Max and Gladys Rothschild Scholarship Fund

What is the Max and Gladys Rothschild Scholarship Fund?

One of last year’s recipients has recently sent us this update:

I want to express my sincere gratitude to B’nai B’rith UK for awarding me the Rothschild Scholarship. Your support has been invaluable throughout this challenging year and has significantly contributed to my success at Imperial. 

Thanks to this achievement, I have decided to pursue a PhD degree. I have returned to Israel, where I will be conducting my PhD research at Tel Aviv University, also in mechanical engineering. 

Thank you once again for your support.

Information for intending applicants

Awards worth up to £5,000 are offered to applicants who are full-time final year undergraduate and postgraduate students at a university studying Civil Engineering or other Pure or Applied Sciences, and who can demonstrate outstanding academic credentials, significant financial need and a clear financial plan.

Awards scheme background

In 1993, Max Rothschild wrote from his home in Bath to the B’nai B’rith office in London telling his story of how, during the 1930’s in Czechoslovakia, his father, Treasurer of B’nai B’rith in the small Bohemian spa of Teplice, had died at an early age, leaving the family virtually penniless. To help him continue his studies in Prague, B’nai B’rith had assisted him financially and thanks to their help, he had been able to stay at College and qualify in his engineering studies. He concluded his letter memorably ‘I am now in a position to repay this kindness’.

In 1939, Max Rothschild, seeing how events were unfolding in Czechoslovakia, escaped from his homeland to Poland and eventually made his way to England. There he made his home and became a Chief Engineer with a major building contractor.

B’nai B’rith fulfilled his wish to set up a Scholarship scheme, which was created in 1994 to help Jewish students, thereby repaying his strongly felt obligation many times over and for years to come. Charity comes in many forms, but there cannot be many instances where a recipient of charity not only does not forget the help he received 60 years previously, but seeks to repay the gift in such a generous fashion.

Max Rothschild died in January 2005 at the age of 94. In accordance with his wishes, his ashes were subsequently interred in the family plot in the Jewish cemetery in his home town of Teplice, in the Czech Republic.

How to apply

To make an application first download and read our Information for Applicants. Then download the form, save it to your computer and complete it and send it together with your CV and references to the address provided by the end of June.

Download the Information for Applicants (Please read first before applying)
Download the Application Form