brought from the Old World, and he gave generously to several free loan
societies. In 1900 his $5,000 donation enabled the United Hebrew Char-
ities to create a self-support fund. Schiff set the terms: loans to those de-
serving poor who had the chance of making themselves self-supporting.
He established another fund, aptly entitled the Self-Respect Fund, which
gave temporary assistance to working families never before on charitable
lists who had been hit by unemployment in the wake of the 1907 panic.^52
Schiff’s Frankfurt origins resonated too in his philanthropic activities.
The affluent nineteenth-century Jews of that city took pride in their com-
munal traditions, particularly the commands of tithing and noblesse
oblige. Indeed, so strong was the “Frankfurt tradition” of philanthropy
that Jews of German origin still remember it today. In America, Schiff fol-
lowed the same guidelines. Since God gave him more than his share of op-
portunities, he bore “a responsibility... which sometimes is overwhelm-
ing” to provide for the needy. His belief in the stewardship of the wealthy
derived from noblesse oblige and Jewish religious precepts: “Men of means
acknowledge the duty imposed upon them to permit their fellow beings to
benefit... through the large wealth which a kind Providence has allotted
to them.... The surplus wealth we have gained, to some extent, at least,
belongs to our fellow beings; we are only the temporary custodians of our
fortunes.” In 1903 an article in the popular Munsey’s Magazinelauded the
banker, whose annual contributions to Jewish and nonsectarian causes ex-
ceeded $100,000, for living up to the “Hebrew precept” of tithing.^53
Considerations of a strictly defensive nature figured prominently in
Schiff’s giving. Although Americans frequently complained about Jewish
separatism, they preferred not to take the Jewish needy under their wings.
In an early speech, Schiff said that Jews were looked upon in many quarters
as “a foreign element.” “The fact will ever remain that, as Israelites, no
matter how high a position we may have, we are held responsible one for
the other.” In 1655 the Dutch West India Company had grudgingly per-
mitted Jewish settlement in New Amsterdam on the condition that the
Jews take care of their own, and both the minority and majority still abided
by that contract. Nor did Schiff dismiss Jewish resistance, born out of
group pride or fear of missionaries, to the acceptance of Christian or pub-
lic aid. He himself said that “a Jew would rather cut his hand off than apply
for relief from non-Jewish sources.” All such reasons dictated that men like
Schiff shoulder a double burden and contribute to general as well as specif-
ically Jewish organizations.^54
Schiff was well aware of the ways in which he could make philanthropy a
weapon in the defense of American Jews. First, as an advocate of nonsec-
tarianism in institutions he dominated, like the Montefiore Home and the
Henry Street Settlement, he knew that Jews who opened their charities to
all creeds scored high marks for civic virtue. Second, philanthropy permit-
60 Jacob H. Schiff