6
The World at War
Questions of Loyalty
In January 1917, Schiff celebrated his seventieth birthday, an occasion that
brought forth accolades from both friends and critics from all walks of
American Jewish life. Although his nimble step and youthful vigor belied
his age, increased loss of hearing, bouts of insomnia, and other physical ail-
ments slowed him down.^1 He did little to reduce his business and commu-
nal workload, but he relied more heavily in the firm on his son and other
partners and in matters of philanthropy and communal affairs on his son-
in-law and Louis Marshall. Enjoying family life and his role as grandfather
to the utmost, Schiff by no means retired from public life. The others bore
new responsibilities, but he still passed on major policy and strategy.
The slight alterations in the banker’s way of life were overshadowed by
changes in his power as a leader. On Wall Street the war years tarnished
Kuhn, Loeb’s image. With respect to the Jewish community the change
was more glaring.
The German ConnectionZionist leader Chaim Weizmann recorded an anecdote in his autobiogra-
phy in the name of Shmarya Levin. The story goes that Levin heard Schiff
announce at a public meeting: “I am divided into three parts; I am an
American, I am a German, and I am a Jew.” Levin’s immediate question
was whether Schiff divided himself vertically or horizontally. Whatever the
answer, Schiff was not the first American Jew to see himself in three dimen-
sions. Others before him had affirmed the legitimacy of multiple loyalties
that they succeeded in harmonizing in their own behavior. Schiff certainly
would never have questioned his passion for Americanism, Germanism, or
Judaism. He was proud, he said, of the “trinity” of loyalties.^2 Nor would he
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