37 Facts About Jacob Schiff

Jacob Schiff helped finance the expansion of American railroads and the Japanese military efforts against Tsarist Russia in the Russo-Japanese War.

From his base on Wall Street, he was the foremost Jewish leader from 1880 to 1920 in what later became known as the "Jacob Schiff era", grappling with all major Jewish issues and problems of the day, including the plight of Russian Jews, American and international antisemitism, care of needy Jewish immigrants, and the rise of Zionism.

Jacob Schiff was born in 1847 in the Judengasse in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, to Moses and Clara Jacob Schiff, members of a distinguished Ashkenazi Jewish rabbinical family that traced its lineage in Frankfurt back to 1370.

One ancestor, David Tevele Jacob Schiff, became lead rabbi in Great Britain and from 1765 until his death was acting head of the London Synagogue.

Jacob Schiff was educated in the schools of Frankfurt, and was first employed in the banking and brokerage business as an apprentice in 1861.

Jacob Schiff became a naturalized citizen of the United States in September 1870.

Jacob Schiff returned to Frankfurt upon the death of his father later that year.

Jacob Schiff met with Takahashi Korekiyo, deputy governor of the Bank of Japan, in Paris in April 1904.

Jacob Schiff made this loan in part because he believed gold was not as important as national effort and desire to win a war and due to the apparent underdog status of Japan at the time-a European empire had not yet been defeated by a non-Western nation, in a modern, full-scale war.

Jacob Schiff was the first foreigner to receive the Order in person from Emperor Meiji in the Imperial Palace.

Jacob Schiff had a private audience with King Edward VII of the United Kingdom in 1904.

Jacob Schiff feared for the lives of his family, back in Germany, but for the future of his adopted land.

Jacob Schiff arranged loans to France and other nations for humanitarian purposes, and spoke out against submarine warfare.

Jacob Schiff forbade any of the funds from his loans from going to the Russian Empire, due to the Tsarist regime's oppression of the Jewish people.

However, Jacob Schiff's stance changed again upon the Bolsheviks' seizure of power:.

At home Jacob Schiff had never shown any sympathy for socialism, not even the milder Morris Hillquit variety.

Jacob Schiff had declared victory for his purposes in Russia after the tsar was toppled in March 1917 and Alexander Kerensky, representing the new provisional government, had declared Jews to be equal citizens.

When Lenin and Trotsky seized power for themselves in November 1917, Jacob Schiff immediately rejected them, cut off further loans, started funding anti-Bolshevist groups, and even demanded that the Bolsheviks pay back some of the money he'd loaned Kerensky.

Jacob Schiff joined a British-backed effort to appeal to fellow Jews in Russia to continue the fight against Germany.

Jacob Schiff always felt strongly about his connection to the Jewish people, and demonstrated this through his philanthropy.

Jacob Schiff founded the Jewish Industrial Removal Office which relocated New York immigrant Jews to the Western United States.

Jacob Schiff founded an additional point of immigrant entry to the US through Galveston, Texas.

Jacob Schiff supported relief efforts for the victims of pogroms in Russia, and helped establish and develop Hebrew Union College, the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Jewish Division in the New York Public Library, and the American Jewish Committee.

Jacob Schiff grew to be one of American Jewry's top philanthropists and leaders, donating to nearly every major Jewish cause, New York examples being the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids, of which he was president, the Young Men's Hebrew Association building and the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Jacob Schiff was actively concerned with the improvement of civic conditions in New York City.

Jacob Schiff was a vice president of the New York Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the Committee of 70 which resulted in the overthrow of the Tweed Ring.

The Action Francaise movement and its leader, Charles Maurras, claimed that Schiff was thoroughly pro-German and had worked to prevent American entry into World War I Maurras went so far as to suggest that a telegram from Schiff and other prominent American Jewish leaders convinced President Wilson to give in to certain German arguments at the post-war peace negotiations, including allowing Upper Silesia to have a plebiscite rather than being ceded to Poland.

Journalist George Kennan noted that Jacob Schiff helped finance revolutionary propaganda during the Russo-Japanese War and Revolution of 1905, through the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom.

Jacob Schiff financed the enemies of autocratic Russia and used his financial influence to keep Russia from the money markets of the United States.

Jacob Schiff died at his Fifth Avenue home in Manhattan, New York City on September 25,1920.

Jacob Schiff's funeral was held three days later at Temple Emanu-El, then located at 43rd Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

Jacob Schiff's estate was estimated at about $50,000,000.

Jacob Schiff bequeathed $1,350,000 to various institutions, most of which had received benefactions during his life.

Jacob Schiff was buried at Salem Fields Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Jacob Schiff was inducted into the Junior Achievement US Business Hall of Fame in 1982.

The Jacob Schiff Center, named after him, was a prominent Jewish cultural center and synagogue from the 1930s through at least the 1960s.

David T Schiff's son Andrew Neman Schiff was married previously to former Vice President Al Gore's daughter, Karenna.