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Jacob Schiff

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Jacob Henry Schiff, born Jacob Hirsch Schiff (January
10, 1847 – September
25, 1920) was a
German-born New
York City banker and philanthropist, who financed, among many other things, the
Japanese military
efforts against Tsarist Russia in the Russo-Japanese War.
He was part of a wealthy and powerful circle that included the Warburgs and Rothschilds.

From his base on Wall Street, he was the
foremost Jewish leader in what became known as the "Schiff era," grappling with
all major issues and problems of the day, including the plight of Russian Jews
under the czar, American and
international anti-Semitism, care of needy Jewish immigrants, and the rise of Zionism. He also
became the director in many important corporations, including the New York City
National Bank, the Equitable
Life Assurance Society, and the Union Pacific
Railroad.

He was born in Frankfort-on-Main,
Germany to a distinguished rabbinical family that traced its lineage in Frankfort back
to 1370. In 1865, Schiff moved to
the US at the age of 18. After several banking jobs, he eventually became the
head of the banking firm of Kuhn, Loeb &
Co., which grew to become "one of the two most influential private
international banking houses on the Western Hemisphere" (Adler 8). Schiff always
felt strongly about his connection to the Jewish people, and showed this
through his philanthropy. He supported relief efforts for the victims of pogroms
in Russia, and helped establish and develop Hebrew Union
College, the Jewish
Theological Seminary, and the Jewish Division in the New York Public
Library. However, he also financed many major American projects, believing
strongly in the need to further develop and bring together the US. To this end,
he reorganized the bankrupt Union Pacific
Railroad in 1897, as well as a number of other railroad companies.

Schiff grew to be one of American Jewry's top philanthropists and leaders,
donating to nearly every major Jewish cause, as well as many secular American
causes, and a number of other organizations for civil rights and the
disadvantaged, such as the American Red Cross
and Tuskegee Institute.
He also played a role in the municipal affairs of New York City, and worked
to shrink the reliance on machine bureaucracy in this arena.

During the Russo-Japanese War,
in 1904 and 1905, in perhaps his
most famous financial action, Schiff, again through Kuhn, Loeb & Co.,
extended a critical series of loans to Japan, in the amount of $200
million. He was willing to extend this loan due, in part, to his belief that
gold is not as important as national effort and desire, in helping win a war,
and due to the apparent underdog status of Japan at the time; no European nation
had ever been defeated by a non-European nation before then. It is quite likely
Schiff also saw this loan as a means of taking revenge, on behalf of the Jewish
people, for the anti-Semitic actions of the Tsarist regime, specifically the
then-recent pogroms in Kishinev.

This loan attracted worldwide attention, and had major consequences. Japan won the war, and
elements of its government mistakenly took this as evidence of the power of Jews
all around the world, of their loyalty to one another, and as proof of the truth
of the Protocols of
the Elders of Zion. This thinking later led to the failed Fugu Plan,
which would have saved many thousands of Jews from the Holocaust, bringing them to
Japan-controlled China to work for the benefit of
Japan's economy. In any case, Schiff was conferred the Second Order of the
Sacred Treasures of Japan by Emperor Meiji,
becoming one of the first foreigners to be offered this rare honor. He was also
invited to a private audience in 1904 with King Edward
VII of England.

In addition to his famous loan to Japan, Schiff financed loans to many other
nations, including those that would come to comprise the Central Powers. When World War
I finally did break out, he used his reputation and influence to urge
President Woodrow Wilson, and
others, to put an end to the war as quickly as possible, even without an Allied
victory. He feared for the lives of his family, back in Germany, but also for
the future of his adopted land. He engineered loans to France, and other nations
for humanitarian purposes, and spoke out against submarine warfare.

Over the years, before, during, and after World War I, his firm extended
loans to many nations all around the world, but Schiff made sure none of the
funds ever went to Russia, which continued to severely oppress the Jewish
people. When the Tsar's government
fell in 1917, Schiff
believed that the oppression of Jews (and other peoples) would end. He became
sympathetic for Alexander Kerensky's
government, and formally repealed the impediments within his firm against
lending to Russia. Of course, once the policies and doctrines of Lenin's and Trotsky's Soviet government
became apparent, Schiff once more became bitterly opposed to aiding Russia in
any way.

Perhaps surprisingly, Schiff stood opposed to political, secular Zionism. He
claimed to identify with Jews by faith, not by race. However, despite not
agreeing fully with the ideas of Theodore Herzl, and in
fact believing that Zionism was not compatible with American citizenship, he
donated to many Jewish projects in Palestine,
including the Technical Institute of Haifa.
As the situation for Eastern European Jews grew more dire, with the Russian
Revolution, and pogroms in Ukraine, Schiff made more
considerable contributions to the Zionist effort; he even offered to join the
Zionist organization, provided he could publish a statement he'd prepared. This
offer was denied, and so he never formally joined the Zionist camp.

Schiff fell ill and died in the autumn of 1920.

Contents

1 Schiff in conspiracy and
fiction

2 Family

3 References

4 External links

[edit]

Schiff in conspiracy and fiction

Due to his fame, his wealth and power, and the large number of causes,
events, and organizations he was involved in, Jacob Schiff has been incorporated
into many conspiracy theories,
most inspired in large part by the Protocols of
the Elders of Zion. He is accused, along with the Rothschilds, Warburgs and
others, of being one of the leaders of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy to dominate
the economies, and therefore the governments, of the world. In truth, he did
play a significant role in the election campaign of Woodrow Wilson in 1912, and spoke directly
to Presidents Wilson and Roosevelt on several
occasions, and he met personally with King Edward VII of England and Emperor
Meiji of Japan. His loans to Japan and other nations, along with his
contributions to countless companies and organizations around the world made him
a ready target for anti-Semitic conspiracy
theories.

Ironically, he has also, in other texts, been accused of being an
anti-Semite, and anti-American, due to his support of the Russian Communists.
Schiff demonstrated time after time his dedication not only to the Jewish
community, but also to his adopted homeland of America. Over the course of his
lifetime, Schiff donated many hundreds of thousands of dollars to American
corporations and organizations, and to Jewish causes in the US, Palestine, and
around the world.

[edit]

Family

Wife: Therese

Children: Mortimer Schiff; Frieda Warburg, nee Schiff

Father: Moses Schiff

Mother: Clara Schiff, nee Niederhofheim

[edit]

References

Adler, Cyrus (1921).
"Jacob Henry Schiff: A Biographical Sketch." New York: The American Jewish
Committee.

Brody,
Seymour (1996). "Jacob Henry Schiff". Virtual
Jewish Library. Accessed 21 Jan 2005.

Cohen, Naomi W. (1999). "Jacob H. Schiff". Brandeis
University Press

[edit]

External links

Jewish
Encyclopedia

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Schiff"

Categories:
Bankers | 1847 births
| 1920
deaths

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This page was last modified 09:01, 23 February 2006.

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