Claude Montefiore

Claude Joseph Goldsmid Montefiore (born 1858 - died 1938 ) was son of Nathaniel Montefiore, and the great nephew of Sir Moses Montefiore .¹ Some identify him as a significant figure in the contexts of modern Jewish religious thought, Jewish-Christian relations, and Anglo-Jewish socio-politics. He was educated at Balliol College , Oxford , where he obtained a first class in the classical final examination, and where he came under the influence of Jowett and T. Intended originally for the ministry of the Reform congregation of England, he studied theology in Berlin, but finding himself unable to sympathize with the arrest of the Reform Movement , he devoted himself instead to scholarly and philanthropic pursuits. He nevertheless continued to be a spiritual teacher and preacher, though in a lay capacity, and published a volume of sermons, in conjunction with Israel Abrahams, entitled "Aspects of Judaism" (London, 1894). In 1886 he was selected by the Hibbert trustees to deliver the Hibbert course of lectures for 1892 ("The Origin of Religion as Illustrated by the Ancient Hebrews"). In these lectures Montefiore made a permanent contribution to the science of theology. In 1896 he published the first volume of his "Bible for Home Reading," forming a commentary on the Bible with moral reflections from the standpoint of the "higher criticism"; the second volume appeared in 1899 . In 1890 Montefiore founded and edited, in conjunction with Israel Abrahams, the "Jewish Quarterly Review," a journal that stood on the very highest level of contemporary Jewish scholarship, and in which numerous contributions from his pen have appeared. He wrote wrote a two-volume commentary on the Synoptic gospels in the early part of this century, and What A Jew Thinks about Jesus , published in 1935. Montefiore was one of the leading authorities on questions of education; he was for some time a member of the School Board for London, and he is (1904) president of the Froebel Society and the Jews' Infant School, London, and a member of numerous other educational bodies. Montefiore has been mainly instrumental in enabling Jewish pupil teachers at elementary schools to enjoy the advantages of training in classes held for the purpose at the universities; he was on the council of Jews' College and of the Jewish Religious Education Board. He ranked as one of the leading philanthropists in the Anglo-Jewish community and holds office in various important bodies. He was elected president of the Anglo-Jewish Association in 1895 , and he is a prominent member of the Council of the Jewish Colonization Association . Montefiore showed great sympathy with all liberal tendencies in Jewish religious movements in London and was president of the Jewish Religious Union. He was president of the Jewish Historical Society in 1899-1900 As a revered scholar, philanthropist and spiritual authority, Claude Montefiore belongs to that important group of learned laymen who have sought to revolutionise Judaism . He was a founder of British Liberal Judaism at the turn of the 20th Century , considered to be the most original Anglo-Jewish religious thinker of his day, and still remains a highly controversial figure. Montefiore infuriated his enemies and often alientated his supporters with his radical agenda in which he applied the findings of historical and literary analysis to the Jewish scriptures, attempted to radically systemise rabbinic thought, and by his desire to learn from and re-express aspects of Christian theology. The extent to which he incorporated the teachings of Jesus and Paul into his own ethical and theological musings makes him unique among Jewish reformers. In his dealings with Christians and Christian thought, he can also be regarded as a forerunner to those who would later fully partake in Jewish-Christian dialogue. Montefiore is an important figure in Anglo-Jewish history, not least for the way in which his complex identity reflects the difficulty inherent in attempting to make Judaism genuinely relevant to the modern world.²