Felix M. Warburg


Felix Moritz Warburg was a German-born American banker. He was a member of the Warburg banking family of Hamburg, Germany.

Early life

Warburg was born in Hamburg, Germany on January 14, 1871. He was a grandson of Moses Marcus Warburg, one of the founders of the bank, M. M. Warburg and son of Moritz and Charlotte Esther Oppenheim Warburg. Felix's first job at age 16 was in Hamburg, Germany with N.M. Oppenheim & Co. Felix Warburg was a partner in Kuhn, Loeb & Co.

Career

Warburg was an important leader of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, established to help the Jews in Europe in the period leading up to, and especially during, the Great Depression. Warburg actively raised funds in the United States on behalf of European Jews who faced hunger following World War I. As early as 1919, he was quoted in The New York Times discussing the dire situation of Jewish war sufferers.
Warburg served as the founder and first president of the American Friends of the Hebrew University, which supports the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Jerusalem, Israel, in 1925.
Warburg and the Joint Distribution Committee were also instrumental in the 1930s after the global Great Depression following the crash of the New York stock exchange in 1929. More interested in his charitable work than banking, after Hitler seized power, Felix gave money to help aid Jews flee Germany. Before he died, Warburg gave $10,000,000 to Jewish causes around the world.
John L. Spivak claimed General Smedley Butler had named him before Congress as part of the Business Plot.

Personal life

He married Frieda Schiff, daughter of Jacob Henry Schiff and Therese Loeb Schiff, on 19 March 1895, in New York. They had four sons and one daughter:
All of their children were active in community service.
He died on 20 September 1937 in New York City. He was buried in Salem Fields Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York City.

Legacy

As a result of his philanthropic activities, a new Jewish village established in Mandate Palestine in 1939, Kfar Warburg, was named after him. He was a trustee of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.
The Felix M. Warburg House, in New York's Upper East side was donated by his widow and today houses the Jewish Museum.

Archives and records