The last rites will be held this morning at 10 o’clock for Mrs. Therese Schiff, widow of Jacob H. Schiff, the philanthropist, and a distinguished benefactress in her own right.
Mrs. Schiff, who survived her husband by thirteen years, succumbed early Sunday morning to cerebral thrombosis, after an illness of ten days. She was seventy-eight years old. At her bedside when the end came were her daughter, Mrs. Felix M. Warburg and seven grandchildren, Frederick M., Gerald F., Paul Felix and Edward M. Warburg; John M. Schiff, Mrs. Walter N. Rothschild and Mrs. George Baker.
The services this morning will be private and will be attended by relatives and close friends. The services, which will take place from her city home, will be conducted by Dr. Samuel Schulman, rabbi of Temple Emanu-el. Interment will take place in Salem Fields Cemetery, where the body of Mr. Schiff is interred.
Since the death of her husband on September 25, 1920, Mrs. Schiff had led a retired life, devoting herself to philanthropic work. During her husband’s lifetime she joined with him in the million dollar gifts to charities, hospitals, seminaries, East Side settlements, religious organizations, libraries, the Red Cross and such undertakings as the revision of the Jewish Bible and the establishment of the Jewish Institute of Technology at Haifa, Palestine. Subsequently she continued her benefactions, avoiding the limelight.
In 1921, she gave the sum of $300,000 to the Henry Street Settlement for the establishment of a visiting nurses’ administration building in memory of her husband. This was her largest single donation, after Mr. Schiff’s passing.
Last May, she gave to the Boy Scouts of America the sum of $250,000 to establish a permanent reservation and training school, as a memorial to her only son, Mortimer Schiff, who died in 1931 and who, at the time of his death, was the president of the Boy Scouts of America.
She was active in the work of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies, to whose last campaign she contributed $32,000; the Emanu-el Sisterhood of Personal Service, the Loeb Convalescent Home and the Montefiore Hospital for Chronic Diseases. She was joint donor with her son and son-in-law, Felix M. Warburg, of a gift of $150,000 to the building fund of the Montefiore Hospital in 1929. She was interested in the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and contributed $30,000 to the building fund of that institution in 1927. One of the beneficiaries of her philanthropy, too, was the New York Section of the Council of Jewish Women, of which she was honorary president, and to whom she gave $15,000.
Mrs. Schiff also gave the sum of $500,000, together with Mr. Warburg, to the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati.
Cincinnati was the native home of Mrs. Schiff, who was born there on November 5, 1854, the daughter of Solomon Loeb, the founder of Kuhn, Loeb and Company.
Mrs. Schiff is survived by her daughter, Mrs. Felix M. Warburg, seven grand-children and nine great grand-children.
Resolutions mourning the passing of Mrs. Schiff were adopted by a number of organizations including the Conference Committee of the National Jewish Women’s Organizations, of which Mrs. Maurice Steinfeld is chairman; and the New York Chapter of Hadassah, of which Mrs. David DeSola Pool is chairman.
The conference committee’s resolution declared:
“Jewish women everywhere are sadly aware of their irretrievable loss in the passing of Mrs. Jacob H. Schiff. She served generously and sympathetically in giving of her material means and of her counsel. She carried on the traditions of her husband, who to this very day holds a rank of nobility in the grateful memory of Jewry.
“The position of Jewish womanhood was exalted throughout the long years of her life. She revealed to the world the power of the ideals of Judaism in serving not alone her people and her country, but also peoples in all portions of the globe. Her deeds will be the flames of an eternal lamp that shall light the way for Jewish womanhood for generations to come.”
“Hadassah mourns the loss of a great mother in Israel. Mrs. Schiff crowned her position in Jewish life with innate nobility. Her serene spirit, her quick, human sympathy, her clear, open mind and her generous response to every good cause have made her life a blessing and her passing a sorrow. She will remain enshrined in American Jewish memories alongside of her great life-mate, Jacob H. Schiff.”
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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.
