The greater part of the archive consists of some 350 letters written to Sir Moses Montefiore between the early 1820s and his death in 1885. These reflect his deep involvement in political aspects of Jewish affairs and include letters from the Foreign Office lending support in his efforts to defend Jews in peril and generally to enhance their lives. There is a range of diaries and travel reports - the earliest dated 1827 - by Sir Moses, Lady Judith and others, which equally shed light on his involvement in international Jewish matters. Of particular interest is his own report on a journey to Russia in 1872 to intercede with Tsar Alexander II on behalf of Jews.
The archive also contains extensive documentation on the ‘Damascus Affair’, in which Jews were accused in 1840 of the ritual murder of a Capuchin, Father Tomaso, and also on the ‘Mortara Case’, concerning a secretly baptized Jewish boy who was kidnapped in 1858 by pontifical gendarmes and sent to the House of the Catechumens in Rome to receive a Christian education. Sir Moses’s intervention in Damascus resulted in a Firman being issued by the Sultan of Constantinople disclaiming the ritual-murder calumny and assuring protection for the Jews. Sir Moses’s attempt to obtain an audience with the Pope and gain the release of Edgardo Mortara met with failure.
Other political documents include letters from King Louis Philippe of France and Prince Carol of Romania. Various items highlight Sir Moses’s proverbial charity, most particularly the documentation around the ‘Jerusalem Appeal’ for the poor in the Holy Land and the records concerning the founding of the Jerusalem hospital. His role in Anglo-Jewish affairs is evident from letters from David Meldola (1797-1853), Haham (chief rabbi) of the Sephardi community in London, and from Rabbi Solomon Hirschel (1762-1842), the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, who wrote to Sir Moses in his capacity as President of the London Committee of Deputies of the British Jews.
There are also letters from the office of Hirschel’s successor, Chief Rabbi Nathan Adler. The archive contains some copies of letters written by Sir Moses, but also a list of all letters posted between 1859 and 1862, indicating the wide range of people with whom he was in contact.
There are also several liturgical Orders of Services, such as on the dedication of the Ramsgate Synagogue or the one on safe return of Sir Moses from a journey abroad. Much of this material has not been published.
The archive contains very little Hebraica and Judaica.