Herbert Bentwich the Pilgrim Father, by Margery and Norman Bentwich, Jerusalem 1940. (Hampstead and St John’s Wood Synagogues and Chovavei Zion)

7m Bentwich_0001This book, printed in Jerusalem, is a biography of the British Zionist and Jewish activist, Herbert Bentwich.  It has interesting vignettes of late Victorian middle-class London Jewry. 

7m Bentwich_0002Herbert Bentwich was born at 56 Church Lane, Whitechapel on May 11th 1856.  His father came from Peiser in Russian Poland. His mother, Rose, came from an old established Anglo-Jewish family and was the daughter of Godfrey Levy of Bedford.

The extracts that I have scanned relate to the St John’s Wood Synagogue, the founding of the Hampstead Synagogue, and the founding of the Chovavei Zion (The Lovers of Zion) in Britain.

Herbert Bentwich died on Shabbos, June 25th 1932, in Rehavia, Jerusalem.

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4 thoughts on “Herbert Bentwich the Pilgrim Father, by Margery and Norman Bentwich, Jerusalem 1940. (Hampstead and St John’s Wood Synagogues and Chovavei Zion)

  1. I am fascinated by Anglo-Jews. Thank you for sharing this post. My own ancestors made their way from Imperial Russia to Argentina, thanks to Baron Hirsch and the Jewish Association Colonization.

  2. Prominent in the Bentwich circle, and mentioned above, were Redcliffe and Nina Salamon (later of Barley, Herts.). Nina was the daughter of Arthur Davis, of Derby, a phenomenal autodidact in Hebrew and Aramaic. She translated chunks of the Routledge Machzorim, especially the piyyutim. An accomplished Hebrew scholar, she was described by Israel Abrahams as “the most learned Jewish woman in England”. Ironically, one of their grandchildren is prominent Jewish Corbynista and anti-Zionist Jenny Manson…….

  3. By strange coincidence, while looking for something else, within 30 min of sending you previous comment, I came across a short article on ND (with a beautiful photo ) on the website of the Katz Centre on the UPenn site. for some reason I can’t capture the URL. Google ‘Nina Davis Natalie Dohrmann’.

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