Quarter Million Dollar Gift to Boy Scout Movement from Mrs. Jacob H. Schiff in Memory of Her Son Mor

Mrs. Jacob H. Schiff, widow of the late Jacob H. Schiff, the great Jewish philanthropist who died in 1920, has given a quarter of a million dollars to the boy scout movement in memory of her son, the late Mortimer L. Schiff, who died suddenly last June on the day before his 54th. birthday.

Mr. Mortimer Schiff was at the time of his death President of the American Boy Scout Organisation. He was the only son of the late Jacob H. Schiff, and brother-in-law of Mr. Felix M. Warburg, and a member of their firm, Messrs. Kuhn, Loeb and Company. He was elected President of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America only a month before his death, and was Vice-President for many years before that. He was the chief organiser of the movement in America, and was its most generous donor. When he was in London in 1929 attending the International Boy Scout Jamboree, he gave Lord Baden Powell £10,000 for the extension of international friendship through scouting. In 1926 he was awarded the Silver Buffalo Scout Award for his services to the scout movement and to boyhood.

When he died, the Boy Scout Organisation of America published a tribute, in which it said: “To his powers of organisation is due the fact that the field of scouting has been extended to practically every community in the United States, and to his efforts in no small degree is due the advancement of scouting in a number of foreign countries”.

Mr. Schiff was also one of the largest contributors to the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies of New York, to which he gave 625,000 dollars in 14 years. He was President of the New York Jewish Board of Guardians and was connected with many other Jewish philanthropic organisations. It was his gift of 50,000 dollars that gave the impetus in 1925 to the establishment of a fund for the purchase of the Elkan N. Adler Library for the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. The Jewish Theological Seminary Library was one of his greatest interests, and received from him frequent gifts of books and collections. Shortly before his death Mr. Mortimer Schiff gave 25,000 dollars to the Hebrew Union College, 25,000 dollars to the Allied Jewish Campaign, and 75,000 dollars to the Young Nen’s Hebrew Association of New York.

In his will he left 1½ million dollars for charitable purposes, including half a million dollars for the Federation for the Support of Jewish Charities, 25,000 dollars for the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 25,000 dollars for the Jewish Welfare Board and 20,000 dollars for the New York Hebrew Free Loan Society.

He also left 100,000 dollars in his will to the Boy Scoutscof America.

Mr. Schiff is survived in addition to his mother by his widow, his sister, Mrs. Felix M. Warburg, a son, Mr. John Schiff, and a daughter, Mrs. Richard Hall.