List of Jewish political milestones in the United States explained

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 elected official in the United States: Judah Hays; as the Fire Commissioner of the Boston Fire Department (1805) ^[3]
  • Francis Salvador was elected prior to the formation of the United States.
• First Jewish member of the U.S. Congress (U.S. House of Representatives): Lewis Charles Levin (1845)^[4]
• First Jewish member of the U.S. Senate: David Levy Yulee (1845)^[5]
• 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)^[6]
• First Jewish U.S. Cabinet member (Secretary of Commerce and Labor): Oscar Straus (1906)^[7]
  • Not including Judah P. Benjamin, who served in the Confederate Cabinet as Secretary of State and Secretary of War.^[8]
• First Jewish Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court: Louis Brandeis (1916)^[9]
  • President Millard Fillmore offered to appoint Judah P. Benjamin to the Supreme Court in 1853, but Benjamin declined.
• First Jewish female member of the U.S. Congress (U.S. House of Representatives): Florence Prag Kahn (1925)^[10]
• First Jewish Secretary of the Treasury: Henry Morgenthau Jr. (1934)^[11]
• 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)^{[12] [13]}
• First person of Sephardic Jewish ancestry to run for President of the United States: Louis Abolafia (1968)^[14]
• First Jewish candidate to receive an electoral vote for Vice President: Tonie Nathan of the Libertarian Party, from a faithless elector (1972)^[15]
• First Jewish Secretary of Defense: James R. Schlesinger (1973)^[16]
• First Jewish Secretary of State: Henry Kissinger (1973)^[17]
• First Jewish Mayor of New York City: Abraham Beame (1974), (Fiorello LaGuardia, who was mayor from 1934 to 1946, was born to an Italian Jewish mother from Trieste and a lapsed Catholic turned atheist father from Apulia; however, he was a Protestant)^[18]
• First Jewish Attorney General: Edward H. Levi (1975)^[19]
• First Jewish female mayor of a major American city (Dallas): Adlene Harrison (1976)^[20]
• First Jewish female governor of a U.S. state (Vermont): Madeleine M. Kunin (1985)^[21]
• First Jewish openly gay member of the U.S. Congress (U.S. House of Representatives): Barney Frank (took office 1981, disclosed homosexuality 1989)^[22]
  • Jared Polis became the first Jewish Congressman to be openly gay upon first election: (2009)^[23]
• 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)
• 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]}
  • 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)
• First Jewish U.S. House whip: Eric Cantor (2009) (also first Jewish whip in either chamber of Congress)^[30]
• First Jewish U.S. House floor leader: Eric Cantor (2011) (also first Jewish floor leader and majority leader in either chamber of Congress)
• First Jewish American to win a presidential primary (New Hampshire): Bernie Sanders (2016)^{[31] [32] [33] [34]} (Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican presidential nominee, was the first winner of Jewish heritage, but was a Christian).^[35]
• First Jewish American to receive an electoral vote for President: Bernie Sanders, from a faithless elector (2016)^[36] (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)^[37]
• First Jewish Second Gentleman (and first Jewish American spouse of Vice President): 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

• List of Jewish American politicians

Notes and References

1. Web site: Today in History: The first American-Jewish patriot. The Jerusalem Post JPost.com. 11 January 2016 . 2020-02-23.
2. News: Green. David B.. 1776: The First Jew to Die for the Cause of the American Revolution. 2013-08-01. Haaretz. 2020-02-23. en.
3. Web site: Sharick . David . Timeline: Jewish Politics in Boston . May 24, 2024 . Digital History of the Jews of Boston.
4. Web site: Lewis Charles Levin. www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. 2020-02-23.
5. Web site: David Levy Yulee. www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. 2020-02-23.
6. Web site: Moses Alexander: Jewish Governor of Idaho, First Jewish Governor in the United States. Jewish Museum of the American West.
7. Web site: First Jew in Cabinet. 1934-07-11. Jewish Telegraphic Agency. en-US. 2020-02-23.
8. Web site: Judah Benjamin. www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. 2020-02-23.
9. Web site: Louis D. Brandeis, Pioneer of the Senate Confirmation Battles. My Jewish Learning. en-US. 2020-02-23.
10. Web site: KAHN, Florence Prag US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives. history.house.gov. en. 2020-02-23.
11. Web site: Henry Morgenthau. encyclopedia.ushmm.org. en. 2020-02-23.
12. Web site: The Goldwaters Southwest Jewish Archives. swja.library.arizona.edu. 2020-02-23.
13. Web site: The Goldwater Takedown. Journal. Harry Stein is a contributing editor of City. Racist. the author of No Matter What They’ll Call This Book. 2016-10-14. City Journal. en. 2020-02-24. Tripp. the comic novel Will. Attorney-at-Law. Pissed-Off.
14. News: Stevenson . James . Abolafia for President . New Yorker . 1967-05-13.
15. Web site: Theodora "Tonie" Nathan -. Archives of Women's Political Communication. en. 2020-02-24.
16. News: McFadden. Robert D.. James R. Schlesinger, Willful Aide to Three Presidents, Is Dead at 85. 2014-03-27. The New York Times. 2020-02-24. en-US. 0362-4331.
17. Ribak. Gil. 2010-01-01. A Jew for All Seasons: Henry Kissinger, Jewish Expectations, and the Yom Kippur War. Israel Studies Review. 25. 2. 1–25. 10.3167/isf.2010.250201. 2159-0370.
18. News: Green . David . This Day in Jewish History: 1973: A Jewish Mayor for New York City . Haaretz . 2012-11-06.
19. Web site: Edward H. Levi Office of the Provost. provost.uchicago.edu. 2020-02-24.
20. Web site: Adlene Harrison Washington Post. washingtonpost.com. 2021-01-06.
21. Web site: Madeleine May Kunin Jewish Women's Archive. jwa.org. 2020-02-24.
22. News: Burr. Kenneth. 2012-07-26. Coming Out, Coming Home. 10.4324/9780203843673. 9781136914669 .
23. News: ABC News/Washington Post Monthly Poll, September 2010. 2011-12-01. 10.3886/icpsr32545.v1.
24. Web site: A List of Jewish Firsts in American Political History. 2020-01-23. Alma. en-US. 2020-02-24.
25. Book: Stone, Kurt F.. The Jews of Capitol Hill : a Compendium of Jewish Congressional Members.. 2011. Rowman & Littlefield Pub. Group. 978-0-8108-7738-2. Lanham. 700706822.
26. Web site: Ruth Bader Ginsburg. www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. 2020-02-24.
27. News: Washington Post/Harvard University/Kaiser Family Foundation Entitlement Poll, March 1997. 1998-07-28. 10.3886/icpsr02178.v2.
28. Foer. Sara. Franklin. K. Reeder. Assisted Suicide. August 1997. American Journal of Nursing. 97. 8. 16. 10.1097/00000446-199708000-00010. 0002-936X.
29. News: Socrates Fellow Johnnie Discusses Her Project. 2009-11-24. 10.4016/14614.01. 2024-06-12 .
30. Web site: Eric Cantor. www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. 2020-02-24.
31. Web site: New Hampshire Primary Election Results 2016 - The New York Times . . 2016-06-18.
32. News: Patrick . Healy . Jonathan . Martin . Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders Win the New Hampshire Primaries. February 10, 2016. The New York Times. 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.".
33. News: Bernie Sanders becomes first Jewish, non-Christian candidate to win U.S. primary. February 9, 2016. February 9, 2016. The Week.
34. 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...."
35. News: Sanders 1st Jewish candidate to win presidential primary. Gregory. Krieg. February 5, 2016. CNN.
36. http://ballot-access.org/2016/12/19/seven-presidential-electors-are-allowed-to-cast-votes-for-candidates-other-than-donald-trump-or-hillary-clinton/ Seven Presidential Electors Are Allowed to Cast Votes for Candidates Other than Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton
37. Web site: O'Keefe. Ed. DeBonis. Mike. Schumer is next top Senate Democrat, adds Sanders to leadership ranks. Washington Post. 6 January 2017.