The last chapter of the biography on Julius Rosenwald, the man who grew Sears Roebuck into an iconic American company, was appropriately titled, “Forgetting Julius Rosenwald.” After considering the incredible scope and impact of his philanthropy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it’s pretty incredible how little known he is today. Hasia Diner, in her biography Julius Rosenwald: Repairing the World, does justice in telling the story of his impacts, even as it leaves the reader without a clear sense of the man himself.
Rosenwald, as he often noted in his humble way, was in the right place at the right time. The founder of Sears Roebuck was in need of capital, and asked if Rosenwald and his brother in law would be interested in investing. The result, after a few short years, was that Rosenwald took over the company and grew it into the behemoth of industry that it became. This made him, in contemporary terms, a multi-billionaire, and in the middle of all of this, he stepped back from the company’s leadership to engage in philanthropy full time, and gave away much of his money .
Rosenwald was very principled in his values and giving. He believed that money should not exist in foundations or trusts in perpetuity, but should be spent by each generation that makes it, leaving future generations to give to their own charitable causes. As such, he willed that the foundation he created should disperse all of its assets by 25 years after his death. He believed in partnerships, not charity, and as such almost always asked those organizations that he gave to to participate, giving them a personal stake in the project. He believed deeply in America, and the opportunity it created to bring people together across their differences. In this way, he was deeply influenced by the early 20th century Jewish Reform movement he was a part of.
Most of the book tracks his two greatest areas of giving: the Jewish and Black communities, giving more to the latter than the former. On the Jewish side, what made him incredible was not just how much he gave, but how broadly he gave. He gave to all denominations of the time (Conservative, Orthodox and Reform), even seeding the money for Mordechai Kaplan to write the book that led him to found the Reconstructionist movement. Amazingly, he was the head of the Orthodox Federation in Chicago, at their request! It’s hard to imagine such a thing like that today. He helped create the Joint Distribution Committee to help European Jews in need , as well as Jewish social service organizations in America (this was before the government provided funding for such programs). The list goes on and on. It’s hard to imagine someone who had a greater impact on the foundational organizations of American Jewish life than Rosenwald. And for each, he invested not only his money but his time, as a lay person and fundraiser.
Perhaps most incredible was Rosenwalds work on behalf of the Black population. He objected morally about their unequal treatment, and also believed that for America to be successful, all groups had to be treated fairly. Originally in partnership with Booker T. Washington, he helped found close to 5,000 (!) schools for Black students in the American South, which became known colloquially as “Rosenwald Schools.” In each case, as described above, the community had to come up with part of the funds, and he paid the rest. One study showed that 89 percent of all buildings in which Mississippi black children learned at the time were schools he funded, with similar data from other states. The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago estimated that 30 percent of the educational gains achieved in the black community between 1910 and 1930 came from Rosenwald schools, and that doesn’t include his funding of higher education for many talented African Americans.
But it did not stop there. He used this money to force the Southern State governments, which were not funding Black schools at all, to provide the structural support and training that the schools needed, thus bringing them legitimacy and professional engagement. He also funded many YMCAs for Black people, since white YMCAs wouldn’t give them entry; he helped the early NAACP; he helped fund healthcare and training for healthcare professionals, given the poor state of Black healthcare at the time, and so much more. In each case, he remained deferential to people on the ground, even as he shared his voice; used his money to get the government and those in power to help communities in need, and insisted that all money be a partnership, not strict charity.
Given the tremendous impact that Rosenwald had on so many different communities, and at such a large scale, why was he all but forgotten in the years after his death? Diner has a few suggestions. One is that, unlike Ford, Rockefeller or Carnegie, he refused to either put his name on the institutions he was generous enough to give to, or create a Foundation in perpetuity that continues today. A second is that though his impact at the time was important and profound, some of his positions have not fared well over time. He refused to support Zionist causes (though his wife did), and the Jewish community very much moved toward Zionism after his death. Also, while he changed the lives of millions of African Americans through his educational funding and YMCA generosity, he never challenged the status quo of Jim Crow. Some even argued that his funding reinforced the separate-but-equal doctrine in the South. It was after his death that the culture shifted much more strongly and consistently towards legal equality, leaving his legacy in a more complicated place.
One last note. Julius Rosenwald lived the American dream, and yet, he never let go of his Jewish identity. He never apologized for it, and it always formed the center of his moral and ethical life. For this role-modeling, and for so much else about him, we should be grateful.
Just Because I Liked It:
- Please read this powerful piece by Douglas Murray in The Free Press about the hope Israel gives him.