Joseph Meyerhoff

Joseph Meyerhoff (April 8, 1899 – February 2, 1985) was an American businessman, fundraiser, and philanthropist based in Baltimore, Maryland.

Meyerhoff was born in Poltava in what is now Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire, and was brought to the United States as a young boy in 1906.

During the 1940s, Meyerhoff refused to rent or sell to fellow Jews in the affluent and predominantly white Christian neighborhood of Roland Park in Baltimore.

In 1948, the Baltimore Jewish Council wrote Meyerhoff a formal letter denouncing his complicity in antisemitic real estate practices and requested that he show solidarity with the Jewish community, but Meyerhoff insisted that his career would be ruined if he sold or rented to Jews in non-Jewish neighborhoods.

Meyerhoff continued his career as an avid philanthropist serving as president of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in the 1970s, where he personally contributed money and helped raise millions of dollars.