Louisa de Rothschild

Louisa de Rothschild (née Montefiore), Lady de Rothschild (28 May 1821 – 22 September 1910), was an Anglo-Jewish philanthropist, and founding member of the Union of Jewish Women.

Born in England, the daughter of Abraham Montefiore,^[1] she married Baron Anthony de Rothschild in 1840,^[2] and was influential and able to push conventions that traditionally bound Jewish women at the time.^[3]^[4]

She founded the first independent Jewish women's philanthropic associations, the Jewish Ladies' Benevolent Loan Society and the Ladies' Visiting Society in London in 1840.^[5]^[6]

In 1885, she and Helen Lucas jointly paid for the cost of a nurse to work among the poor who were Jewish. Lucas would pay for two more in 1891 and 1892 and they were encouraged to use a traditional common sense approach to the help and sympathy they offered. Lucas believed that relief workers should give little priority to statistics or paperwork.^[7]

References

^ Miriam Rothschild (1983). Dear Lord Rothschild: Birds, Butterflies, and History. Balaban International Science Services. pp. 391/. ISBN 978-0-86689-019-9.
^ Laura S. Strumingher (2006). The Life & Legacy of Baroness Betty de Rothschild. Peter Lang. pp. 59–. ISBN 978-0-8204-7885-2. In 1842, at the age of seventeen, Charlotte followed what was becoming a family tradition by marrying a Rothschild. She married her … The next Rothschild to marry was Hannah's son Anthony, who wed his cousin Louisa Montefiore in 1840.
^ W. Rubinstein; Michael A. Jolles (22 February 2011). The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History. Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 1598–. ISBN 978-0-230-30466-6.
^ The Jewish Quarterly. Vol. 22–24. Jewish Literary Trust. 1974. In Louisa. Lady de Rothschild (1821–1910), he found a woman of intellect and wide literary tastes. A genuine personal friendship developed between them. It was based upon his respect for her opinions and her admiration for his literary ..
^ Linda L. Clark (17 April 2008). Women and Achievement in Nineteenth-Century Europe. Cambridge University Press. pp. 133–. ISBN 978-0-521-65098-4. Lady Louise Rothschild created the first independent Jewish women's philanthropic associations in London in 1840, the Jewish Ladies' Benevolent Loan Society and the Ladies' Visiting Society. Betty de Rothschild became a leader of Jewish ...
^ "Lady Louise Rothschild | Jewish Women's Archive". jwa.org. Retrieved 14 May 2016.
^ "Lucas [née Goldsmid], Helen (1835–1918), philanthropist and social worker". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/55195. Retrieved 17 December 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)