Welcome to the Scottish Right Journal podcast and audio presentation of the Scottish Righte Journal, brought to you by the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite Southern Jurisdiction Mother Supreme Council of the World.

This week's article is Sir Moses Montefiori, Freemason visiting the Montefiori Synagogue, Ramsgate, England, by Brother Jonathan R.

Corbett, Master Mason and read by Brother Hank Griffin, thirty second degree k c H and comes from the November December twenty twenty five issue of the Scottish Rite Journal.

Great lights are born in every age, and in this spirit we recall the long and wonderful life of Sir Moses Montefiore seventeen eighty four to eighteen eighty five and enthusiastic freemason of Sephardi heritage.

Sir Moses hailed from the Tuscan city of Liverona, renowned for its spirit of tolerance, where you bush communal life had been well established since the late sixteenth century.

He visited the Holy Land no fewer than seven times, where both his time and assets were generously allocated to alleviate grinding poverty.

Imbued with love and passion for Jerusalem, Sir Moses was instrumental in providing charity, uplift and practical help for all in the ancient capital and beyond.

His pioneering work helped lay firm foundations for the renewal of the city and the country.

His love for humanity saw expression in his respect, compassion, and understanding for all.

Having secured an elusive license to trade, Sir Moses acquired considerable wealth on the London Stock Exchange, and upon turning age forty in eighteen twenty four, he was able to retire from active business.

Striving tirelessly for truth and justice, he devoted his time to social issues in England, while also supporting Jewish communities in Russia, Italy, Romania, Morocco and the Ottoman Empire.

United by Queen Victoria in eighteen thirty eight, he was raised in eighteen forty six to the rank of Baron, received with honor by kings and potentates as an official representative of the crown.

He calls to mind these words of wisdom and Proverbs twenty two twenty nine, seest thou a man diligent in his business?

He shall stand before Kings.

In eighteen thirty one, Monty, as his wife Judith affectionately called him, bought Eastcliff Lodge, near the Kentish port of Ramsgate, a modern Gothic style country villa on a large estate with a view overlooking the sea.

Nestled in England's southeast corner, this coastal retreat provided the couple with much needed respite and a place of reflection from the hustle and bustle of London.

Ambling along Honeysuckle Road, a stone's throw away from where their villa once stood, I was greeted by the melifiluriously entrancing sounds of woodfowl in the verdant canopy above.

How serene and beautiful it must have been for the couple to have followed this very path every Saturday morning without the imposing audio intrusions of today's modern world.

Typical of the English gentry at the time, the Montefiorees too desired their own private chapel and engaged David Alfred Macatta, who had studied in London for five years under brother Sir John Swayne, a cousin of Monty and the first ever Anglo Jewish architect David designed and built the Estate Synagogue, a plain but dignified Regency style building, rectangular in plan, with whitewashed stucco walls and a unique chiming clock on its facade.

At a private ceremony on July thirty, eighteen thirty one, following the Sabbath, Sir Moses placed the first two bricks of the escolon and sprinkled Terra Santa nearest to where the Holy Ark would later reside.

With mortar spread.

He fixed the bricks to prosper this undertaking and to bless all those assembled.

The foundation stone was laid shortly after on August nine, with construction spanning two years.

Set within a semicircular porchway or alcove in the east, resides the Holy Arc, guarded by two tapered doors, and flanked, perhaps in memory of King Solomon's Temple, by two robust columns two interior pillars, their capitals adorned with symbolic Egyptian lotus buds, are crowned by a regal pediment.

The small prayer hal is seated with oak pews, and in the center stands the reader's desk, where the weekly portion of the torah would be intoned, defined by canted corners.

The walls of the splendid interior are lined with pink, gray and cream marble.

The visitor's attention is drawn to the stained glass windows above, while candle operas and chandeliers supplement the natural light, with the additional illumination being provided by an octagonal linen shaped skylight of red and opaque glass.

The upper gallery, beckoning on to the sanctuary below, features a masher rabia like latticed screen.

An almost translucent window above the holy art displays the tablets of the Decalogue, resplendent in their full majesty by the light of the early morn.

In eighteen eighty four, a local holiday was declared in Ramsgate in celebration of Sirmo Moses attaining his one hundredth year.

The streets were festooned with fancy flags and lights.

Queen Victorious in her beloved lifelong friend a telegram from Biomoral Castle expressing her heartfelt congratulations.

The festive mood was further enhanced by the provision of relief to needy townsfolk.

An official banquet was held at the town hall, and later that evening a torchlit procession headed to the Montefiori residence, where from his bedroom window Sir Moses could view a fireworks display in his honor.

Brother Moses was initiated at the Memorial Lodge number ninety two in London in eighteen twelve.

Just ten years earlier, his brother in law Nathan Meyer Rothschild was initiated in emulation Lodge number twelve of the Premier Grand Lodge of England.

Mason's the world over since Sir Moses their birthday greetings and ten testimonials.

One such was received from the worshipful Company of Merchant Tailors of the Fraternity of Saint John the Baptist, to which Sir Moses had donated funds to purchase a medal for excellence in the Classics and Hebrew.

Sir Moses also wrote a long and emotional letter expressing his thanks to the Lodge of Israel number two five in London, which by resolution was printed and sent to every member of the Love In July eighteen eighty five.

Sir Moses, his life marked by strength, measured by perseverance, and lived to completion, departed this ram likened to a heavenly light guided by wisdom he succeeded in his undertakings, overcoming the vicissitudes of the age.

Exemplary and conduct considerate in thought ISAs inactions, His soul a candle of the divine, a glow radiated that unique beauty within to the world, without repairing a place where the glorious presence of Deity and dwell.

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The Scottish Right Journal is published by the Supreme Council of the Scottish Righte Southern Jurisdiction Mother Supreme Council of the World.

Mark Dreisenstock, thirty third degree, Managing Editor, Thanks for listening.