Anna Maria Goldsmid benefactor and translator, was the eldest child of Isaac Lyon Goldsmid

Isaac Lyon Goldsmid

Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, Baronet was a financier and one of the leading figures in the Jewish emancipation in the United Kingdom....

 and the sister of Sir Francis Henry Goldsmid

Goldsmid

Goldsmid is the name of a family of Anglo-Jewish bankers who sprang from Aaron Goldsmid , a Dutch merchant who settled in England about 1763. Two of his sons, Benjamin Goldsmid and Abraham Goldsmid Goldsmid is the name of a family of Anglo-Jewish bankers who sprang from Aaron Goldsmid (died 1782),...

.

Privately educated, she was an expert linguist, studying Italian with Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, and was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement,...

. She also learnt French, German and Hebrew, studying the latter with Hyman Hurwitz

Hyman Hurwitz

Hyman Hurwitz , was a learned Jew who became first professor of Hebrew at University College, London. He was born in Poznan, Poland in 1770, came to England about 1797 and conducted a private academy for Jews at Highgate, where he established a close friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge and...

. Her English literary tutor was Thomas Campbell.

Devoted to her father, she helped him in his work, notably the establishment of University College, London and the West London Synagogue

West London Synagogue

The West London Synagogue of British Jews was established on 15 April 1840. It is one of the oldest synagogues in the United Kingdom and the oldest Reform synagogue in the UK.-History:...

.

Born an Orthodox Jewess, she remained throughout her life very observant. However, she resented the powerlessness of women in Orthodox synagogues, and supported the West London Synagogue in the hope that it would give women a more active role in Jewish religious life.

Anna Maria Goldsmid devoted much time to educational matters, in which she developed a nationally recognised expertise. She founded the Jews' infants' school, London (1841), and re-established the Jews' Deaf and Dumb Home (1863). She was a patroness of University College Hospital and the Homoeopathic Hospital, both in London.

Publications

• English translation, entitled "The Development of the Religious Idea", of a book by the noted German Reform Jew, Ludwig Philippsohn (1855)
• English translation, entitled "The Deicides: Analysis of the Life of Jesus", of the refutation, by J. Cohen of Marseilles, of the view that the Jews were Christ-killers (1872)
• Translation into English of the Prussian educational code (1872)
• Many pamphlets on educational questions

See also

• Goldsmid
  Goldsmid
  Goldsmid is the name of a family of Anglo-Jewish bankers who sprang from Aaron Goldsmid , a Dutch merchant who settled in England about 1763. Two of his sons, Benjamin Goldsmid and Abraham Goldsmid Goldsmid is the name of a family of Anglo-Jewish bankers who sprang from Aaron Goldsmid (died 1782),...
  
   – article about the Goldsmid family
• History of the Jews in England
  History of the Jews in England
  The history of the Jews in England goes back to the reign of William I. The first written record of Jewish settlement in England dates from 1070, although Jews may have lived there since Roman times...
  
  
• German Reform movement (Judaism)
  German Reform movement (Judaism)
  The German Reform movement in Judaism identifies a period of disputes and innovation during the first two thirds of the 19th century. The ideas, practices, and debates of this period lead to the current denominational structure of Judaism....