Carlo Pellegrini · Public domain

Became the first practising Jew to sit in the British House of Commons, elected in 1847 but barred from taking his seat for over a decade because the parliamentary oath required a Christian affirmation — he was finally seated in 1858 after Parliament changed the rule. Beyond that milestone, he co-founded the British Relief Association, which raised over £500,000 as the largest private provider of famine relief in Ireland and the Scottish Highlands.