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The Michtom Family made philanthropy a priority. Their original design of the bear was cherished by the Roosevelt family and is memorialized at the Smithsonian Institute.
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The Michtom family was an exemplary Jewish-American success story. Morris and Rose Michtom, both immigrants from Russia in the late 1800’s, were proudly Jewish. They settled in Brooklyn, New York and established their candy and penny shop to make a living. They invented the Teddy Bear, named after the 26th President of the United States of America, Theodore Roosevelt.
In 1902, Roosevelt traveled to Louisiana and Mississippi. He added a five-day hunting excursion in the region to hunt black bears. The President was upset that he could not successfully shoot a bear as the excursion ended. A couple days after initial publicity of the hunt, political cartoonist, Clifford Berryman, released a sketch in the Washington Post.
Back in Brooklyn, Morris Michtom saw Berryman’s cartoon and asked his wife, Rose, to stitch together and stuff a little bear cub that resembled the one in the cartoon. He labeled it a “teddy bear” after the President. Having received permission from President Roosevelt himself to use the name, Morris Michtom began to mass-produce the teddy bear and founded his family business, the Ideal Toy Company.
The Ideal Toy Company remained a family business for the greater part of the century, until the 1970’s. The Michtom’s and their descendants made philanthropy a priority, with a focus on helping Jewish communities in the United States and around the world. Their original design of the bear was cherished by the Roosevelt family and is memorialized at the Smithsonian Institute.
