Lucius N. Littauer, American Jewish philanthropist, retired glove manufacturer of Gloversville, N. Y., and former member of Congress, set up a fund of $1,000,000 to be employed “to enlarge the realm of human knowledge, to promote the general moral, mental and physical improvement of society so that the sum total of human welfare and wisdom may be increased, and the cause of better understanding among all mankind promoted.”
The administration of the fund he has placed in the care of the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation of No. 235 Fourth Avenue, New York, which was incorporated by him recently as an agency for his future philanthropies. The directors of the foundation will have their first meeting on Mr. Littauer’s seventieth birthday, next Sunday.
The directors, Dr. George C. Bullowa of New York, Harry Starr of New York, Harry McNeil of Fonda, N. Y., Alfred C. Saunders of Gloversville, and Mr. Littauer himself, have been left comparatively free to use the money in the way they think will best carry out Mr. Littauer’s purpose in making the gift. In general terms he indicates how he wants the $1,000,000 employed. The rest is intrusted to their discretion.
In the letter to the directors which accompanied the gift, Mr. Littauer wrote: “I trust you will devote the funds at your disposal to altruistic activities of every nature-charitable, humanitarian, educational, religious and communal; that, in the advancement and promotion of such activities, you will include research and publication, the establishment and maintenance of altruistic agencies and institutions, and the aid of any such agencies and institutions already established, the functions of which tend to advance the public welfare.
“The care of the sick, the young, the aged, the helpless; the encouragement of recreation and self-improvement for all people should always merit your consideration and assistance. Beyond this, you will best conform to my wishes by the exercise of your own good judgment and humane instincts.”
“I want this gift spent,” Mr. Littauer said last night at his home at No.64 West 87th Street, “for the general welfare of mankind. It will be devoted to all sorts of charitable, beneficial and educational movements which tend to make man happier.
“The scope of the gift, I hope, will be unlimited. When I say, for example, that I want to promote the cause of better understanding among all mankind, I do not mean merely understanding among religious sects and among races and nations, but among people of all kinds all over the earth.”
In the letter to the directors, the philanthropist clearly shows he believes the fund can be most useful if as few (Continued on Page 4)
strings as possible are attached to it by him.
“The purposes of the foundation” he wrote, “are designedly made very broad in the charter this course has been followed because no one can foresee the future, and the wise provisions of today may become an obstacle in future years.
“The charter does not therefore seek to bind you and your successors to fixed plans or methods; nor do I intend in this letter, in any way, to limit the powers conferred on you and your successors. Yet I deem it appropriate to indicate to you in a general way the purposes and policies to which I wish you and your successors may conform as long as it is deemed best.”
Mr. Littaper suggests that “insofar as is consistent with changing needs and circumstances, you will continue to support such agencies, institutions and philanthropic activities as have heretofore received benefits from me, particularly research in cancer, scholarly endeavors in the field of Jewish studies, Jewish communtall activities and research in the field of pneumonia which I have subsidized in memory of my beloved wife Flora”
Mr. Littaner has engaged in many philanthropic activities in recent years. Last November, the discovery of a new and apparently effective pneumonia serum which is expected to bring the disease into as good control as diphtheria, was announced, and it become known that that discovery had been made possible by gifts from Mr. Littaner, who had vowed on the death of Mrs. Littaner four years ago that he would defeat pneumonia, of which she had died.
His latest is not Mr. Littaner’s first million-dollar benefaction. As a memorial to his father, he built the Nathan Littaner Hospital in Gloversville, and added to it from time to time, making gifts representing a total of more than $1,000,000. He also gave to Gloversville its community swimming pool, which cost $200,000, and at a cost of $100,000, built the Jewish Community Center at Gloversville. In memory of his mother he built the Hardier Littaner Home for Nurses there.
In memory of his father be founded, with a gift of $135,000, the Nathan Littaner Professorship in Jewish Literature and Philosophy at Harvard, his alma mater. His other gifts to educational institutions have included funds to be used in scientific researches on cancer and pneumonia. In 1926 he made a gift of $10,000 yearly to New York University to be used in the study of the prevention and cure of pneumonia. His wife had died from that disease about two years previously.
In 1927 he gave $25,000, to be advanced at the rate of $5,000 yearly, to the Memorial Hospital to defray the cost of special research in chemotherapy. In 1928 he made a gift of $5,000 annually to maintain a foundation for advancing Judaism along literary and spiritual lines and the gift was announced at the Cincinnati meeting of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. Mr. Littaner also gave a medical clinic to Braslan, Germany the birthplace of his parents.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
