Veneziani, Emmanuel Felix

French philanthropist; born at Leghorn in 1825; died at Paris Feb. 5, 1889. At an early age he went to Constantinople, where he became the manager of the Banque Camondo and president of the committee of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, but after the close of the Franco-German war he went to Paris and became the associate of Baron Maurice de Hirsch in his philanthropic plans. In 1877 Veneziani traveled through Turkey and Bulgaria to relieve, without regard to creed, the distress of the poor who were suffering from the rigors of the Russo-Turkish war; and for his services he was rewarded with a commandership of the Order of the Nishan-i-Medjidie. In the following year, with Charles Netter and Sacki Kann, he went to the Berlin Congress to plead the cause of religious liberty, and in 1880 he and Netter made a similar plea for the Jews of Morocco at the Madrid Congress. Two years later he and Netter were sent by the Alliance to Brody to assist the Russian Jews and to aid them to emigrate, a million francs being set aside by the society, at his instance, for this purpose. On his election to the central committee of the Alliance in 1883, Veneziani made a tour of the Jewish colonies of Palestine, and it was decided, on his representation, to check the Russian emigration to that country. He made repeated visits to Vienna also, where he devoted himself to making the plans and laying the foundation of a charitable institution erected at the expense of Baron de Hirsch. Despite the shock resulting from the death of his son in 1882, Veneziani continued his activities to the last, dying only a few days after returning from a journey to Vienna.

Bibliography:

  * Bulletin de l'Alliance Israélite Universelle, Jan., 1889;
  * Zadoc Kahn, Souvenirs et Regrets, pp. 278-283;
  * Univ. Isr. Feb. 16, 1889.



S. J. Ka.