Anna Maria Goldsmid (17 September 1805 – 8 February 1889, London), benefactor and translator, was the eldest child of

Isaac Lyon Goldsmid Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, 1st Baronet (13 January 1778 – 27 April 1859) was a financier and one of the leading figures in the Jewish emancipation in the United Kingdom, who became the first British Jew to receive a hereditary title. Biography ...

and the sister of Sir

Francis Henry Goldsmid Sir Francis Henry Goldsmid, 2nd Baronet (1 May 1808 – 2 May 1878) was an Anglo-Jewish barrister and politician. Early life The son of Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid and a member of the Goldsmid banking family, Francis was born in London, and privat ...

Biography

Anna Maria Goldsmid was born 17 September 1805. Privately educated, she was an expert linguist, studying Italian with

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhoo ...

. She also learnt French, German and Hebrew, studying the latter with Hyman Hurwitz. Her English literary tutor was Thomas Campbell. Devoted to her father, she helped him in his work, notably the establishment of

University College, London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

and the

West London Synagogue The West London Synagogue of British Jews, abbreviated WLS ( he, ק"ק שער ציון, ''Kahal Kadosh Sha'ar Tziyon'', "Holy Congregation Gate of Zion"), is a synagogue and congregation, affiliated to Reform Judaism, near Marble Arch in cent ...

. Born an Orthodox Jew, she remained throughout her life very observant. However, she resented the powerlessness of women in Orthodox synagogues, and supported the West London Synagogue in the hope that it would give women a more active role in Jewish religious life. Anna Maria Goldsmid devoted much time to educational matters, in which she developed a nationally recognised expertise. She founded the Jews' infants' school, London (1841), and re-established the Jews' Deaf and Dumb Home (1863). She was a patroness of University College Hospital and the Homoeopathic Hospital, both in London.

Publications

* English translation, entitled "The Development of the Religious Idea", by Ludwig Philippsohn (1855) * English translation, entitled "The Deicides: Analysis of the Life of Jesus", of the refutation, by J. Cohen of Marseilles, of the view that the Jews were

Christ-killer Jewish deicide is the notion that the Jews as a people were Collective responsibility, collectively responsible for Crucifixion of Jesus, the killing of Jesus. A Biblical justification for the charge of Jewish deicide is derived from Matthew 27:2 ...

s (1872) * English translation, entitled "Persecution of the Jews of Roumania, by a friend of his country, his people, and of liberty" (1872) * Englished translation of the Prussian educational code (1872) * "What girls should learn, what mothers should practise, and how husbands should help them : a lecture delivered March 29, 1874, and published by request" (1874) * Many pamphlets on educational questions

References

* Oxford Dictionary of National Biography {{DEFAULTSORT:Goldsmid, Anna Maria 1805 births 1889 deaths English Jews English people of Dutch-Jewish descent 19th-century British translators British women writers 19th-century women writers 19th-century British philanthropists Anna Maria

Biography

Publications

See also

References