Lady Jane Digby and the Jews
The most infamous English society lady of her day: Jane Digby (or Lady Ellenborough) was a legend in her own lifetime as both a supreme beauty (of the blonde-haired blue-eyed variety) and an enfant terrible. She was also one of the most original of all free-spirited women I have come across in history.
She knew herself, she knew what she wanted but she remained a true romantic at heart, which lead to her exploitation by numerous aristocratic men (as well as several Bedouin leaders) schooled in the art of charming women into their beds.
What I wanted to briefly point out here is during the latter part of her life (with the exception of her strong relationship with King Ludwig of Bavaria who was somewhat anti-jewish) (1) and her close friendship with Sir Richard and Isabel Burton in Damascus: (2) she appears to have developed some form of anti-jewish sentiment probably as the result of her experiences fighting off a howling Muslim mob that was baying for Christian blood (European, Arab or otherwise) and was give official Turkish state support was prominent. (3)
That support is important, because jews were in evidence as senior members of the particular state infrastructure involved with the most notable being the Farhi family of Damascus who controlled the financial affairs of all of Syria. (4)
This is in addition to as the recall of Richard Burton after he ruffled the feathers of several local European missionaries by being too honest with them (5) as well as angering several local jewish financiers (6) (of which Jane was too well aware), (7) because he stood up for the Greek Christians who the jewish financiers were heavily exploiting with predatory business practices.
The jewish financiers - led by David Harari - then used their jewish connections in London to successfully get Burton recalled in disgrace by the British government. (8)
It all just does to show that anti-jewish is sentiment is usually the product of experience of the behaviour of jews rather than ignorance!
References
(1) Margaret Fox Schmidt, 1976, 'Passion's Child: The Extraordinary Life of Jane Digby', 1st Edition, Harper & Row: New York, p. 112
(2) Mary Lovell,1996, 'A Scandalous Life: The Biography of Jane Digby', 1st Edition, Fourth Estate: New York, pp. 287-299
(3) Ibid., pp. 245-251
(4) Benjamin Ginsberg, 1993, 'The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State', 1st Edition, University of Chicago Press: Chicago, pp. 15-16
(5) Lovell, Op. Cit., pp. 297-298
(6) Jon Godsall, 2008, 'The Tangled Web: A Life of Sir Richard Burton', 1st Edition, Matador: Leicester, p. 289
(7) Fox Schmidt, Op. Cit., pp. 273-274
(8) Godsall, Op. Cit., pp. 290-291