Jerusalem 1839: The Rothschild Charity That Built a City

In 1839, Sir Moses Montefiore visited Jerusalem for the first time and was horrified by the poverty and disease he found. This episode traces how one man's philanthropic vision — funded by the Rothschild banking fortune — transformed the Holy City's Jewish community. We explore Montefiore's seven visits to Palestine, his negotiations with Muhammad Ali and the Ottoman sultan, and his most famous project: the windmill of Yemin Moshe, which still stands today. But his ambitions went further: a plan to resettle Jewish agricultural colonies, a census that revealed a community on the brink, and a bitter rivalry with the ultra-Orthodox Old Yishuv that foreshadowed later divisions. Through the lens of Montefiore's 1839 diary and the letters of Jerusalem's rabbis, we see a city caught between tradition and modernity, and a philanthropist whose legacy is still debated.

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