Manhattan, and representing a very considerable portion of its intelli-
gence, wealth and producing capacity, furnishing, moreover a very consid-
erable part of the students of the University should be entitled to represen-
tation in the University’s governing body.” His letter, similar to the earlier
one to Potter, went on to indict the prejudiced custodians of American cul-
ture: “So long as... citizens of Jewish faith are, by a tacit understanding,
kept out of the Government of Columbia University, the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, the Museum of Natural History and other leading com-
munal corporations, prejudice is being kept alive against the Jewish popu-
lation, which those who lead public opinion should do everything in their
power to eliminate. It cannot be expected that the stream run pure, so long
as its source is contaminated.” When the board refused to alter its discrim-
inatory policy, the banker seriously curtailed his sizable contributions.^97
Not one to accept defeat lightly, Schiff kept up the pressure. In 1912
he gave Cornell $100,000 for a program in German studies. The choice
of Cornell, he explained to friend Max Warburg, was a “quiet protest”
against Columbia’s unjust discrimination. Schiff aired his grievance when
he spoke in Ithaca: “I have directed my benefaction toward Cornell as a
sort of protest against the narrow spirit which, I am sorry to say, has
taken hold of a certain college of this State.” When asked if he meant Sy-
racuse, he gave a broader hint: it was a university much nearer to him. At
Cornell, however, which he ranked second to Columbia as the greatest
university in New York, Jews did serve on the board of trustees. Schiff’s
agitation may have contributed to the eventual relaxation of Columbia’s
barriers, but the “blot,” as he called it, on the university’s record contin-
ued to rankle.^98
Meanwhile, the philanthropist continued his long attachment to Bar-
nard, where he served for several years as its first treasurer. In 1915 he was
approached by George Plimpton, a longtime acquaintance and his succes-
sor as treasurer, for an endowment of a student hall. A sympathetic Plimp-
ton agreed that Columbia’s behavior was an “outrage,” but he implied that
Columbia’s sister college should not suffer the consequences. He argued
persuasively that since Barnard had closed down social groups discriminat-
ing against Jews, there was a need for a center where students could mingle
freely. Aware of Schiff’s habit of marking personal milestones with gifts, he
pointed out the timeliness of an endowment in 1915, both Barnard’s
twenty-fifth anniversary and the fiftieth anniversary of the banker’s arrival
in the United States. He finally succeeded in persuading Schiff to pledge
$500,000 for the erection of a women’s student hall “for social and ethical
activities.” Schiff spelled out his conditions in advance: no preference
would be shown to any religious group in the building’s activities, and an
advisory committee of five would include one Catholic and one Jew. Dean
Virginia Gildersleeve later recalled Schiff’s special interest in Jewish stu-
74 Jacob H. Schiff