dents at the college, an interest that was matched by a determination to in-
vestigate all complaints of prejudice.^99
Schiff failed to scale the walls of the Metropolitan Museum and the Mu-
seum of Natural History, the two other institutions he had mentioned to
Butler. He made donations to both, but neither tapped him for its leader-
ship circle. In this instance he embraced a novel legal solution. Since New
York City contributed to semiprivate institutions like the museums and the
state gave funds to the city, why couldn’t the state make its aid conditional
on the right of the mayor to appoint some of the trustees? (The assumption
was that the mayor, an elected official, would recognize the Jews and their
vote.) It was “monstrous,” he stated, that Jewish taxes went for the support
of discriminatory institutions.^100 Generally conservative on matters of big
government, the banker looked for government involvement in the fight
against discrimination.
Schiff never behaved obsequiously in his battle against discrimination.
Indeed, his bluntness and candor irked some Columbia trustees who may
have preferred timid or fawning Jews. Rather, when faced with institu-
tional anti-Semitism or slurs against Jews, he abided by a private rule:
Even if you can’t abate prejudice, don’t swallow it in silence, because self-
contempt is the “lowest degradation” to which a human being can sink.^101
A Heritage AffirmedInsistence on acceptance and respect for Jewswas matched on Schiff’s part
by an equally strong insistence on acceptance and respect for Judaism.Ed-
ucated Americans of the late nineteenth century read little and studied
even less about Jewish culture or religion. The knowledge of Hebrew and
the Hebrew Bible, not uncommon among the learned of colonial America,
was increasingly confined to Protestant divinity schools. A survey of 1897
found fifteen colleges and universities that offered programs in Semitics,
and only four of those included Jewish studies.^102 Were Americans, how-
ever, to learn about Jewish influences on Western culture, Schiff thought,
it stood to boost Jewish group pride as well as non-Jewish respect. His em-
phasis on preserving the Jewish heritage suggested that Judaism meant
more than religion to him and that that there were limits to the path of
total acculturation.
Proof of Jewish contributions to civilization in general and to America in
particular appeared particularly desirable at the end of the century, when
anti-Jewish discrimination had become an accepted fact of life. How better
to answer anti-Semitic charges against the “alien” or “un-American” Jews
Leadership and Philanthropy 75