non-Jews and feature non-Jewish speakers.^21 Relying primarily on the
government and on Christian public opinion, he and his associates never
thought of mobilizing a community-wide Jewish effort in response to
Kishinev.
Barely had the uproar over Kishinev subsided when concerned Ameri-
can Jews were angered by a series of articles on the Russian situation by a
British journalist, Arnold White. Inspired by his anti-Semitism and by pro-
czarist motives, White presented a blend of anti-Semitic imagery—how
the western Jews controlled the press and world finance; how the eastern
Jew, the ubiquitous usurer, differed racially from his countrymen—with
suggestions on how to solve the Jewish question. On the premise that Jew-
ish emigration increasingly troubled the Anglo-Saxon countries, he sug-
gested that an international conference of Russia, England, and America
discuss his plan for keeping the Jews in Russia. According to his proposal,
Russia would find land for the distribution of the destitute Jews who were
rapidly multiplying in the Pale of Settlement, and the Western countries,
relying on Christians but principally on wealthy Jews, would supply funds
for rehabilitation.^22
Not all American Jews, even if they condemned White’s Jew hatred, dis-
missed his plan of population transfer out of hand, but Schiff did. Angered
by White’s belief that heavy Russian immigration would create a serious
Jewish problem in the Western world, Schiff decided to answer the jour-
nalist publicly. He was eager to expose White’s anti-Semitism, and he also
feared that an international conference would exacerbate worldwide Jew
hatred. White was wrong on several counts, the banker contended. First,
the immigrants constituted no problem in America; Jewish newcomers
who quickly became self-supporting and Americanized were exemplary
citizens. Second, the answer to the Russian Jewish plight lay not in pouring
money into Russia for the erection of a larger Pale. Baron de Hirsch
(whom White had once advised) had at first allocated funds for the rehabil-
itation of Jews in Russia, but his plans had failed. Not only did the Russian
government refuse to cooperate, but it was said that they used the baron’s
money to build churches. Schiff insisted that the only proper answer had to
come from Russia itself in the form of equal rights for Jews. To forestall
any serious mischief by White, Schiff shared his views with TR, who
quickly reassured him that there was no thought whatsoever of an interna-
tional conference.^23
A second postscript to Kishinev took on a longer-lasting significance. In
the summer of 1903, Russia hardened its policy of refusing visas to Ameri-
can Jews. As long as the United States raised no objection, it was in effect
participating in Russian discrimination, this time against its own citizens.
Schiff remonstrated with Roosevelt, but the latter considered official ob-
jections useless. Although Schiff was reluctant to thrust a Jewish issue into
Captivity and Redemption 133