The New International Encyclopædia/Hirsch, Maurice

HIRSCH, Maurice, Baron de (Maurice de Hirsch de Gereuth) (1831-96). An Austrian Jewish financier and philanthropist. He inherited his father's wealth in 1869, and greatly increased his fortunes by his marriage to the daughter of the senior partner of the banking firm of Bischoffsheim and Goldsmid, Brussels, with whom he had become associated. He also made large sums by building railways in Rumania and Turkey. His fortune was estimated at $200,000,000, and his income at from $15,000,000 to $20,000,000 a year. He gave to charity about $100,000,000 during his life, and the Baroness de Hirsch, on her death in 1899, bequeathed about $15,000,000 to charities. These benefactions were chiefly for the alleviation of the condition of the Jews. He gave not less than $50,000,000 to the Jewish Colonization Association, by which colonies were established in the Argentine Republic. He endowed the Galician schools with $5,000,000, and in 1888 offered $10,000,000 to the Russian Government for schools, provided no distinctions of race or religion should be made in its distribution. His offer was declined. He gave $2,500,000 to establish a fund in New York for educating and Americanizing Russian and Rumanian Jews. The sum of $1,200,000 was added to this fund by the Baroness.