A notable example would be the Sassoon family, who were wealthy Jewish financiers originally from Baghdad. The patriarch of the English branch, Albert Sassoon, settled in London in 1875 (after a stint in Bombay) and received a baronetcy in 1890. Albert’s son Edward married Aline de Rothschild in 1887. Edward was one of nine Jewish MPs when he was first elected to the House of Commons in 1899. The children of Edward and Aline, Philip and Sybil, became firmly ensconced in the upper classes of Britain in the beginning of the twentieth century.

Sybil married George Rocksavage, heir of the Marquess of Cholmondeley, in 1913 and later served as an officer in the Women’s Royal Navy Service during the Second World War. She was châtelaine of the famous Houghton Hall for over 70 years.

Philip served as an aide to Field Marshall Haig during the First World War, became the youngest MP in the House in 1912 and later Under-Secretary of State for Air and First Commissioner of Works before his untimely death from influenza at the age of 50 in 1939. An avid pilot, the account of his pioneering flight from the UK to India and back (published in 1929 as The Third Route) is fascinating.

Though treated as an outsider because of his sexuality, religion and, most especially, his race, the tremendous wealth of the Sassoon family opened nearly all doors for Philip. He was part of the inner circle of the Prince of Wales, regularly hosting him at his home at Trent Park. Guests at Philip’s weekend house parties, which included Winston Churchill, George Bernard Shaw, and the Duke of York, would be treated to the finest food and wine, rides in his personal fleet of airplanes, elaborate fireworks displays and scandalous sights including “ladies with painted toenails” in one of his luxurious homes.

But the public acceptance of his lavish hospitality contrasts with private disdain for the “Oriental” Philip in the diaries and correspondence of his acquaintances. References to his “exotic” and “mysterious” features and habits abound, as do caricatures emphasizing his racial otherness. Other established Jewish families in England, such as the Samuels and Montagus, did not face the same sort of discrimination as the Sassoons due to their less-objectionable Continental origins.

While antisemitism and homophobia certainly existed to some degree among the social classes in which Philip mixed, he was largely singled out on account of his race, as recent biographers, drawing upon unpublished diaries and letters, have made clear. The immense fortune of the Sassoons could overcome many things—including but not limited to exclusion from politics, military service, trade and commerce and high society—but not, it seems, personal prejudice.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Sassoon family, I suggest reading:

Collins, Damian. Charmed Life: The Phenomenal World of Philip Sassoon. New York: United Kingdom: HarperCollins Publishers, 2016.

Stansky, Peter. Sassoon: the worlds of Philip and Sybil. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.