Jacob Schiff

Jacob Henry Schiff (10 January 1847 – 25 September 1920), born Jakob Heinrich Schiff, was a German-born Jewish American banker, businessman, and Zionist.

Funding opponents of Tsarist Russia

Schiff helped finance the Japanese military efforts against Tsarist Russia in the Russo-Japanese War.

In 200 Years Together, "Solzhenitsyn notes that the American Jewish financier Jacob Schiff had long had a prominent role in opposition to the Russian government.

[After the February Revolution, Schiff wrote,] “I was always the enemy of Russian absolutism, which mercilessly persecuted my co-religionists. Now let me congratulate … the Russian people for this great act which they committed so perfectly.” Schiff was quick to provide credit and financing for the new Russian government. “Later in emigration, the exiled Russian right-wing press published investigative reports attempting to show that Schiff actively financed the Revolution itself. Perhaps Schiff shared the short-sighted Western hope that the liberal revolution in Russia would strengthen Russia in the war. Still, the known and public acts of Schiff, who had always been hostile to the Russian absolutism, had even more effect than any possible secret assistance to such a revolution.”

The role of Schiff in financing the revolution is acknowledged by mainstream historians: In fact, American Jewish capitalists like Jacob Schiff did finance Russian radical movements directed at overthrowing the Czar and may well have had considerable impact (Goldstein 1990, 26–27; Szajkowski 1967). The leaders of Western Jewish communities were highly committed to the overthrow of the czar. For example, in 1907 Lucien Wolf wrote to Louis Marshall of the AJCommittee that “the only thing to be done on the whole Russo-Jewish question is to carry on persistent and implacable war against the Russian Government” (in Szajowski 1967, 8). “Western Jewish leaders actively participated in general actions in favor of the liberal and revolutionary movements in Russia both during the revolution and after its downfall” (Szajkowski 1967, 9). (Separation and Its Discontents, Ch. 2, p. 37.).

Other pro-Jewish actions

See the "External links" section.

See also

• 200 Years Together
• Jews and Communism
• Pogrom

External links

• Solzhenitsyn’s “The February Revolution”: Chapter 13 of 200 Years Together
• 102 Years of American Satrapy
• The Jewish Hand in the World Wars, Part 1