the world of private banking
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PRIVAtE BANKERS AND PHILANtHROpy 255<br />
amid, according to <strong>the</strong> Jewish Chronicle, ‘demonstrations <strong>of</strong> sympathy from all<br />
classes <strong>of</strong> society, from <strong>the</strong> Head <strong>of</strong> State and <strong>the</strong> bearers <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> proudest names in<br />
<strong>the</strong> old French aristocracy, down to <strong>the</strong> meanest Christian ouvrier and <strong>the</strong> poorest<br />
Polish Jewish immigrant’. He left a million francs for various charities. 25<br />
His wife, Clara, was his main heir and she carried on <strong>the</strong> philanthropic and<br />
colonizing work on which <strong>the</strong>y had previously worked jointly, until her death<br />
in 1899. The importance <strong>of</strong> her work in <strong>the</strong> Jewish community is suggested by<br />
<strong>the</strong> fact that her death gave rise to almost as many column inches in <strong>the</strong> Jewish<br />
Chronicle as that <strong>of</strong> her husband. Her obituary credited her with inspiring her<br />
husband’s devotion to philanthropy and with close involvement in his business<br />
affairs: ‘For a long time she was also his secretary and to such an extent that she<br />
wrote and copied <strong>the</strong> most important letters he wrote. Often when at home and<br />
always when abroad, he had no o<strong>the</strong>r assistance’. 26 But for long before his death<br />
her main activity had been philanthropy, conducted in meticulous, business-like<br />
fashion, expending vast sums from an <strong>of</strong>fice in Paris. She read, investigated and<br />
filed letters <strong>of</strong> appeal. The scale and range <strong>of</strong> her and her husband’s philanthropy<br />
is suggested by her bequests, which included: 4 million francs to <strong>the</strong> Teachers’<br />
Training School <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Alliance Israélite Universelle, Paris; 3 million for a pension<br />
fund for <strong>the</strong> same school; 3 million for clothing and feeding children in <strong>the</strong><br />
Alliance Israélite schools; 6 million to <strong>the</strong> Baron de Hirsh fund, New York; 3<br />
million to <strong>the</strong> loan fund <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> London Board <strong>of</strong> Guardians; 3 million to <strong>the</strong> Home<br />
for Jewish Working Girls founded by <strong>the</strong> Baroness; 5 million to <strong>the</strong> Comité de<br />
Bienfaisance Israélite, Paris; 1 million for housing and maternal care in Paris;<br />
200,000 to <strong>the</strong> City <strong>of</strong> Vienna for philanthropic purposes; between 100,000 and<br />
300,000 each to <strong>the</strong> Progressive Jewish Communities <strong>of</strong> Vienna, Budapest, Paris,<br />
Brussels, Frankfurt, Mainz, Munich and to <strong>the</strong> Jewish Community <strong>of</strong> Britain;<br />
100,000 francs to <strong>the</strong> Bisch<strong>of</strong>fsheim Foundation, Paris; 25,000 to each <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 20<br />
Bureaux de Bienfaisance in Paris; 10 million to <strong>the</strong> Jewish Colonization Society;<br />
3 and a half million to <strong>the</strong> fund she had founded for <strong>the</strong> support <strong>of</strong> Boys and Girls<br />
in Austria; 2 million to <strong>the</strong> Baron Hirsch Foundation for Elementary Education in<br />
Galicia. The total in charitable bequests was 46,750,000 francs, equivalent at <strong>the</strong><br />
time to £1,870,000. Added to <strong>the</strong> millions she and her husband had donated during<br />
<strong>the</strong>ir lifetimes, this was a charitable endeavour few in Britain, or anywhere, could<br />
match.<br />
25<br />
Hirsch is elusive to <strong>the</strong> historian. The main sources on which this account is based<br />
are Adler-Rudel, ‘Moritz Baron Hirsch’; and obituaries in Jewish Chronicle, 24 Apr. 1896<br />
and The Times, 22 Apr. 1896.<br />
26<br />
Obituary <strong>of</strong> Baroness Clara de Hirsch, Jewish Chronicle, 7 Apr. 1899.