Schiff’s foreign contacts were primarily individuals like the Rothschilds
of London, Sir Samuel Montagu, and Baron Maurice de Hirsch, men
whose power transcended specific organizations. The American became a
member of that informal and unstructured fraternity; and although sur-
passed in wealth by the Rothschilds, he was accepted as an equal. Coopera-
tion among the Western Jewish leaders focused on crises, usually on Rus-
sian persecution and the flood of emigration unleashed by czarist
anti-Semitism, whose impact on Jews transcended national boundaries.
The leaders also dealt with problems of Jewish security and rights in the
Balkans, Morocco, and Palestine, as well as in Russia. They subscribed to
an unspoken rule: intervention was permissible in “backward” countries
but not, unless specifically called for, in lands west of Vienna. Although ac-
countability to the Jewish masses was hardly an issue (and Schiff listened
sooner to his European peers than to the American Jewish masses), each
leader was sensitive to the political pressures of his own government.
Schiff fit easily into the circle. Despite his German sympathies, which
fed his preference for the German Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden (and
its co-founder Paul Nathan) over the French Alliance Israélite Universelle,
he generally advocated international unity. The volume of letters from Eu-
rope to 52 William Street increased, and representatives of foreign organ-
izations on missions to the United States made their way first to Schiff.^16
Reform Judaism taught that Jews constituted no more than a religious
group, but it failed to weaken the ethnic bonds that propelled a man like
Schiff to the defense of fellow Jews abroad.
The spokesman of American stewards to their European counterparts,
Schiff held fast to an American agenda as well. Repeatedly, he defended his
government against European criticism that the United States could have
done more on behalf of persecuted Jews. Sensitive to American popular
opinion, he usually advised against meetings of Western Jewish leaders lest
they exacerbate the negative image of the powerful “international Jew.”^17
With respect to American Jewry, he aimed to hasten its acceptance as an
equal partner in world Jewish affairs, heretofore dominated by English and
French leaders. Toward that end he lectured the Europeans time and again
on the special responsibilities borne by American Jews in matters of Rus-
sian relief and emigration. Schiff’s role on the world scene, a role that no
other American Jew ever played, enhanced the status of American Jewry
while it simultaneously added to his personal influence at home.
The Leader as DefenderThe radical transformation of the Christian majority–Jewish minority rela-
tionship in the nineteenth century made the tasks of Jewish leadership
Leadership and Philanthropy 47