Jacob Schiff

Jacob Schiff emigrated from Frankfurt and rose to lead Kuhn, Loeb & Co., which he built into one of the most powerful investment banks in the United States. The firm underwrote the great American railroads and, in 1904 and 1905, floated large loans that helped Japan finance its war against Tsarist Russia. Schiff was also a major philanthropist who funded Jewish relief, education, and hospitals, and he used his standing to press against the persecution of Jews under the Tsar. He is a frequent target of antisemitic conspiracy myths, including the baseless claim that he financed the Russian Revolution; these stories have no factual basis and distort what was an ordinary, if very influential, record of banking and charity.