JACOB SCHIFF: THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN U.S. HISTORY
Mike King
A reader asks, "Mike, all roads eventually lead to the Rothschilds of Europe; but who do you think was the most powerful Jewish mogul in American history?"
Upon first thought, that almost seems like asking who the greatest baseball player of all time was. Was it Cobb? Wagner? Ruth? Gehrig? DiMaggio? Williams? Mays? Mantle? Bonds? (pre & post steroids) There are so many deserving candidates that it appears impossible to say with absolute certainty.
A strong case for the MVZ Award (Most Valuable Zionist) can be made for Paul Warburg, Bernard Baruch, Adolph Ochs, William Paley, Eugene Meyer, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, David Sarnoff, Jack Warner, Carl Laemmle, Henry Morganthau, George Soros, Henry Kissinger, Sumner Redstone, Michael Eisner and a few others. Just 'Google' each of those names and marvel at the power which the chosen ones have wielded over the last century. And although they weren't Jews, the Rockefellers and Morgans were not lacking in political-economic muscle either.
But in the final analysis, the MVZ Award would have to go to the financier (money lender) Jacob Schiff - (with Baruch not far behind).
Jacob Schiff washed up upon America's shores in 1865, shortly after the Civil War. During the 1700's, his Schiff ancestors had actually shared a home with the legendary Rothschilds, in Frankfurt's Jewish quarter.
Schiff went on to head the firm Kuhn, Loeb & Co. From his base in New York, he was the foremost Jewish leader from 1880 to 1920 in what is now referred to by Jewish-American historians as "The Schiff Era". He served as the 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. Schiff, who made his fortune from interest bearing loans, was the main player behind the 'Hebrew Free Loan Society' in 1892; an organization which issued interest-free loans only to Jews (and is still in operation!)
Schiff's descendants exercised some power and influence in their own right, though nothing like the Patriarch did. Schiff's granddaughter, Dorothy Schiff, was the owner and Publisher of the New York Post for over 40 years. She once claimed to have "had a relationship" with Franklin D Roosevelt.
Kareena Gore-Schiff, the daughter of former Senator, almost US President, and Global Warming con man Al Gore, is married to Andrew Schiff, the great great grandson of Jacob.
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