Jacob Schiff

Jacob Henry Schiff (born Jakob Heinrich Schiff; January 10, 1847 – September 25, 1920) was a Jewish German-born American banker, businessman, and philanthropist. He helped finance the expansion of American railroads, and the Japanese military efforts against Tsarist Russia in the Russo-Japanese War.

Born in Frankfurt, Germany, Schiff migrated to the United States after the American Civil War and joined the firm Kuhn, Loeb & Co. From his base on Wall Street, he was the foremost Jewish leader from 1880 to 1920 in what later became known as the "Schiff era", grappling with all major Jewish issues and problems of the day, including the plight of Russian Jews, American and international antisemitism, care of needy Jewish immigrants, and the rise of Zionism. He also became a director of many important corporations, including the National City Bank of New York, Equitable Life Assurance Society, Wells Fargo & Company, and the Union Pacific Railroad. In many of his interests he was associated with E. H. Harriman.

Schiff was born in 1847 in the Judengasse in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, to Moses and Clara (née Niederhofheim) Schiff, members of a distinguished Ashkenazi Jewish rabbinical family that traced its lineage in Frankfurt back to 1370. One ancestor, David Tevele Schiff, became lead rabbi in Great Britain, and from 1765 until his death was acting head of the London Synagogue. Meir Ben Jacob Schiff, another relative, had become renowned as a Talmudic scholar and commentator in the 14th century. Jacob's father, Moses Schiff, was a broker for the Rothschilds. Schiff was educated in the schools of Frankfurt, and was first employed in the banking and brokerage business as an apprentice in 1861.

After the American Civil War had ended in April 1865, Schiff came to the United States, arriving in New York City on August 6. He became a broker on November 21, 1866, and joined the firm of Budge, Schiff & Company in 1867. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in September 1870.However, Schiff's modern biographer Cohen says this happened a year later.

Upon the dissolution of Budge, Schiff & Company in 1872, Schiff decided to return to Germany. In 1873, he became manager of the Hamburg branch of the London & Hanseatic Bank. He returned to Frankfurt, however, upon the death of his father later that year. In 1874, Abraham Kuhn of the banking firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Company invited him to return to New York City and enter the firm. Not long after joining the firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., Schiff was in essence running the business.

Along with H. B. Claflin, Marcellus Hartley, Robert L. Cutting, and Joseph Seligman, he was a founder of the Continental Bank of New York in August 1870.

Schiff accepted Kuhn's invitation in January 1875, bringing to Kuhn, Loeb & Company his connections with Sir Ernest Cassel of London, Robert Fleming of Dundee (later of London), and Edouard Noetzlin of the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas (Bank of Paris and the Netherlands or Paribas). On May 6, 1875, he married Therese Loeb, daughter of Solomon Loeb. The couple were the parents of a son, Mortimer L. Schiff and a daughter, Frieda.

In 1885, Schiff became head of Kuhn, Loeb & Company. Besides financing Eastern railroads such as the Pennsylvania and the Louisville & Nashville, he took part in the reorganization of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1896–99, and at various times aided the American Smelting & Refining Company (ASARCO), the Westinghouse Electric Company, and the Western Union Telegraph Company. Less fortunate was his share in the reorganization in 1902 of the Metropolitan Street Railway of New York.

He became associated with E. H. Harriman in notable contests with James J. Hill and J.P. Morgan & Company for control of several Western railroads. Schiff served as a director of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, National City Bank of New York, Central Trust Company, Western Union Telegraph Company, Union Pacific Railroad, and Bond & Mortgage Guarantee Company. He was elected a director of Wells Fargo & Company in September 1914 to succeed his brother-in-law, Paul Warburg, who had resigned to accept appointment to the original Federal Reserve Board.

What is perhaps Schiff's most famous financial action took place during the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905). Schiff met with Takahashi Korekiyo, deputy governor of the Bank of Japan, in Paris in April 1904. Schiff agreed to extend loans to the Empire of Japan in the amount of $200 million (equivalent to $5.4 billion in 2024), through Kuhn, Loeb & Co. These loans were the first major flotation of Japanese bonds on Wall Street, and provided approximately half the funds needed for Japan's war effort. Schiff made this loan in part because he believed gold was not as important as national effort and desire to win a war and due to the apparent underdog status of Japan at the time: a European empire had not yet been defeated by a non-Western nation, in a modern, full-scale war. It is quite likely Schiff also saw this loan as a means of answering, on behalf of the Jewish people for the antisemitic actions of the Russian Empire, specifically the recent Kishinev pogrom in 1903.

Schiff died at his Fifth Avenue home in Manhattan, New York City on September 25, 1920. His funeral was held three days later at Temple Emanu-El, then located at 43rd Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

His estate was estimated at about $50,000,000 (approximately $804,000,000 today). He bequeathed $1,350,000 to various institutions, most of which had received benefactions during his life. The largest bequests were $500,000 to the Federation for the support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies of New York City and $300,000 to the Montefiore Home.

He was succeeded as head of Kuhn, Loeb & Company by his son, Mortimer Leo Schiff.

Schiff was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1982.

The Jacob Schiff Center, named after him, was a prominent Jewish cultural center and synagogue from the 1930s through at least the 1960s. It was located on Valentine Avenue, near the intersection of Fordham Road and the Grand Concourse in the Fordham section of The Bronx.

New York City public school number 192 in West Harlem is also named for him. It serves grades pre-K through 5th grade.

In Germany, there was an attempt to name a street Jacob-Schiff-Straße in Frankfurt in response to the numerous charitable donations he had made to the city. When the Nazi Party took power in 1933, the street's name was changed to Mummstraße after Daniel Heinrich Mumm von Schwarzenstein, the city's former mayor, as part of aryanization.

Children: Mortimer Schiff; Frieda Warburg, née Schiff.

Great-Great-Grandson: Hubert Jacob Henry Schiff