Claude Montefiore

The great-nephew of Sir Moses Montefiore, Claude Montefiore was brought up in an affluent, well-connected English Jewish family and studied theology at Balliol College, part of Oxford University. While at Oxford, he received instruction from Benjamin Jowett, a leading scholar and theologian of liberal Christianity. Later, Montefiore studied Judaism with Solomon Schechter, and in 1888, he founded the Jewish Quarterly Review. Among Montefiore’s scholarship is a commentary on the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the first of its kind written by a Jew primarily for Jewish readers. Later in his life, Montefiore worked in philanthropy, helping to establish the Jewish Religious Union along with Lily Montagu and Henrietta Franklin, as well as several other organizations focusing on Jewish concerns and more general social causes. Antagonistic to Zionism as contrary to his ideals of Jewish national assimilation and integration, Montefiore spoke out against the signing of the Balfour Declaration while president of the Anglo-Jewish Association.