By the mid-1920s he had begun devoting most of his spare time to philanthropic causes. He was the first president of the Association for Jewish Children. He was a trustee and member of the advisory council of the YMHA/YWHA branch of the Jewish Ys and Centers. In 1927 he became the youngest president of Congregation Beth El, a synagogue in West Philadelphia. He was the first vice-president of the Federation of Jewish Charities, which would merge after World War II to become Philadelphia's Allied Jewish Appeal (AJA), descended from an eastern European family, and he was elected its president in 1949. He was a trustee of the Jewish Hospital and in 1953 oversaw its merger with Northern Liberties Hospital to become the Albert Einstein Medical Center, which he served as trustee and finance committee member. He was active in Philadelphia's Congregation Rodeph Shalom and helped found and contributed to the holdings of the Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art there."Jacob Gutman at 90," Philadelphia: The Jewish Exponent, March 21, 1980.The Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art
