such images nor his determination to refute them. The banker’s close rela-
tions with Eliot kept his temper in check, but he did tell his friend that
banking was not done on “racial” lines and that Eliot erred by suggesting
that a network of leading Jewish bankers throughout the world dominated
the international stock exchanges. Certainly, the banker added, Kuhn,
Loeb did not behave in such fashion. Schiff corrected Eliot a second time
for saying that Jews were wanting in education. Paraphrasing a verse in the
Sayings of the Fathers,he pointed to the Jewish maxim that the world was
built on education, service, and good deeds. In this instance, Eliot was
quick to retract, adding that the same tenets underlay Unitarian teach-
ings.^32 Although they were successful in isolated cases, Schiff and his circle
learned from experience that pervasive stereotypes were no match for ar-
guments based on reason and reality.
Sensitivity to discrimination was not dulled by Schiff’s financial ambi-
tions. When he was appointed vice president of the Chamber of Com-
merce, he particularly appreciated the fact that he was the first Jew to hold
that post.^33 He never forgot his Jewishness, but if he had so desired, the
banking community, like the Morgans, would not have permitted it. Never
an insider, Schiff assumed a double responsibility, the protection of Kuhn,
Loeb’s image as both a reputable house and a Jewish one. He believed that
the firm, precisely because of its prominence, was obligated to behave in
ways that contradicted the widespread anti-Semitic slurs against the cun-
ning and manipulative Jewish banker. On one occasion the prestigious Epis-
copal bishop of New York, Henry Potter, repeated to his good friend Schiff
what he had heard about Jewish bankers: The “Hebrews” were “tricky,”
“untrustworthy,” and the only “race” on Wall Street whose deed fell short
of its word. Christian persecution may have contributed to such behavior in
the past, but, Potter implied, that was no excuse in persecution-free Amer-
ica. Schiff hotly rebutted Potter’s charges, but even if he convinced the
bishop and even if Kuhn, Loeb behaved as ethically as Protestant firms,
the stereotype of the unscrupulous Shylock or other myths that underlay
the “polite” anti-Semitism of the older Wall Street firms, remained.^34
Where possible, Kuhn, Loeb fought anti-Semites by refusing their
business. In his early years with the firm, Schiff resolved not to deal with
the Reading Railroad. Its president, August Corbin, had publicly insulted
the Jews by excluding them from his real estate developments. The banker
explained to Cassel: “Our self-respect forbids us to have anything to do
with this man, able as he may be.” A short time later, when the New York,
Ontario & Western Railroad distributed an anti-Semitic pamphlet, Schiff
informed the company that Kuhn, Loeb would not handle their bonds. In
that instance he succeeded in securing an apology.^35
Schiff at times was the victim of social discrimination. At the turn of the
century, just because he was a Jew, he was the only prominent financial
Leadership and Philanthropy 53