Leonard G. Montefiore: A key figure in post-war Jewish philanthropy in the East End

Leonard G Montefiore started his charitable work in the East End at Toynbee Hall and went on to support over a dozen Jewish organisations, some of which still operate today.

If you live in the East End, you may well have seen the Montefiore name or heard it mentioned. The Montefiore family name is heralded with blue plaques and namesake architecture across London and the southeast, representing a winding legacy of influence and philanthropy. But many of their stories can be found right here in Whitechapel.

Leonard G. Montefiore, born 2 June 1889, and not to be confused with his uncle Leonard A. Montefiore for whom a namesake fountain exists in Stepney, was a philanthropist and key figure in some of Britain’s most influential Jewish organisations. 

Montefiore founded and financed several notable Jewish charitable organisations based in the East End, many of which are still going today, at a time when a large number of immigrants and refugees were arriving seeking shelter from violent persecution in Eastern Europe.

Family ties

Leonard G. Montefiore was born in Marylebone on 2 June 1889 into the highly established Anglo-Jewish Montefiore family, a name rooted in an Italian Sephardic Jewish bloodline. 

Leonard came from a long line of wealthy Jewish philanthropists. He was the son of prominent philanthropist and thought leader, Claude G. Montefiore and Therese Alice who sadly died the day after his birth leaving him to be raised by his grandmother, Emma Montefiore. His father Claude was also the grand-nephew of Sir Moses Montefiore, another famous Jewish philanthropist. The Montefiores had ties through business and marriage to the Rothschilds, a wealthy Jewish banking family.

Leonard married a close friend, Muriel Jeanetta Tuck and had two sons, David and Alan, a physician and Oxford Don respectively. 

Toynbee Hall

As a young man, Montefiore made an early venture into social work in Whitechapel. Returning to London after a college education in Oxford, Montefiore took residence at the radical settlement, Toynbee Hall. 

Established long before social enterprises and mentoring had become mainstream, Toynbee Hall attempted to co-house wealthy and educated people with the East End’s poorest, to share skills, provide education, and combat poverty. Toynbee Hall saw many of the East End’s future leaders pass through its doors, including former prime minister, Clement Atlee.

A need for Jewish philanthropy in the East End

Montefiore’s early work with the poor in the East End continued throughout his life and amongst those in great need in east London during his life was the Jewish community. 

In the late 19th century, a wave of Jewish refugees fled Poland and Russia to escape religious persecution, with many settling in Stepney and Whitechapel. 

As many immigrants found their feet, Spitalfields and Whitechapel became a vibrant hub of Jewish economic and cultural life. Synagogues were established in the area, and Yiddish could be heard all around. But while many were building new lives and communities, others had few connections and were thrust into poverty.

Throughout his life, Montefiore would go on to provide guidance and financial support to 16 known charities emerging in this period to combat the poverty, social persecution and educational needs of Jews. 

These included the Jews’ Temporary Shelter, a humble organisation in the makeshift shelter of Polish baker, Samuel Cohen, on Church Lane (now Backchurch Lane) in Whitechapel. 

Also, The Board of Guardians for the Relief of the Jewish Poor – another organisation which advocated for poor Jewish communities in the East End, many of whom couldn’t partake in workhouses due to religious and dietary restraints. 

Relief during World War Two 

In 1933, with the Nazi persecution of Jews reaching British attention, Montefiore and fellow Jewish community leader, Neville Lask helped to set up the Central British Fund for German Jewry (CBFGJ). Today known as World Jewish Relief, the organisation helped Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution in Europe and remains the main Jewish overseas aid organisation in the UK. 

After the war, the CBFGJ was fundamental in establishing Israel as a place for Jewish refugees from Europe to emigrate and settle with Israel’s first President, Chaim Weizmann, amongst its founding members. Montefiore is said to have been opposed to Zionism until later in life and he also contributed financially to anti-zionist organisations like the League of British Jews. 

The CBFGJ also played a pivotal role in organising the Kindertransport, which rescued around 10,000 Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Germany and Austria.

After the war, Montefiore also used his influence to bring hundreds of Jewish orphans into the UK. Following a post-war visit to Europe, Montefiore convinced the UK government to allow 1,000 displaced children, aged 8 to 16, to enter the UK, as long as Jewish communities funded their stay.

In 1945, 700 children who had survived the atrocities of the Holocaust were flown to a small town in the Lake District to begin their new lives. The BBC dramatised The Windermere Children in 2020, featuring Tim McInnerny as Montefiore.

Montefiore died in 1961, at the London Clinic aged 72 but many of his charitable initiatives continue. The Jews’ Temporary Shelter moved to 84 Leman Street and later, Mansell Street. It is now based in north London and provides accommodation grants to Jewish people.

A plaque in honour of one of his beneficiaries, The Board of Guardians for the Relief of the Jewish Poor, can be visited on Petticoat Lane in Shoreditch – just one of many snippets of the Montefiore family’s vast history embedded in the streets of the East End.

With an extensive family legacy behind him, Leonard G. Montefiore made a name for himself as a key figure in Jewish philanthropy during both the pre- and post-war years. His work supported initiatives to combat poverty amid a wave of Jewish immigration, leaving a lasting impact on the East End. After the war, he provided crucial aid to Holocaust survivors and played a key role in establishing international organisations cementing his place in history.

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