McManus 168

Daniel Joseph Jaffe  founded Jaffe brothers, linen and yarn merchants, in 1845 in Dundee. ^[5] Originally from Hamburg he was born in Schwerin in 1809^[6] and died in Nice in 1874^[7][8]. He is buried in Belfast City cemetery^[9]. There is a memorial fountain in Victoria Square, Belfast, commemorating Daniel J Jaffe for the important role he played in the development of the linen trade in Ulster and also as the benefactor of the first synagogue in Belfast.^[10] This fountain and a further memorial on the Falls Road in Belfast were erected in 1874 by his son, Otto Jaffe,who was the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Belfast.^[11] In his obituary Daniel is described as a man of “high integrity, indomitable zeal and perseverance“.

The company is listed as one of prominent Jewish Merchants, with the founders arriving in Dundee in the 1840s to establish their business, four decades before other Jewish communities in Scotland began to arrive from Eastern Europe.^[12]

Jaffe Brothers had extensive interests worldwide in the trading of linen and other yarns with houses in Paris, New York, Hamburg, Leipzig and Belfast. ^[13]

Jaffe Brothers erected in the Seagate “a magnificent warehouse, with splendid counting-rooms and other conveniences for carrying on their extensive business“^[14]. The development of the new premises in the Seagate in 1863 resulted in an extensive article in the local press giving an in depth description of the building. The architect for the premises was Mr McLaren and the work was overseen by Mr J. H. Luis, the managing partner in Dundee. On the opening of the new premises clerks and upper employees were treated to a supper in the Royal Hotel, while those working in the packing house, and their families, were treated to supper in Lambs Hotel. ^[13]

The company was philanthropic in nature and donated over the years to charitable institutions within Dundee and beyond, for example, the Lochee Soup Kitchen^[15],  the Indian Relief Fund^[16] and the Dundee Royal Infirmary^[17].