circle that included Marshall, Adler, Straus, and Sulzberger, on September
28, the day of the funeral.^21 The hearse, accompanied by the family,
traveled thirty blocks down Fifth Avenue from the Schiff home to Temple
Emanu-El on Forty-third Street. In keeping with Schiff’s instructions, no
eulogies were made at the Orthodox service conducted by Rabbis Joseph
Silverman, H. G. Enelow, and Samuel Schulman. Newspaper editor Ar-
thur Brisbane was impressed: “Happy is the man who like Mr. Schiff can
forbid any praise at his funeral. He needs none.”
Two thousand people filled the temple to capacity, with the governor
and the mayor of New York leading a galaxy of non-Jewish as well as Jewish
notables from the fields of business, politics, and philanthropy. Thousands
more lined the streets, where they stood silently before and during the ser-
vice. Since the funeral fell on the Jewish holiday of Sukkoth, many obser-
vant Jews had walked from the Lower East Side. Three hundred fifty po-
licemen kept Fifth Avenue clear for the cortege; the block from Forty-third
Street to Forty-second Street was closed entirely to traffic. After the forty-
minute temple service, twelve motorcycle policemen led the procession to
the Queensboro Bridge and then on to its final stop at a Brooklyn ceme-
tery. Along the way representatives from various Jewish institutions fell
into line and marched with the cortege.
The banker’s death was reported in newspapers throughout America
and in the foreign press. The New York Times ran the story in its lead arti-
cle on page 1. Most accounts mentioned his background and family, some
personal characteristics, and his rise to riches. His fortune was estimated
at $50 million to $100 million, but careful not to feed the myth of the
international Jewish banker, Brisbane speculated that Henry Ford made
twice the amount in one year. Reporters retold Schiff’s part in the Union
Pacific affair and the Russo-Japanese War. Many commented too on his
ardent Americanism and his philanthropic activities. The loyal Times im-
plied that Schiff was more worthy a philanthropist than Carnegie or
Rockefeller, for those men, unlike Schiff, became philanthropists only
after they had built up their fortunes. He was, as one columnist wrote, the
“model multimillionaire.”
Newspaper stories as well as editorials eulogized the banker, and so did
minutes and resolutions of numerous organizations. The family received
countless messages of condolence, including one from President Wilson
and one from ex-President Taft. Among the most poignant was that of Sir
Ernest Cassel to Therese Schiff: “My warm sympathy goes out to you who
have lost the best of husbands as I have lost the best of friends.”^22
Some newspapers commented on the contrast between a man who had
lived in one of the richest sections of the city and the throngs of sincere
mourners, Christians as well as Jews, from poorer neighborhoods. They
were struck too by the responses of Jews on the Lower East Side—institu-
246 Jacob H. Schiff