Montefiore's Windmill

Montefiore's Windmill Review

Sir Moses Montefiore had this limestone windmill built in 1857 to provide a source of income for his planned neighborhood of Mishkenot Sha'ananim, but it was poorly located for harnessing the prevailing winds, and anyway soon newfangled steam-driven mills superseded it. The restored carriage in which Montefiore once traveled the country was on display until torched by vandals in the 1980s; the one you see now is an exact replica. He was a prominent figure in the financial circles of mid-19th-century London—a rare phenomenon for a Jew at the time. It didn't harm his fortunes that he married into the legendary Rothschild family, and became the stockbroker of its London branch. The larger-than-life philanthropist—he stood a remarkable 6 feet 3 inches, or 1.90 meters—devoted much of his long life, and his wealth, to aiding fellow Jews in distress, wherever they might be. To this end he visited Palestine, as this district of the Ottoman Empire was then known, seven times.