After a visit to Palestine, American Jewish businessman and philanthropist Jacob Schiff decided to donate one hundred thousand dollars to the Technion. Schiff was then the most prominent Jewish leader in American Jewry. He had several conditions for the contribution: the institution must be objective and free from guiding ideas such as Judaism and Zionism; that the name “Wissotzky” not appear in the name of the institution; he wanted the Technion to get out of the hands of Ezra, which gave the institution a German cultural character, so that the institution would be open to the influence of Jews from different countries. This condition was met after changes in the financial situation of Ezra after the First World War. In 1919, Schiff made a second donation of the same amount.
Schiff was a great philanthropist and donated money to a long list of Jewish institutions. Schiff donated to the victims of the pogroms in Russia and to Jewish organizations that advocated the self-defense of Jews against the pogroms. He donated to the institutions of the reform movement and the conservative movement, and to orthodox institutions. He contributed to the Beit Midrash for Rabbis in America, to Hebrew Union College, and to Rabbi Isaac Elchanan’s Yeshiva, which was the nucleus of Yeshiva University though Schiff personally frequented the Reform Synagogue Temple Emanuel in New York. He supported many literary enterprises in English in the field of Judaism. For example, Schiff donated funds for the publication of the Jewish Encyclopedia and for the translation of the Bible into English. He gave to the Jewish Book Publishing Company, to the establishment of a Jewish department in the New York City Library, and to the establishment of the Semitic Museum at Harvard University. He donated funds to educational establishments in the Land of Israel, such as the Technion and to the institutions of Ezra. In addition, he also donated money to institutions dealing with welfare and humanitarian activities. For example, he donated money to the Montefiore Hospital in New York, and more. With the decision to establish the Technion, additional money was needed, and another fundraiser was held and additional organizations contributed. The National Fund for Israel (KKL) donated 100,000 francs; they demanded and also received representation on the Board of Directors (Schmaryahu Levin and Yechiel Tschlenow). A group of American Jews led by Jacob Schiff donated 100,000 dollars. The donating organizations had different requirements regarding the composition of the management, but in the end, in practice, it was Dr. Paul Natan who managed the group established for the purpose of managing the “Institute for Technical Education” (the first name of the Technion) from its seat in Berlin.