The 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 First World War the Evelina was the 'best Jewish Girls School in Palestine', according to the Military Governor of Jerusalem.