functions, Schiff earned the reputation of one who learned about an organ-
ization before he supported it.^45
A generous giver, the banker supplemented customary donations with
special gifts marking occasions in his life and in the lives of his family. Sign-
ing checks was but a small part of his philanthropic activity; in most cases it
worked in tandem with an active involvement in the operations of particu-
lar agencies. As he himself said, those who gave of their time and thought
were more important than mere contributors. The number of meetings he
attended multiplied, and so did the number of boards on which he sat. Fast
making himself known to communal leaders, he was named treasurer of
the relief committee formed in 1878 to alleviate the plight of Ottoman
Jews during the Russo-Turkish War. The position of treasurer, which he
subsequently held in many Jewish and non-Jewish ventures, testified to
more than his personal donations and a close watch over disbursements. It
also connoted his ability to advance sums before their actual receipt and to
transmit them safely to their destination. His fund-raising skills drew
praise too, and he became known as a master canvasser.^46
The banker’s philanthropic interests burgeoned within the next two
decades, indicating, among other things, Kuhn, Loeb’s steadily rising prof-
its. His wide range of charities prompted Bishop Henry Potter to call
Schiff the greatest philanthropist of New York. Ranked alongside out-
standing European Jewish communal leaders, he was known to American
Jews by the mid-1880s as “the Montefiore of New York,” a reference to the
internationally renowned and respected Sir Moses Montefiore of England.
Some thirty years later, Louis Marshall, never given to effusive compli-
ments, summarized his friend’s lifetime of philanthropy: “There are many
who give generously out of their abundance. There are fewer who give un-
stintingly of their time and of their energies. There are but a very few who
ponder and plan creatively for the amelioration of conditions that call for
improvement. But Mr. Schiff is one of those rare men who combines in
himself all of those virtues.”^47
B. C. Forbes, a financial reporter and admirer of Schiff, once wrote that
the banker’s emphasis on the responsibilities and obligations of citizenship
dictated his choice of beneficiaries without regard to religion or race. An-
other account added: “It was because he ranked citizenship above Judaism
that he put his hand into his pocket as readily to help a poor negro or a
poor gentile as any member of his own race.” The reports were not quite
accurate. The banker’s impressive support of numerous non-Jewish insti-
tutions notwithstanding, his involvement in Jewish charities transcended
all others. Nevertheless, Schiff consciously did use philanthropy to prove
that his identity as a Jew and his abiding attachment to Germany, which
was also reflected in his donations, in no way conflicted with his loyalty to
America. For example, he said that one of his reasons for establishing a
58 Jacob H. Schiff