Evelina de Rothschild School, Jerusalem
In 1864, Sir Moses Montefiore established a girls' school in Jerusalem, which subsequently came to be known as the Evelina de Rothschild School, in memory of the Evelina (1838-1866), daughter of Baron Lionel de Rothschild (1808-1879) who died in childbirth. The Rothschild family supported this school as well as the Rothschild Technical School for Boys which was run by the Alliance Israelite Universelle. By the early 1880s the Evelina school accommodated 184 pupils and was praised in reports of the Anglo-Jewish Association Council. An annual sum of £800 was provided by Evelina's brothers to cover all the running costs of the school, and Mrs Leopold de Rothschild (1862-1937) chaired the Committee of Ladies to supervise the curriculum. Under Miss Annie Landau, who joined the school in 1899, by the end of the 1st world war the Evelina was the 'best Jewish Girls School in Palestine', according to the Military Governor of Jerusalem.
The Jews' Free School, London
The Jews' Free School dates back to the year it was re-established at Bell Lane, Spitalfields, London, 1817, to provide basic education to the poor Jewish community in London's East End. Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1777-1836) was an early benefactor, and his widow, Hannah (1783-1850), established an accumulating fund for the permanent endowment of the school in memory of her husband who had been so closely interested in its progress. Hannah also took responsibility herself for providing a new outfit of clothing for every pupil each year, from 1822 until her death in 1850. The Rothschild family provided four active Presidents of the school, covering 115 years: Sir Anthony (1810-1876) (President 1847-1875); Nathaniel, 1st Lord Rothschild (1840-1915) (President 1876-1915); Leopold (1845-1917) (President 1915-1917) and Anthony Gustav (1887-1961) (President 1917-1961). Anthony's wife, Louise (1821-1910), together with her sisters-in-law Juliana (1831-1877) and Charlotte (1825-1899), sat on the Ladies' Committee, supervising tuition in the school. Charlotte and the daughters of Louise, Constance (1843-1931) and Annie (1844-1926), taught classes, all three subsequently publishing the texts of their lessons.
Rhodes Scholarship
Nathaniel, 1st Lord Rothschild (1840-1915) helped establish the Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University, with funding bequeathed in the will of Cecil John Rhodes. This remains the oldest and most prestigious international postgraduate award. Rhodes and Nathaniel knew each other well; he had funded Cecil Rhodes in the development of the British South Africa Company and the De Beers diamond conglomerate.
School prizes
School prizes for Jewish children bear the names of a number of members of the Rothschild family. The Evelina de Rothschild prizes were given to children at a number of schools in England in memory of the daughter of Lionel and Charlotte de Rothschild who died in childbirth in 1866. In the same country, the Evelyn Rothschild scholarship was established in 1919 at Harrow school in memory of Evelyn Achille de Rothschild (1886-1917) who was killed in the First World War. In Frankfurt, a number of scholarships and prize foundations were established by the family. The Adelheid Carl von Rothschild Foundation for Bequests for Jewish Schoolgirls was established in 1854 by Carl Mayer (1788-1855) in memory of his wife Adelheid (1800-1853). The aim of the Foundation was to pay for the school fees of between 100 and 180 needy Jewish girls every year. In the same year, the Carl Mayer and Alexander von Rothschild Foundation for School Fees for Jewish Schoolchildren was established. In Vienna, the Oscar von Rothschild Foundation for school fees for day boys to the Gymnasium of the k.k. Theresianische Akademie was established in 1910 by Albert (1844-1911) after the death of his son, Oscar (1888-1909). Albert was a generous supporter of a number of educational enterprises including also a bequest established in his own name in 1899 for graduates of the Austrian Museum of Art and Industry.
Universities
In the 1820s, the sons of Nathan Mayer Rothschild began to attend universities - German ones initially, and then in the 1830s, Nathan's youngest son, Mayer Amschel (1818-1874) went to Cambridge, establishing a long connection with that university. In Frankfurt. Hannah Mathilde von Rothschild (1832-1924) supported the founding of the University of Frankfurt in 1912, with an exceptional sum of 500,000 Reichsmarks; the university (Goethe University Frankfurt) opened in 1914 as a citizens' university. In 1992, the Rothschild family helped found the Rothschild Visiting Professorship programme at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences at Cambridge, and in 1998, as part of the bicentenary celebrations, the N M Rothschild & Sons Professorship of Mathematical Sciences chair was endowed at the Mathematics Faculty and a separate charitable trust was created to commemorate the life of Victor Rothschild - a Cambridge scholar with close associations to the University. The Victor Rothschild Memorial Fund was created to encourage the study of mathematics in schools and to assist especially gifted children from less privileged backgrounds.
Sir Evelyn de Rothschild (b.1931) has also been closely involved with the University of Buckingham since its creation, and in 1996, HM the Queen opened the Anthony de Rothschild Building at the University, which houses the school of business.
