List of Jewish political milestones in the United States
The following is a list of Jewish political milestones in the United States.
- First Jewish member of a colonial legislature (South Carolina): Francis Salvador (1775)[1]
- First Jewish soldier killed in the American Revolutionary War: Francis Salvador (1776)[2]
- First Jewish member of the U.S. Congress (U.S. House of Representatives): Lewis Charles Levin (1845)[3]
- First Jewish member of the U.S. Senate: David Levy Yulee (1845)[4]
- First Jewish mayor of a major American city (Portland, Oregon): Bernard Goldsmith (1869)
- Two years later, Philip Wasserman succeeded him as mayor.
- First Jewish governor of a U.S. state (California): Washington Bartlett (1887)[5]
- First Jewish U.S. Cabinet member (Secretary of Commerce and Labor): Oscar Straus (1906)[6]
- Not including Judah P. Benjamin, who served in the Confederate Cabinet as Secretary of State and Secretary of War.[7]
- First Jewish Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court: Louis Brandeis (1916)[8]
- President Millard Fillmore offered to appoint Judah P. Benjamin to the Supreme Court in 1853, but Benjamin declined.[7]
- First Jewish female member of the U.S. Congress (U.S. House of Representatives): Florence Prag Kahn (1925)[9]
- First Jewish Secretary of the Treasury: Henry Morgenthau Jr. (1934)[10]
- First person of Jewish ancestry to run for President of the United States on a major party ticket: Barry Goldwater (1964) (Goldwater's father was Jewish; Goldwater was raised Episcopalian)[11][12]
- First person of
- First Jewish candidate to receive an electoral vote for Vice President: Tonie Nathan of the Libertarian Party, from a faithless elector (1972)[14]
- First Jewish Secretary of Defense: James R. Schlesinger (1973)[15]
- First Jewish Secretary of State: Henry Kissinger (1973)[16]
- First Jewish Protestant)[17]
- First Jewish Attorney General: Edward H. Levi (1975)[18]
- First Jewish female mayor of a major American city (Dallas): Adlene Harrison (1976)[19]
- First Jewish female governor of a Madeleine M. Kunin (1985)[20]
- First Jewish openly gay member of the U.S. Congress (U.S. House of Representatives): Barney Frank (took office 1981, disclosed homosexuality 1989)[21]
- Jared Polis became the first Jewish Congressman to be openly gay upon first election: (2009)[22]
- First U.S. Senate election in which both major party candidates were Jewish: 1990 Minnesota U.S. Senate Election; with Paul Wellstone defeated Rudy Boschwitz (1990)[23]
- First independent Jewish member of the U.S. Congress (U.S. House of Representatives): Bernie Sanders (1991)[24]
- First Jewish female members of the U.S. Senate: Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein (1993)[25]
- First Jewish female Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court: Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1993)[26]
- First Jewish female U.S. Cabinet member (Secretary of State): Madeleine Albright (1997) (also first woman Secretary of State)[27][28][29][30]
- Four years earlier, Albright became first Jewish female with U.S. Cabinet-rank status (U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations).
- First Jewish nominee for Vice President of the United States on a major party ticket, and first Jewish candidate to receive an electoral vote, excluding faithless electors: Joe Lieberman (2000)[31]
- First Jewish U.S. House whip: Eric Cantor (2009) (also first Jewish whip in either chamber of Congress)[32]
- First Jewish floor leader and majority leader in either chamber of Congress)[32]
- First Jewish American to win a presidential primary (New Hampshire): Bernie Sanders (2016)[33][34][35][36] (Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican presidential nominee, was the first winner of Jewish heritage, but was a Christian).[37]
- First Jewish American to receive an electoral vote for President: Bernie Sanders, from a faithless elector (2016)[38] (Barry Goldwater was the first of Jewish heritage, in 1964, but was not Jewish)
- First Jewish U.S. Senate floor leader: Chuck Schumer (2017) (also first Jewish minority leader in either chamber of Congress)[39]
- First Jewish Douglas Emhoff(2021)
- First Jewish U.S. Senate majority leader: Chuck Schumer (2021)
- First Jewish female (and the first woman) Secretary of the Treasury: Janet Yellen (2021)
See also
References
- ^ "Today in History: The first American-Jewish patriot". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
- ^ Green, David B. (2013-08-01). "1776: The First Jew to Die for the Cause of the American Revolution". Haaretz. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
- ^ "Lewis Charles Levin". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
- ^ "David Levy Yulee". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
- ^ "Moses Alexander: Jewish Governor of Idaho, First Jewish Governor in the United States". Jewish Museum of the American West.
- ^ "First Jew in Cabinet". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 1934-07-11. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
- ^ a b "Judah Benjamin". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
- ^ "Louis D. Brandeis, Pioneer of the Senate Confirmation Battles". My Jewish Learning. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
- ^ "KAHN, Florence Prag | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives". history.house.gov. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
- ^ "Henry Morgenthau". encyclopedia.ushmm.org. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
- ^ "The Goldwaters | Southwest Jewish Archives". swja.library.arizona.edu. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
- ^ Journal, Harry Stein is a contributing editor of City; Racist, the author of No Matter What They’ll Call This Book; Tripp, the comic novel Will; Attorney-at-Law, Pissed-Off (2016-10-14). "The Goldwater Takedown". City Journal. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
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has generic name (help) - ^ Stevenson, James (1967-05-13). "Abolafia for President". New Yorker.
- ^ "Theodora "Tonie" Nathan -". Archives of Women's Political Communication. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
- ISSN 2159-0370.
- ^ Green, David (2012-11-06). "This Day in Jewish History: 1973: A Jewish Mayor for New York City". Haaretz.
- ^ "Edward H. Levi | Office of the Provost". provost.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
- ^ "Adlene Harrison | Washington Post". washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
- ^ "Madeleine May Kunin | Jewish Women's Archive". jwa.org. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
- ISBN 9781136914669.
- .
- ^ "Talk:Paul Wellstone", Wikipedia, 2019-02-12, retrieved 2020-02-24
- ^ "A List of Jewish Firsts in American Political History". Alma. 2020-01-23. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
- OCLC 700706822.
- ^ "Ruth Bader Ginsburg". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
- .
- ISBN 978-0-511-72327-8
- ISSN 0002-936X.
- doi:10.4016/14614.01.
- ^ a b "Eric Cantor". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
- ^ "New Hampshire Primary Election Results 2016 - The New York Times". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-06-18.
- ^ Healy, Patrick; Martin, Jonathan (February 10, 2016). "Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders Win the New Hampshire Primaries". The New York Times. Retrieved February 10, 2016.
...Mr. Sanders was the choice, nearly unanimously, among voters who said it was most important to have a candidate who is "honest and trustworthy."
- ^ "Bernie Sanders becomes first Jewish, non-Christian candidate to win U.S. primary". The Week. February 9, 2016. Retrieved February 9, 2016.
- ^ Krieg, Gregory. "Bernie Sanders could be the first Jewish president. Does he care?", CNN (February 5, 2016): "Sanders, a self-identified democratic socialist, has repeatedly described himself as a secular Jew...."
- ^ Krieg, Gregory (February 5, 2016). "Sanders 1st Jewish candidate to win presidential primary". CNN.
- ^ Seven Presidential Electors Are Allowed to Cast Votes for Candidates Other than Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton Ballot Access News
- ^ O'Keefe, Ed; DeBonis, Mike. "Schumer is next top Senate Democrat, adds Sanders to leadership ranks". Washington Post. Retrieved 6 January 2017.