Beschreibung
69 pages. 198 x 132 mm.Jacob Henry Schiff (born Jakob Heinrich Schiff; January 10, 1847 - September 25, 1920) was an American banker, businessman, and philanthropist. He helped finance, among many other things, 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, grappling with all major Jewish issues and problems of the day, including the plight of Russian Jews under the Tsar, American and international anti-Semitism, care of needy Jewish immigrants, and the rise of Zionism. He was director of many important corporations. His parents were Moses and Clara (née Niederhofheim) Schiff, members of a distinguished Ashkenazi Jewish rabbinical family. His father 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, was licensed as a broker and joined the firm of Budge, Schiff & Company. Upon the dissolution of Budge, Schiff & Company in 1872, Schiff returned to Germany, became manager of the Hamburg branch of the London & Hanseatic Bank, returned to Frankfurt upon the death of his father and in 1874 joined the banking firm Kuhn, Loeb & Company in New York. In 1885 Schiff became head of Kuhn, Loeb & Company. Besides financing such Eastern railroads as the Pennsylvania and the Louisville & Nashville, he took part in the reorganization of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in 1896?99, etc. 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, etc. He was elected a director of Wells Fargo in September 1914 to succeed his brother-in-law, Paul Warburg, who had resigned to accept appointment to the original Federal Reserve Board. Schiff' financed the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese War, lending Japan $200 million, 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. It is quite likely Schiff also saw this loan as a means of answering, on behalf of the Jewish people, the anti-Semitic actions of the Russian Empire, specifically the then-recent Kishinev pogrom. This loan attracted worldwide attention, and had major consequences. Japan won the war, thanks in large part to the purchase of munitions made possible by Schiff's loan. Some of the Japanese leadership saw this as evidence of the power of Jews all around the world, raised the issue of Jewish loyalties in the Diaspora and as proof of the truth of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. In 1905, Japan awarded Schiff the Order of the Sacred Treasure; and in 1907, the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, the second highest of the eight classes of that Order. Schiff also financed loans to other nations, including those that would come to comprise the Central Powers. During World War I, Schiff urged U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and other Allied statesmen to end the war as quickly as possible, even without an Allied victory. He feared for the lives of his family, back in Germany, but also for the future of his adopted land. He arranged loans to France and other nations for humanitarian purposes, and spoke out against submarine warfare. Schiff made sure none of the funds from his loans ever went to the Russian Empire, which he felt oppressed Jewish people. When the Russian Empire fell in 1917, Schiff believed that the oppression of Jews would end. He formally repealed the impediments within his firm against lending to Russia. . . . Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 008247
Verkäufer kontaktieren
Diesen Artikel melden
