<p>A Jewish name? If so that name must be from a second marriage and not from the marriage to Cora’s father. If Cora herself were somehow regarded as being of Jewish descent we would have heard a lot of talk about it before now among both the servants and the English high society people. An English earl marrying a Jewish foreigner in the 19th century would have been a remarkable occurrance - talked about for years and possibly held against the three daughters. </p>
<p>A Jewish Cora likely would have been viewed as only a slightly more acceptable marriage partner for His Lordship than Pamuk was for Mary.</p>
<p>^^ one would have thought, right?..I will let the wonderful people of CC figure this one out…hint: it is on the Internet so be careful of what you search if you don’t want spoilers…</p>
<p>Found it by accident last night searching for something completely unrelated…</p>
<p>Of course, it is the internet so not sure it can be believed…</p>
<p>" An English earl marrying a Jewish foreigner in the 19th century would have been a remarkable occurrance - talked about for years and possibly held against the three daughters."</p>
<p>From the Highclere Castle website about the real heiress who had the fortune to save the estate.
“Just 19 when she married the 5th Earl, Almina was actually the illegitimate daughter of Alfred de Rothschild. She arrived with a stupendous dowry and the book moves on to uncover many fascinating stories on life, both upstairs and downstairs, at the Castle during Edwardian times. She attended the funeral of Queen Victoria, the coronation of Edward VII and all the other grand and royal events.”</p>
<p>Wikipedia about the Rothschilds for those who need it.
The Rothschild family (German: [ˈʁoːt.ʃɪlt], French:*[ʁɔt.ʃild]), known as The House of Rothschild,[1] or more simply as the Rothschilds, is a European dynasty, of German-Jewish origin, that established European banking and finance houses starting in the late 18th century. Five lines of the Austrian branch of the family have been elevated to Austrian nobility, being given hereditary baronies of the Habsburg Empire by Emperor Francis II in 1816. Another line, of the British branch of the family, was elevated to British nobility at the request of Queen Victoria.[2][3] During the 1800s, the family is believed to have possessed by far the largest private fortune in the world as well as by far the largest fortune in modern world history.[3][4][5] Today, Rothschild businesses are on smaller scale than they were throughout the 19th century, although they encompass a diverse range of fields, including: private asset management, financial advice, mixed farming, wine, and charities.[6][7]</p>
<p>Seems like money was pretty equal-opportunity if it saved the WASP estate.</p>
<p>No, I was thinking that as well. The way to free Bates is to have some criminal who has been convicted of another murder confess that he also killed Vera ----- but doesn’t know who hired him other than the middleman who is either dead or can’t be found. Condemned confessor will hang, but the legitimate doubt created forces the courts to release Bates. Easy to imagine that Sir Richard would take that step to protect the reputation of the woman he expected to marry. But hard to prove, so he can stay on as a character.</p>
<p>There was a point when I thought they would pin the murder on Anna, but she is too well liked as a character. They can’t free Bates without jailing Anna and that is just not going to fly. </p>
<p>I thought it was a mistake to eliminate Nigel Havers as a character so quickly — and such a cliche to have him throw away a lucrative marriage by dallying with the maid. Would have preferred they stretch it out through multiple seasons — they marry, have a loving relationship…but he’s later proved to be a dog. Maybe even have the marriage endure despite the infidelities. It’s been known to happen.</p>
<p>Almina may have been the illegitimate daughter of Alfred Rothschild - making her, I suppose, genetically part Jewish (whatever that means). But Rothschild never acknowledged paternity. Nor was Almina in any way born or raised Jewish. She was born and raised as the daughter of Marie Wombwell and Captain Frederick Charles Wombwell and was given the name of Almina Victoria Maria Alexandra Wombwell. </p>
<p>Despite her widely rumored biological father, Almina was legally and socially regarded as Christian. Any English lord marrying her would not have had to deal with the social issues that would result from marrying a Jewish person in 19th century England.</p>
<p>IIRC, Edwina, wife of Earl Mountbatten, had Jewish ancestry and was an heiress. Of course, Mountbatten was Prince Phillip’s uncle. So a Jewish connection is not unheard of even close to the royal family.</p>
<p>I got the impression the maid-dallying started before his approach to Lady Rosamund. It seemed to me the maid got involved with Lord Hepworth, and then she got a job with Lady Rosamund and urged Lord Hepworth to pursue her. Recall she had only been working for Lady Rosamund for two months.</p>
<p>How would someone from Downton have gotten to London to kill Vera and back again without being noticed? And Bates returned on the train the next day, so he would have noticed someone from Downton returning at the same time. Also getting to the train station and back? </p>
<p>Lady Violet line that made me laugh out loud…
At the servants’ ball, Thomas asks her to dance.</p>
<p>Thomas: Your ladyship, may I have the honor of this dance?
Lady Violet:Well yes, as it is a Waltz. I’m far too old for that awful Fox Trot
Thomas: What about the Black Bottom,my Lady?
Lady Violet: Just keep me upright and we’ll try to avoid it.</p>
<p>No, no big scandal to be Jewish, as it turns out. From official website of Masterpiece Classics: “CORA, COUNTESS OF GRANTHAM
Cora is the beautiful daughter of Isidore Levinson, a dry goods multi millionaire from Cincinnati. She arrived in England with her mother in 1888 at the age of 20, and was engaged to Robert by the end of her first season.”
The character was based on a real-life figure. Don’t have her name right now, but I will look it up. </p>
<p>What this and the “suck it up” discussion show, I think, is that it’s good to be prudent about making assumptions about another time & place.</p>
<p>Scandal may not be the right word, but you have to ignore an awful of of history to think that there were no social or legal penalties associated with being Jewish in 19th century Britain. Heck, it was specifically illegal for Jewish Brits to serve in Parliament until 1858 when a special law was passed to permit one of the Rothschilds to serve. Disraeli was able to get into Parliament prior to that, despite being born into a Jewish family, only by virtue of having been baptized a Christian at age 12.</p>
<p>In any case, if Cora is in fact Jewish, I wonder if that means Shirley McLaine is going to play that up - come on like Streisand in Funny Girl - fast-talking, thick Jewish-American accent, and fitting some sort of stereotype of a wealthy American Jewish woman of the early 20th century?</p>
<p>Wouldn’t London society already have known Cora was Jewish? She had a London season, as a beautiful young debutante named Levinson. It can’t be a huge shock that she is Jewish.</p>
<p>Did wealthy Jews really have summer “cottages” (mansions) in Newport, Rhode Island, during the Gilded Age, as Cora’s family was supposed to have done?</p>