Moses Montefiore (1784-1885) was a man whose genius for investment banking made him wealthy enough to retire by the age of 40. He devoted the remainder of his life to philanthropy and securing the political and civil emancipation of Jews in England. He also worked to alleviate discriminatory practices against European and Middle Eastern Jews.

At a time when Jewish children were being taken from their parents and secretly baptized into Christianity, a time when the Jews of the Middle East were detained as prisoners for no just cause, Montefiore became a crusader for their rights. His hope to establish a homeland for Jews led to the founding of several agricultural settlements outside of the old city of Jerusalem. An independent Israel was nearly 65 years away from the time of his death in 1885; but his efforts for the Zionist cause, that of a separate Jewish state, lay crucial groundwork...