Maurice de Hirsch
German-born Jewish banker and railway financier (1831–1896) who founded the Jewish Colonization Association
| Maurice de Hirsch
| |
|---|---|
| Image |  Baron Maurice de Hirsch, about 1890 |
| Born | 1831 Germany |
| Died | 1896 |
| Occupation | Banker, railway financier, philanthropist |
| Known for | Founding the Jewish Colonization Association; the Oriental Railway |
| Spouse(s) | Clara Bischoffsheim |
| Children | Lucien de Hirsch (died 1887) |
Baron Maurice de Hirsch (1831–1896) was a German-born Jewish banker and railway financier who founded the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA) in 1891. The JCA was set up to help Jews leave Russia for farm colonies, above all in Argentina and Brazil.[1] He refused to back the Zionist movement. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, when Chovevei Zion and later Theodor Herzl asked him for support, "Hirsch regarded the creation of a Jewish state as a fantasy and refused any assistance".[1] After his death the JCA became a major backer of Jewish settlement in Palestine.[2]
Banking and the Oriental Railway
Hirsch came from a family of Jewish court bankers. In 1851 he joined the Brussels banking firm of Bischoffsheim & Goldschmidt, and four years later he married Clara, daughter of its head, Senator Jonathan Bischoffsheim. He financed the Oriental Railway linking Constantinople to Europe, under a concession from the Ottoman government. The Jewish Virtual Library says that the railway and his sugar and copper interests brought his fortune to an estimated $100 million by 1890. It also says he was counted among the intimates of the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII.[1]
Philanthropy
Hirsch gave the Alliance Israélite Universelle large sums for schools for Jews in the Ottoman Empire. The Encyclopaedia Judaica gives these as one million gold francs in 1874 and ten million gold francs in 1889, "to improve the position of the Jews in the Turkish Empire by instruction and education".[3] He set up the Baron de Hirsch Foundation for educational work in Galicia, and in 1891 the Baron de Hirsch Fund in New York to help immigrants settle in the United States and later Canada.[1]
Jewish Colonization Association
Main article: Jewish Colonization Association
Theodore Norman's history of the JCA says it was incorporated in London on 10 September 1891 with an authorised capital of £2 million, of which Hirsch took 19,991 of the 20,000 shares. He later left the association a further £7,100,602.[4] A central committee was formed in St Petersburg in 1892, with the Russian government's agreement, to organise the emigration of Russian Jews.[1] Hirsch was president of the JCA until his death in 1896.[2] The Jewish Virtual Library says that the association's funds "are now largely directed to agricultural projects in Israel".[1]
See also
- Jewish Colonization Association
- Palestine Jewish Colonization Association
- JCA Charitable Foundation
- Edmond James de Rothschild
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Argentina
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Jewish Virtual Library, "Baron Maurice de Hirsch (1831–1896)" (source: Gates to Jewish Heritage), accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Jewish Colonization Association (ICA)", Encyclopaedia Judaica, via the Jewish Virtual Library, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ "Alliance Israelite Universelle", Encyclopaedia Judaica, via the Jewish Virtual Library, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Theodore Norman, An Outstretched Arm: A History of the Jewish Colonization Association, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985, pp. 21, 55–57 and 159, accessed 25 October 2026.