| HIRSCH, MAURICE DE, BARON HIRSCH AUF GERETJTH
, in the baronage of Bavaria (1835-1896), capitalist and philanthropist
(German by birth, Austro-Hungarian by domicile), was born at Munich, 9th
December 1831. His grandfather, the first Jewish landowner in Bavaria, was
ennobled with the prddikat auf Gereuth in 1818; his father, who was banker
to the Bavarian king, was created a baron in 1869. The family for
generations has occupied a prominent position in the German Jewish
community. At the ageofthirteenyoungllirschwassent to Brusseisto school,
but when seventeen years old he went into business. In 1855 he became
associated with the banking house of Bischoffsheim & Goldschmidt, of
Brussels, London and Paris. He amassed a large fortune, which he increased
by purchasing and working railway concessions in Austria, Turkey and the
Balkans, and by speculations in sugar and copper. While living in great
splendour in Paris and London and on his estates in Hungary, he devoted
much of his time to schemes for the relief of his Hebrew coreligionists in
lands where they were persecuted and oppressed. He took a deep interest in
the educational work of the Alliance Israelite IJniverselle, 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. On the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the
emperor Francis Josephs accession to the Austrian throne he gave ioo,ooo
for the establishment of primary and technical schools in Galicia and the
Bukowina. The greatest charitable enterprise on which he embarked was in
connection with the persecution of the Jews in Russia (see ANTI-SEMITISM).
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 Russian
Government was willing to accept the money, but declined to allow any
foreigner to be concerned in its control or administration. Thereupon
Baron de 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 out side Russia. He
founded the Jewish Colonization Association 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 is probably the
greatest charitable trust in the world, is now 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 is prohibited
from working for profit, possesses large colonies in South America, Canada
and Asia Minor. In addition to its vast agricultural work it has 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 in the congested Russian jewries. It also subventions and
assists a large number of societies all over the world whose work is
connected with the relief and rehabilitation of Jewish refugees. Besides
this great organization, Baron de Hirsch founded in I89t a benevolent
trust in the United States 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. It was in this manner that he disposed of the whole gross
proceeds derived from his successes on the English turf, of which he was a
lavish patron. He raced, as he said himself, for the London hospitals, and
in 1892, when his filly, La FlCche, won the Oaks, St Leger and One
Thousand Guineas, his donations from this source amounted to about 40,000.
Baron de Hirsch married on 28th June 1855 Clara, daughter of Senator
Bischoffsheim of Brussels (b. 1833), by whom he had a son and daughter,
both of whom predeceased him. He died at Ogyalla, near Komorn, in Hungary,
21St April 1896. The baroness, who seconded her husbands charitable work
with great munificencetheir total benefactions have been estimated at
i8,000,000,died at Paris on the 1st of April 1899. |
