magnate not listed in the Social Register,or, as Frederick Lewis Allen called
it, the “Gentile Register.” Social exclusion of that sort probably piqued his
vanity but never enough for him to compromise his pride as a Jew. He re-
fused invitations to dine at the University Club, announcing openly that he
would not enter a place that barred Jews from membership. Similarly, he
promptly resigned from a country club in Rumson, New Jersey, the site of
his country home, that denied memberships to his family for reason of
their Jewishness. Since the banker socialized with some prominent Chris-
tians and since all of his best friends were Jews, he personally was unruffled
by the “five o’clock shadow,” or the prevailing custom that distanced a
Morgan from a Schiff after business hours.^36
The American Jewish Committee (AJC), which was organized in 1906,
took over the open-ended duty of exposing and combating anti-Semitism.
A primary task at the beginning was the defense of the eastern European
immigrants, who, more than the established Jews, were the victims of dis-
crimination. Since Schiff was never one to be inhibited by an organization,
particularly one in which he was the dominant force, he continued on his
own to counter charges leveled by bigots and immigration restrictionists.
Nor, to his way of thinking, did the existence of a defense agency free the
newcomers of their own responsibility for proper behavior.
On some occasions, Schiff acted independently when circumstances
warned against group intervention. The notorious case of Leo Frank
(1913–15), a northern Jew who was framed for the rape and murder of a fac-
tory employee in Atlanta, was one example. Since popular outrage against
Frank testified to the frightening strength of Populist Tom Watson’s anti-
Semitic crusade in Georgia, Marshall and Schiff were convinced that AJC
action would only fuel the charge of a Jewish conspiracy. When Frank was
convicted and sentenced to hang, the two men, publicly ignoring the Jew-
ish element and treating the case as a miscarriage of justice, acted on their
own. While Marshall labored on the legal aspects, Schiff contributed
money for the Frank cause and wrote to prominent non-Jews imploring
them to join him in appeals for clemency. In 1915, Governor John Slaton
commuted the death sentence, but thereupon Frank was lynched. Mean-
time, Schiff’s involvement was sufficient to raise the charge that Jews, espe-
cially the banker, were spending large sums of money to pervert the judicial
process.^37
Schiff was appalled by the unprecedented act of violence. A man who
bore grudges, he opposed plans by the Jewish Chautauqua Society in 1917
to send a lecturer to the University of Georgia. Since he preferred to boy-
cott the university because of the state’s “outrageous conduct,” he resigned
from the board of the Chautauqua Society. Four years after the lynching he
still felt impelled to speak up against the appointment to the federal bench
of the man who had prosecuted Frank.^38
54 Jacob H. Schiff