Julius Rosenwald (August 12, 1862 – January 6, 1932) was a Jewish American business executive and philanthropist. He was the long-time president and an owner of Sears, Roebuck and Company, a large and successful Chicago-based national retailer in the early 20th century. His Rosenwald Fund donated millions in matching funds to promote Black American education. Together with Booker T Washington, they built close to 5000 schools, many of them in the segregated south. In 1919 Rosenwald was appointed to the Chicago Commission on Race Relations. He was the principal founder and benefactor of the Museum of Science and Industry, serving as president from 1927 to 1932.
Early life
thumb|left|Rosenwald was born in [[Springfield, Illinois during the American Civil War. His childhood home and neighborhood is now part of the Lincoln Home National Historic Site. Julius Rosenwald was Samuel and Augusta’s second child to survive infancy. He was born and raised just a few blocks from Abraham Lincoln's residence in Springfield, Illinois, during Lincoln's presidency. In 2020, the house, formerly known as Lyon House, was renamed in his honor, and a plaque erected.
Additionally, Samuel Rosenwald served as the president of the B’rith Sholom synagogue of the Springfield Hebrew Congregation, where Julius received a Jewish education and learned lifelong lessons about the importance of "tzedakah" or charity, and "tikkun olam" or repairing the world, which shaped his values. With his younger brother Morris, Rosenwald started a clothing manufacturing company.
Rosenwald had heard about other clothiers who had begun to manufacture clothing according to standardized sizes from data collected during the American Civil War. He decided to try the system but to move his manufacturing facility closer to the rural population that he anticipated would be his market. He and his brother moved to Chicago, Illinois.
Marriage and family
In 1890, Rosenwald married Augusta "Gussie" Nusbaum, a daughter of a competing clothier. Together they had five children: Lessing J. Rosenwald, Adele (Rosenwald) Deutsch Levy, Edith (Rosenwald) Stern, Marion (Rosenwald) Ascoli―second wife of Italian American journalist Max Ascoli―and William Rosenwald. Their son, Lessing Rosenwald, became a prominent businessman, following his father in the chairmanship of Sears, Roebuck & Company (1932–1939). Edith married businessman Edgar B. Stern Sr.
One of his grandchildren is Nina Rosenwald. Another was the Hollywood film producer Armand Deutsch, who believed that he was the intended target of the thrill killers Leopold and Loeb, who kidnapped and murdered his schoolmate Robert "Bobby" Franks on May 21, 1924.
Sears, Roebuck & Company
In 1893, Richard Sears and Alvah C. Roebuck renamed their watch company Sears, Roebuck & Company and began to diversify. Rosenwald and Weil was a principal supplier of men's clothing for Sears, Roebuck. The volumes of unsold merchandise caused by the Panic of 1893 and his declining health led Roebuck to leave the company.
Roebuck placed his interest in the company in the hands of Sears who, in turn, offered that half of the company be sold to Chicago businessman Aaron Nusbaum, who in turn brought in Rosenwald, to whom Sears owed money. In August 1895, Sears sold Roebuck's half of the company to Nusbaum and Rosenwald for $75,000. The new Sears, Roebuck and Company was re-incorporated in Illinois with a capital stock of $150,000 in August 1895. Sears and Rosenwald got along well, but Nusbaum, who was Gussie Rosenwald's brother, was a problem. Sears and Rosenwald bought him out for $1.3 million in 1903.
Rosenwald brought to the company a rational management philosophy and diversified product lines: dry goods, consumer durables, drugs, hardware, furniture, and nearly anything else a farm household could desire. The company's initiative at this time was particularly fortuitous with the initiation of Rural Free Delivery by the Post Office in 1896. From 1895 to 1907, under Rosenwald's leadership as vice president and treasurer, annual sales of the company climbed from $750,000 to upwards of $50 million. The prosperity of the company and their vision for greater expansion led Sears and Rosenwald to take the company public in 1906, with $40 million in stock. Rosenwald turned to his old friend Henry Goldman, who was now a senior partner at Goldman Sachs, to handle the initial public offering of the stock. After Sears resigned the presidency in 1908 due to declining health, Rosenwald was named president.
On January 2, 1915, Rosenwald was indicted in Chicago for a failure to file a personal property tax schedule. One commenter described the indictment as "a shot heard around the world". Prior to the indictment the Tax Board of Review scheduled the value of Rosenwald's Sears' stock at $7,500,000. Rosenwald declared this to be greatly excessive and additionally claimed that the stock of the New York company did not represent tangible assets. The indictment was quashed in March 1915 when Rosenwald's attorneys convinced the Court that the section of law which provided for prosecution of such cases had been repealed.
The company was laid low during the post-World War I recession as a severe depression hit the nation's farms after farmers had over-expanded their holdings. To bail out the company, Rosenwald pledged $21 million of his personal wealth. By 1922, Sears had regained financial stability. Two years later, in 1924, Rosenwald resigned the presidency, but remained as chairman; his goal was to devote more time to philanthropy. First he oversaw the design and construction of the company's first department store within Sears, Roebuck's massive 16-hectare (40-acre) headquarters complex of offices, laboratories, and mail-order operations at Homan Ave. and Arthington St. on Chicago's West Side. The store opened on February 2, 1925. After leaving the presidency, Rosenwald was appointed chairman of the Board of Sears, a position he held until his death in 1932.
thumb|left|200px|Hon. Julius Rosenwald, December 23, 1922.
Philanthropy
Rosenwald believed that having money meant that you needed to use it responsibly, thus a large part of his income was donated to charity. Hasia R. Diner Rosenwald's biographer, says that this philosophy was part of this Jewish identity and reflected his desire to make America a more inclusive place that would offer refuge for Jews and others who faced inequities or justice for all.
Simply put he explained, “What I want to do is try and cure the things that seem wrong”.
This line of thinking resulted in strong ties to the African American population of the early twentieth century. One of his most noted contributions was fostered by his partnership with Booker T. Washington.Additionally, Rosenwald was concerned about justice for all, and he believed that the plight of African Americans was deeply connected with the inequities faced by Jews throughout their history. This became even more important to him after meeting Booker T. Washington before the start of the first World War.
Rosenwald became a member of the city's leading Jewish Reform congregation, Chicago Sinai congregation, soon after moving to Chicago. Its rabbi, Emil G. Hirsch, made an impact on Rosenwald's philanthropy. Rosenwald donated generously to several Jewish community projects in Chicago and served as vice president of Chicago Sinai for many years.
African American education
Booker T. Washington encouraged Rosenwald to address the poor state of African-American education in the U.S., which suffered from inadequate buildings and books. Rosenwald provided funds to build six small schools in rural Alabama, which were constructed and opened in 1913 and 1914, and overseen by Tuskegee. As the projects were built by and for African Americans, they showed Rosenwald's intention to remain behind the scenes in this effort. Inspired by the social progressivism of Jane Addams, Grace Abbott, Paul J. Sachs, and the Reform Judaism of Emil Hirsch and Julian Mack (many of whom were personal friends as well), Rosenwald devoted his time, energy, and money to philanthropy.
In his words, written in 1911:
<blockquote>The horrors that are due to race prejudice come home to the Jew more forcefully than to others of the white race, on account of the centuries of persecution which they have suffered and still suffer.</blockquote>
The collaboration between Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald was the subject of the 2015 documentary Rosenwald, subtitled The Remarkable Story of a Jewish Partnership with African American Communities by writer, producer and director Aviva Kempner, which won Best Documentary Jury Award at the Teaneck International Film Festival and the Lipscomb University Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, Nashville Film Festival.
Rosenwald commissioned one of Chicago's largest philanthropic housing developments: the Michigan Boulevard Garden Apartments, at 47th St. and Michigan Ave. The Michigan Boulevard Garden Apartments was one of the first American housing developments to mix residential, commercial and social uses and still stands.
The complex was built in 1929 by Julius Rosenwald and his nephew, architect Ernest Grunsfeld (who also designed the Adler Planetarium, at the behest of Rosenwald's brother-in-law, Max Adler). Covering a square block, the buildings enclosed an enormous central landscaped courtyard. Rosenwald planned the development of 421 units to provide sound housing for African Americans and to relieve the tremendous overcrowding due to Chicago's pervasive racial segregation. The development also included 14 stores along the 47th Street side of the property, four of which were occupied by black-owned businesses, and a nursery school. Rosenwald invested $2.7 million in the project, receiving only a 2.4 percent return during the first seven years.
YMCAs for African Americans
In 1910, the YMCA asked Rosenwald to fund a proposal for a new building in Chicago; Rosenwald replied that he would contribute only if a center for African Americans were also constructed. The result was the Wabash Avenue YMCA, opened in 1914, which would later become an historic landmark. The Wabash "Y" greatly aided blacks' integration into Chicago during the Great Migration. It is still operating today.
Rosenwald went on to offer challenge grants to cities across the United States to build YMCAs for African Americans.
Exhibition in Washington, DC
The National Building Museum in Washington, DC is holding an exhibition entitled, "A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools that Changed America." Though photographs by photographer/curator Andrew Feiler, it documents the relationship between Rosenwald and Washington this story, with interviews of former students, teachers, and community leaders, drawings, school models and videos. The exhibition is open through Jan. 2027.
Samuel Reshevsky
Rosenwald was the patron of chess prodigy Samuel Reshevsky. He encouraged Reshevsky to earn a university degree so as not to be completely dependent upon chess for his living. Reshevsky did so, earning his degree in accounting from the University of Chicago.
County Extension
Rosenwald gave $1000 grants to the first 100 counties in the U.S. to hire County Extension Agents, helping the United States Department of Agriculture launch a program that was highly valuable to rural Americans. He was also the principal founder and backer for the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, to which he gave over $5 million and served as the president (1927–1932).
Death and legacy
Unfortunately, Julius Rosenwald’s impact on America, via the retail revolution he created through Sears, Roebuck & Company as well as his wide-ranging philanthropy remain largely unknown, much having to do with his insistence to remain anonymous by withholding his name from the projects he funded, as well as his choice to “sunset” the Rosenwald Fund.
Rosenwald died at his home, now Rosewood Park, in the Ravinia section of Highland Park, Illinois, on January 6, 1932, aged 69.
- His bust was created in bronze, and it was among those of eight honored industry magnates which were installed between the Chicago River and the Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago, Illinois.
- During World War II, the Liberty ship was built in Panama City, Florida, and named in his honor.
- He was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1992.
- A 2015 film, Rosenwald, directed by Aviva Kempner documents his life and philanthropy.
- A Chicago Public School system elementary school, located at 2601 W 80th Street on Chicago's Southwest Side, was named after Rosenwald in 1952.
- Rosenwald's boyhood home, which is part of the Lincoln Home National Historic Site, was renamed in his honor in 2020. A plaque there commemorates his work.
When looking back on his life and success, Rosenwald declared, "Most people are of the opinion that because a man has made a fortune that his opinions on any subject are valuable. For my part, I always believe most large fortunes are made by men of mediocre ability who tumbled into a lucky opportunity and couldn’t help but get rich and that others, given the same chance, would have done far better with it."