They are called Seligman or Lehman, Schiff, Loeb or Schönberg. At the beginning of the 19th century, they left their home and their starving family. They leave behind their brothers, their roots, their past. They board a steamer third class to the United States, a country where dreams are said to be bigger than people.
Joseph Seligman was 17 years old when he set foot on American soil, it was 1837 in the middle of the financial crisis, he couldn’t have chosen a worse time. It has nothing but a volume and a meager recommendation. He becomes a peddler, wanders the virgin countryside, one day he buys a horse, a wagon, and soon a shop. He sells junk, patchwork bedspreads, tools for pioneers rushing to the West. The money is there, he knows how to use it, he makes his business profitable, one day he will become a banker. Investing in railroads, then mines, Joseph Seligman founded a dynasty. He married a young Jewish girl, but his numerous children were named after American presidents. Which doesn’t stop him from being turned away at golf clubs or posh hotels in the Adirondacks.
One day they decided America wouldn’t exist without them
August Schönberg was already connected to the Rothschilds by the time he moved to New York. He chose to call himself Belmont, which is a literal translation of his surname, it sounds French and gives him an aristocratic side. Then he married a pure Protestant, the daughter of Commodore Perry, that is in the order of things. The Lehmans are dressed in sad clothes when they arrive in the United States. They decided to settle in the South, allied themselves with cotton farmers and became the kings of Alabama. When the Roosevelts receive them, they are so proud.
Jacob Schiff, chief correspondent for Paribas in New York, does not hesitate to join forces with James Stillman, head of National City Bank. The Guggenheims are Swiss. Tenacity, work, beautiful marriages, they will stop at nothing to establish their position in American society. And the century is changing. In 1901, the powerful Seligmans dared to compete with the Morgan bankers. The Northern Pacific Railway affair calls into question the supremacy held until then by the Protestant bank founded by John Pierpont Morgan. Jewish society saw its influence grow in the economic and soon the political world, but its main concern remained integration and assimilation. He’s alluding to Wasps and Ward McAllister’s famous ‘four hundred’ list more than ever.
They said ” Our crowd “, our world. They knew very well where they came from, most of all they did not want to forget it, they were so proud of it. One day they decided that America would not exist without them, they transformed the economic growth of the country, they invented Wall Street, they became the financial elite. Fascinating picture of the Jewish aristocracy winning their freedom, hats off!
Our world. A History of the Great Jewish Families of New York, Stephen Birmingham, Exiles, 410 pages, €29
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