Conference report: ‘Jewish Philanthropy: Solidarity, Antisemitism and Cultural Heritage’
June 24th-25th 2024, Brasenose College, Upton House, and Waddesdon Manor
In June 2024, a two-day conference on “Jewish Philanthropy: Solidarity, Antisemitism and Cultural Heritage” was held at Brasenose College, Oxford, and nearby Upton House and Waddesdon Manor. Funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council and supported by the National Trust and Waddesdon Manor, the conference was convened by Jaclyn Granick (Cardiff University), Abigail Green (Oxford University) and Tom Stammers (Durham University), assisted by Briony Truscott, Alexia Lewis, Jacquie Horrocks, Catherine Taylor, Michelle Leake, Michèle Waugh and the team at Upton House.
The conference brought together nearly 60 delegates from European and American academic, national heritage and museum backgrounds. The various panels, keynotes and workshops engaged in reflections on the historical, social and cultural aspects of Jewish philanthropy, addressing the different national paradigms of this philanthropy, the challenges its actors faced, and the contemporary legacies of their activism.
After a brief welcome by the JCH project and National Trust delegates, the first panel of lectures was introduced on June 24th. Led by Tullia Catalan (University of Trieste), it addressed the different national practices of Jewish philanthropy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and examined the scope of philanthropy as a social force. Jaclyn Granick (Cardiff University) and Tom Stammers (Durham University) reviewed the social interventions of several Anglo-Jewish families to highlight the definition and continuity of Jewish philanthropy in the British context. Luisa Levi d’Ancona Modena (University of Oxford) presented the different actors and aims of Jewish philanthropy in a unified post-Risorgimento Italy, while Rebecca Kobrin (Columbia University) discussed American Jewish philanthropy in its strategic aspect and as public performance.
After time given for questions from delegates, the second panel, led by John Hilary (University of Nottingham), reflected on the issue of cultural philanthropy and its legacies in various European museum contexts. Rasmus Kjaeboe (The Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen) highlighted how the Hirschsprung family shaped a national art history outside of political concerns and centred around Jewish culture, the public legacy of which still influences Danish perceptions of art history today. Isobel Muir (The National Gallery) then discussed Jewish involvement in the British initiative to help museums and galleries acquire artworks for the public by introducing the Jewish members of Britain’s National Art Collections Fund from its founding in 1903 to 1930. Meike Hoffmann (Freie Universität Berlin) closed this second panel by bridging the gap between nineteenth-century German-Jewish cultural philanthropy and its contemporary legacy in the wake of Nazi plundering by introducing the Mosse Art Research Initiative, which aims to relocate and rebuild Rudolf Mosse’s looted collection and make it public through an online research database.
After lunch in Brasenose’s Dining Hall, the first keynote was given by Rebecca Abrams, journalist, teacher and author of The Jewish Journey: 4000 Years in 22 Objects from the Ashmolean Museum published in 2017. With her paper ‘Hidden in Plain Sight: Uncovering the Ashmolean Museum’s concealed Jewish collection’, Rebecca Abrams problematised the visibility of the Jewish history of museum objects; echoing her research, she looked into the multitude of untold Jewish stories and lives surrounding objects and how this invisible heritage should and can be revealed and presented to the public in the museum’s educational journey. Following on from these reflections, Lucy Porten (National Trust) and Jaclyn Granick (Cardiff University) opened the first workshop of the conference on Jewish cultural heritage in curatorial practices. Divided into groups of five, we were able to exchange ideas with representatives from the curatorial world on their professional and practical experience of this heritage and its presentation in institutions. All groups then met and one volunteer per group briefly summarised the main points raised during the discussions. Lucy Porten and Jaclyn Granick then closed the workshop before Briony Truscott and Alexia Lewis gathered everyone together for the second part of the day at Upton House.
Following the bus ride to Upton House all conference attendees were divided into five groups and each started the tour of the house at a different station manned by one of the knowledgeable volunteers or staff. Papers, photographs and objects not usually on show had been taken out of the archive and laid out in different rooms of the house to underline the different narratives on the history of the house and its owners. Upton House had been acquired by Walter Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted (1882-1948), and his wife Dorothy Montefiore Micholls Samuel (1882-1949) in 1927 to serve as a country retreat and house their magnificent art collection. Especially Lady Bearsted liked to hold large social gatherings there and engaged in typical country pursuits such as hunting when away from the city. The local community benefited generously from Lord and Lady Bearsted’s philanthropic activities, which included providing work to local labourers and donations to charities and building projects in the local village. After the guided tour there was some time to stroll around the house as well as the grounds and garden, where a small reception was held for the conference participants. The day was rounded off by the conference dinner held at a restaurant in nearby Banbury.
The second day of the conference started with an early but scenic bus ride to Waddesdon Manor where the conference attendees were greeted by a convivial breakfast during which the current JCH PhD cohort was provided with the opportunity to briefly introduce themselves and their projects to the wider circle of participants. The director Pippa Shirley then welcomed everyone ahead of the day’s sessions which were mainly held in the Power House, originally built to house the generator.
The first panel of the second day on philanthropic activism was chaired by Sasha Goldstein-Sabbah (Groningen University). Cyril Grange (CNRS) and Abigail Green (Oxford University) collaborated on a presentation on the interplay and relations between wealthy Jewish banking dynasties and the role some of their members played in the Alliance Israélite Universelle between circa 1860 and 1920 and the resulting implications for Jewish internationalism in France and beyond. Laura Hobson-Faure (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) followed this with an example of Jewish philanthropy during the rise of Nazism by focussing on the Rothschild family- and particularly Germaine de Rothschild’s (1884-1975)- efforts to evacuate Jewish children from Austria and Germany and provide them with a new home at the Château de la Guette, one of the French Rothschild’s country homes, before having to flee abroad upon the invasion of France in May 1940. Derek Penslar (Harvard University) completed the panel with his talk on Jewish philanthropy during the 1948 war, which fell into the zenith of Israel’s struggle for statehood and was driven by such disparate motivations as solidarity, survivor’s guilt or anxiety about antisemitism in the budding state of Israel. The panel was followed by a lively discussion.
The panel was followed by the conference’s second keynote by Laura Leibman (Reed College) on ‘Jewish Country Houses and the Fabric of Philanthropy’. She closely examined the changing model of philanthropy radiating out from Jewish country houses beginning at the end of the nineteenth century and focussing on the local village communities on the one hand and “Jewish ethnic villagers” in London’s East End on the other. The ensuing discussion was chaired by Silvia Davoli (Oxford University), following which all conference attendees were given the chance to explore Waddesdon Manor and its surroundings. Select archival documents were very kindly displayed by the staff, such as Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild’s (1839-1898) ‘Red Book’, which documents the process of the creation of Waddesdon Manor with both photographs as well as an essay by Ferdinand himself.
After lunch the next session was opened by Juliet Carey (Waddesdon Manor) with a presentation on Waddesdon Manor and the Rothschild family, which provided more context and background on the creation of this spectacular country house. The talk also touched upon some themes and issues which were at the heart of the second workshop, entitled ‘Telling Stories about Jews: Questions, Inhibitions, Perceptions’. For this the conference attendees were once more broken up into smaller groups to facilitate discussions on the challenges that presenting Jewish stories and histories can pose to Jews, non-Jews, academics, curators and everyone involved in telling them as well as the audiences at the receiving end. Everyone returned to the Power House afterwards to provide the other groups with a brief summary of each group’s discussion.
The last panel of the conference was chaired by Oliver Cox (V&A Museum) and was very aptly called “Putting it into Practice”. Amanda-Jane Doran (Ightham Mote) gave a presentation on teasing out the hidden Jewish narratives around the country house of Ightham Mote and putting them on display. The Jewish connections were twofold here as Sir Thomas Colyer-Fergusson (1865-1951) had a deep-seated interest in researching Anglo-Jewish genealogy, while his second wife- Lady Mary Colyer-Fergusson, née Cohen (1871-1964)- was of Jewish descent. Ruth Ur (UrKultur) then discussed another example of navigating a public display of Jewish culture and memory in the context of a secular building for a diverse audience. Her talk focused on an exhibition on the Kindertransport- and more specifically a variety of written documents and contemporary witness reports- staged at the German parliament. Abigail Green then chaired the conference’s closing session and the final discussion which followed Tobias Brinkmann’s (Penn State University) thought-provoking reflections on the conference.
While it is difficult to sum up in just a few lines the richness of the thoughts and discussions that took place over this two-day conference, we would like to thank the conference delegates in the four panels, two workshops and two keynotes for their valuable contributions and the fruitful exchanges they generated. We would also like to extend our warmest thanks to the teams at Upton House and Waddesdon Manor for their hospitality and for sharing their knowledge and the documents that enabled us to learn more about these emblematic sites. Finally, we would like to give special thanks to Briony Truscott and Alexia Lewis for the brilliant organisation and care and attention to each detail of this extraordinary conference.
Constance Booker and Friederike Schwelle
June 2024