hopefully that the sooner Herzl’s followers realized that the movement
lacked a “substantial foundation,” the better it would be for all Jews. He
optimistically believed that despite its aggressiveness Zionism would die
out.^61
The meeting with Katzenelsohn awakened Zionist hopes that perhaps
Schiff might join the movement. Harry Friedenwald, a friend and fellow
director of the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) who now stood at the
helm of the FAZ, worked on the banker. Friedenwald may have thought
that since the primary focus of the organization had shifted from political
to cultural Zionism, there was a chance of finding common ground with
moderate Reform Jews. To nip such pressure in the bud and to answer
Zionist taunts that only the wealthy opposed the movement, Schiff began
thinking, a few months after Herzl’s death, about making public his views
on Zionism. For a while he held back, hesitating to expose Jewish disunity
at a time when the Russian question demanded closed ranks. Conceding
that Zionism offered hope to eastern European Jews, he also believed that
an anti-Zionist statement from him might add to their misery.^62
Increasingly, however, Schiff came under conflicting pressures. On
Friedenwald’s side stood Solomon Schechter, president of the JTS and a
man whom Schiff greatly admired. An inveterate foe of Reform and a de-
fender of cultural Zionism, Schechter admitted privately in 1904 that “I
was lately spending a good deal of time making [Zionist] propaganda...
among the Jewish aristocracy [read Schiff and associates].” A year later,
Schechter joined the FAZ. The banker reacted warmly to Schechter’s ex-
position of cultural Zionism, but he refused to budge so long as national-
ism remained the heart of the movement. He also wanted reassurance that
the seminary was not indoctrinating the students with Zionism.^63 On the
other side stood Schiff’s old friend, Kaufmann Kohler, the president of He-
brew Union College (HUC) and archcritic of Schechter’s position, whose
purge of Zionists from his faculty in 1907 was condoned by Schiff. After a
few days in Kohler’s company, Schiff decided to enter the fray. Schechter’s
plea that he give the Zionists the benefit of his counsel instead of attacking
them went unheeded. Apparently, the banker discussed the matter with
Schechter, and the two men agreed to a public exchange of letters explain-
ing the pros and cons of Zionism.^64 Doubtless the banker also believed that
a statement from him, the acknowledged leader of American Jewry, was
imperative at a time when immigration restriction and the concomitant
discussion of immigrant loyalties were on the congessional agenda.
Aware that his action would shake the community, Schiff attempted, al-
beit unsuccessfully, to soften the blow by first introducing the subject in a
well-publicized address to the Jewish Chautauqua Assembly in July 1907.
Again stressing the necessity of immigrant distribution, he stated flatly that
the promised land of the Jews was America, not Palestine. A few days later
In Search of a Refuge 179