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Family Tree

Does Al Gore have a Jewish son-in- aw?

Elizabeth and Phillip Applebaum
Special to the Jewish News

Q: With the presidential
election campaign now in
full swing, I am reminded
I that Al Gore's daughter,
Karenna, is married to Dr.
Andrew Schiff. I remember
reading something about
Andrew being related to a
famous Jew. Is Andrew
Jewish?

I A:

Vice President Al Gore's son-in-
: law, Dr. Andrew Schiff, is not Jew-
: ish. He is, however, descended
from Jews, and is the great-great-
grandson of Jacob H. Schiff.
Jacob Henry Schiff (1847-1920)
was one of the greatest Jewish Phil-
: anthropists in American history. In
his generation, Schiff was an almost
legendary figure: a supporter of
every major Jewish charity, a patron
of secular charities and at the fore-
: front of private banking and industri-
I al development in the United States.
Schiff was a native of Frankfurt am
Main, Germany, where his father,
Moses, was a stockbroker. In
1865, Jacob immigrated to the Unit-
ed States and settled in New York
;City, where he later founded his
own brokerage firm. In 1875, Schiff
married Therese Loeb, daughter of
Solomon Loeb, head of investment
!bankers Kuhn, Loeb & Co.
Their marriage was part of what
became an intricate web of
wealthy, German-Jewish banking
families in New York. In 1885,
when his father in-law retired, Schiff
was named head of the bank.
Under Schiff's leadership, Kuhn,
Loeb & Co. became one of the

most powerful banks in the country
at a time when the U.S.. was under-
: going tremendous industrialization.
Schiff loaned money to many grow-
ing companies, including AT&T and
Westinghouse Electric. In 1897, he
and E.H. Harriman bought and
reorganized the Union Pacific Rail-
road. Over the next 20 years, they
acquired other rail lines and built
the single greatest railroad fortune in
the world.
Schiff's firm also floated loans to
various governments, the largest of
which was a bond issue of $200
million for Japan in 1905 during its
war with Russia.
It was as a philanthropist that
Schiff made his mark outside of busi-
ness. Although affiliated with the
Reform movement of Judaism, he
supported Jewish charities across the
board. Educated in the. school of
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, the
renowned Orthodox rabbi, Schiff
was a great believer in Jewish learn-
ing. He was a founder of the Jewish
Theological Seminary of America
and supported Yeshivath Rabbi
Isaac Elchanan (today the rabbinical
seminary of Yeshiva University) and
almost every Jewish charity in New
York City.
Later in life, Schiff reversed his
anti-Zionist stance and became an
ardent supporter of the Palestinian
Jewish community. He helped estab-
lish the Technion-Israel Institute of
Technology in Haifa, as well as set-
tlements and projects throughout the
country. Schiff also was a leader of
the American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee, which aided needy
Jews primarily in Europe.
In 1907, alarmed at the huge
numbers of immigrant Jews crowd-
ing into dilapidated tenements in

charitable interest was the
Boy Scouts of America. Like
him, his wife, Adele
Neustadt, stemmed from Ger-
man Jews.
Mortimer's son, John Mor-
timer Schiff (1904-87), mar-
ried Edith Brevoort Baker,
whose grandfather, George F.
Baker (a founder of Citibank
Corp.), and father, George F.
Baker Jr., were stalwarts of All
Souls Unitarian Universalist
Church in Manhattan.
John's son, ironically named
David Tevele Schiff (born
1936), is the managing part-
ner
of Kuhn Loeb & Co. and
PhilanthropistJacob H. Schiff
an Episcopalian. He is mar-
ried to Martha E. Lawler.
Their son is Andrew New-
New York and other cities, Schiff ini-
man Schiff (born 1965), a physician,
tiated and financed the Galveston
venture capitalist and partner in Kuhn
Plan to divert Jewish immigrants from
Loeb & Co. In July 1997, he married
the large eastern cities to southwest-
Karenna Gore (born 1973) at Wash-
ern states.
! ington National Cathedral, an Episco-
palian church (the Gores are Baptists).
Jewishness Lost
On July 4, 1999, Karenna gave birth
Religiously, Schiff was a kohen,
to their first child, Wyatt Gore Schiff,
descended from a prominent rab-
who becomes the great-great-great-
binical and scholarly family. The
grandson of Jacob H. Schiff.
Schiff presence in Frankfurt can be
documented to about 1370, mak-
Q: My favorite musical score
ing it one of the oldest traceable
is that wonderful theme to
Jewish families in the western world.
Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho." I
Among the outstanding Schiff rabbis
sing it all the time to my girl-
were Meir ben Yaacov of Fulda
friend, and it makes her love
(1605-41), known as the Maharam
me all the more. If I'm not
Schiff, and David Tevele Schiff (died
mistaken, a Jewish composer
1792), rabbi of the Great Syna-
wrote
the music. Can you let
gogue in London ("Tevele" is a Yid-
me know? It would really
dish diminutive form of David).
impress
my girlfriend if I
Jacob Schiff clung to the traditional
found out.
practice of Judaism more closely
than did any of the other wealthy
A: This is your lucky day, my
German Reform Jews of his genera-
friend. Your sweetheart is going to
tion in New York.
think you're the greatest genius in
However, with each generation
the world.
succeeding him, the Schiff family's
Indeed, the memorable — dare we
Jewish character diminished until it
say, haunting — theme to Psycho
was completely gone. The Schiffs
was written by the Jewish composer
are now gentiles.
Bernard Hermann (191 1-1975). He
Jacob's son, Mortimer Leo Schiff
composed many unforgettable film
(1877-1931), gave huge sums to
scores, including that of Orson
Jewish causes (including the Jewish
Welles' Citizen Kane.
Theological Seminary), but his main

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