New York.”^91 Clearly, even as homesteaders Jews failed to erase anti-Jewish
stereotypes.
Schiff readily lent his support to early relief organizations that endorsed
schemes for turning Jews into farmers. Even before the creation of the
Baron de Hirsch Fund, he served for a short time on the Committee of Ag-
ricultural Pursuits of the UAHC, whose purpose was to subsidize would-be
independent Jewish farmers. Toward that same end he urged Baron de
Hirsch to establish agricultural credit banks, an idea that later blossomed
into the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society. Through the
Hirsch Fund, he pushed for the establishment of a colony in Woodbine,
New Jersey, one that he optimistically envisioned as the model for a string
of settlements in various states. Well aware of the lack of American Jewish
funds for such undertakings—in essence New York money—he repeatedly
pleaded with ICA to support colonization and agricultural training for the
new immigrants.^92
Schiff cheered on the farmer, and so did other established Jews. When
the Federation of American Jewish Farmers held its second convention in
1910, the American Israelite pointed admiringly to the “good color,” “firm
step,” and “independent air” of those who had declared “their emancipa-
tion from the thralldom of city life.”^93 The objective observer might well
wonder why the same established Jews had totally ignored their own urban
“thralldom.”
Colonization in the West was especially exciting to Schiff. The potential
of the yet unknown hinterland for immigrant settlement meshed with his
expanding business investments, and the banker communicated his enthu-
siasm to railroad magnate James Hill. Hill was not only a sympathetic
friend, but, like Schiff, he understood that settlements in the northwestern
states would increase the profits of his lines. When Schiff asked him in
1891 to consider the practicality of a colony in Minnesota, Hill responded
immediately. He planned out a settlement of forty families under the
supervision of a small committee of prominent Jews from the Twin Cities
on land that he owned in Milaca. A grateful Schiff promised that the
Hirsch Fund, which gave him and Hill carte blanche on arrangements,
would send only the “best” Russians. “These Russian emigrants,” he as-
sured Hill, “are, in the main, a sturdy race, thrifty, and anxious to work, and
if they are only started in the right manner, they are sure to become suc-
cessful.” Hill set the plans into motion: forty small houses were built and a
supervisory committee was organized. But the venture was abandoned
midstream after a critical investigative report by the fund.^94
Despite his business acuity, Schiff failed to acknowledge at the outset
that colonization was a losing proposition. Many of the sites were unsuit-
able, and capital was scarce. The newcomers were neither ripe for re-
cruitment nor willing to become, as one critic put it, “a contented Jewish
118 Jacob H. Schiff