2026-03-14 10:56:PM <br/> Tags: #AmericanJewry #people ![[image-252.png|305|311]] # Adolph Lewisohn (1849-1938) - Adolph Lewisohn was a Jewish-immigrant-American banker, copper magnate and Jewish communal leader active in the early 20th century. - Lewisohn was born into family of wealthy and deeply religious Orthodox Jews "of the strictest orthodoxy in the matter of old traditional ritualistic customs."[^2] - After moving to the United States in 1867, Lewisohn spent his life in New York's aristocratic German-Jewish milieu. - Lewisohn had an audience with Presidents Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Hoover, and Coolidge.[^2] #### Family Connections *Note: The German-Jewish aristocracy of the early 20th century was deeply interconnected. Names like Schiff, Warburg, Lehman, Rosenwald, Straus, etc., were inseparable.* - Lewisohn's daughter Adele married [[Arthur Lehman]].[^2] - Arthur was the brother of [[Herbert Lehman]] and [[Irving Lehman]]. - The Lehman's ran the [[Lehman Brothers]] banking firm. - Lewisohn's son Samuel married Margaret V. Seligman. - Margaret was the daughter of Isaac Seligman. - Isaac Seligman's wife was Guta Loeb, of the well known Kuhn Loeb & Co. Jewish banking empire. - Guta Loeb's sister was Nina Loeb. Nina Loeb married Paul Warburg, brother of [[Felix Warburg]]. - Felix Warburg was married to Frieda Schiff, daughter of [[Jacob Schiff]]. - Lewisohn's granddaughter Helen married [[Benjamin Buttenwieser]]. #### Organized Jewry - In 1905, Lewisohn was among a delegation of powerful Jewish financiers who met with Russian dignitaries on the sidelines of the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.[^2] - The Treaty of Portsmouth marked the end of the Russo-Japanese war. - Jewish financiers backed the Japanese war effort against Russia because of perceived Russian antisemitism. - The delegation of powerful Jews, including Lewisohn, used the carrot of American goodwill to demand better conditions for Russian Jews. *Jews hijacking American power for international Jewish benefit. Nothing new.* - Lewisohn was an early member of the [[American Jewish Committee (AJC)]]. He is noted as an AJC district 12 (New York district) member around 1912 alongside [[Nathan Bijur]], [[Leon Kamaiky]], [[Judah Magnes]], [[Louis Marshall]], Isidor Straus (brother of [[Oscar Straus]] and [[Nathan Straus]]), and [[Henry Pereira Mendes]].[^4] - The AJC was founded as an elite German-Jewish advocacy organization. - The organization was originally highly exclusive. Lewisohn's membership is a testament to his status. - Lewisohn joined a long list of powerful American Jews who came to the defense of Leo Frank from 1913-1915.[^3] - Leo Frank was found guilty of raping and murdering a 13-year-old girl who worked at his pencil factory. - Organized American Jewry mounted an aggressive campaign to defend Frank. - Lewisohn joined [[Stephen S. Wise]], [[Louis Marshall]], Samuel Untermeyer, [[Julius Rosenwald]], [[Sigmund Livingston]], [[Adolph Ochs]], etc. in defending Frank legally and socially. - In the 1917-1918 *American Jewish Year Book*, Lewisohn is noted as a [[Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS)]] board member.[^1] - Page 334 of the same *AJYB* edition notes Lewisohn as a board of trustees member of the Young Men's Hebrew and Kindred Associations (YMHA). - The YMHA was later merged into the [[JCC Association of North America]]. - Lewisohn personally lobbied President Woodrow Wilson to favor more lenient immigration policies.[^2] - Lewisohn opposed restrictive Immigration Act of 1917 and its "illiteracy clause" which vetted new immigrants based on literacy.[^2] *The nativist 1917 Act passed the Congress with an overwhelming majority, overriding President Wilson's veto.*[^5] - Lewisohn, a Jewish immigrant, was hoping to protect and facilitate mass Eastern European Jewish immigration against the popular American nativist sentiment of the era. - Lewisohn supported the 1917 [[Balfour Declaration]], a promise by the British government to recognize a future Jewish state in Palestine.[^2] - Lewisohn donated to the [[Hebrew Free Loan Society]].[^2] #### Recommended Reading - Our Crowd - Stephen Birmingham #### References [^1]: “Jewish National Organizations in the United States,” _The American Jewish Year Book 5678: September 17, 1917, to September 6, 1918_ (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1917), 334, 346, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/23600971.pdf](https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/23600971.pdf). [^2]: Henning Albrecht, “Adolph Lewisohn,” _Immigrant Entrepreneurship_, German Historical Institute, last updated August 22, 2018, [https://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entries/adolph-lewisohn/](https://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entries/adolph-lewisohn/). [^3]: Sidney Sutherland, “Mystery of the Pencil Factory,” 1929, [https://www.leofrank.org/reactions/mystery-of-the-pencil-factory/#:~:text=the%20whole%20nation.-,Adolph%20Lewisohn,-%2C%20Samuel%20Untermyer%2C%20Louis](https://www.leofrank.org/reactions/mystery-of-the-pencil-factory/#:~:text=the%20whole%20nation.-,Adolph%20Lewisohn,-%2C%20Samuel%20Untermyer%2C%20Louis). [^4]: “Jewish National Organizations in the United States,” _American Jewish Year Book 5665 (1904–1905)_, ed. Cyrus Adler and Henrietta Szold (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1904), [https://archive.org/stream/americanjewishy04unkngoog/americanjewishy04unkngoog_djvu.txt#:~:text=Lewin%2DEpetein%20%0A(1908)%3B-,Adolph%20Lewisohn,-(1912)%3B%20David%20H](https://archive.org/stream/americanjewishy04unkngoog/americanjewishy04unkngoog_djvu.txt#:~:text=Lewin%2DEpetein%20%0A(1908)%3B-,Adolph%20Lewisohn,-(1912)%3B%20David%20H) [^5]: “Immigration Act of 1917,” _Wikipedia_, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1917#Provisions:~:text=overwhelming%20majority](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1917#Provisions:~:text=overwhelming%20majority).