[The purpose of the Digest is informative. Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval.–Editor.]
If the estimate of the Chicago “Daily News” is correct, Julius Rosenwald is not only the richest man in Chicago, his wealth being rated at 110 million dollars, but he is also the richest Jew in the world today, though his fortune is small compared to such non-Jewish multi-millionaires as Ford, Rockefeller, Morgan and others.
Commenting on this fact, the “Jewish Daily News” of yesterday observes:
“There is not another Jew in America whose wealth equals Rosenwald’s The Guggenheims represent a larger capital, but they are a whole family. Neither Felix Warburg, nor Mortimer Schiff, nor Otto Kahn can compare their wealth to Rosenwald’s.
“As regards other countries, the first on the list are the Rothschilds. They have, however, been pushed aside and no doubt the capital of all the Rothschilds put together would not be half of Rosenwald’s capital. There are others, Mond of London, for instance, but none of them approach Rosenwald.
“Rosenwald with his 110 millions is undoubtedly the richest Jew in history. There never was, either in the days of Jewish independence in Palestine or any time after that in any country a Jew whose capital could match that of the modern money magnate.
“Rosenwald acquired his wealth in a somewhat different form than the other modern magnates. Great fortunes in modern times are connected with banking or industry. Rosenwald’s fortune is connected with neither. He is a merchant, a tradesman on a large scale, and as such he appears to be the richest of all tradesmen in the world.”
The “Jewish Morning Journal” lauds Mr. Rosenwald for his achievement pointing to his rise from poor immigrant boy to his present position of wealth and influence.
“As for those who are afraid that Jewish wealth may be a source of criticism, it should be emphasized that even if Mr. Rosenwald has the 110 million ascribed to him by the ‘Daily News’ his fortune remains small as compared to that of the Rockefellers and the Fords, and it would be easy to enumerate a dozen other Americans much wealthier than he,” the paper declares.
Referring to the fact that Rosenwald is not a banker, the paper observes. “This wealthy Jew, who possesses more than any one of the Rothschilds even had, is a merchant-prince, the organizer of a business that serves the farmer and the village inhabitant, who supplies every conceivable article of use, things which formerly could only be obtained in large cities, to the remotest parts of the country and to the poorer sections of the population. The mail-order man is a producer too, one of the largest employers of labor in the country; thousands work for him directly, thousands indirectly, to produce what he sells. His activity brings economic benefits to a large part of the population, and the wealth acquired by him and used for useful philanthropic purposes is but a small part of what he has created for the benefit of great masses of people.”
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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.
