American officials in Poland to be inaccurate and biased. While Marshall
accused the Red Cross of discrimination against Jews, Schiff charged that
newspapers suppressed information on the persecutions. Complicating the
issue still further was the carryover of Polish–Jewish animosity in the
United States. In several cities, Polish priests advocated a boycott of Jewish
businessmen, while in New York there were reports of Jewish attacks on
Polish organizations. In the spring of 1918, Marshall arranged for repre-
sentatives of the AJC to begin negotiations with Polish leaders. The latter
had requested a meeting to secure Jewish endorsement of and capital in-
vestment in an independent Poland. Nevertheless, the Poles took no pains
to mask their anti-Semitism, and deliberations made no headway. Schiff
participated in the first round of talks, but it was Marshall who orches-
trated the overall direction of Jewish moves.^5
Schiff contributed where he could to relieve the Polish situation. He
helped to formulate appeals to Wilson and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge
that asked for government remonstrances, and in December 1918 he
joined Jewish workers and Socialists at a rally to protest Polish treatment of
Jews. So different from his earlier position of ignoring the masses in mat-
ters of Jewish diplomacy, the sight of Schiff amid eight thousand Yiddish-
speaking workers at a Socialist meeting begged for an explanation. The
banker supplied one: He disagreed with the “serious doctrines” of social-
ism, but he very much supported the purpose of the meeting. “Because we
have Jewish hearts, and because the Jewish heart rebels wherever injustice
is done against men of whatever station, I am here.” He bitterly denounced
Polish leader Roman Dmowski, and he called upon the president, the pub-
lic, and the peace conference to stop Polish oppression. Making sure to
send a copy of his speech to Wilson, he said that the latter needed to
understand the sentiments of American Jews.^6
Anti-Semitism flourished in other lands too. While the peacemakers
were redrawing the map of Europe, adjusting boundaries, and carving out
new states from the former empires on the continent, seemingly endless
stories were reported of Jewish suffering in the Ukraine, Romania, Czech-
oslovakia, and Galicia, as well as Poland. Not only did Jews in those lands
endure abject poverty and economic ruin, they also were subjected to boy-
cotts, legal disabilities, anti-Semitic agitation by the press, mass rioting,
and bloody pogroms. The number of those killed between 1918 and 1921
was counted in the tens of thousands.
As the situation worsened, voices were raised in efforts at amelioration.
At Versailles individual American Jews privately discussed specific condi-
tions in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Russia with Wilson; his aide, Colonel
Edward House; Herbert Hoover (then in charge of food relief for Europe);
and one of the American peacemakers, General Tasker Bliss. To undercut
240 Jacob H. Schiff
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