Judith Lady Montefiore died in 1862. At first, Sir Moses had intended to perpetuate her memory by building a theological college in Jerusalem with ten houses for the students, who would be provided with a library and granted an annual subsistence allowance.
Shortly afterwards, he changed his mind and decided to build the Judith Lady Montefiore College on land adjoining his own country house and synagogue in Ramsgate. His wish was,
to promote the study of the Holy Law … as a memorial of his sincere devotion to the Law of God … and as a token of his love … for his departed consort Judith, Lady Montefiore.
The College was originally intended for ten elderly retired scholars. In Sir Moses’s own words,
to provide for the accommodation of ten persons distinguished for their great learning in the Holy Law and piety.
He prayed,
May God in his mercy and goodness, grant that the inhabitants of the intended College may devote themselves to the study of his Holy Law and may they find peace and happiness in their dwellings.
The Elders of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews’ Congregation in London assumed the religious and temporal administration of the Judith Lady Montefiore College in 1885 after the death of Sir Moses.
It was found impracticable to fulfil Sir Moses’s detailed instructions because of their very demanding nature – for few scholars could be found to agree to live under his specified regime. Sir Moses’s curriculum set out the texts to be studied during each hour of the day; and it required the scholars to start learning at 5.00 am and to continue, with breaks, until midnight, when the tikkun prayers were to be recited.
So the College was transformed into a seminary for training young men who wished to serve the community as rabbis, hazanim and teachers of religion. The trustees of that time, many of whom had known Sir Moses personally, were convinced that this was the course that he himself would have favoured in such circumstances.
After the Second World War, the College was transformed by Haham Solomon Gaon in partnership with the Torah Department of the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem. It was then revived as a training school for future rabbis, ministers and teachers, with its main intake comprising young students from the then threatened Jewish communities of North Africa. Many of the College’s graduates now serve as rabbis and teachers throughout the Jewish world, though some by now are retiring or have already retired.
The College was moved to London from Ramsgate in the 1960s. Ramsgate, which by then no longer had an orthodox Jewish community, was considered an unsuitable environment in which to train young men for the ministry. It also it proved ever more difficult to find teachers willing to live there. The College closed its doors some twenty years later when the flow of students from North Africa ceased, their families mostly having emigrated. By that time, the College was also heavily in debt. It was re-opened in 2005 as a college to promote advanced Torah learning.
The Judith Lady Montefiore College was re-opened in London in 2005 as a centre for higher Torah education, with Rabbi Dr. Abraham Levy as its Honorary Principal, and is registered with the Department for Education and Skills. It occupies premises on the Schaller House Campus at 44a Albert Road, London NW4 2SJ. For its first year, it concentrated on establishing a kollel and building the necessary teaching staff and has much developed in the scope and volume of its activity since then.
In January 2006, the College opened its part-time Semicha Programme to train future rabbis for the Anglo-Jewish community as a whole. Further courses followed regularly every four years with some students joining between. The College’s teaching of Yore Deah is strengthened by the active participation of Eretz Hemdah Institute of Advanced Jewish Studies, Jerusalem. This is the only such structured course in the United Kingdom and, apart from a single institution in France, is the only one in Europe.
The unique Montefiore Dayanut Course ‘Yadin Yadin for the Diaspora’ commenced in November 2016 and uses the latest internet techniques to enable rabbis from Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and the U.S.A. to participate in the learning together with rabbis from the UK. The teaching is delivered by Eretz Hemdah and graduates will receive Eretz Hemdah’s semicha ‘Yadin-Yadin for the Diaspora’.
It launched its pioneering course of intensive Higher Torah learning for Women in January 2003.
The College also promotes higher Torah learning in a variety of different ways by running other courses and by supporting several institutions, programmes and individuals with similar aims.
The Modern Founder
 The late Rabbi Dr. Abraham Levy O.B.E., z’l former Emeritus Spiritual Head of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews’ Congregation London, was responsible for the revival of the College and its associated Kollel after many years of inactivity.Born in Gibraltar and attended Carmel College, Rabbi Levy took his B.A. degree at Jews’ College and his doctorate at University College London. Ever an educational innovator, he founded the Young Jewish Leadership Institute which served as the model for many of the adult educational programmes current today, and then went on to create the flourishing Naima Jewish Preparatory School.Watch Rabbi Levy’s video introduction to the College |
The Current Chairman
 Lucien Gubbay, chairman of trustees of the Montefiore Endowment, participates actively in the day-to-day administration of the College and in the planning of its courses.
Born in Argentina and educated in Manchester and at Balliol College, Oxford, Lucien Gubbay then served in the Royal Air Force in Germany. He is a former president of the Board of Elders of the Spanish & Portuguese Jews’ Congregation and a former trustee of L.S.J.S. (Jews’ College). A consulting engineer by profession, he has lectured and written extensively on religious history and related subjects, and is an Honorary Research Fellow of University College London. |
Leading Rabbis and Teachers at a Conference of Sephardi Rabbis in 2009
