrequent occurrence); when he dons rose-tinted glasses about the prospects of his Palestinian enterprises; when he fails to treat his underlings with the consideration and remuneration they merited; when he intolerantly slams the door of acceptance against those, including members of his own family, who wanted to reform contemporary Judaism; when the trail of the great patriarch leads to extramarital dalliances--Green tells it like it most certainly was. The result of this sympathetic candor is a portrait rich in human complexity from which Montefiore's profound importance for the history of the Jews rises at last above mere ritual veneration...Green's book is a rich gift to history--and not just Jewish history--for its account not just of what Moses Montefiore did or did not do, but also of what he was. Her pages are most memorable when they simply bring the old boy to vivid life amid all the complexities and perplexities of his great self-imposed calling. -- Simon Schama New Republic 20100610

Author Information

Abigail Green is Tutor and Fellow in History, Brasenose College, University of Oxford.

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