Open Collections

1921

1 bookplate : relief printing ; 10.8 x 7.3 cm; 1 bookplate : relief printing ; 4.1 x 8.3 cm

Baron de Hirsch Institute and Hebrew Benevolent Society

Still Image

These two bookplates have been cataloged together based on their original context and location in the Thomas Murray Bookplate Collection binders. The Baron de Hirsch Institute was founded in July 1863 as the Young Men's Hebrew Benevolent Society (YMHBS). Increased Jewish immigration in the 1880sput significant financial burdens on the YMHBS, so they requested assistance from the Austrian Baron Maurice de Hirsch, who gave them a substantial donation. In 1900, the YMHBS honored this donation and others from the Baron and Baroness de Hirsch by renaming the organization the Baron de Hirsch Institute and Young Men's Hebrew Benevolent Society. The Institute founded a variety of services to help recent immigrants and the Jewish community in Montreal more generally, and continues to this day as the Jewish Family Services of the Baron de Hirsch Institute. One of the services founded by the Baron de Hirsch Institute and Young Men's Hebrew Benevolent Society was a library. Created in 1900, the Library held a collection of Yiddish and Hebrew materials. The Library also held a book club. Many of these books went to the collection of the Jewish Public Library in 1914, though the Baron de Hirsch Library itself continued to exist until 1929. Captain William Sebag-Montefiore (1885-1966), member of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers from 1905-1923, was the great-grand-nephew of famous British Jewish philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore. He was for many years the honorary president of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in Montreal. A copy of this ex libris is also available in the Philippe Masson Ex Libris Collection at McGill University.
References:
1) Annuaires Lovell de Montreal et sa banlieue (1842-1999). Biblioteque et Archives nationales Québec. http://bibnum2.banq.qc.ca/bna/lovell/
2) Blaustein, Esther I., Rachel E. Esar, and Evelyn Miller. 'Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue (Shearith Israel) Montreal, 1768-1968.' Jewish Historical Society of England. Accessed 28 March 2013. http://www.jhse.org/book/export/article/17919
3) 'Captain William SEBAG-MONTEFIORE. Lancers.' The National Archives. Accessed 28 March 2013. http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/details/C1060309?descriptiontype=Full&ref=WO+339/6368
4) 'Finding Aid to the Jewish Family Services/Baron de Hirsch Institute Fonds.' Jewish Public Library Archives. Montreal. http://www.jewishpubliclibrary.org/media/content/File/JFSBdeHI%20Fond.pdf
5) Lamonde, Yvan. Les Bibliothèques de Collectivités à Montréal (17e-19e siècle): sources et problèmes. Montréal: Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec, 1979, 106.
6) Margolis, Rebecca. Jewish Roots, Canadian Soil: Yiddish Cultural Life in Montreal, 1905-1945. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2011.
7) Miller, Evelyn. 'The History of the Montreal Jewish Public Library and Archives.' Canadian Archivist 2, 1 (1970), 49-55. http://journals.sfu.ca/archivar/index.php/ca/article/viewFile/13029/14268
8) Townend, Peter, ed. Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 18th edition. 3 volumes. London, England: Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1965-1972. Volume 1, page 507. Cited in http://thepeerage.com/p35622.htm, Accessed 28 March, 2013
9) The Philippe Masson Ex Libris Collection at McGill University, from http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/bookplates/

RBSC Bookplates

2013

Images provided for research and reference use only. Permission to publish, copy, or otherwise use these images must be obtained from Rare Books and Special Collections: http://rbsc.library.ubc.ca

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