Moritz Freiherr von Hirsch auf Gereuth (german: Moritz
Freiherr
(; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , literally "free lord" or "free lady") and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empir ...
von Hirsch auf Gereuth; french: Maurice,
baron
Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or kn ...
de Hirsch de Gereuth; 9 December 1831 – 21 April 1896), commonly known as Maurice de Hirsch,
was a
German Jewish
The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...
financier and
philanthropist
Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...
who set up charitable foundations to promote
Jewish education
Jewish education ( he, חינוך, ''Chinuch'') is the transmission of the tenets, principles, and religious laws of Judaism. Known as the "people of the book", Jews value education, and the value of education is strongly embedded in Jewish cu ...
and improve the lot of oppressed European Jewry. He was the founder of the
Jewish Colonization Association
The Jewish Colonisation Association (JCA or ICA, Yiddish ייִק"אַ), in America spelled Jewish Colonization Association, is an organisation created on September 11, 1891, by Baron Maurice de Hirsch. Its aim was to facilitate the mass emigratio ...
, which sponsored large-scale
Jewish immigration to Argentina.
Biography
![Hirsch auf Gereuth-Wappen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Hirsch_auf_Gereuth-Wappen.png)
Hirsch was born on 9 December 1831 in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...
,
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...
. His parents were Baron Joseph von and Caroline
Wertheimer.
His grandfather, the first Jewish landowner in
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...
, was ennobled in 1818 with the appellation ''auf Gereuth''. His father, who was
banker
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets.
Becaus ...
to the Bavarian king, was made a ''
Freiherr
(; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , literally "free lord" or "free lady") and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empir ...
'' (baron) in 1869. For generations, the family occupied a prominent position in the German Jewish community. At the age of thirteen, Hirsch was sent to
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
for schooling. He then went into business, at the age of seventeen.
On 28 June 1855, Hirsch married
Clara Bischoffsheim, daughter of
Jonathan-Raphaël Bischoffsheim of
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
. They had a daughter who died in infancy and a son, Lucien (1856–1887), who predeceased his parents.
Hirsch died at
Ógyalla in Hungary (now part of Slovakia) on 21 April 1896. His wife seconded her husband's charitable work with great munificence — their total benefactions have been estimated at £18,000,000. She died in Paris on 1 April 1899, leaving the remaining family assets to her adopted son,
Maurice Arnold de Forest (later titled Count of Bendern). Hirsch was amongst the top five richest individuals in Europe at the time.
Banking career
In 1855, Hirsch became associated with the banking house of Bischoffsheim & Goldschmidt, of Brussels,
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
and
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
. He amassed a large fortune, which he increased by purchasing and working railway concessions in
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
,
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...
and the
Balkans
The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
, and by speculations in
sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or do ...
and
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...
. In 1869 he bought the concession for railroad building in Turkey from the bankrupt "International Land Credit Company". His best known railway venture was the
Chemins de fer Orientaux, a visionary railway project intended to link Vienna to Istanbul. Hirsch lived in Paris, where he owned a townhouse on ''rue de l'Elysée'' and the
Château de Beauregard. He also had residences in London, Hungary, and in what is now the Czech Republic (
Veveří,
Rosice). In 1890 Hirsch bought
Bath House, Piccadilly
Bath House in Piccadilly was the London residence of the Barons Ashburton in the 19th century. Formerly the site of the Pulteney Hotel, the property was acquired by Mr. Alexander Baring from William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath in 1821 and rebuilt ...
in London.
Philanthropy
Hirsch devoted much of his time to schemes for the relief of Jews in lands where they were persecuted and oppressed. He took a deep interest in the educational work of the
Alliance Israelite Universelle
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
, and on two occasions presented the society with gifts of a million francs. For some years, he regularly paid the deficits in the accounts of the Alliance, amounting to several thousand pounds a year. In 1889, he capitalized his donations and presented the society with securities producing an annual income of £16,000. Hirsch donated £1000 to The Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in 1892.
On the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of
Emperor Francis Joseph's accession to the Austrian throne, he gave £500,000 for the establishment of primary and technical schools in
Galicia
Galicia may refer to:
Geographic regions
* Galicia (Spain), a region and autonomous community of northwestern Spain
** Gallaecia, a Roman province
** The post-Roman Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia
** The medieval King ...
and the
Bukowina. Hirsch donated to charity all the prize money won by his string of racehorses, including more than £35,000 won by his mare
La Fleche between 1891 and 1894.
Jewish resettlement schemes
The greatest charitable enterprise on which Hirsch embarked was in connection with the persecution of the Jews in Russia. He gave £10,000 to the funds raised for the repatriation of the refugees in 1882, but, feeling that this was a very lame conclusion to the efforts made in western Europe for the relief of the Russian Jews, he offered the Russian government £2,000,000 for the endowment of a system of secular education to be established in the Jewish
Pale of Settlement
The Pale of Settlement (russian: Черта́ осе́длости, '; yi, דער תּחום-המושבֿ, '; he, תְּחוּם הַמּוֹשָב, ') was a western region of the Russian Empire with varying borders that existed from 1791 to 19 ...
. The Russian government was willing to accept the money, but declined to allow any foreigner to be concerned in its control or administration.
Thereupon, Hirsch resolved to devote the money to an emigration and colonization scheme which should afford the persecuted Jews opportunities of establishing themselves in agricultural colonies outside Russia. He founded the
Jewish Colonization Association
The Jewish Colonisation Association (JCA or ICA, Yiddish ייִק"אַ), in America spelled Jewish Colonization Association, is an organisation created on September 11, 1891, by Baron Maurice de Hirsch. Its aim was to facilitate the mass emigratio ...
as an English society, with a capital of £2,000,000, and in 1892 he presented to it a further sum of £7,000,000. On the death of his wife in 1899, the capital was increased to £11,000,000, of which £1,250,000 went to the Treasury, after some litigation, in death duties. This enormous fund, which was in its time probably the greatest charitable trust in the world, was managed by delegates of certain Jewish societies, chiefly the Anglo-Jewish Association of London and the Alliance Israelite Universelle of Paris, among whom the shares in the association have been divided.
The association, which was prohibited from working for profit, possessed large agricultural colonies in
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...
and
Palestine. In addition to its vast agricultural work, it had a gigantic and complex machinery for dealing with the whole problem of Jewish persecution, including emigration and distributing agencies, technical schools, co-operative factories, savings and loan banks, and model dwellings. It also assisted a large number of societies all over the world whose work was connected with the relief and rehabilitation of Jewish refugees.
Besides this great organization, Hirsch founded in 1881 a benevolent trust in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
for the benefit of Jewish immigrants, which he endowed with £493,000. His minor charities were on a princely scale, and during his residence in London, he distributed over £100,000 among the local hospitals.
In 1891, Hirsch established the Baron de Hirsch Fund in New York City to help Russian Jews immigrate to the USA. He provided $2,400,000 for agricultural colonies and trades schools in the USA. Judge
Myer S. Isaacs was the fund's President;
Jacob Schiff was the Vice President and the trustees included:
Oscar S. Strauss,
Mayer Sulzberger
Mayer Sulzberger (June 22, 1843 – April 20, 1923) was an American judge and Jewish communal leader.
Biography
Mayer Sulzberger was born at Heidelsheim, Bruchsal, Baden on June 22, 1843. He went to Philadelphia with his parents in 1848, and wa ...
and William Hackenburg. The Fund provided support for agriculture, trade and general subsidies and grants. In 1891, the primary colony called the Woodbine Colony was funded in southern New Jersey. It remained open until the 1940s but suffered due to the settlers lack of farming experience, poor soil and distance from viable markets. In 1893 the Woodbine Agricultural School (1892-1917) was founded to give immigrant students practical experience and financial assistance to purchase their own farms. In 1900 the Jewish Agricultural Society (1900-1972), funded by grants from the Baron de Hirsch Fund and the Jewish Colonization Association, provided loans to immigrant farmers and aided in the mass relocation of immigrants from crowded east coast cities to smaller towns across the USA. The Fund established New York City's Baron de Hirsch Trade School (1895-1935) to teach carpentry, machinery, plumbing, electrical work, and painting. Finally, the Fund provided financial support for several Jewish agencies that focused on immigration aid activities: entry agents, subsidized English classes, scholarships for Jewish students, and a model home experiment.
In 1900, his estate donated funds to the
Pasteur Institute
The Pasteur Institute (french: Institut Pasteur) is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who invented pasteurization and vacc ...
in Paris for the construction of their ''chimie biologique'' (biochemistry) building.
Commemoration
The
Beth Israel Synagogue (Halifax, Nova Scotia) originally was known as the "Baron de Hirsch Benevolent Society". There is also a
Baron Hirsch Synagogue in
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mo ...
, and
Temple De Hirsch Sinai
Temple De Hirsch Sinai is a Reform Jewish congregation with campuses in Seattle and nearby Bellevue, Washington, USA. It was formed as a 1971 merger between the earlier Temple De Hirsch (Seattle, founded 1899) and Temple Sinai (Bellevue, founded ...
in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...
and
Bellevue,
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
,
Baron de Hirsch Cemetery, Halifax, and
Baron Hirsch Cemetery
Baron Hirsch Cemetery is a large Jewish cemetery in the neighborhood of Graniteville, on Staten Island, in New York City, and named for Baron Maurice de Hirsch.
History
Baron Hirsch was established in 1899.
In January 1960, the cemetery drew ...
on
Staten Island
Staten Island ( ) is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey b ...
,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, are also named for him.
Hirsch is honoured also with naming a commercial
stoa
A stoa (; plural, stoas,"stoa", ''Oxford English Dictionary'', 2nd Ed., 1989 stoai, or stoae ), in ancient Greek architecture, is a covered walkway or portico, commonly for public use. Early stoas were open at the entrance with columns, usuall ...
, a street and a district at the center of
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...
,
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...
.
See also
*
Historic Jewish colonies in Argentina
*
Jewish Settlement in Canada
*
Edmond James de Rothschild
Baron Abraham Edmond Benjamin James de Rothschild (Hebrew: הברון אברהם אדמונד בנימין ג'יימס רוטשילד - ''HaBaron Avraham Edmond Binyamin Ya'akov Rotshield''; 19 August 1845 – 2 November 1934) was a French memb ...
(45–1934), French Jewish banker and major donor of the Zionist project
*
Isaac Leib Goldberg (1860–1935), Zionist leader and philanthropist from Russia
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
*
Short biography for Baron de HirschKnesset website
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirsch, Maurice de
1831 births
1896 deaths
19th-century German Jews
Jewish Argentine history
Jewish philanthropists
German Zionists
19th-century philanthropists
Businesspeople from Munich