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Sarah Lavanburg Straus

1861–1945

by Steven Siegel

With the support of philanthropist Baroness Clara de Hirsch, Sarah Lavanburg Straus helped to establish two homes for immigrant girls in New York City early in the twentieth century.

Institution: 92nd Street Y, New York

In Brief

Sarah Lavanburg Straus was a philanthropist in New York in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. After accompanying her husband Oscar Straus on a diplomatic mission to Turkey in 1889, she turned her efforts toward supporting young working women in New York City. With the support of Baroness Clara de Hirsch, the Strauses established a home for immigrant girls that offered lodging, vocational training, and recreational activities. After Oscar’s death in 1926, Sarah continued to work, even financing and accompanying an expedition to central Africa for the American Museum of Natural History. Sarah Lavanburg Straus died in New York City on November 9, 1945.

Family and Education

Warm friendship, a brilliant mind, breadth of interests, remarkable energy, and a sense of humor even in the heart of Africa: this is how one close friend described Sarah Lavanburg Straus.

Sarah Straus was born in 1861 in New York City to Hannah (Seller) Lavanburg and Louis Lavanburg, an investment banker. She had one brother, Frederick, a merchant and philanthropist interested in housing issues. She was educated in private schools and married Oscar Solomon Straus on April 19, 1882, in New York City. Oscar Straus, born in Otterburg, Bavaria, was a jurist, diplomat, cabinet member, philanthropist, and member of the merchandising family that operated R.H. Macy & Company. They had three children: Mildred (b. 1883), Aline (b. 1889), and Roger Williams (b. 1891), who became an industrialist, communal leader, and philanthropist.

Oscar Straus was involved in his family’s business when the couple married. In 1887, he was appointed United States ambassador to Turkey, and Sarah Straus accompanied him on this overseas assignment, which lasted until 1889. Upon their return, they built a home in Manhattan, in which each of the major rooms was furnished in the style of a different Near Eastern country.

Philanthropy

During the sojourn in Turkey, the Strauses met Baron Maurice de Hirsch, a German industrialist and philanthropist. Oscar Straus was instrumental in persuading the baron to establish the Baron de Hirsch Fund (1891), which aided Jewish immigrants relocating from Russia. Baroness Clara de Hirsch continued to support the fund after her husband’s death in 1896.

Early that year, when the baroness decided to establish a home for immigrant girls in the United States, she sought the advice of the Strauses. The baroness and the Strauses corresponded and spoke in Paris about the home. Sarah Straus investigated the existing institutions for women in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. With this report and previous correspondence in mind, in 1897 the baroness established the Clara De Hirsch Home for Working Girls. Sarah Straus was the first president, and, with the exception of the years from 1898 to 1900, when she again accompanied her husband to Turkey, she served as president until she died.

Sarah Straus took an active interest in all aspects of the home, located at 225 East 63rd Street. By 1906, the home also had a downtown facility, the Clara de Hirsch Home for Immigrant Girls. In 1915, the Immigrant Home’s operation was taken over by Sarah Straus and her brother, and incorporated as the Hannah Lavanburg Home in honor of their deceased mother.

Travel, Research, and Legacy

After her husband’s death on May 3, 1926, in New York City, Sarah Straus continued a busy life of philanthropy, recreation, and travel. In 1929, she financed and accompanied a four-month expedition to central Africa for the American Museum of Natural History to obtain birds in Uganda, Kenya, and Nyasaland, from which region the museum previously had no collections. In 1934, she financed and participated in an eight-month expedition to West Africa for the Field Museum of Chicago to collect bird specimens in Senegal, French Sudan, and the Niger territory. With her musical background, she was enthusiastic about recording tribal music on these expeditions.

She served on the board of the Fred L. Lavanburg Foundation and was a member of Temple Emanu-El. Sarah Lavanburg Straus died on November 9, 1945, at her home in New York City.

Bibliography

AJYB 48: 500.

American Hebrew (June 7, 1929): 106.

American Jewess (June 1895): 148.

“Mrs. Oscar Straus African Expedition.” (1929) Photograph Collection, American Museum of Natural History.

Obituary. NYTimes, November 10, 1945, 15:3.

Straus, Oscar S. Papers. Library of Congress.

UJE.

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How to cite this page

Siegel, Steven. "Sarah Lavanburg Straus." Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women. 31 December 1999. Jewish Women's Archive. (Viewed on March 19, 2024) <http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/straus-sarah-lavanburg>.