Background
Born in Spain into a Marrano family originally from Portugal, he and his mother settled in Bordeaux.
Born in Spain into a Marrano family originally from Portugal, he and his mother settled in Bordeaux.
France, in 1741 after his father’s death. From age nineteen he became interested in the education of deaf-mutes. He also began studying Hebrew and returned to Judaism.
In July 1746 he became the tutor of a young deaf-mute whom he followed to Caen. Although his first student was over sixteen, his progress was so striking that the prior of the Benedictine abbey of Beaumont convened a meeting at Caen to discuss the education of deaf-mutes. Percire sent the minutes of the meeting to the physicist René-Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, v’ho transmitted the document to the Royal Academy of Science in Paris. Péreire's findings were reported on eleven pages of an issue ol the Mercure de France and in his Histoire naturelle, Georg-Louis Leclerc dc Buffon wrote a long passage about Péreire’s success.
In 1749, Péreire, with his brother and sister, who assisted him in his work, as well as his student, settled in Paris, where he was presented to Louis XV. The king, the crown prince, and Madame de Pompadour became very interested in Pereire’s student. One of his pupils, Marie Marois, after studying for almost twenty years, almost reached the level of normality in speech through lip-reading and called herself “the once deaf-mute.” Others attempted to imitate his educational methods but were less successful. Pereire was close to the court and was the king’s interpreter in Spanish and Portuguese. His protector at court was Count Saint Florentin, the queen’s chancellor and minister of the royal household in charge of Protestant and Jewish affairs. The war minister, Count d’Argen-son, who was also a member of the Academy of Science, sent Pereire eight-hundred livres on behalf of the king for his invention of a calculating machine, and a year later the king made the same sum an annuity. As a scientist, Pereire also worked to make sailing boats more speedy. He was elected a member ol the Royal Academy of London. His fame also brought him enemies and he was the butt of anonymous letters. A communal Jewish leader, he was appointed agent of the “Portuguese nation" (i.e., the Jews of Portuguese descent) and was active in defending their rights.
Rabbi Hayim Joseph David Azulai of Hebron wrote in his notes that Pereire had guided him through libraries of Paris and that everywhere he went he was received with great regard. Azulai expressed his admiration for Pereire’s pedagogical work with deaf-mutes, for his intelligence and for his attachment to Jewish tradition.
His grandsons, Jacob Emile and Isaac Pereire promoted his methods and perpetuated his memory. They themselves played an important role in the economic life of Paris, founding the Compagnie Transatlantique and the first railroads in France.