The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Schiff, Jacob Henry

SCHIFF, shĭf, Jacob Henry, American banker and philanthropist: b. Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany, 1847. He came to New York in 1868, where he entered a banking house and became in a few years head of the firm of Kuhn, Loeb and Company. His leadership in finance was quickly acknowledged and his firm has been identified with many prominent enterprises. He has devoted a large portion of his wealth to charitable and educational purposes and among his most noted benefactions are the Semitic Museum at Harvard University, and in New York the Nurses' Settlement, the Young Men's Hebrew Association building and the Jewish Theological Seminary. He is president of the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids of New York; vice-president and trustee of the Baron de Hirsch Fund; member of the American Museum of Natural History; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the American Society of Fine Arts, and is an ex-vice-president of the New York Chamber of Commerce. He has long been associated with movements for civic reform.