August 25, 1839

Evelina Gertrude de Rothschild (August 25, 1839 to December 4, 1866) was the daughter of Baron Lionel de Rothschild. After her early death, her family memorialized the life of this English socialite and adored wife and daughter, by setting up a school in Jerusalem, a school for girls.

The story of that school is told by Laura Schorr in The Best School in Jerusalem: Annie Landau's School for Girls, 1900-1960 (2013). According to one review:

Schor’s book reveals how during the first half of the century, Landau transformed a starving, amulet-wearing, rag-tag group of girls into British-Jewish schoolchildren who would feel at home anywhere in the world. By insisting on things like punctuality and cleanliness—and the English language—Annie Landau brought modernity to the girls of Palestine.

We quote, from this book, an example of Landau's teaching methods:

....[T]he Evelina de Rothschild School League for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals... had its origins in England's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA)...[This school club] soon had eighty members, each of whom paid a half-penny a month and wore a badge. The members promised to be kind to every living thing; in a city where stray cats were ignored and camels were beaten, this was a decidedly new idea. The girls wrote essays on kindness to helpless creatures and read them at their monthly meetings.

Laura Schorr tells a fascinating story very well.